This week included an overnight work party at the property with some friends, Aaron and Ryan.  We headed out after work on Wednesday and got in a few hours working on the window well until it got a bit dark.  Then we had a nice camp fire (using my rocket stove) and talked until past two in the morning.

The next day, we got up before 7 and worked on Rebar until they had to go mid-morning.  At 9:00 AM, my N-12 pipe arrived and I was glad to have my friends there to help me unload it.

After they left, I tied rebar for a while, then spent a few hours on off camera tasks like getting new tires and parts for my skid steer.  Eventually, I got back and spent the rest of the day on Electrical.

Here is the video.

Extra Info;

XPS forms?

I wanted to use a different approach for forming the window well…  Partially because I wanted to experiment with different methods and partially because the window well is more exposed to the environment and I didn’t think the metal lath and studs would be a good idea.  I originally thought I would just do it with plywood sheathing and 2x4s.

On the way out to the property, we stopped to pick up a trailer full of wood at Home Depot.  Sheathing Plywood is actually pretty expensive.  More expensive than tongue and groove 1” rigid XPS insulation…  So we switched plans on the fly and bought the XPS instead.  I also considered going with OSB, Oriented Strand Board), and bought a couple sheets, but didn’t use them.  The XPS was easy to work with and I am pretty happy with the decision.  The test will be when we shoot the shotcrete at it.  XPS is tougher than the EPS backing that I saw used with shotcrete last year, plus it is firmly attached to treated 2x4s, so I think it will be fine.

At the end of the day, I think the XPS and 2×4 approach was easier to assemble.  However, it is also more expensive, especially if you are building forms more than 8ft tall.

Curving rebar?

For curving the rebar, we tried a few things, including the rebar hickey.  The main difficulty is getting the right curvature and all in one single plane.  Bending rebar is easy, curving rebar to a precise shape takes technique.  The winning solution is shown in the video.

We stand on the rebar and pull one side up a certain amount (experience helps).  Basically, it is not really a continuous curve, but more piecewise linear.  When the raised end becomes two difficult for one person to manage, one person holds it vertical (in plane) so the other person can do a similar bend from the other end.  Due to the way that steel stays in the elastic range for a while and then yields for a permanent bend, we need to over bend it to start.   So the second step is to push it down flat, again keeping it in plane.   (an improvement I worked out on a later day was to walk it flat instead of using our hands to wrestle it down).  When we let it go, it springs back to a curve with a larger radius.

We had marked the radius we wanted in the sand and we set the curved rebar in the sand “template” to check it.  Some of them were right on.  If they needed any adjustment, one of us would stand at the point where things started to go off the line and the other one would pull the rebar horizontally and adjust it into shape…  The adjustment is actually so fast and easy that the timelapse camera, with a 10 second period, didn’t catch us doing it.

Electrical

The electrical takes longer than I thought I would…  I have a plan that I am referring to, but actually wresling the blue Smurf tube (ENT conduit) into position thru all the right holes is a bit tricky.

Also, my plan didn’t take into account how many tubes would leave each box and their directions.

NEC code prohibits bending the ENT by more than 180 degrees along its length.  Each box is attached to a stud.  In many cases, the stud blocks one side of the box and leaves only 3 knock outs for the conduit to attach to.  These are in a chain, so a light switch needs one pipe to carry electricity in and other to continue the circuit to the next switch.  A third tube goes vertical toward the ceiling where we will eventually put the light fixture.  Ideally, the third tube would come from the knock out at the top of the box.  The problem happens when the power is coming from above (such as over a door).  If I run it down and around to the bottom of the box, it would exceed the 180 degrees of bending that code permits.   Instead, I must run it into the side of the box and run the “out” tube from the bottom of the box even though it actually needs to go sideways…  What if I also want to branch my circuit in a second direction?  Anyway, it takes some head scratching.  I will shot for an electrical inspection next Wednesday.

Sourcing

When you walk into Home Depot, there are lots of big signs about ordering online.  This is because they don’t have everything in the store.  For instance, none of the rebar tools on the Home Depot website are actually available on the shelf.  However, it also helps for buying cases or quantities not available in the store.   If you buy individual outlet boxes, they cost about 2 dollars each.  If you buy them in bulk, you can get a case of 50 for $38, that is about half the price.  But you can only buy the case on line.  Also, for some reason, the stores only stock 100 ft lengths of ¾” ENT tube.  The ½” tube costs quite a bit less, but only comes in 25ft lengths, and if you buy 4 of those, it costs more than the ¾” ENT tube in the 100ft roll.  The only way to get ½” tube at a good price is to buy a 200 ft roll on-line (which costs just a little more than the 100ft roll of ¾” tube).  Get it?  Good.

Problem is that it doesn’t always work out right.  I ordered a case of 50 outlets.  It was 1 case, so the quantity was listed as “1” and the amount charged was ~$38.00.  I chose to pick it up in the store.  When I went to the service desk to pick it up, they had set aside one single box for me…  I showed the girl my smartphone with the email showing I had been billed for a case, but there wasn’t much she could do except put it back as if I had not come in to pick it up.  They didn’t have any in stock at that store.  I ended up driving to two other stores in different cities trying to find enough boxes to finish my job.

I got an email today saying that if I don’t pick it up soon, the order will be canceled, so I guess I don’t need to do anything.