My Current Huge Project With Radiant In Floor Heating

 
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LsFarm
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Post by LsFarm » Fri. Nov. 27, 2009 2:14 pm

Hi Charlie, I'd put the Menonomee on the forum's classifieds, someone will want a wood/coal boiler for a small house.


 
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sterling40man
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Post by sterling40man » Fri. Nov. 27, 2009 11:26 pm

Great job Greg! Yanche mentioned that you were in the middle of a remodel, but I never thought it was that big. It looks awesome! :D Thanks for the pics.

 
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coaledsweat
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Post by coaledsweat » Fri. Nov. 27, 2009 11:58 pm

Remodel is a bit of an understatement. :)

 
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gaw
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Post by gaw » Mon. Nov. 30, 2009 10:29 am

Your project looks great Greg! I have also been bouncing the spray foam idea around off and on for a few years. It sounds like you like it, I may have to bug you for more info later. I have heard the guys that spray foam all the time want to do the underside of the roof sheathing to keep the heat out but some roofers think that the shingles will be affected by the excess heat. There is a long history of uninsulated roof sheathing and limited history of insulated sheathing. I think I’ll leave it to others to test this approach and I’ll just leave my roof alone.

The exterior looks very nice. I like that you kept the old styling with the wide window trim and the sloping window header trim with a drip cap makes it all look as it was built over 100 years ago. Seeing old houses with a new half assed siding job that eliminates all the bold trim that was so prevalent years ago is like fingernails on a chalk board to my eyes. A house has to look as good outside as in (my opinion) from the pictures and the description of things to come it looks and sounds like you are going to accomplish this.

Hats off to you. Good luck and be safe through the completion of your project. Thanks for sharing.

 
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gaw
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Post by gaw » Mon. Nov. 30, 2009 10:49 am

When you say HUGE project I can’t help but think of this guy. :D

Some New Yorkers can appreciate this. This is a result of me making too many trips to north and western New York. :shock:

 
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wlape3
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Post by wlape3 » Mon. Nov. 30, 2009 11:36 am

Yeah, he's pretty annoying. There was a guy down in the Philly area who had ads advertising no BS. Think he went out of business but he was annoying too.

 
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LsFarm
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Post by LsFarm » Mon. Nov. 30, 2009 5:45 pm

I contacted two companies that make roofing materials. I was curious what their take was on an unvented surface for the shingle to be nailed to. They guarantee many of their better shingles for instalation on SIPs and on roof decking with foam sprayed on the attic side.

The big problem is potential leaks. The closed cell foam that I'm using is waterproof. Open cell foam is not, it will allow water to slowly pass through. So a roof deck foamed with closed cell foam could trap a leak and spread it, causing more widespread damage to the decking material over time.. Open cell foam would let you know that there is a leak, but mask it so effectively, that you'd probably never find the leak anyway, so you'd end up reroofing a large area anyway.

I think if the roofing is new, properly installed, spraying foam on the underside of the roof decking is safe.

But I have to agree, venting is the norm, with centuries of application to look at .. unvented, insulated roof decking is new, and the full verdict may take a few more decades to be decided.

As for Mr Huge.. he's obnoxious. :shock: I thought about not using any adjective just 'My current Project' but at the time I was feeling completly overwhelmed by the whole project, and the term Huge came to mind.

Take care.
Greg L.


 
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coaledsweat
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Post by coaledsweat » Mon. Nov. 30, 2009 9:02 pm

Huge is fitting.

 
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Sting
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Post by Sting » Mon. Nov. 30, 2009 9:20 pm

The descriptive adjective fits very well :)

 
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Post by LsFarm » Mon. Dec. 07, 2009 3:31 pm

A quick update on the project:

I had the plumbing inspector over last week for a partial inspection, he gave permission to close in the kitchen and the ceilings.. the kitchen plumbing and vent plumbing were OK'd.. The rest of the plumbing is not yet complete

I've been nailing up boxes, light fixtures, pulling wires etc, etc.. I hope to have my rough electrical inspection this wednesday or thursday.

With the electrical inspection OK'd, I'll be able to finish insulating the walls in the kitchen, another 1" of foam and 3.5" of unfaced fiberglass..

Then: DRYWALL !! Man I can't wait to get this box enclosed on the inside.. and a layer of ceiling insulation sprayed on, then R-30 or R-38 batts of insulation..

With the ceilings enclosed, and some insulation installed,, then winter can come on with a vengance... I won't care..

I'll post photos as the insulation goes in and the drywall is installed.

Once the kitchen is painted, then the cabinets can be installed, the template for the granite countertops made, and appliances installed. It will start to look like a home.

Greg L

 
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Post by whistlenut » Mon. Dec. 07, 2009 6:04 pm

It will look like a nice place for the taxman to visit with regularity,too!!!!

I assume you can stay warm even now. Darned nippy I'm sure. Bob up in Ft Kent is into the co-ed naked ice dancing on the BIG river up there. Must be too much 'Tater' liquor available, those folks are near the edge of reality.....
Is the 260 fired up now doing radiant?

