March 4 Update. Plumbing, Stairs, Cold Weather.

Thought I better put a little something on for a change. At work we hav'nt been real over busy, but a little bit here and there. Ever since they rebuilt the engine in the the truck, I have been pretty busy taking it back to them quite often to get things fixed. They have been unfriendly, kinda like it's all our fault or something. One mechanic has been anyway, but the boss kinda rectified that one day. lol. It is really unbelieveable the attitude some people have after you spend in the area of $50,000.00. (Tranny and engine). They just seem to try and pretend that nothing is wrong with things. One would really think that at $137.50/ hour shop rate, that they would have some kind of idea what they're doing. But oh well.
We have had some pretty darn cold weather lately, and alot of snow. I am quite determined that I will not spend another winter in this little shack. I could do it, I just don't want to. When the the temps drop below minus 30C the heater no longer keeps up. It runs constantly, and the floor is very cold. lol. I think I will really appreciate a nice hot crackling fire in the wood stove next winter. We have been getting alot of snow and wind with those cold temperatures. I have noticed that I am getting some snow coming in the new house through the ridge cap on the roof. I guess this spring or summer I will maybe change the whole ridge cap with one a little bigger and also purchase the snow filters that I guess I should have put in the first place. It's just a good thing that I'm not a quick builder and had it all closed in. I might not have ever known until things started to rot. I have never had this problem untill the real cold and windy stuff came.

I have found a little time for building off and on lately. I managed to get some stairs built for the loft. I am actually quite impressed as to how it all turned out so far. I still have to take the top section off and do some finishing touches. Then the fancy railings eventually. The stairs over stairs concept actually worked out pretty good. I thought I could possibly run into some clearance problems, but it's all good. I think. Just wanted to show off my simple little stairs marking tool. All it is, is a normal 2 foot sqaure with a couple of stair nuts. (Or what ever the real name is for them). You just screw one on at the right distance for your run, and the other at the distance for your rise. To figure out your rise and run, there are alot of books that can teach you all that. lol. But one thing I will say is that it is'nt nearly as complicated as some might think.

My plumbing permit is about to expire again on the 15 of March 2011. Maybe they will extend one more time for me, but I'm not sure. The plumbing could all be done very quickly, but alot of it, just dos'nt seem to make sense to be done until other things are done first. So thats what kinda slows me down. I'm trying to get it to a point where the inspector could come and have a look at it though. I have been buying things slowly. I bought that pump with the small tank quite awhile ago. That tank is 5.5 gallon. Then I bought another tank (20 gallons) that was on sale. I still want to get another tank, and it will be about 80 gallons. I'm the only one I know who has more than one pump, hope it's all ok. What I am thinking, is that I will have a switch up stairs so I can somtimes control when the pump kicks in. Pump water in the sunshine and try to have enough pressurized water for the evening for solar power consumption reasons. If I were to use just the one tank that came with the pump, that pump would be cycling on and off constantly while running water. Starting a pump is where the most power comsumption is. All those little fittings and valves and all that really add up in price after while. Anyway, just a little update on things. I do hope to be really going crazy on this thing soon.



Disclaimer--IMPORTANT


This is a personal blog, mainly for my own use. I am building a house with my own two hands, but I am learning alot of things as I go. I do not claim to know what I am doing, or if anything I do is even close to being done correctly or safely. So please, if you are planning on using any of my ideas or methods for your own use, please get professional advice before actually following through with your actions. I will not be held responsible for any injuries or damages of any kind caused by information or comments from this blog.

Snow and Plumbing.

That is my dodge pickup. It's a good thing she's a 1 ton with duals, because she is packing quite a jag.

The house did'nt fall down. Believe it or not, the solar panel side is pretty clean.

I finally got the main stack out the roof. Most of the drainage plumbing is done. There is just a little more where the fixtures connect to it all. It's 4" abs pipe where it goes through the roof and it is 4" abs where it goes under the basement floor and out to the septic tank, but it is 3" in between. Permit guy wanted 4" going out the roof for frost build up purposes. There is a fair bit of 3 " from the basement to the roof. It does'nt just go staight up. It winds around the tub on the main floor. All the drains and vents connect into the 3" somewhere on it's way up.

We had a few pretty mild days before it all got cold again. It was just enough to clean off the roof, and it took an extra couple of days for the ladder to self clean, then I got up there and flanged up my main stack where it comes out the roof. The next day it started to dump a bunch of snow again. Even the garage roof finally dumped a day or 2 after the house. You would'nt want to be standing under either one when it all takes place. I had to use the backhoe to open up a trail to get into the garage man door.

Anyway. I wrote a rather large thing in my word pad on my thoughts and changes of the heating system, then thought I would simply copy and paste it into this blog. As usual, I learn the hard way that maybe it is'nt quite that simple huh. I wonder, why not? Maybe there is a way, but I'll probably spend the night trying to figure it all out, so maybe I'll put it in later. Maybe it was meant to be. lol. Does anyone know if there is some simple thing I can do, I would really hate it if I have to print it out and retype it.

Not much got accomplished since the last post. I have been picking away a little at a time. I bought my electrical permit a little while ago. Sounds like fun to get started on all that. Usually there is 2 months or so in the spring where we are pretty slow at work. If I have to spend another winter in my little shack, no...... surely that won't happen. Anyone wanna place some bets?


 

Disclaimer--IMPORTANT
This is a personal blog, mainly for my own use. I am building a house with my own two hands, but I am learning alot of things as I go. I do not claim to know what I am doing, or if anything I do is even close to being done correctly or safely. So please, if you are planning on using any of my ideas or methods for your own use, please get professional advice before actually following through with your actions. I will not be held responsible for any injuries or damages of any kind caused by information or comments from this blog.

