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.
This week, my parents drove down 4 hours (from Canada) to help me out for a week. We got in the remainder of the steel studs and finished the lath and strap. Here is the timelapse video;
I had actually hoped to get to the shotcrete this week, but, as hard as we worked, we still have a few more days to go. I also have not yet got ahold of my Shotcrete guy, which is not a good sign…
For the next few days, I will try to get the rest of the rebar and electrical in place. I am still waiting on the N-12 pipe that I plan to use for the earth tubes and duct work. It should arrive soon. I am also getting a pair of tires and a few other parts to fix up my Skid Steer. Meanwhile, I am a bit concerned about the budget and getting very concerned about the schedule. It has been such a cool summer that I am guessing we will have an early and cold winter.
But at least the house is looking pretty cool.
Many lessons were learned over the past few weeks that I will eventually write down. One of the key lessons was that you have to brace and then strap before you add the lath… I will write out more after I see how things turned out with the shotcrete. I am concerned that the lath may bulge inward (like an overstuffed quilt) and make for a very difficult inner surface to plaster. I am still pretty confident that the lath backing is superior to the rigid insulation backing that Formworks uses.
In the sourcing area, I had a few ups and downs. One thing was that I bought another ton of #4 and 20 pieces of #3 rebar and found that I was billed almost double what I had paid for a ton in the past. I should have haggled. I won’t let that happen again. I also bought several tools for working with rebar. I had to buy them on Amazon.com because none of my local stores carry them. Some worked very well, such as my (made in China) rebar hickey. Others didn’t work well at all, such as my (also made in China) wire twisting pliers. I also had some hiccups ordering the earth tube pipes, but those details are as boring as they were frustrating.
I spent a starry night out at the property with my father and two boys. Of course, I checked out the North Star (Polaris) and confirmed that I was off true north by about 5 degrees (toward magnetic north instead). Oh well, I probably should have set it up via the stars instead of the combination of a smartphone app, a compass and a map of magnetic declination. Five degrees won’t effect performance much.
My bank swallows are feeding their chicks. It turns out that hungry chicks are even noisier than mating swallows. I got some pics and video here.
I asked my father to help me with an anti-theft device for my Skid Steer. Apparently, they are very often stolen from building 
sites and then used to steal other stuff. This is made easier by the fact that one key fits most skid steers of the same brand. This was my fathers solution. ==>
Actually, as effective as removing the front wheels is, my father is an automotive electrician, so he came up with something much better than that, but it is top secret. Taking off the tires was just to get new ones… It turns out that I would need new tires to drive Over the Tire Tracks anyway, so lets see if they help me get around on the sand without the expensive tracks.
Earlier in the week, we did actually use the Skid steer to move some dirt around to level the port-o-potty. The kids each drove it (sitting on my lap) and really enjoyed it. Of course, their mother was not around for that, so there are no photos.
That’s it for now. Later this week, I will be going out with friends to work on rebar and electrical. Actually, I think these are tasks I can also do on my own if I have to.
My sister, Bonnie, arrived in town mid-day Tuesday (after driving for 4 hours) to give us a week of her vacation time. As a kid, Bonnie was a Lego Maniac, so she was pre-wired to be really into this building project, but I also assume she came to visit me ;^)
Bonnie is competitive and a hard worker, and, as siblings, we work well together. She was eager to get started right away and things progressed quickly.
With my timelapse camera snapping a pic every 10 seconds and playing them back at 15 frames per second, an hour goes by in 24 seconds and an 8 hour day takes just over 3 minutes… So this video ended up being over 9 minutes long… (half day, 2 full days and another half day)
For the time-lapse…
For the story.
Bon and I got out there early Tuesday afternoon and started on the steel stud prepwork… marking stud locations, drilling extra holes and adding extra Tapcons to better secure the track in those locations.
Meanwhile, we hired a young guy, Robert. This was my first “hired hand”. He is planning to go into the military soon, but in the meantime, he needed some cash to fix up his car. He was a friend of a friend and we found him by posting to our Facebook friends that we were looking for young muscles to move all the dirt around last week. This was before I simply hired the excavator to do it in less than 45 minutes. By the time we heard from Robert, it was mostly taken care of, but there was still a little dirt to level and I figured I could use him to drill pilot holes for the rebar after that. These were fairly basic jobs that didn’t require too much skill or supervision and that I wasn’t looking forward to doing myself. I showed Robert the business end of a masonry bit and told him that he should check it frequently and change the bit when the corners of the “spade” wear out. I also got him to bring down some extra scaffolding and steel studs.
