Very old temps, bad weather and a small 3" flood during January and February limited working in the house to just the weekends. The February bizzard stopped work for the weekend. Drifts went as high as 5 feet at the door of the pull barn. Thank god for the snow blower that powered right through the 22" of snow on 450' for driveway in a little over 3 hours. The hard part was getting out of our current driveway and getting to Woodstock. It took 4 hours to dig out the 60 foot driveway in Carpentersville.
Since the house was fully insulated with the 1st layer of insulation, the bitter cold was kept out and temps stayed near 32 degrees or warmer in the basement and cold at levels going up. The bad news is the closed cell foam kept cold temps trapped inside the house when the weather turned warmer outside. Electric heaters provided some heat during the months to get temps to about 40 degrees inside. Since the moisture issues had temporally vanished, the sump pump has not run in 6 months , and environment was dry, we focused on installing hanging shop lights in the crawl space area and installing self-leveling concrete flooring over the vapor barrier and the cracked and broken mud floor. The objective was to provide a full seal of the crawl space cracks and provide a smooth surface for future storage. We used two products (Mapei quick setting self leveling underlayment cement mix and QuickCrete Self -leveling concrete mix). At $27.00 a bag for the Mapei it got expensive to do the 1st 1/3 of the crawl. Mike took a trip to the Home Builders Show in Orlando and found a Quickcrete product for almost 1/2 the price. We found that purchasing a 1/2 skid of 32 bags saved $2.00 per bag.. See photos of the finished product.
Brother Steve and Friend Rob help with the mixing and pouring. Doing a such large area, i
f I'd do it again, I think I would use the 12 set product, because in 5 gallon buckets the product set up too quickly (in 15 minutes)and was hard to feather into other pours in a large space. Se we had a few ripples. Rob was helpful in starting the old furnace. I had replaced a controller board, fixed a stuck inducer, repaired wires and installed a replacement igniter module, and BAM!, we had temporary heat.
f I'd do it again, I think I would use the 12 set product, because in 5 gallon buckets the product set up too quickly (in 15 minutes)and was hard to feather into other pours in a large space. Se we had a few ripples. Rob was helpful in starting the old furnace. I had replaced a controller board, fixed a stuck inducer, repaired wires and installed a replacement igniter module, and BAM!, we had temporary heat.We have finalized our interior remodeling permit and submitted for our drawings after meeting with the Plumbing inspector on-site. I really appreciate his feedback on my questions. Septic system drawings were approved and ready to start.
Drawings were completed. Bid came back for the HVAC and Geothermal. We found price for Geothermal to be extremely high even with a 30% tax credit. It appeared to me that Geothermal Contractors are asking a premium for their work and absorbing the tax rebate. The cost payback was not just not there when you weigh the high cost of Geothermal to high- efficiency natural gas furnace. Even if the systems were the same price wit the credit, the 30% tax credit is something you have to get back from the government off each years taxes (for up to 7 years). As a result you have to pay out the subcontractor an extra 30%. Money really is not in the budget. I selected to go with Carrier gas Infinity multi-stage furnaces and AC setup. Bid from residential HVAC contractors were commonly incomplete or inaccurate. Only one contractor of 4 followed the scope. contractor will start as soon as we get the permit.
Plumbing has been selected to be a PEX piping system. The biggest advantage is that the homeowner can do the work and save on labor. A major advantage of PEX over copper is that piping is more resistant to freezing, and not loosing heat energy from a metal pipe. A recent water test showed the PH of our water to be 7.49 (which is near identical to city of Chicago water). The balance of the testing is being done by a water softener company. We are serious considering not utilizing a softener and sticking with a no salt solution and a good filter system. Electric is going to be only a partial conduit system. Main home runs and existing electric will be conduit, however the balance of the wiring with be rope wire and have a license electrician to do the final connections. The existing electrical panel was replaced with a new properly grounded electrical panel by a union electric an.
Furring out the perimeter stud walls is taking place with Cherie, Steve and Nate while we are
waiting for our permit review to be complete. The furring will allow perimeter wiring to be done and the 2nd layer batt to be installed over the closed cell foam to get a R-27 wall resistance value. Ceiling deign is R-49 flash & batt (sloped) and batt and blown insulation (flat ceiling). The county has been more cooperative now that they have seen that substantial time and effort is being taken to correct items from the past owner and taking extra steps to assure our home is well above building codes and standard for energy use.
waiting for our permit review to be complete. The furring will allow perimeter wiring to be done and the 2nd layer batt to be installed over the closed cell foam to get a R-27 wall resistance value. Ceiling deign is R-49 flash & batt (sloped) and batt and blown insulation (flat ceiling). The county has been more cooperative now that they have seen that substantial time and effort is being taken to correct items from the past owner and taking extra steps to assure our home is well above building codes and standard for energy use. Security cameras with remote access and an alarm system with was installed this week to keep unwanted visitor recorded and from entering the project. last thing we want is for someone to destroy our hard work. No valuable equipment or material is kept on-site.
I expect all mechanicals be completed by the end of March and Drywall to start first week in April. LEED for Homes scorecard and points will be shared on the next post. It was selecting points and assigning there cost ramifications to our overall budget.