 
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Post by LsFarm » Mon. Dec. 07, 2009 11:01 pm

The AA260 has been running since sometime in October. I have hot water circulating in the floor on the 1st floor, the main level. I just got the second level's Pex stapled up to the underside of the floor.. working the pex through holes in the floor joists was a pain !! Pex loves to recoil itself. I don't have these two upstairs loops hooked to the hot water yet.

Right now with the main floor heated, the building is quite comfortable to work in, as long as the wind isn't blowing up through the soffits too hard. With calm wind, the house is very comfortable with the floor at 65*. Bare concrete 'suspended slab' floor. The heat in this slab also warms the basement from above.. I don't have water running through the basement slab yet either.. Just not enough time in a day/week/month.

I'm getting home from a 5-day trip tomorrow, and I'll be home for 6 days.. I hope to have some drywall up on the ceilings and in the kitchen before I have to return to work next monday.

Greg L

 
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Post by LsFarm » Thu. Dec. 10, 2009 8:46 pm

Well, the electrical inspector came by yesterday. We didn't get into a fist fight, but I was sorely tempted to deck the guy, or at least try to.

Get this: he [the inspector] looks at a box in kitchen, the box is for the built in oven.. I had wired the box with a length of #6 copper, the older style wire with two conductors and a woven ground wires wrapped around the red and black conductors. The inspector said, 'since you are reusing your old kitchen wiring, that is grandfathered', but then he recommended using a new piece of 4-conductor wire.
Then, when we went into the basement to look at the sub-panel that supplies the new house with power. Here the inspector sees that the piece of old style #6 cable is actually in the new breaker panel.. and he says that the old style wire cannot be used in the new panel, a new piece of cable needs to be installed..
OK, well that piece of wire is only 12' long, not a big deal..
But now, as he looks around, he sees another piece of 'old' cable, The 220v feed from the old panel in the old part of the house, going through the new part of the house and supplying power to the sub panel in the garage, and the apartment in the rear of the garage, as well as my laundry room. The inspector says this cable cannot be reused. I ask why? you accepted the piece of cable to the oven, if it was from the old panel, it was grandfathered, and it would have been supplying power to an appliance in the new house. So why wouldn't this 150' piece of copper cable be grandfathered?? It doesn't supply power to anything in the new part of the house, only to the existing garage.
Nope, he had no good reasonable answer, only that it wasn't the way a sub panel is to be wired today. Well it is the way a sub panel was wired a few years ago, and the way that they are powered all over the country and the world.

Well I differed with his opinion, he said if the cable should fail, the house could burn down.. I said, the whole damned old section of the house and the whole damned garage didn't have a single ground wire in the whole damned structure!! and it hadn't burnt down in the last 60-80 years since it had been electrified, so if anyplace would fail, it would be the OLD parts of the house, not the new.
Well, I didn't win the argument. I went to HD and bought a new piece of #4 aluminum.. it 'only' cost anothe $200 or so..

I think i'll take that piece of 'unapproved' #6 cable, knot a noose in it, and hang it from the chandelier box, 28' in the air above the foyer, with a note pointing to a green inspection sticker, the note saying 'Or Else'.. Damn I'm pissed. And invite him back for the extra inspection that I had to pay for.

The chief building inspector came over today, he approved the rough framing, and ok'd me to finish insulating the place, and to drywall the ceilings. We discussed the electrical inspector's denial of the supply cable to the garage/apartment. He said if the electrical inspector felt it was a safely hazard, then he'd have to stand behind his decision. But get this, the building inspector is NOT requiring me to install the whole-house smoke detector system that is required for new construction.. the old part of the house only has to have battery powered detectors. What a crock!! a true life saving feature is not being required, but a BS requirement for a new style of supplying a subpanel is being enforced..

So I'm finishing the insulation, I'll get it inspected tomorrow, and I'll hang drywall on Saturday... I hope..

I was so pissed yesterday afternoon and evening, that I didn't sleep much last night, hopefully I'll sleep tonight..

Greg L

 
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jeromemsn
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Post by jeromemsn » Thu. Dec. 10, 2009 9:23 pm

Glad to see you are still able to work on it with the weather out here the way it is. Guess you didn't have to burn much coal yesterday since you had already reached your boiling point. Make sure you don't over look anything, I know I did once when a inspector made me mad and then I had to do a bit of tear out to fix it. Just breath deep and let it out.

 
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B C O 3321
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Post by B C O 3321 » Thu. Dec. 10, 2009 10:54 pm

luv what you did to the place Icant wait to get started on mine . You mentioned that the BCO did not require you to hard wire your smokes. If I may , If your are under the International Residential Code 2006 for your boro or township as adopted. Section R313.2.1 Alterations,repairs and additions.When alterations, or additions requiring a permit occur,or when one or more sleeping rooms are added in existing dwellings, the dwelling unit shall be equipped with smoke alarms located as required for new dwellings;the smoke alarms SHALL be interconnected and hard wired.


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