On monday, Bob came over, bringing with him his chimney brush and an extension wand. We pulled the woodstove out, yanked out my fluepipe and scrubbed and scrubbed at the chimney. No soot, no ash, but lots and lots of nice creosote 'clinkers'. I now have about half a wet/dry vac full of partially combusted hardwood charcoal. I think I'll save it.
On tuesday, Bob and I started on the bathroom floor. Three of the radiant floor tubes will pass beneath the shower stall (toasty toes!), so planning the drain actually took a fair amount of cogitation.
Today, the fall holidays are upon us. Work ends for a little while, time for family!
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
And today at Cold Comfort
Not much happened.
Mostly because I wasn't there until late in the afternoon. See, the recent cold snap, with overnight temps in the 20s, then a real 20, just flat did me in. In the addition, we can get some work done once the sun comes on, as it's an uninsulated shell, and the solar gain on it makes it tolerable. The main cabin crib, on the other hand, is like a meat locker. Just too cold. snappy cold. Frustratingly cold. And, it holds onto the cold with a tight grip. I couldn't take it anymore.
So, fetching around some yesterday, I caved. I hitched up the trailer and headed back down. Stayed the night at Tracey's (where there is heat), and this AM, rolled out back down to Va, went to the old cabin, and loaded the old wood stove on the trailer, and then towed it all the back through the mountains to Cold Comfort.
This ole wood stove and I have had an on-again, off-again relationship for, oh, say, I dunno, 40-ish years? Yeah, something like that. It's a nice stove, if somewhat fiddly. For a '70s' vintage stove, it's actually pretty leaky, which is actually not a bad thing. Less likely to explode. The way it draws air is, , odd. But once it gets hot, it works pretty well.
So, I vacuumed out the flue as best I could, there is an 8" stove pipe shoved up in there, and sadly, it's FULL of carbon. Seems the prior owner had a tight stove, and liked to keep it tamped down. Will need to get the flue swept sooner rather than later.
But tonight, Tracey is coming up, and we want to have a WARM cabin, just for the heck of it. So, I shoved a section of my 5" stove pipe into the 8" as best I could, then tilted the stove back a bit to get the elbow to match up, and got it going.
And for what it's worth, yes, the Prius moved the very heavy stove with some grace. But we certainly took our time. Just like I took a fair amount of time moving the stove.
Took FOREVER for the stove to come up to temp, and when it finally got up to a decent stack temp and i tamped it down, I guess the air was actually cooling the stack, because the stack temp shot up to over 600, which freaked me out. That's plenty hot enough to light all that carbon in the flue. Very scary. But eventually, it finally started to calm down, and I was able to tamp it down to a safe and sane 350 or so.
Then I came out to write this blog entry.
Ahhhh.
Mostly because I wasn't there until late in the afternoon. See, the recent cold snap, with overnight temps in the 20s, then a real 20, just flat did me in. In the addition, we can get some work done once the sun comes on, as it's an uninsulated shell, and the solar gain on it makes it tolerable. The main cabin crib, on the other hand, is like a meat locker. Just too cold. snappy cold. Frustratingly cold. And, it holds onto the cold with a tight grip. I couldn't take it anymore.
So, fetching around some yesterday, I caved. I hitched up the trailer and headed back down. Stayed the night at Tracey's (where there is heat), and this AM, rolled out back down to Va, went to the old cabin, and loaded the old wood stove on the trailer, and then towed it all the back through the mountains to Cold Comfort.
This ole wood stove and I have had an on-again, off-again relationship for, oh, say, I dunno, 40-ish years? Yeah, something like that. It's a nice stove, if somewhat fiddly. For a '70s' vintage stove, it's actually pretty leaky, which is actually not a bad thing. Less likely to explode. The way it draws air is, , odd. But once it gets hot, it works pretty well.
So, I vacuumed out the flue as best I could, there is an 8" stove pipe shoved up in there, and sadly, it's FULL of carbon. Seems the prior owner had a tight stove, and liked to keep it tamped down. Will need to get the flue swept sooner rather than later.
But tonight, Tracey is coming up, and we want to have a WARM cabin, just for the heck of it. So, I shoved a section of my 5" stove pipe into the 8" as best I could, then tilted the stove back a bit to get the elbow to match up, and got it going.
