phoenix / goodwill rebuild

[dablack]

Austin,
Looking good with the project! All will be known when test time gets here. Does the conduit in the meter base go to the power pole? What size wire is that , and is it the same size as hanging at the breaker box? The pex looks good, I have never used that before, so how do you make the connections? Did you ever think you could put that much wire in a house? Our house ended up with over 3000' of 12-2 with ground, for plugs and lights alone! Don', t be afraid to put too many circuits in that box. I used all the spaces in a 40 space panel. Sorry about all the questions, but inquiring minds want to know! (old saying) Watching the weather for a cabinet delivery Saturday, I will need the space in the shop for the island!!    Keep up the good work!      Andy

Yes, the conduit goes from the meter box on the back of the house to the power pole.  I'm not sure what gauge the power company uses.  I'm guessing it is 00 or 000.  So, right now I don't have the meter box connected to the breaker box.  The breaker box and meter box are back to back so those lines won't have to be long.  The black cables you see hanging in front of the breaker box are 6 gauge for the oven and cooktop.  I didn't really need 6 gauge for the cook top but it was cheaper to guy 25' of prepackaged 6 gauge and use it for both oven and cooktop than buy 5' of 6 gauge for the oven and 20' of 8 gauge for the cooktop. 

I've always read that you use at LEAST a foot of 12-2 for every sqft of house.  I don't think I'm going to get there.  The breaker box is on the center of the back wall and so far I don't think I'm going to break the ft=sqft rule.  We will know by Saturday. 

I'm close to using all the spaces in the box.  I think I have one single breaker empty on the left side and one double on the right.  That is with lots of home runs for the frig, 2 for the kitchen counter plugs, bathroom plugs, laundry plugs, so on and so forth (old saying).  I was shocked how many home runs I needed.  Once all the home runs are done, you are 75% of the way full.  Then the real fun began by pulling tons of wire for lights and general use plugs!  I've got the one 1000' spool upstairs and one down.  We will see if I use it all. 

Austin

[dablack]

Thanks Lynn.  I'm really feeling good about what we are getting done.  Can't wait to get the house under its own power. 

WDH, I hope you are right but I don't remember it making anything but little berries.  I will try and get a shot of what it produces this summer. 

Bill, I'm using the skarkbite brand crimper.  It works great and comes with a go - no/go gage that tells me if I'm good or not.  Really like this system. 

Austin

[grweldon]

Great Job!  I remember how exciting it was to get my home under power.  I have an exterior load center with pass-through lugs.  I use the pass through lugs with buried cable to feed an interior load center, that way I can turn off all power to the interior load center without removing the meter and involving the power company. 

I see your labels at the outlet boxes.  I am assuming that you are as diligent with labeling the circuits coming in to the load center.  That would be a hot mess trying to sort them out if they aren't labeled.  Every time I finished ran the wire for a house circuit, I installed plugs, switches and light bases and hooked up the breaker in the box so I could test.  My situation was different than yours, I completed different parts of the house at different times and needed power and lights to the semi-finished section before the others.

Once again... Great Job!  I'm excited for you!

[Remle]

dablack
If you are running out of spaces in your box, you might want to check to see if they make a mini beaker for your box. 2 mini beakers fit in the space of one standard.  We used them when installing electric heat in houses with individual room thermostats. Electric heat added many more wires to the system above what the standard breakers would allow.

[dablack]

Great Job!  I remember how exciting it was to get my home under power.  I have an exterior load center with pass-through lugs.  I use the pass through lugs with buried cable to feed an interior load center, that way I can turn off all power to the interior load center without removing the meter and involving the power company. 

I see your labels at the outlet boxes.  I am assuming that you are as diligent with labeling the circuits coming in to the load center.  That would be a hot mess trying to sort them out if they aren't labeled.  Every time I finished ran the wire for a house circuit, I installed plugs, switches and light bases and hooked up the breaker in the box so I could test.  My situation was different than yours, I completed different parts of the house at different times and needed power and lights to the semi-finished section before the others.

Once again... Great Job!  I'm excited for you!

I've seen the external breaker box and then an internal one before.  I like how that works.  Like you said, you get to kill power to the whole house.  The internal breaker box is wired as a sub panel.

For sure everything hanging at the breaker box has a label.  I tend to over plan and sometimes spend too much time planning and not enough time in actual action.

[dablack]

dablack
If you are running out of spaces in your box, you might want to check to see if they make a mini beaker for your box. 2 mini beakers fit in the space of one standard.  We used them when installing electric heat in houses with individual room thermostats. Electric heat added many more wires to the system above what the standard breakers would allow.

Oh, I'm not running out of spaces.  I planned all the spaces out before I even bought the panel.  Mini breakers work for a retrofit like what you are talking about but for new construction, if you need more than 40 spaces, I would go with a subpanel mounted next to the main panel.  I'm not an electrician, but that is the direction I would go. 

thanks
Austin

[SawyerBrown]

Austin, looking really good!  I too remember both the excitement of progress on building a house ... and the late nights spent plumbing, pulling wire, hanging doors, cutting trim, running ducts, etc etc etc after work for quite a few months.  I always had my radio on, seems like it gave me the energy to keep working. 

Congratulations, I'm really excited for you!

[dablack]

Thanks Pete,  things are moving quickly now. 

