7.31.2014

The forms are all in place! 

 

Today's focus was on all the steelwork involved.  There have to be footing dowels again that go from the very bottom of the footer up through the next course - these have to be every 48".  This vertical rebar had to be tied using wire ties just like we did in the footers.



Check out all the steel and webbing in this form!

The front wall has openings - two garage doors and one man door.  Here Jim is marking off where they will go because those sections can't have footing dowels (that would make it very difficult to drive in the garage!).

Jim had called the building department yesterday to see if they would come out tomorrow for an inspection.  He wasn't sure if he would be working tomorrow, so he said he might stop by today - even though Jim told him things wouldn't be all complete.  He showed up in the afternoon and his only comments were how neat everything was and how good it looked.  So another inspection in the books!

Some site views...

 

At the end of the day, Jim and Bryan headed to Lowe's to pick up some plywood for bracing and some 3/8" rebar to do the steelwork that is involved in the ledger pieces.  Those are jobs for tomorrow.

We had told Bryan we had to celebrate one night at this restaurant that is across the street from the hotel we stayed while we were land shopping.  Very apropos! 

7.30.2014

This is SO exciting to see all this form make Jim's design come to life!  We have talked about this product for so long and to actually use it seems kind of surreal. 

This is the first course of the front wall - it has all the form locks and then the rebar put in.  The product is really nice because the rebar just lays in the webbing so you don't have to tie it like we did with the footers.

Back to cutting and bending rebar!



This is the first course of the side wall - you can maybe see the rebar in the bottom a little better in this picture.  I'm continually amazed at all the pre-planning design work had to go into this.  All of those candy cane footing dowels are coming up in the center of the form and none interfered with the webs.

Jim and Bryan putting in the form locks - they look like wire ladders and they fit over the top and hold everything in place.

Corners have to be done first...here they are starting the second course.

This corner was extra challenging.  This is the buttress wall - they had to make a custom interface to connect the buttress wall to the exterior wall.  This involved cutting through the corner form to run rebar and to allow the concrete to flow through the entire form.



This is the back wall footer where the forms jog up the first step.

This is a different type of form.  You can see where the inside bows out - this will form a ledge that the floor slab will rest on as well as be used to mount the alignment system on the inside.

Jim uses a big mallet to connect the blocks together.

Some of the insulated concrete forms Jim ordered come unassembled so you can customize things a bit more.  Assembling just requires fitting in the right size webs.

The back outside wall is all formed - you can see the ledger better from this view.

Jim and Bryan seating the ledger on the side wall.  This wall was interesting too.  On this side and the front, Jim has to account for brick on the outside.  If you look closely on this piece that they are seating, it doesn't have the keyed Lego blocks.  This is so the concrete will flow right to the edge of the form and allow for placement of the brick.  Again - all of this had to be designed and thought about so it's amazing to see it all come together.

The side wall is formed. 

This is the front wall - again, certain pieces have both ledger inside and the taper top to allow for slab and brick placement.

Wow - things are really taking shape!  Jim called to see if the building inspector could come Friday morning possibly but couldn't get in touch with him.  Even though things are close to being all formed, there's a lot of work to be done to get ready for concrete.  Lots of steel work, reinforcement, leveling...plus they are calling for spotty thundershowers the next couple days.  But no matter - lots of progress is being made!

7.29.2014

Another early morning phone call set the day into motion.  The cold-formed steel for framing the first floor was supposed to arrive today mid-morning.  Jim got a call before 8:00 asking for clarification on directions.  Yet another delivery person without GPS!  Jim and Bryan had to just grab a coffee and a bite for the road and head to the land.

It was a boom truck so he was easily able to unload the steel right where Jim wanted it.



All these materials on site now is pretty amazing!

 

Jim and Bryan spent all morning working on the drain pipes.  From one of the rains, dirt had washed into and around some of the drain pipes.  So they actually took some sections out, cleaned the pipes, dug out the dirt, and replaced it with gravel.  Unfortunately, the Bobcat is now sitting in the middle of the site so they had to use the wheelbarrow to bring gravel over.  It was a lot of work for them but everything is pristine now. 

 

All of the footers are now totally filled with gravel to footer level.  Jim even ran water through and tested to make sure they worked.  The soil is so good that it took awhile before water came out the side drain pipe, but it eventually did.

After lunch, Jim opened up one of the sections of ICF and found that there was an error.  There was miscommunication between Jim's previous rep and the new one and a couple things didn't translate to the right parts.  Unfortunately, that meant Jim spent a chunk of time this afternoon dealing with that problem.  He came up with a way to make the pieces he has work for the most part, so that is a relief.

I spent the afternoon trying to inventory our huge foam piles. Not the easiest job because the stickers on the foam pieces aren't worded to match what was on the invoices.  Plus, some pieces weren't wrapped and didn't have stickers.  Add to the fact that I was clueless about what the different parts and pieces were and it was quite the job.  We seem to be missing a couple of the alignment brackets but besides that, everything seems good.

It was finally time to pull out the ICF design blueprint and start looking at assembling our giant Lego blocks!  Jim gave Bryan and I a Nudura 101 course on some of the basics.  I'm sure there is going to be lots more lessons ahead!

Jim and Bryan carrying over a section of straight pieces.

These ICFs are able to be cut to fit.  You can only cut in certain areas (2" increments) and they have scored lines where you can cut.

Once you get the corners set, you can build a wall pretty quickly!  There are stabilizing clips that you put in when you put two sections together.