And for what it's worth, yes, the Prius moved the very heavy stove with some grace. But we certainly took our time. Just like I took a fair amount of time moving the stove.
Took FOREVER for the stove to come up to temp, and when it finally got up to a decent stack temp and i tamped it down, I guess the air was actually cooling the stack, because the stack temp shot up to over 600, which freaked me out. That's plenty hot enough to light all that carbon in the flue. Very scary. But eventually, it finally started to calm down, and I was able to tamp it down to a safe and sane 350 or so.
Then I came out to write this blog entry.
Ahhhh.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
So, Today at Cold Comfort
I'm taking some time off. For one thing I want to give my body a bit of a break. I've been trading some labor with my dear old friend Bob who has been my principal construction consultant and general all-around good guy on this job. With winter breathing down our necks, he's been focused on getting new insulation in his attic. So for the last few days, I've been over at his house helping with that, and honestly, crawling around on my hands and knees has me aching all over, so I'm taking a break. One thing I wanted to do, is get this blog underway.
So, yesterday, we began a quick overview, if you haven't read that entry yet, please go here.
Anyway, moving on from there.
With the addition gutted, the upstairs in the main cabin pretty well gutted, and the kitchen mostly gutted, there were things that the insurance company wanted done right away. Note that the sliding glass door on the back of the main cabin addition has no landing, or stairs, or barrier:
Well, the insurance company (rightfully) wasn't happy about that, and wanted it dealt with, sooner rather than later.
Now, the prior owner essentially used that sliding glass door as a window:
but that was all changing. So, off to our favorite 'home improvement' center, also known as the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store where we found this patio door:
Now, folks with a critical eye will notice that the door is mounted pretty high in the wall, more on why that is in a bit.
Also, in the 'back' bedroom, the large window facing the backyard was broken, the insurance co wanted that replaced/repaired right away, again, the ReStore comes through for us:
And, again, for those with a critical eye for detail, yes, we did extend the studs above the window header to the sill plates. And another quick note, yes, NOW I know that the brown-yellow expanding foam is the WRONG stuff for windows. But so far, no problem.
A lot of other things happened that I didn't bother to document, like having rented a compact tractor with a loader for a day, and hauled a dumpster's worth of trash out of the woods. Time being what it was, and the dumpster being finite, I didn't get it all either.
In the mean-time, Tracey has been busy tending to the growing things, a lot of stuff has been pulled out, and a lot of edibles have been planted. Now, somewhere I read that some permaculturist or another said the first thing to do on a new piece of land, is Nothing for the first year. However, simply put, there are a lot of plants that need to be moved, and we're doing our level best to put some thought into where things will want to live, but we know things will get moved.
Anyway, moving right along (making a very long story very short) Bob and I began turning this:
Into this:
Another view:
Yes, you are seeing what you think you are seeing, a wall inside a wall. This is where this project really starts to raise the question "is this Chipper's folly?". Sharp eyed folks will note the lack of jacks in this window framing. No matter. The wall isn't load bearing, no need for jacks. Anyway, what will happen, is there will be no mechanical coupling of the interior and exterior walls. A significant amount of energy transfer takes places through the wall studs between the inside and outside of a house. This double-wall will eliminate that. Further, since the 'road' side of the house is pretty loud, the hope is this will cut down the sound of early morning and late evening traffic considerably. The trick here is how to maximize the insulation value of the wall, while maintaining something like some available floor space inside the structure. Bob's framing skills were crucial here. I would have just banged stuff up, but Bob actually knows what he's doing. Very handy stuff. :)
Anyway, so what's the door doing so far up in the wall? Well, after the external framing was finished, this task began:
What?
Well, turns out the addition, is actually two additions. One that's guestimated at about 35-ish years old, and one that's maybe 25-ish years old. These 'stringers' are set to be perpendicular to the floor joists, why they had to change direction just under 2/3rds the way across the floor.
Umm, okay, but what on earth are you doing?
Wait, that's not all:
WHAT?
Here we have 7/8th inch 'dura-PEX' oxygen barrier radiant heat tubing, which we sourced from the good folks at The Radiant Floor Company up in Vermont. In retrospect, the O2 barrier wasn't really needed, as we are using water, and it will be exposed to the air. Oh well, could have saved some money there, but that's why it's always nice to let someone else do it first. :)
Anyway, when I first tried putting this tubing down, it was about maybe 35F in the house, and the tubing was about as compliant as rebar. I got to about this point before I managed to put a kink in this loop. I stopped. Got on the phone to the radiant floor company "Have I just ruined this loop?". No, the assured me, just be sure to gently work the kink back out, and don't let the kink land in a radius. Whew!
