8.7.2014

Jim tracked down another source for a foam gun and I went off to pick that up this morning.  While I was gone, he did some more bracing and then started working on putting thimbles in the wall for various connections later on.  Again, so much planning has to go on to make things work smoothly downstream.

The first one he did was for water - he wants a lawn hydrant out in front of the carriage house.  Then the one he's working on in this picture is for electric - again, to be able to have provisions for electric outside.  He first has to determine the placement and size of the hole, and then cut through the foam.

Of course, he has to cut the hole in the exact spot on the opposite side of the wall too so that he can install the thimble.

The last one is for the sewer pipe.

Then on the other side of the building, he put in a drain pipe for an eventual floor drain in the shop.

Our last goal for the day was the foam.  Things need to be dry for the application process and unfortunately we were in an on/off stormy afternoon.  We would be ready to start, the rains would come, we would have to scramble to get everything under cover, and then it would stop.  Some of the periods were a little longer and caused things to get pretty wet. 

So while we were waiting for things to dry out a bit, we started working on some walls for the ground-level footers. 

Jim making a cut in the foam to fit.

Finally, the weather seemed to calm down and we decided to start the foam process.  Jim used the leaf blower to dry and dry the footer and the foam edges.

Whew...a foam gun!

Of course, the foam would be the same color as the Nudura blocks!

It's an expansion foam that goes in between each of the keys at the bottom to fill that void.  The purpose is for some adhesion but mostly so that when you pour concrete into the forms, it doesn't seep beneath the form and push it up.  Of course, our forms aren't going anywhere with all that bracing!

Jim got the front inside and outside all finished and down one side.  The rest will have to be finished tomorrow morning.

This was definitely a tough job.  They give you a little plastic nozzle that fits on the end of the gun - unfortunately, that little nozzle kept coming off and getting stuff in the foam.  Jim had to fish it out and try and clean it enough to get it back on.  The foam dries really quickly so it wasn't an easy task.  He eventually did the majority of it without using the nozzle.

Yes, he should have had latex gloves on and we have plenty...in some storage unit somewhere.  So for now Jim has Incredible Hulk hands!

8.6.2014

Jim started the day bright and early running errands.  He stopped at the concrete yard to talk about the exact concrete mix he needs - it has to be very specific for the ICFs.  He also arranged to have our favorite driver again - so we have concrete coming Friday!  Kyle is making arrangements to come and help so Jim is very happy about that.

Jim also had to go to the barn storage, get more rebar and talk to his Lowe's rep about getting the dimple board we need.  This board goes on top of the waterproofing on the outside of the ICFs. 

I had my own errands to do this morning - by the time I got to the land, Jim had gotten so much done!  He had to cut each of these wood supports, screw them into the steel at the top of the forms, pound a stake really deep into the ground (never easy with all the rocks!), and then screw the wood into the stake. 



Of course, all the time, he has to be very conscious of keeping everything level, plumb, and square.  Which is very difficult but things are looking great!

I went back to work on making more stirrups for support - we got them all done and put in the forms.  I'll  tie them tomorrow to make sure they stay in place.

Jim took the leaf blower and cleaned out all the forms.  It's important that the foam is clean inside and out - when you cut into the foam for custom pieces, all the little foam beads fall to the bottom.  If you do a lot of cutting and don't clean them out, it can cause problems when you pour concrete.

The last job for the day was putting expanding foam at the bottom all the way around.  The foam fills that void between the keys of the blocks and the footer as well as acts as an adhesive.  However, when Jim got everything out, the foam gun he ordered was nowhere to be found.  I had done the inventory, so I felt really bad that I must have missed the fact that we didn't have it.  When we got home, Jim checked the packing slips and the quote - the gun was on the quote request but not sent to us.  We have a call into the Nudura rep and Jim is also tracking down local sources. A disappointing end to a really successful day.

