5.13.2015 - Pex!

As it goes with deliveries these days, Jim got a call from Albany Steel that they would be at the property in about 45 minutes with the delivery.  So he was waiting at the end of the driveway...and waited....and waited.  He did some ground work just to kill time and finally headed back up to the site.  Which meant that they called again and were really there.  So he felt like he wasted lots of time.  Plus, after he drove away, Jim realized that he didn't drop off a piece of flat bar that Jim had ordered too.  So he had to call and he brought it back at the end of the day.

Today was the first Pex installation!  Very exciting - we are putting in our heating system!  To begin with, Jim fed the end into the conduit he had fixed into the deck and pushed 35 feet into the lower level.

This will eventually hook up to the manifold.

Then we laid out the first circuit according to Jim's plans.  We had to be very careful around sharp edges (which are everywhere!).  We used duct tape on especially sharp places that had the potential to be anywhere close to the tubing.

After that, we laid out the wire on top!

Looks really good!

Then I got busy using cable ties to attach the Pex to the bottom of the wire, wrapping the tie around the Pex twice so that the wire is actually resting on the tie instead of the tubing.  We tied it approximately every 2 feet.

 

Meanwhile, Jim started on the next circuit.  This will be the most challenging one because this circuit has to go through an additional piece of conduit on its second loop.  So he had to feed this conduit on before he could lay it out and before he could put the 35' into the lower level through the conduit at the starting point.  It was like wrestling with alligators to try and get this 3 part piece of conduit moved down the Pex as he was unrolling it.

 

But finally success - here he is putting the other end down into the lower level.

Then we put more wire on top of that circuit - still have lots of tying to do!

 

Here is a picture of the tubing down below so far!

 

 

This was a great day - this radiant-style heating layout is another thing that Jim hasn't done before.  He has it all designed and planned out but transferring that to the real world is always a challenge.  We were very pleased at the progress so far!

 

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