I took a few pictures of this process, mostly because it was near fantastic how much work it was to lay out this tubing. In complete fairness, the folks who sold it to me on their website point out this is really a 3 man job, 2 men at the very least. Bob and I worked together for the bulk of this, but a lot of it was done at night, by me, on my hands and knees, quietly cursing.
Ugg,
Okay, with that done, the next really fun! part began:
Take yer caulk gun, and make a fillet bead down the side of the tubing with silicone caulk:
Then make a bead back down the top of the tubing:
The place the aluminum fin over the caulk and press it into place, working out as much air as you can:
No, I mean REALLY work the air out.
You see, the silicone will thermally bond the tubing to the fins, allowing for (from what I've read) about 3 to 4% better thermal efficiency. Yeah, I know, doesn't seem like much, only 3 to 4 hundred BTU per 10K BTU. Since this floor will probably radiate as much as 15k BTU, yeah, maybe 3 to 4% does matter.
I'll step back a pace here and slip into a tiny digression.
A few years back (6?) Then President Bush stated that "Here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil, , " Well, while that is a defensible position, it's not exactly accurate, although I did and do appreciate the presidents point. No, we are not really addicted to oil (energy), but rather, we are addicted to WASTE.
Okay, enough of all that, for now.
Dear ole Bob had this nice electric staple gun. Without it, this job really couldn't get done. So, then staple the fins to the deck. Aluminum fins = stainless steel staples. A bit pricey.
s
And repeat
and repeat
and repeat
until you get to this:
And at this point, once this is done, you should feel pretty crippled. This is harder than tying at a keyboard. :)
Okay, now it's time to join the two loops (one for each direction in the stringers) into the one 'zone' loop, and rig up a jig, and pressure test it all:
it held 30lbs of air overnight into the next day. Guess that's good enough for who it's for. Yes, I know. 50lbs for 24hrs. However, in this case, this is an open loop system, and will never see anything like 15lbs of pressure. it's not leaking, it's good.
Anyway, NOW the REAL floor can be started.
First, mix up some clean (play) sand with some portland cement:
(Bob hard at work)
Then load it in between the stringers, covering the tubing/fins, and level it off.
Until you completely fill one section, TA-DA!
Wet it down with a sprayer, and then set the subflooring:
Keep going, 1/6th of a ton at a time:
In the end, should have about 3-1/2 tons of thermal mass in this floor. all the floor components, the strings, the subflooring, etc are all glued in addition to being nailed/screwed. I don't think this floor will squeak. :)
This is an immense amount of work. The end result should be a nice comfy warm place during the cold times, and a temp stable place the rest of the time, and pretty quiet as well. Nice guest quarters. And not very wasteful.
So, yesterday, we began a quick overview, if you haven't read that entry yet, please go here.
Anyway, moving on from there.
With the addition gutted, the upstairs in the main cabin pretty well gutted, and the kitchen mostly gutted, there were things that the insurance company wanted done right away. Note that the sliding glass door on the back of the main cabin addition has no landing, or stairs, or barrier:
Well, the insurance company (rightfully) wasn't happy about that, and wanted it dealt with, sooner rather than later.
Now, the prior owner essentially used that sliding glass door as a window:
but that was all changing. So, off to our favorite 'home improvement' center, also known as the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store where we found this patio door:
Now, folks with a critical eye will notice that the door is mounted pretty high in the wall, more on why that is in a bit.
Also, in the 'back' bedroom, the large window facing the backyard was broken, the insurance co wanted that replaced/repaired right away, again, the ReStore comes through for us:
And, again, for those with a critical eye for detail, yes, we did extend the studs above the window header to the sill plates. And another quick note, yes, NOW I know that the brown-yellow expanding foam is the WRONG stuff for windows. But so far, no problem.
A lot of other things happened that I didn't bother to document, like having rented a compact tractor with a loader for a day, and hauled a dumpster's worth of trash out of the woods. Time being what it was, and the dumpster being finite, I didn't get it all either.