Our first wall section!

This was a crazy corner.  Jim's design calls for transitioning from 10" pieces to 12" across the front.  So creative measures have to be put in place to make that happen.

This is a T section block that Jim was assembling.  The opening will be for a beam later on in the building process.

Jim had some more computer work he wanted to do before he progressed too far, so we called it a day.   

It's really amazing how things are taking shape.  For so long, we've been doing really important things to get us closer to these steps but some of those steps are slow-going to see much progress.  Now things change pretty dramatically daily!

7.28.2014 - Nudura on Site!

This morning started off with a bang...literally.  About 4:30 or so, the skies opened up and we had a bad thunderstorm.  Of course, this was the day the Nudura insulated concrete forms were due to arrive so that wasn't good.  We worried about how muddy it would be and how the trucks would get up the hill.

Then Jim opened up his email when he got up and he got the final bill statement from Nudura...this one was much higher because it included tax.  The Ohio distributor had told us that if we bought out of state, there wasn't tax.  New Hampshire is the only state with no sales tax and the quote we had received didn't include it, so we weren't expecting it.  So Jim was on the phone right away to his rep and the rep's boss.  The rep told us he was on his way - he was anticipating to arrive about 9:30.  We were surprised about that because they had told us the trucks would be there at 10:30.  Then during the tax conversations back and forth, which we lost, Jim was told that the truck hadn't even left the lot.  So definitely not the way to start the morning - we weren't sure what exactly was going on.  Jim and Bryan headed to the land to get organized before the rep got there.  Even though it had stopped raining and the sun was even out, I went to the hardware store in town to pick up a poncho for Bryan in case it started storming while they were unloading, as was the forecast.

I followed the rep up the driveway.  He got out and looked over the site - he was amazed at how the forms looked.  They chatted awhile about placement of the materials and he told us that two trucks were coming - a Nudura flatbed truck with the alignment system and vertical channels and a contracted tractor-trailer that had all the Nudura ICFs.  He said they were about 40 minutes out.  He went down in his truck to wait at the end of the driveway for them so he could direct them.

Then the waiting game began.  40 minutes turned into hours.  Calls went back and forth - the Nudura truck got lost and was calling for directions.  It turned out that neither truck had GPS - kind of crazy for delivery trucks!

The tractor-trailer was first...the rep wanted him to back up the driveway.  The driver turned out to be an old, grumpy guy who didn't want to back up his truck like that.  But he started backing in and did a terrible job - ended up running over one of the rocks we had over the holes we dug for the gate and it ripped off one of his mud flaps.  Then he was really mad and the cursing began.  He eventually refused to try again and parked on the road.  The rep eventually told him to shut up and wait - they were going to unload the flatbed and then use it to offload all the Nudura.

The flatbed had no issues getting up the hill.  Here's all our parts on pallets.

The truck had a tow motor on the back which was really cool.  Of course, there were a few scary moments when we thought he had run over our rebar, but he eventually got situated and got the first pallets off.

All the alignment systems are off and stacked up.

These are the vertical channels...

Everything is unloaded and on the turnaround area.

Then he headed down the driveway and backed up to the tractor trailer and the unloading began.

There was SO much foam!  They just kept bringing more and more out!

Our lovely truck driver just standing by making comments to anyone unfortunate enough to be close!

It was all hands on deck - the rep, the flatbed driver, Jim and Bryan all were busy.

First truckload finished and on its way up top.  The hill is not for the out-of-shape and between that and the humidity, the rep was pretty beat.  He kept joking that he had lost 10 pounds just in sweat!

It was a good thing that he was following behind, because some of the form locks they had put at the back started slipping off and he had to hold them on for the rest of the trip up.

More unloading time!

Jim tried to organize things as they were coming off the truck so that it would be easier to inventory and then to use if things were sorted by size and type.

The first truckload is all unloaded and stacked up!

And it's back to the road to offload the rest of the foam!

Jim carrying a corner piece...

Finally, the second truckload is all loaded...

....and on its way back up the hill.

I'm sure by this point it felt like Groundhog's Day over and over!

There were still some random boxes and miscellaneous that the rep had to bring up in his truck.  He said he took his time driving up with the air conditioner blasting!



The caravan up the hill.

It's all on site - we have a foam city!

The foam blocks are UV-sensitive so the ones that weren't wrapped had to be covered.  So out came the tarps.

Jim started playing with a piece just to see how it looked on the footer - it's going to be amazing!

 

We were so blessed with the weather - as the trucks were pulling out of the driveway, the sprinkles started.  It would have been such a bigger mess if we were dealing with storms at the same time.

 

It was after 2:30 by the time they were gone and lunch hadn't been a thought.  I ran and picked up some lunch for my tired crew and then had to run to Staples to pick up a printing job.  Jim and Bryan went to the brick and block place in the afternoon to get supplies to build a bridge over the footers so that Jim can get the Bobcat in the middle of the site.  He needs it in place before he starts building up the walls - he will have to use it to help with concrete placement when the freeze wall is poured.

 

 

Bryan's testing it out!

 

I'm really glad I wasn't there to watch this - I think I might have been a little freaked out!



Jim stopping in the middle of the bridge!

Whew...made it!

 

 

So it was quite the day but we are so excited to have all the Nudura that we have talked about for so long on our property and ready to be built up!

Bryan took this panoramic picture showing the different elevations of the lot - pretty cool!