 

8.5.2014

Jim had to go pick up a little more steel this morning to complete our form strengthening work.  We got all the rest of the vertical and horizontal stabling pieces done.

Everywhere there was a seam between two pieces of the horizontal steel, Jim put another piece tying the two together so they would act as one piece.

 

 

Then it was time to fasten all the vertical steel pieces to the footer.  Jim had to use a special masonry bit to drill into the concrete.

Finally, he used tapcon screws (concrete anchor) to attach the foot of the bracing piece to the concrete.

 

After we got all that done, we worked for awhile making sure everything was square and to the right dimensions.

 

Just had to add this picture - I walked to the post office this morning and this was such a pretty view of the Hudson River.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8.4.2014

The big cause for celebration today was...ZERO!  After getting this first section of insulated concrete forming done, we had to make sure everything was level.  Jim was kind of worried about this - if you have to level the forms, that requires a lot of work and could really delay progress.  You would have to either put a shim in places to raise the forms up or cut off some of the keys - definitely not an easy task now that things are in place with steel inside.  Before we got started, Jim said that an elevation error of +/1 one-quarter inch is excellent and we wouldn't have to do anything.

So we got out the surveying equipment and took a deep breath.  Jim gave me a pen to mark the variance on the inside foam for reference.  The first 3 spots we measured were each 1/8" too high - so definitely in the zone where we wouldn't have to do anything.  Every other spot that we measured was ZERO - meaning it was perfectly level!  We were beyond thrilled - that means that we really did a good job on all the footer prep work! 

Jim started putting into place his idea for using steel channels to make support brackets for the foam - he wanted to prevent any raising of the forms when the concrete is poured.  Here he's clamping pieces together and then he used self-drilling screws to hold things in place.

Using a jig, I marked the places where he would punch a hole and then screw it into the web flanges on the foam.

 

It took a couple trips back to the apartment waiting for the UPS delivery, but finally his new punch tool came.  It took some elbow grease to punch holes on the markings but it worked great.

Then Jim attached them to the forms.  There is a punched hole at the bottom foot of each of these pieces - he will have to drill a hole in the concrete and use a special screw to fasten the bracket to the concrete.  That will be tomorrow's job!

Next, Jim got a piece of steel channel, marked all the flange locations, punched a hole at each of those spots, and then screwed it onto the top of the form just to insure that everything is totally straight.

By the end of the day, we had the side and front wall in really good shape.

8.3.2014

Today Jim worked on doing some more bracing and cutting steel to put in the ledger areas.  I got promoted to advanced steel bending and got to make these horizontal stirrups - they have a hook on one end and a 90 degree angle on the other - neither of which I had done before.  So we got a good portion of those done - we'll probably have to make another run for more 3/8" rebar.

Jim also did some grass cutting now that he has his mower back.  It's slow going because the weeds are really high and there are rocks hiding underneath.  But it makes things look so much better.

 

8.2.2014

Bryan headed home today - besides being nice to spend time with him again, we really appreciate all his help over the last week plus!  I know Jim will miss being able to talk "guy talk" with him too. 

I kept meaning to take a picture of this...this is the few cut-offs from this first section of Nudura - pretty amazing.  Some of these will probably be used too.  There's just very little waste.

This afternoon Jim went back to building plywood bracing for certain areas that will see a lot of stress - like this corner.

Here's the front wall with its bracing all done.

There's just a little more bracing to do but Jim ran out of plywood and wanted to get a few more supplies, so we headed to Lowe's late this afternoon to pick up those things.

Tomorrow he'll finish the bracing off and we will start on the steel work that needs to be done.

 

8.1.2014

Jim and Bryan put on their carpenter tool belts for today's tasks - shoring up the forms.  Although Nudura says they will be fine, Jim wants to make sure the forms hold when he pours concrete in them.  So on corners, ends, steps...they made plywood shoring.

On the buttress wall, they had to make an end block where the concrete needs to stop.

On the taper forms, we put Nudura tape across the seams to help hold things in place.

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