What I've been doing the past couple months... now 2 years...

[Jack]

LOL! 

Mike, I say quit while your ahead. Garage sounds like you may as well put a bunk in there, done deal. Your wife may not like it too much though!

It's kind of drafty in there.  Those 10x10 holes where garage doors will be (hopefully) let in some cold air.  Garage doors are another of the new world situation items that are months behind.  Hope to get them here and installed by February 

Whats a little draft... it builds character lol.

[kentucky yeti]

Underground plumbing is being installed at the house

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[5th T/A]

Your moving right along, looks good! You must have a good general contractor working for you!

[kentucky yeti]

Meeting with the electrician in the morning.  Water lines are in.

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[ryeguy2006a]

Mike, I'm curious what the reason is for not having a basement? Maybe it's because I'm from the Northeast, but most new construction here has a basement.

[kentucky yeti]

Mike, I'm curious what the reason is for not having a basement? Maybe it's because I'm from the Northeast, but most new construction here has a basement.

Most here don't have basements.  Some people do.  Mainly it is the added expense.  We got an estimate- a basement would have added an additional $36k to the total house cost.  It was a basement or a shop    Priorities!

[ryeguy2006a]

That makes a ton of sense. Just curious is all. You are going a great job and please keep posting the pictures. Look forward to seeing the progress.

[LeighP]

Mike, I'm curious what the reason is for not having a basement? Maybe it's because I'm from the Northeast, but most new construction here has a basement.

I always wanted a basement, but they are extremely rare in Australia......don’t know why, maybe because we don’t run a furnace for heating.....but you never see them here.

[tajoe]

Not sure about your climate Leigh, but here in the US, states in the north, mostly all have cellars, due to the winter frosts. Sometimes the ground will freeze up to 4' deep, which isn't good for a concrete slab. If a foundation requires more than 6-8' deep, (or more) and you have an excavator digging it, you might as well dig out the insides, to give more space under the house. (As you mentioned, for utilities such as a furnace, and other benefits). I can't imagine living in a house W/O a cellar, but I've been in the north most my life. My woodshop occupies most of my little cellar here.

[Jack]

As Joe said basements are required and very common in the north but very rare in the south. And Mike I'm with you, basements can be turned into shops and such but why deal with going downstairs or dealing with limited headroom.

[5th T/A]

I have lived in the Midwest all my life. Pretty much everything here is built with a basement for the reasons mentioned. With a basement it is much easier to get access for plumbing, electrical and heating if necessary. I also prefer conduit for electric over romex.

Choosing between a basement and the shop that Mike is building is a no brainer. I would take the shop in a minute.

[roadking77]

My family has been involved in building houses for the last century now. When my grand father was building post war boom almost everything was a crawl space. Then that changed to basements. In my area almost everything has one or the other.  When dad built his last house he did not want a basement that would be a collect all for junk so be built on slab. We all said he was crazy as it would make the house a little harder to sell. He said he wasnt concerned and wouldnt have to worry about it when he was gone. He got the last laugh!

[LeighP]

Mike, just heard about the tornado situation in KY......hope you guys are OK. 

[kentucky yeti]

Mike, just heard about the tornado situation in KY......hope you guys are OK. 

Brother, we wished for a basement last night.  Pics don’t show the scope of the destruction from what is being called one of the largest tornadoes on record, and the longest distance ( over 220 miles).   It missed our house but we have debris from it in our yard.  Death toll in our county is expected to hit 100 or more.  They are initially calling it an F4-F5.

[tajoe]

Thank God it missed your new house. It must be your Christmas miracle. Sorry for the others who weren't so fortunate.

[kentucky yeti]

Between 190 mph F4 tornadoes (no power/trees down/etc...) and the rains that came after the destruction- I have accomplished nothing at my place.  I have volunteered for cleanup, but now we are told to wait as they have professional crews onsite now with some serious equipment to load debris.  We got power back in 3 days.  I have managed to finally hook up the building's wire in my 400 amp service.  I also have it hooked up inside the shop now, to the 200 amp box.  I didn't think to take a picture inside.  By then it was raining so hard that outside looked like nighttime, and I could hardly see what I was doing in the shop using my cellphone light.

