Man...I am so floored!

Hey look!! We have a floor...on floor joists...on piers and foundation blocks!!

It's a beautiful thing (that will be the front porch there in the foreground).

Underneath the house; where all the magic happens. In our current home the floor trusses are just 2x8's (maybe 2x12's...I haven't paid that much attention). Whichever they are they were not put in level. When you floor joists aren't level then you most likely will have squeaky floors. Well guess what...we have squeaky floors in our current house. In our new house we did things a little differently to make sure we didn't have problems with joists not all being even. Instead of standard 2x product butting into the ledger beam (that may not be the correct term, but it's the one I'm using) we have engineered wood "I" beams laying on top of the ledger. What this means is our floor is "strong like bull."

A huge foundation, lots of piers, ledgers, engineered I beams....there is a lot that goes into just getting a house to this stage!

The floor deck in progress

The floor decking in progress from the other side.

One Step forward...half a step back

Well, its really not "one step forward and two steps back, because we did make some headway today and if the weather holds will make a lot more by week end. ...but first the photos (scroll to end for the "half step back")

So this is how we left the site last Friday

This morning activity started on the blockwork

By the end of the day...wow!!
Now the details

First the mixing station where all the mortar premix was combined with sand and water.

This was the cutting station. Why did we need a cutting station?...

Because the footer was so uneven. If you look at the above photo you will notice the mortar was laid very, very thick underneath the dark block, but it gets much thinner immediately under the dry block on the left. So in addition to laying down a thick mortar bed in some areas they also had to trim down block...hence the cutting station. They had to saw all the way around the block to take a block that started at 7" high and make it ...6" (or whatever the appropriate dimension was). I'm sure it was extra labor I paid for, but it didn't seem to slow the crew down much.

Andrew by the garage area. The floor of the garage will be on level with the top row of block. We will fill in with gravel and have a wire mat for reinforcement. When we get done I'll finally be able to park my car alongside Marta's INSIDE! Whoopee!

This is a close-up of the "L" brick at the garage. They didn't lay this block where I thought they were going to. I'll have to check on this tommorrow and make sure it's in the right spot.

This is a shot of the tie-downs for the sill plate. These will bend up and over the sill plate to anchor it to the block wall.

Now for the half step back...there are no photos to go with this, but you can refer back to the "nailing of the footer." The surveyor nailed the footer at the brick line, not the block line. What that means is that they marked the location of the outside edge of the brick work. The problem is we are NOT using brick. We are only using 8" block! The "brick line" is about 4" past the "block line." What this means is that the house is now 4" to 8" too long and wide. That doesn't sound like a big deal, but it can be. If we had a complicated roof line it could really throw a wrench in the works. As it is, it will mainly impact some of the overhang and the end gables. There will be (imagine this) a bit of extra labor (wow...how many times will I post that in conjunction with how many mistakes?), but I think we can overcome it. More on that later.

Nailed and and Stacked

Well, we have a little more progress on the job site. Our footer has been nailed. What this means is that the surveyor has made their last trip to the site and marked the corners on the foundation. This allows the block layers to lay out straight lines between the corners in order to keep the walls straigt. I had never realized all the steps that went into getting a foundation in the ground.

1. Excavator clears the lot.

2. Surveyor lays out house on lot

3. Excavator does a "rough cut" of the foundation area

4. Surveyor stakes out the corners of the house again.

5. Excavator diggs the footer

6. Rebar installed and tied in the footer

7. Inspection by city/county

8. Pour concrete

9. Surveyor nails footer

10. Finally block work can commence!

In addition we now have block, mortar, and sand on site. The weather should start clearing Monday and hopefully we will have block work done by Wednesday. However, there are still a few decisions to be made.

1. Where do we put in the crawlspace access? Since our crawlspace is going to be recessed how do we do that and not end up with water and mud sliding down into it?

2. Where do we put our HVAC equipement with the same mud/water issues being a factor?

hmmm....if you have ideas let me know.

We have concrete in the ground!

Finally, after months of rain delays, the birth of our second baby, a worldwide financial crisis, misscommunication with the inspectors office, another visit from our engineer, and $3000 + of rebar...we have a foundation in the ground!!!

Energy Efficiency III

For a hot water heater we will be using a Marathon water heater. Again, there are more efficient options; such as a heat pump water heater. Heat pump water heaters are not in widespread use although they use very standard heat pump technology and cost much less than traditional systems to heat water. The kicker is...they look funny. A potential buyer not aware of what they are looking at is going to wonder what the heck it is and could potentially be put off by it. The marathon water heater uses a traditional element, but uses a plastic tank. It also has the highest energy factor of any "traditional" water heater. So...it may not be as cutting edge as a heat pump water heater or a solar water heater, but it is the best of what traditional water heaters offer.