In the mean-time, Tracey has been busy tending to the growing things, a lot of stuff has been pulled out, and a lot of edibles have been planted. Now, somewhere I read that some permaculturist or another said the first thing to do on a new piece of land, is Nothing for the first year. However, simply put, there are a lot of plants that need to be moved, and we're doing our level best to put some thought into where things will want to live, but we know things will get moved.
Anyway, moving right along (making a very long story very short) Bob and I began turning this:
Into this:
Another view:
Yes, you are seeing what you think you are seeing, a wall inside a wall. This is where this project really starts to raise the question "is this Chipper's folly?". Sharp eyed folks will note the lack of jacks in this window framing. No matter. The wall isn't load bearing, no need for jacks. Anyway, what will happen, is there will be no mechanical coupling of the interior and exterior walls. A significant amount of energy transfer takes places through the wall studs between the inside and outside of a house. This double-wall will eliminate that. Further, since the 'road' side of the house is pretty loud, the hope is this will cut down the sound of early morning and late evening traffic considerably. The trick here is how to maximize the insulation value of the wall, while maintaining something like some available floor space inside the structure. Bob's framing skills were crucial here. I would have just banged stuff up, but Bob actually knows what he's doing. Very handy stuff. :)
Anyway, so what's the door doing so far up in the wall? Well, after the external framing was finished, this task began:
What?
Well, turns out the addition, is actually two additions. One that's guestimated at about 35-ish years old, and one that's maybe 25-ish years old. These 'stringers' are set to be perpendicular to the floor joists, why they had to change direction just under 2/3rds the way across the floor.
Umm, okay, but what on earth are you doing?
Wait, that's not all:
WHAT?
Here we have 7/8th inch 'dura-PEX' oxygen barrier radiant heat tubing, which we sourced from the good folks at The Radiant Floor Company up in Vermont. In retrospect, the O2 barrier wasn't really needed, as we are using water, and it will be exposed to the air. Oh well, could have saved some money there, but that's why it's always nice to let someone else do it first. :)
Anyway, when I first tried putting this tubing down, it was about maybe 35F in the house, and the tubing was about as compliant as rebar. I got to about this point before I managed to put a kink in this loop. I stopped. Got on the phone to the radiant floor company "Have I just ruined this loop?". No, the assured me, just be sure to gently work the kink back out, and don't let the kink land in a radius. Whew!
I took a few pictures of this process, mostly because it was near fantastic how much work it was to lay out this tubing. In complete fairness, the folks who sold it to me on their website point out this is really a 3 man job, 2 men at the very least. Bob and I worked together for the bulk of this, but a lot of it was done at night, by me, on my hands and knees, quietly cursing.
Ugg,
Okay, with that done, the next really fun! part began:
Take yer caulk gun, and make a fillet bead down the side of the tubing with silicone caulk:
Then make a bead back down the top of the tubing:
The place the aluminum fin over the caulk and press it into place, working out as much air as you can:
No, I mean REALLY work the air out.
You see, the silicone will thermally bond the tubing to the fins, allowing for (from what I've read) about 3 to 4% better thermal efficiency. Yeah, I know, doesn't seem like much, only 3 to 4 hundred BTU per 10K BTU. Since this floor will probably radiate as much as 15k BTU, yeah, maybe 3 to 4% does matter.
I'll step back a pace here and slip into a tiny digression.
A few years back (6?) Then President Bush stated that "Here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil, , " Well, while that is a defensible position, it's not exactly accurate, although I did and do appreciate the presidents point. No, we are not really addicted to oil (energy), but rather, we are addicted to WASTE.
Okay, enough of all that, for now.
Dear ole Bob had this nice electric staple gun. Without it, this job really couldn't get done. So, then staple the fins to the deck. Aluminum fins = stainless steel staples. A bit pricey.
sAnd repeat
and repeat
and repeat
until you get to this:
And at this point, once this is done, you should feel pretty crippled. This is harder than tying at a keyboard. :)
Okay, now it's time to join the two loops (one for each direction in the stringers) into the one 'zone' loop, and rig up a jig, and pressure test it all:
it held 30lbs of air overnight into the next day. Guess that's good enough for who it's for. Yes, I know. 50lbs for 24hrs. However, in this case, this is an open loop system, and will never see anything like 15lbs of pressure. it's not leaking, it's good.