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 And I ran 2 wires from the  front wall 200 amp service panel 64 feet to a back wall junction bow in there.  I already has buried two wires from the back shop wall to my well.  So now I have 240v feeding my well pump, and 120v feeding the receptacle in the wellhouse (for heat light or ceramic heater).  And I ran a wire out and back from this nifty waterproof switch so I can turn on the light/heater without opening the wellhouse.  I am going to drill a 1/2" hole in the cover and put a piece of Plexiglass there so that I can check on the light bulb without opening the lid.

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That is all I have been able to accomplish in a week.

[Jack]

Mike, I'm sure you have this right but I can't tell without seeing the main service wiring. The ground and neutral should only be bonded at the main service panel. 

[kentucky yeti]

Mike, I'm sure you have this right but I can't tell without seeing the main service wiring. The ground and neutral should only be bonded at the main service panel.

You are correct.  They are bonded at the 400 amp main panel.  Code states that they must be separated after the first disconnect (which would be the 200 amp breaker, so the box inside the shop has to have non-bonded neutral and ground.

Today we got concrete at the shop.  Tomorrow termite spraying at the house, and hopefully concrete before Christmas.

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[roadking77]

Wonderful, looks like they did a really nice job.

[Jack]

Great job, the shop looks beautiful.

[kentucky yeti]

It's now 8:30 pm and two guys are still here working, as the concrete is just now dried enough to slick-finish it with the trowel.  Cool weather, very little sunshine, and being inside the building made for a slow set, and curing will be even slower.

[ryeguy2006a]

Wow, sounds like you have a great crew! Nice dedication there.

[ryeguy2006a]

Is the white material that is between the steel siding and the wooden slats the insulation?

[kentucky yeti]

Is the white material that is between the steel siding and the wooden slats the insulation?

It's a secret.  I can't tell you     Yes- it is the better of the two common kinds of vapor barrier used in pole buildings, in most builders' opinions, anyway.  There is foil-faced double bubble, which- as you might expect by its name- is a thin layer of foil bonded to bubble-wrap.  The double bubble insulation creates an isolated air pocket between the metal and the wood to prevent condensation.   Since the two layer of bubbles are really thin, the R value is 1.
  Then there is R-15 reflective vapor barrier.  It is foil on one side, and the white poly on the other, with a thin wafer of insulation bonded between the two sides.  That is what I went with on mine.  Doesn't make it better- just my personal preference 

From a scrap piece: 

Inner side (seen in pics) white.  Yes, it is dirty

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Outer foil side

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Insulation

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[kentucky yeti]

Not a lot of stuff happening here.  Between this stuff...

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... followed by several rains, still no concrete for the house.  We just cancelled pouring today- it is supposed to be in the mid-20's tonight, and I specifically have "no antifreeze" (actually it is a setting accelerate, but folks call it antifreeze) written in my contract.  Just a personal thing with me.   It was supposed to be poured Dec 22/23, while we had temps in the 70's, but he decided to take off all week, and now we are 3 weeks and counting behind schedule.  I should have had walls and trusses up right now.

    I did decide that I should see if my shop will hold a couple of cars and still have room to move, so I relocated the '77 to it.  So far I only have 120v in my bathroom I built, so I had to run an extension cord 60 feet to hook up my Battery Tender Jr.  Before I put anything in the shop, I sprayed 3 coats of sealer on the floor.  Once I get stuff in there, it would be hard to seal it, so that little job is done.  I am running wire today.

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My front yard this morning from the computer room window.  It sure doesn't look like tonight's forecast of more snow on the way from here this morning.

