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.