30x40 Earth Berm Passive Solar in Maine

[EcoHeliGuy]

Looks like the guy with the skidder likes to use the roof the catch trees 

How was that half moon window for ease of install?

[glenn kangiser]

Skidder roof could save a headache - or be good for people who like to turn things over...

[Bishopknight]

Looks like the guy with the skidder likes to use the roof the catch trees

I'll ask Lou what the story is with that and let you know

Half moon installation was fine, only hard part was the saws-all aspect.

[Bishopknight]

Weekend summary update:

I took off friday and got 3 solid days of work in. These pictures may not show it but lots of progress was made.

I brought the 'new' tub in, chiseled out the floor tub box, finished framing the bathroom door, framed the drywall corner studs and started laying out the electrical boxes


I put in the heavy duty cans for the ceiling fans.


Heres the 6' jacuzzi bathtub I found on craigslist for $120. (The side skirt came with it but is not shown). The toilet is only 12.5" away from edge so I may need to use an offset flange to give me 2 extra inches of space and/or somehow find a toilet that has the colon offset to the left.


The pump is on the back side so I'm going to replumb it slightly just in case it ever breaks. Its better than having to rip out the tub as the alternative later.




The kitchen bar


Here's the electrical diagram my electrician drew up for me to comply with code for CMP. I'm going with 12-2 and 12-3 for everything because I told him I may eventually want to serve some circuits with my solar array system/battery bank. Otherwise 14-2/14-3 would've been alright. I also need arc fault breakers for the bedroom outlets. The ceiling fans have to be on their own circuits as well since they are known as "appliances". The arrows are known as "home runs" which means, "go back to the panel".


A shot of the re-mortared ( w/ SBC ) and framed kitchen & bar. My friend/neighbor helped me with the SBC. I framed, leveled and squared the walls. Mortaring the walls takes about 2.5 hrs per bag. It took 8 bags to do the inside. I found if you throw a bunch of mortar on a board and use it as a hawk, the whole process goes alot faster.


Next visit, I'll start the electrical wiring, coax RG6U, speaker wire and CAT5e installation.

- BK

[glenn kangiser]

Be sure to support all edges of the jacuzzi tub, BK.  I didn't on ours at the other place and it flexes a bit in the front causing it to be hard to keep caulked at the tile..

..and looks great - thanks for the update.

[EcoHeliGuy]

Also wait until the tub is full of water before you caulk, other wise you will just pull the caulking off the wall the first time you use it.

[Dog]

Wow! You really got a lot of work done! Glad to hear you have such a nice neighbor who helped out with the SCB stuff. That's cool. Having great neighbors and helping each other out is the way to go!

It looks like working through the winter is paying off! You're moving right along and the place looks great.
Thanks for sharing the pics!

[Mike 870]

Good work.  It looks like the sun is really coming in strong in some of those pictures.  Are you experiencing any passive heating effect?  I know you're not fully insulated yet, but I can imagine the inside being pretty comfortable at the right time of day.  Was there much difference in outside/inside temp?

[Bishopknight]

Absolutely Glenn

Thanks everyone

Dog: yes in retrospect, it was hard but you're right, i'm about 65% done now I'd say.

Not yet because of the thermal mass in the north facing block walls. It was 45 degrees yesterday but probably 40 degrees inside, even during the best passive solar hours. The block wall is constantly in the shade and slow to warm up. I think you're right though, once the block wall and framing is insulated, I'm sure there will be less of an "ice box" effect. I'm going to put 2" of insulation on the outside of the block walls and most likely add a lot of cellulose to the ceiling at some point too.

[Windpower]

That tub looks very familiar

I have a like model in my as yet unfinished bath (still have to finish the tile)  --- it works great --- you stole it for $150  --- good on ya

[EcoHeliGuy]

I'm very interested in what your doing here, you have incorporated many things I am planing in my house. I was planing a similar layout, but had planed to use a brick wall down the middle of the house, with the bedrooms and bathroom north of the wall, and living space south of the wall. this would allow the sun to warm the center of the house easyer then trying to reach the back wall. Then the heat would radiate at night into the sleeping area. so sense your at this stage of your project, do you see any concerns to this idea? Thanks for all the photo's.

[ScottA]

That tub needs to be set in a platform. The way I do it is to have the platform built so the tub bottom is about 2" above the floor. Mix some sand mix up and pour it on the floor about 3" thick where the tub will sit. Then while it's still wet set the tub in the hole and stand in it to squish it into the mud till the tub seats on the lip. You may have to wiggle it around a little to get it down.