[dablack]

So, this was a crazy weekend.  We got the metal roof on, Andy came and dropped off some cabinets, Dennis came and dropped off some planks and posts, and we got the spray foam done. 

For the metal roof, I had them place 2x4s horizontally, and then put two layers of 3/4" rigid foam between them.  This will give me R 7.5 on top of the roof deck. 



 



 

Things were so crazy Andy and Nancy were only there for an hour or so.  I only got a couple of pictures.  I will get shots of the cabinets once they are installed. 



 

For the spray foam, I only requested 3" in the walls and between the rafters.  I would say that on average, I got about 4" and in some spots got 5.5".  So, I'm thinking I'm good as far as insulation goes. 



 



 

Of course we took a little time to do Easter.  Two of the many cousins came up to help and hunt eggs. 



 

Austin

[Den-Den]

It is coming along great.  You have got a lot of work done (a lot of it probably seeming slow and tedious).

[downsouth]

A lot of work, for sure!
Looking good.

[grweldon]

The roof looks great!  I'd be interested in details about the cost of the spray foam in you have time to share.  I've always liked the idea of using it but considered it cost prohibitive.

[dablack]

Dennis and Downsouth,

Thanks guys.  I'm really pleased with the results.  I finally feel like the move in date is getting closer.  Also, I'm really pleased with the temperature change with the silver roof.  Usually, when it is sunny out, the top floor and attic gets pretty warm.  It might only be 70F outside but the attic would be pretty hot.  You could open the windows but anyspace above the window got really hot.  After that 1.5" of rigid foam and silver roof, no extra heat upstairs.

GR,
I originally wanted to go with just an inch of closed cell foam to seal the house well and add a little insulation.  I was going to then put three layers of rigid foam outside for the added insulation.  A friend of ours came to do the bid and calculated exactly what I wanted.  It would have been about R5 for the closed cell inch of foam.  It came out to be about $1 per board foot (sqft an inch thick).  Then he said, really in the south we want open cell foam and that it was less expensive.  For the three inches that I paid for the open cell, it was about 19 cents a board foot.  That works out to about 56 cents a sqft for the three inches of depth. 

Two things I like about the open cell is that the blowing agent is water and it doesn't offgas like the closed cell does.  If water does get behind the open cell foam, it can still dry to the interior of the house which is what we want in the south.  A wet wall up north, dries to the exterior.  That is why they have plastic up under their sheetrock.  We let stuff dry to the inside here because we use AC and the interior is the low humidity area.  If we used plastic sheets under our sheetrock, we would have really moldy walls.

The open cell foam has a rating of R3.7 per inch.  So that gave me a minimum of R11 in my walls.  Then I'm going to use 1.5" of rigid foam on the outside to give me another R7.5.

With no air leaks, that is pretty good.  Also, the south side of the house will have a big porch on it which will shade the front of the house.  Then I have a pretty good roof over hang as well so in the middle of summer, the front upper story windows are in the shade from it.  With the air tightness, shade, good insulation, and silver roof, I'm hoping it stays cool. 

Austin

[grweldon]

Thank you for the explanation.  There may be some of the foam in my future...

[scor440]

My god that is the crappy insulation job I hope they aren't finished.I would have them  pay me if it was my house.Just throw money out the window.Geez

[dablack]

My god that is the crappy insulation job I hope they aren't finished.I would have them  pay me if it was my house.Just throw money out the window.Geez

 


I'll admit that it isn't the most aesthetically pleasing foam but I'm pretty sure it will get the job done.  Also, these photos are while the work was being performed.  All the foam on the floor is where the scrapped off the face of the studs.  They cleaned all that up before they left.  Then again, my sarcasm meter might be broken.....



 

[Magicman]

Austin, I was following your line of thought on the insulation, and you did very well.  Yup, it is all different here where our main concern is cooling rather then heating.   

[Holmes]

    I spent a lot of money spray foam insulating the Royalston House.  Closed cell because the walls are only 3" deep.  My take on spray foam is, It is the only product I can think of that pays you back almost every day of the year.  When it comes to heating and cooling it is the way to go, and the best place to put your hard earned money.

[dablack]

Thanks Lynn and Holmes.  I'm pleased with the way it is turning out. 

I stayed up there late last night to finish wiring the breaker box (load center).  We would have had power today but the big storm blew threw last night so lots of people lost power and they are working on that now.  We might have power by Monday. 



 



 

This weekend I will finish up some plumbing bits and have all that done.  Should be able to flush a toilet by Monday if things go well.  We will see. 

Austin

[scsmith42]

Austin, I have several buildings with open cell spray foam insulation, and I think that your's looks fine.  Good choice with it.

Scott

[dablack]

Scott,

Thanks for the support. 

We had a couple of cool nights and "hot" days.  The house stayed nice and cool during the day.  Upstairs didn't get warm at all.  It was the same temperature as downstairs.  I'm very pleased. 

Austin

[Den-Den]

I cut these pine boards 5/8" thick for Austin to use as paneling.  A neighbor gave me the trees (cut down in their yard).  This is one of two stacks (1200+ sq ft total).   In a few weeks they will be dry enough to run through my planer; I will plane them to 1/2" (backside may be hit/miss).   

 

[Magicman]

Good for you (and Austin too).  That family will have a home if we all keep plugging along.   8)

[WDH]

I bet that paneling will look nice. 

[Bill Gaiche]

Great going Den-Den. That lumber will have the eyes of Texas upon it. bg