Bonnie and I quickly got up 5 of the 20ft studs, braced them, strapped them in and added the lath in a relatively short time. We got a 6th one in and tied it in also, which is pretty good for just a few hours out there.
Sherri and Michael also arrived to help out. After getting all his chores done, Michael really enjoyed building sand castles on top of each of the hills. (You can see him in the top of the timelapse footage).
Wednesday morning, Bonnie and I got really aggressive with that outer curved wall on the north west side. Robert started the day bringing us studs and then got back to drilling the pilot holes with the ¼ inch bit. I checked his bit at the start of the day and it looked fine, but I handed him 5 more and reminded him to swap it out when it wore down… (Play suspenseful music here.)
I was busy working with my sister to get the studs in, and noticed that Robert was taking lots of breaks to let the drill cool down, but I thought he was handling it. About an hour in, he wanted to switch to something else because the “drill had shut down”. I thought maybe it had a thermal switch to prevent damage, so we had him do some other minor things, but after half an hour, the drill was cool and still wouldn’t start up. I guess it is burnt out. These things happen, but I also noticed that the drill bit tip was worn to a smooth ball bearing finish. We sent Robert home with 1.5 hours pay for his second day. I guess I am not ready to properly manage young help while also trying to break speed records on other tasks.
Bonnie and I continued working on the outer wall. At one point, we did a check and realized that we had just run 20 ft studs the whole way and had missed a doorway in the second floor that called for us to put a 9 ft stud in that location. We left the bracing in place and just swapped out the stud. It just took 3 screws, and we were on our way again. More studs, more strap, more lath. It was our most productive day ever. We got the whole outer wall done (up to the 9 ft mark).
That night, we discussed what to do with the remaining 2 days. We decided to skip ahead and tackle the 26 ft tower so that we could have time to secure it properly. We could then go back and do other simpler sections if we had time.
On Thursday morning, I brought a simplified install sheet that showed the angles and orientations for each stud. But as we laid it out, it seemed like something might not be right. Rather than proceed in a wrong direction, we switched to the more straight forward 21 ft section. After that was complete, we decided to apply our improved lath skills and redo all the metal lath on the inner curved wall that I had done the previous week. Having that smoother internal surface will save us lots of stucco time later.
Friday was going to be a short day because we were going to pick up my older son from camp and then go down to Toledo for a Mud Hens baseball game, so we decided to start early. We had already rechecked and confirmed that the tower install sheet was actually correct. On the way in, we bought a new hammer drill (for over 200$).
This time, I bought a Dwalt D-handle SDS hammer drill and several SDS bits. These hammer drills don’t use regular bits. One the one hand, I didn’t like the idea of paying to replace my bits with special SDS bits, but on the other hand, all the new drills are using SDS bits now because everyone prefers being able to click the new bits in without needing to find a drill chuck.
But the best part was actually using the drill. It went in nice and smoothly (like butta’). This drill also had much better shock absorption, etc. Suddenly, I wished the previous drill had died sooner, perhaps I could have got that track in much quicker…
We decided to finish off the top layer of lath for the inner curved wall before starting on the tower.
The track marking and prep work went pretty smoothly (except I ran out of Tapcons again), and we soon got to work on the studs. We got the first four 9ft studs in and strapped very quickly and then we took a break before tackling the 26ft studs. I was really concerned about them, but it ended up being not much more difficult than the 20 or 21ft studs.
The studs pick up sand when we set the down, so after I got them up vertical, Bonnie would give them a good tap and let the reverberations dump the dirt on my head while I was struggling to maintain balance. That is what sisters are for. I eventually managed to get her back in similar fashion.
We didn’t want to start on another section of the tower with only a couple hours left, so we took down the strap and lath from the first wall. We redid the strap and added additional straps to the 26 ft studs…
It was a pretty good week.
Bonnie left Saturday morning, my parents are coming out to help this next week… I am still pushing towards shotcrete before the end of the month… But I know I have a lot of work between now and then.
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.
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.
