Consuming my life

I just thought I would give a quick update and explain the work currently involved with the project.

On Monday Sept. 15th it was our 25th wedding anniversary. It was also the anniversary luncheon for Nuskin. So for our anniversary we just had a nice lunch provided by work. For me it was my 25th year at Nuskin and for Lara it celebrated her 10 year.

That afternoon we received information that the insulation crew would be there on Wednesday. This meant that everything in all of the walls had to be completed before then.

I left work at 15:30. I have been going in early this last few weeks to support the implementation of the new order fulfillment system.

I got home and changed and was working by 16:00. there were just a bunch of detail things that still needed to be completed before the insulation. I worked on those things and the gas line. Todd and I had installed it a week or so ago. For some reason It just had a lot of leaks. The way we had to rout it meant that there were many direction changes and thus connections. The line is 1 1/2 inch from the meter. This continues through the mechanical room where it finally necks to 1 inch and then goes to 3/4 for the shop line and finally a 1/2 inch line to the kitchen range. So a quick count of connections.
Elbows = 9 - 1 1/2", 2 - 1", 5 - 1/2"
T = 4
Unions = 2 - 1 1/2", 1 - 1", 1 - 3/4", 1 - 1/2"
Reducers - 3

Here are a few example photos.

This is Todd working in the West end of the hole

 This line has to serve 2 furnaces and 2 water heaters in the mechanical room. It also serves the gas dryer then the line to the shop furnace and a gas range in the kitchen.

 This is where the line exist the mechanical room.

I struggled and struggled with this thing. I disassembled and re-assembled sections of the line 4 to 6 times. It wasn't until Friday evening the 19th that I finally sealed everything and got the gas line to hold 15# for over 72 hours.

So my "house" work time for that week was the following.
Monday  -16:00 to 04:00 = 12 hours
Tuesday - 06:30 to 04:00 = 22 hours
Wednesday - 06:00 to 23:00 = 17 hours
Thursday - 16:00 to 01:00 = 8 hours
Friday - 16:00 to 23:00 = 7 hours
Saturday - 07:00 to 01:00 = 18 hours

That is 84 hours of "house" work time in 1 week. This is besides my real work on Monday, Thursday, and Friday, and a little time to sleep.

Note: the insulation crew did not show up on Wednesday. They finally got there on Friday. This meant another delay. The inspection was pushed off until Monday and the sheet rock that was supposed to start on Tuesday now wont start until Thursday. Grrrrrrrr.

Plumbing, etc.

     Part of the 4 way inspection is the plumbing. I did the drain lines for the basement. That was very difficult. The whole slope and venting requirements were very difficult to get correct. It also had to be absolutely  correct because it would all be under the basement concrete slab.

So for the main floor I hired out the drain system part. The plumbing drains and HV/AC were very challenging in the old part of the house.

     I decided that I could tackle the plumbing supply lines. We used PEX for its ease of use. Less connections and easier to get through holes and around corners.

Supply line from the city service. The city did install a new meter and base.

New meter with showing only the usage of filling the line to the house.

Since I had some old extra 3" plastic conduit I decided to run the main line from the meter into the house through this conduit. It was easy to push the pex through and it will be easy if I ever need to repair or replace this part of the line.

This is where it enters the house under the footing for the new master bath.

This is on the inside, down in the "hole".

Main line coming out of the "hole".

Part of the home run for the kitchen area.

     For the hot water we created a loop system. In the old house the water heater was in the opposite side of the house. It would take minutes to get hot water to the bathroom. The new loop system will have a circulation pump so that there is always hot water available in any part of the house.
     Here is one of out first schematics of the loop.

   
     There is a loop of 1 inch line all around the house. I then branch off with 1/2 to the faucet, tub, etc, for the last couple of feet. This way there will be plenty of volume and then high pressure also.

     For the cold water lines we ran 1" home runs to pretty much each room. It then reduces down to 1/2 right close to the point of use. I want to make sure that you can take a shower and the washing machine can run at the same time and there will be no change in water temp.
     We built a manifold system for the cold supply lines. this will enable us to turn off only the room/area that we need to.

It will need a little clean up and organizing after inspection.

     Some of the funnest plumbing to do was in the "hole". This is the crawl space under the new master bath. It measures about 15' x 8' x 30". It is a fairly confined space. The access into it is a 20" diameter hole through 40 " of concrete.

Here is the bit used and a picture of the process to create the access passage.

They estimated 2.5 hours to do this. It took them over 7!

Here are a couple of pictures of Anne going through the hole.

Notice that the hole is no longer round. I spent a few hours cutting and grinding to make the keyhole shape. I had to increase the access space once the heater duct went in.

This is what you look like covered in dust after cutting and grinding concrete for hours.

Anne in the "hole".

Last night Todd and I got the new main gas supply line run down into, through and out of the "hole". It needed to be 1.5 inch to supply enough volume for the 2 furnaces, 2 water heaters, Gas stove, and then on out to the furnace for the shop.

Todd working on the gas line at the west end of the "hole".

Things passing through the 8" hole at the west end of the "hole".
1. plumbing drain line.
2. a line of 2/12 wiring.
3. a line of 10g wire for the radiant floor heating.
4. 1" insulated pex for the main water in line.
5. 1" insulated pex for the cold home run for the master bath
6. 3/4" insulated pex for the hot supply for the master bath
7. the 1.5 inch gas supply line.
Needless to say, it is stuffed.


Me working on the main gas line at the east end of the "hole".



Notice the fan in the foreground of the picture? We were using brake cleaner to make sure the threads were clean to ensure a good clean gas tight connection. I think I am still a little hungover from all of the fumes in that confined space.


Tonight I just need to finish the line on in to the mechanical room and installing all of the "t"s to supply all of the gas appliances.