Our appliances will be Energy Star where available. The Energy Star program for instance doesn't rate dryers. We will have a Whirlpool Duet Washer and Dryer. This is a front load pair that is CEE Tier III certified. It uses a fraction of the water and energy of a traditional top load washer and dryer. Moisture sensor strips inside the dryer allow the software to know when the clothes are dry. This feature combined with the 1200+ spin speed of the washer means that heating element in the dryer will be sucking less energy and our clothes will not be baking in a hot dryer as is normal with timed drying. Another thing about the Whirlpool dryers is their software controls temperature variations within tighter tolerances than most on the market. That means if you are drying on low heat...it really is low heat...not a spike of really hot air and then no heat for a while...it's easier on your clothes.

After the HVAC equipment the next biggest energy hog in most homes is the refrigerator. If you are going to get only one appliance that is Energy Star rated make sure it is your refrigerator! We really haven't decided on a brand or model at this point. Ranges do not carry an energy star rating, but there are still ways to be more energy efficient when you cook. More and more manufacturers are building larger and larger oven cavities. These larger spaces require larger elements in order to heat the space and cook evenly. We will try to find a smaller cavity range with smaller elements AND fan convection. Convection typically comes in two formats. The first is simply a fan at the back of the oven cavity. The second has another heating element around the fan.

Most Dishwashers really don't use a tremendous amount of water and energy, but some are downright miserly. We will probably be looking to Whirlpool again (or possibly KitchenAid). Whirlpool has a new "resouce saver" system they recently brought over from Europe. My mom has one and it is very, very quiet, get's the dishes clean, and doesn't use much water or energy.

Low flow shower heads, areators on all faucets, and low water usage toilets will also be installed to curb water consumption. This is nothing really cutting edge. Most toilets and faucets sold in the last few years already comply with what we are looking for. Shower heads vary a little bit, but not a tremendous amount.

We are also budgeting for compact flourescent light bulbs. Outfitting a whole house at once with these bulbs will cost a little more, but given all we are spending on the house...it really shouldn't be that noticeable. In addition when we were chosing floor plans we tried to maximize natural light as much as possible.

Energy Efficiency II

In addition to using Structural Insulated Panels (SIPS) we will be paying close attention to our choices for HVAC, hot water heater, appliances, plumbing fixtures, and lighting.

HVAC - Did you know that your homes HVAC system can be up to 57% of your household energy consumption? Well...that's what Whirlpool Corporations HVAC website states. We will be using a 16 or 18 SEER heat pump system. There are many systems that are actually more efficient, but given that the technology they use is foreign to many potential buyers we don't want to limit our market if we have to resell. For instance Geothermal heatpumps have been around for years. However, our fear is that the general public simply isn't aware that these are good, durable, and super energy efficient. You can educate buyers as you can, but that doesn't mean they will adopt the technology with their next home purchase. We also looked at a super efficient 22 SEER heat pump system, but the cost/payback just didn't seem to be there. Again, with an eye towards resell we didn't feel that a 22 vs a 16 or 18 was a key selling lever.

If we were further north in a colder climate area we probably would have gone with a gas pack for heat. Given our fairly mild winters the heat pump is a much lower install cost and lower cost to run as well. They key reason at the end of the day was really just cost. That foundation put a dent in our budget!

Images above were copied from Whirlpoolhvac.com. The top image is a cutaway of an 18 SEER heatpump. The bottom image is a graph showing a 8 SEER heatpump on the far left taking $100 to do the same work the 18 SEER unit does for $39...less than half the cost!

Energy Efficiency

As the "about me" section indicates we are trying to do some things with the design of the house around energy efficiency and generally being "green." The neighborhood restrictions keep us from doing a modular home (not a trailer...modular...two entirely different things) so we have to site build. However, there is more than one way to site build. The most popular way is technically called "balloon framing" and is the standard 2x4 construction we are all used to seeing.

It turns out that there is more than one way to do balloon framing however. Most builders use 2x4 construction as I mentioned before and fill in between the framing members with fiberglass insulation. For extra insulation you can go up to a 2x6 wall and get a thicker fiberglass bat. However, now matter how well you place that fiberglass in there will always be voids and gaps. Additionally, every framing member functions as a thermal bridge. This means your framing is working against your insulation! Another technique is to use a 2x6 sill plate and alternate 2x4 framing members one against the inside edge and the next against the outside edge. Then when placing insulation you weave it in between your studs and have fewer gaps.

In the end we decided that traditional stick framing simply wasn't very efficient. We are using structural insulated panels (SIPS). These panels are made by taking two sheets of OSB (oriented strand board) plywood and layering EPS (expanded polystyrene) insulation in between. Most manufacturers use a high pressure glueing system to join the EPS to the OSB. A 2x4 SIPS wall is actually more thermally efficient than a 2x6 stick framed wall with fiberglass bats. The panels are generally four feet wide and the EPS is recessed to recieve a spline that is glued into the recess. The panel is then nailed to the sill plate and the spline. The spline is simply a 2x4 or 2x6 depending on the thickness of panel you choose.

These panels help create a very tight housing envelope. Because it also performs very close to its "R" rating (a rating for insulation level) generally you can use a smaller HVAC system than a traditional stick frame house. So you hold in your heat and cold better and you use less energy getting the temperature where you want it to begin with!