Anyway, NOW the REAL floor can be started.
First, mix up some clean (play) sand with some portland cement:
(Bob hard at work)
Then load it in between the stringers, covering the tubing/fins, and level it off.
Until you completely fill one section, TA-DA!
Wet it down with a sprayer, and then set the subflooring:
Keep going, 1/6th of a ton at a time:
In the end, should have about 3-1/2 tons of thermal mass in this floor. all the floor components, the strings, the subflooring, etc are all glued in addition to being nailed/screwed. I don't think this floor will squeak. :)
This is an immense amount of work. The end result should be a nice comfy warm place during the cold times, and a temp stable place the rest of the time, and pretty quiet as well. Nice guest quarters. And not very wasteful.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
I'm about a year behind
on starting this blog.
I know, I know, No Old Log Cabins!
A bit of charm: (FSVO 'charm')
The cold hard reality of course, was a touch different:
But I knew that, the reality of old log cabins.
What the "brochure" said:
But peel back a layer or two of veneer, and what you have is:
And
But again, I knew this.
I knew it, in part because, of all the work the prior owners did, they
NEVER bothered with gutters. So, all the water, for all the years,
and all the snow, and so forth, went right into the foundation and
base walls of the 180-or-so-year old place.
Why we peeled the veneer back in the first place.
sigh
So, , Why?
Well, for one thing:
Two cabin cribs, some addition work, something of a tabula-rasa as a 'backyard' which has some decent W-WSW-SW exposure.
And a deep woodlot. Some woods. Classic mid-atlantic hardwoods. Cherry, Sugar Maple some hickory, and other fun stuff. About, in rough numbers, half woods, half open space, comprising about 1.3 acres all in all. A pretty much PERFECT place to attempt a micro-farm. A place to demonstrate some of our completely whacky ideas of small scale permaculture.
All about 15 to 30 minutes BY BICYCLE too all the services one could want, while at the same time, being 'in the sticks'.
So, we bought it, and started tearing it apart to find all the sins.
So, this,
Becomes this;
(the left hand side of the kitchen counter)
and this;
becomes this;
before becoming this;
And all this;
into this;
and finally,
into this:
And that pic at the top, into this:
(de-molded, gutters cleaned first time in YEARS, etc etc etc)
The moss growing on these roofs was inches thick in places.
anyway, This quick entry no where near catches up on what's going on at
Cold Comfort (micro) Farm, but it's a start.
more to follow.
promise.
--me
So, from the beginning:
We Bought It (in Feb of 2011):
Why? I knew better, but so much of it made sense.
I know, I know, No Old Log Cabins!
A bit of charm: (FSVO 'charm')
The cold hard reality of course, was a touch different:
But I knew that, the reality of old log cabins.
What the "brochure" said:
But peel back a layer or two of veneer, and what you have is:
And
But again, I knew this.
I knew it, in part because, of all the work the prior owners did, they
NEVER bothered with gutters. So, all the water, for all the years,
and all the snow, and so forth, went right into the foundation and
base walls of the 180-or-so-year old place.
Why we peeled the veneer back in the first place.
sigh
So, , Why?
Well, for one thing:
Two cabin cribs, some addition work, something of a tabula-rasa as a 'backyard' which has some decent W-WSW-SW exposure.
And a deep woodlot. Some woods. Classic mid-atlantic hardwoods. Cherry, Sugar Maple some hickory, and other fun stuff. About, in rough numbers, half woods, half open space, comprising about 1.3 acres all in all. A pretty much PERFECT place to attempt a micro-farm. A place to demonstrate some of our completely whacky ideas of small scale permaculture.
All about 15 to 30 minutes BY BICYCLE too all the services one could want, while at the same time, being 'in the sticks'.
So, we bought it, and started tearing it apart to find all the sins.
So, this,
Becomes this;
(the left hand side of the kitchen counter)
and this;
becomes this;
before becoming this;
And all this;
into this;
and finally,
into this:
And that pic at the top, into this:
(de-molded, gutters cleaned first time in YEARS, etc etc etc)
The moss growing on these roofs was inches thick in places.
anyway, This quick entry no where near catches up on what's going on at
Cold Comfort (micro) Farm, but it's a start.
more to follow.
promise.
--me
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)