greenspree.ca at The Sietch

It’s been a long time since I’ve updated the status of our house project, one of the reasons being that we have been very busy!

As of Tuesday, we have our septic system and well installed, temporary power installed and foundation formed/poured c/w air circulation ducts and coloured hardener.

Some communication and weather issues have left us about a week or two behind, but we are hoping that won’t affect the straw bale raising date. The weekend I was to start forming the slab on grade, I went paintballing with my wife’s younger brother and severely sprained my ankle. The ER doctors the next day suspected a torn ligement or ruptured tendon and it was nearly a full two weeks before I could walk again or spend any time on my feet.

Fortunately my wife and father-in-law were able to pick up my slack and I spent as much time doing stationary prep work in the shop cutting stakes and what not. They did all the hard work of driving stakes in and levelling and installing the form lumber. I spent time cutting the ICF’s to work as edge forms, precutting and drilling the cast in sill plates and bending the corner rebar pieces.

Gradually as my ankle healed I could do more work like spreading gravel and placing the ICF’s. Meanwhile our well driller, septic system installer and plumber were drilling the well, running water lines, laying out the tile field and placing the septic tank and placing the underslab drainage pipes.

The tiring process of spreading and levelling 18 tons of drainage gravel then began! With a lot of help and a laser level we got the gravel fairly level and even. This was immediatly followed with vapour barrier and 2″ type 2 rigid insulation. Finally the inslab components, 5″ air ducts, rebar etc. went in and we were ready for concrete! At the last minute we decided to run the propane for the cooktop, electrical entrance and wood stove fresh air intake through the slab and as the concrete pouring was delayed a week we had time to spare to accomplish this. Very importantly we wrapped the fresh air intake for the wood stove with insulation so it would not cause a cold strip in the floor.

The day of the pour was hot and sunny! Not the best weather for raking and finishing concrete but just great for us bystanders watching! We had originally planned on using colored concrete where the coloring agent was mixed into the concrete before placing, but with 20 cubic yards this was an expensive proposition, more than doubling the cost of the concrete. We also found you couldn’t get a really nice dark color with integrated colouring, so we went with a black brown coloured surface applied hardener which has the added benefit of making our floor much more durable.

So far this week we have had two deliveries of wood, including our locally milled 4×8 floor beams, and will start framing this weekend! I will be adding photos to illustrate the steps described above, as soon as I get a quiet moment to go through and select the appropriate shots!