Thinking and Plumbing etc.

I've put on a few random photos of things going on, and they are in no special order. We have a fair bit of snow, and it has been pretty chilly. I have seen alot colder, but it has been hanging in the area of about -20 to -27 Celcius/ roughly about -6 to -16 on the Farenheit scale. I even had to finally fire up the old John Deere and do some serious snow plowing as the pickup was starting to push snow in places. The snow is still hanging on the north side of the house, but it did let go on the sunny side. (no pic.)

As usual, I did'nt physically accomplish as much as I would have liked to, but I did get the loft floor all glued and nailed down with some ring shank nails.

I have been spending alot of time with plumbing. There's the heater, burning 20 lbs of propane in about 6 hours time. Costly, but I do like to take the chill off.

This is just a glance from the loft looking down to the living room.

From the basement looking up.

There is the main plumbing stack. First I had to frame in a wall against the stairs or it would have been hard to do later. Yes, the main stack is crooked, and it's probably going to stay that way, I hope that does'nt matter. The cement used to glue this stuff together sets real quick, and when I was putting that one elbow on the top of the stack, I could'nt seem to find my mark until it was to late. It was'nt off by much, but enough to show a bit of a lean from this angle anyway. The three inch line running coming from the toilet will flex up enough to have the right flow angle. I think. lol. Most of the plumbing is done, but there are a few little touch ups, such as some of the lines that come off the main stack and goes to the sinks etc. I have to shoot the stack out the roof yet, but I think I will wait until that snow comes off first. It would need to be a bit warmer of a day anyway.

Before I got real serious about this plumbing, I had the permit guy come out and get me set straight on a few things so that I would get it done right the first time. I THINK I have it right. Anyway, he is the same guy that does the heating inspections. I kinda threw my idea at him about what I wanted to do about a heat system, but I'm not real sure if my plans are going to be totally acceptable. He has mentioned things like HRV (heat recovery ventilators), which I think I am slowly learning that is mandatory in a new house. Also, energy efficient heating source, such as a furnace. I was'nt really prepared to get any answers on things at the time. When I first started to study these things, it made me laugh a bit. How can something that uses so much electical power be classed as energy efficient? They're easy on the gas, but the solar system might take a bit of beating. I have been doing alot of research on this stuff, and also research on wiring lately. I am going to get an electrical permit soon, but I just don't want to sound like too much of a dummy about things when I do go there. I am now wondering if my inverter and all that is going to be up to code on all this stuff. Might have to bite the bullet and get me a more modern system, but I'm not real sure at this time.

A forced air furnace could actually be a good thing in my little house. I really don't think the fan should have to run all that much to keep up to things. It would be a nice touch for the summer when you need a little heat in the evenings and cooler days. I still don't think the genny would have to be used all that much. But in the winter, it is going to mean a larger battery bank, and possibly even an automatic starting generator system, which would be quite do-able, I guess. I'm thinking just a small 3000 watt honda or something should handle it all maybe, and should beable to be set up for autostart with the right inverter. But I better not get too far ahead of myself here just yet. I guess I'll get prepared for a little chat with my friend the inspector guy. Who, by the way has been very helpful to me so far. Boy, if Tony(Did It My Way) were still with us, I could just hear him right about now. lol. He never was very fond of the permitting process. And if I lived somewhere, where it did'nt matter, I would'nt be either. (Future plans possibly).

Anyway. Seasons greetings to all. Hope you all have a real good one.

Disclaimer--IMPORTANT


This is a personal blog, mainly for my own use. I am building a house with my own two hands, but I am learning alot of things as I go. I do not claim to know what I am doing, or if anything I do is even close to being done correctly or safely. So please, if you are planning on using any of my ideas or methods for your own use, please get professional advice before actually following through with your actions. I will not be held responsible for any injuries or damages of any kind caused by information or comments from this blog.
 

Plumbing Boo Boo

I know that I sometimes do things kinda backwards. When things were at this point in the game(above photo) I should have had a plumbing permit and I should have called Mr Permit man for a plumbing inspection. Then he would have told me that I need a vent line on my 2" line (smaller far left line) in between the trap and where it connect to the 3" line. Or that I should have left the trap off the 2" completely. It could have been put on above the floor. But instead of getting the inspection, I was eager to get things done and never really thought about it until the foundation was poured and I had the plumbing all covered with gravel. Then I went in, bought a permit, and told them I was ready for an inspection. He inspected it, but could'nt really tell what was going on with things. So I just kept on building, which was'nt the correct way to go about things, but I was'nt real concerned because it was a plumber who drew a picture for me to follow. He probably did'nt draw a trap on that 2 inch though.

Once I got to this point, (above photo) I start thinking that I would like to be certain that things are going to be good, before I completely close things up. I guess I could still change things if I absolutely had to, although it would be a major pain in the ass. Anyway, so I phoned my permit guy and started asking a bunch of questions. I thought that maybe I should just send him some pictures of the in ground plumbing, I should have done that earlier. So I did. So the 2 inch line that was meant for my laundry drain is'nt going to work for me, but it is not a major thing. I can tie in a new laundry line above ground and hook into the 4 inch main stack. Everything else is good I guess. The morel of the story is: always get things inspected when you are supposed to. lol. It could have been something that needed to be dug up and changed, but thankfully it was'nt. Well I can sleep again anyway. Floor drain construction (above).

The floor drain. All these little things in the floor do take some time. A concrete floor would have been alot quicker to do, but thats ok. I have nothing but time, sometimes.

This last week was actually pretty busy at work. I did'nt have to work today, but it was a pretty lazy day. That seems to happen to me after going to work, it takes awhile to get back into things. Today was spent paying bills and getting caught up on all kinds of paper work trying to keep track of my house building expenses and all.