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[roadking77]

Car looks lonely in its new home. I dont blame you for the call on the concrete, but in our area we would pour year round. Adds a lot of cost though. When we were doing commercial stuff deadlines set the schedule. Lots of blankets, heaters, etc. Many fond memories (not really) of getting slabs ready and pouring in sub freezing temps 

[kentucky yeti]

Car looks lonely in its new home. I dont blame you for the call on the concrete, but in our area we would pour year round. Adds a lot of cost though. When we were doing commercial stuff deadlines set the schedule. Lots of blankets, heaters, etc. Many fond memories (not really) of getting slabs ready and pouring in sub freezing temps 

Around here, the accelerating agent isn't used a lot.  I don't personally know the guys that bid the concrete for our new home, but I know 100% that if you get too much "antifreeze" in the concrete that it will weaken it, and I didn't want to chance it with someone that may or may not be familiar with its use.  We did a big concrete job (late 70's) for the Kentucky State Penitentiary.  Massive 3-day pour.  The last day it turned really cold and they dumped the agent in the concrete.  A couple weeks later, we were breaking it up to repour.  The concrete had started to crumble and small cracks were popping up in the last section we had poured.  The inspector said they had put way too much of the agent in there.  My garage apron here from 2008 is the same.  The small concrete contractor (now a bigtime contractor here) added the agent.  Federal Materials Concrete (owned by local west Kentucky native Billy Harper if you are a IHRA top fuel dragster/Pro Modified fan) sent their people out to collect samples and see what happened.  Lab results came back with weakened concrete- I ordered 4000 psi-  from excessive additive.  They did offer to replace the material for free (Billy is one great man) but the contractor never came back and replaced it.  It is the only concrete I have with cracks anywhere (and I have a lot of concrete here).  That is why I am wary of using it down here.  I know you all couldn't work half the year without it though.  But I suspect y'all are familiar with how much to add.

[Jack]

Now we can trully see the scale of your man cave. Thats massive and nice.

[kentucky yeti]

Now we can truly see the scale of your man cave. That's massive and nice.

They are never big enough.  I've been pulling some wire today.  I have inside power on a couple walls now, and in the bathroom.

Here's a pic from today, standing against the east wall, facing west (64').

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And the restroom insulated up

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Water and power in there.  Kinda nice to turn on the little heater so that I can step in there  now and then to warm up some.  And a light too!

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[Jack]

And to keep the water from freezing... especially this weekend.

[kentucky yeti]

You are so correct, Jack.  I can keep it warm enough now to protect the lines.

[roadking77]

Now I am officially jealous    Is there a shower in there as well?

[5th T/A]

That garage looks huge. With a bathroom you will never have a reason to leave. I take that back, add a microwave and BBQ grill and you have no reason to leave.

Enjoy and use it in good health!

[kentucky yeti]

Now I am officially jealous    Is there a shower in there as well?

No shower this time.  The garage where I live now has a shower, but I didn't want to put one inside this one.

That garage looks huge. With a bathroom you will never have a reason to leave. I take that back, add a microwave and BBQ grill and you have no reason to leave.

Enjoy and use it in good health!

My trusty Char-Broil Infrared grill and my Blackstone griddle will live on the porch.  My small microwave will be on the inside kitchen counter, by the frig.

[kentucky yeti]

Making an attempt to pour concrete for the house floor tomorrow morning.  Looks like the second pour (attached garage and wraparound porch) will have to wait awhile.  Starting Wednesday, we leave the 55° temps and drop down into the teens.  So we have a 1-day window to pour.

[roadking77]

As Larry would say 'Get R Done'. 
Your previous post about cold weather additives and now your one day window made me think of a job we had several years ago. We too had a one day window to get the slab poured only the warm temp was low 20's!  We were in the middle of a deep freeze and the average temp was low teens for what seemed like forever. We had to dig 20" of frost out and replace with stone to keep moving forward.

[kentucky yeti]

33 yards down.  Trowel time.

[Jack]

Looking forwards to seeing some pics and walls going up

[kentucky yeti]

 

Looking forwards to seeing some pics and walls going up

Ended up the day with 37 yards down.  No garage floor and no porch floors yet.  It’ll be a week before weather permits any more concrete.  Currently 48 degrees here at 10 pm.  Rain tomorrow.  And temps in the teens tomorrow night, followed by single digits for a few days.  I’m just glad to finally get the house floor down.

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Those newfangled wheelbarrows are nice!!!

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[firebirdparts]

Glad you got that much knocked out.  My 2nd floor of my shop was poured with calcium chloride and of course it's reinforced and sitting on the 2nd floor on steel.  Does creep me out.