[Bishopknight]

Heres my TODO list for this coming weekend: 

Electrical
•   Setup laser level for drilling holes
•   Run electrical wire
•   Label all drops
•   Mount washer/dryer receptacles at 36" high
•   Mount countertop receptacles at 42" high
•   Run appliance circuit for Jacuzzi tub
•   Wire the coat closet light on the office fan circuit

Cat5/COAX/Phone
•   Mount receptacles
•   Mount ON-Q box
•   Run Cat5/Coax wire together

Tub
•   Test pump inside cabin off an outlet
•   Dry fit the drain, trap and overflow
•   Mount a PT backing with Tapcon screws
•   Mount a PT face against studs
•   Redesign and dry fit the Jacuzzi pump
•   Mix 2 bags of concrete up as a base

Toilet
•   Carefully remove cement around pipe
•   Measure distance from tub face
•   Mount offset flange with tile clearance

Plumbing
•   Bring sink plumbing in 4' from end of island
•   Decide location of W/D, Water Heater and pump
•   Cut and cap cleanout
•   Run DWV for bathroom and kitchen sink

Framing
•   Fill concrete holes in block wall
•   Nail additional strapping to ceiling
•   Frame out Master bedroom gable end

Various
•   Clean windows with razor and window washer
•   Mount 2x6 plate at 48" for bathroom towel rack
•   Run speaker wire for office to come out of wall at 24.5", desk height is 28.5"
•   Run home audio wire
•   Install roof vent
•   Grease backhoe joints

[glenn kangiser]

Industrious little rascal aren't you, BK.  That is quite a list.

[Dog]

Glenn...you are so funny!

Here's a shocker... 

No house building activity this past weekend?! hummmm? 

Your girlfriend is pretty BK. Plus she can swing a hammer. You better watch out! 

[glenn kangiser]

People sometimes tell me I am funny, but I give them that cool old grade school reply. 

Yeah, well...........Looks aren't everything.

[Dog]

Glenn, you're very strange... It's like you own  but it is a good one! 

Nice dry stone wall pics on your thread today and that's crazy about those birds. I heard about another eagle in recovery after flying into a truck. I think they think it's still the sky by the reflection.

Sean, no building activity this past weekend??? 

[Bishopknight]

None, I wanted to take the weekend off to celebrate my girlfriends birthday. 

[MaineRhino]

Looks great BK! Quite an ambitious list you've got there! It will be at least another 3 weeks before we can get up to our place.

[glenn kangiser]

Eccentric, Dog, eccentric.... It has more class and keeps 'em guessin'.

[sjdehner]

Bishop,

As someone coming full-circle on a first house I can confidently say that you're doing an astounding amount of work on your own. Your energy and enthusiasm convey in your postings. It's a joy to find people who love what they're doing.

Maine is a great place for the independent spirit. Back home in Washington state folks have a similar connection to the landscape. But they do not share the same spirit of independence when it comes to construction. Our county is so heavily coded and monitored builders in our rural home town (an island essentially) were having to undergo six months to a year of scrutiny (this is not an exaggeration) before being handed a permit.

What a relief Belfast has been. A code exists and so does a building inspector but he's been an asset rather than a hindrance. He'd stopped in a couple of times during the building process to check our framing, electrical, etc to be sure nothing egregious was happening. By working in conjunction with us, and laying a large portion of responsibility for safety on us as builders, we feel like we live in a safe house. We worked with our Residential IBC on-site at all times; working in this manner incorporated a methodology and philosophy of building into us a nascent builders.

Admittedly, some of the codes are really stretching it to the point where you wonder why they're in the book at all. And more than once we came across conflicting information that we needed the inspector to thresh out for us.

Are you having a similar experience? I'm thinking being in Western Maine you might not be having any outside influence at all. That's no bad thing either! Just curious about your experience in this regard.

Otherwise, great work, I admire your spirit that is so typical of Mainers (those born here and those adopted)!

Also, where are you in the building process? I saw some photos of the foundation work, rough plumbing, etc.

Any walls going up yet?

Ah...but if you're like us here on the coast, you're still under a foot or so of snow - probably more.

Take care,

Shawn

[Bishopknight]

Hi Shawn,

Yes I agree on the code/inspector aspect as well. My town inspectors have been a pleasure to work with as well. To answer your question, its probably easiest to show you the most recent pictures of my work this past week.

I mounted a PT backer board with tapcon screws for wall mounting the tub by notching a 1/4" lip on the wall side so the tub lip would lock right down on it.


Wiring for the office


I nailed some strapping to the kitchen wall to help with the placement of outlets.


A couple gang boxes. One controlling the bathroom fan/light and vanity. The other controlling the hall 3-way lights.


I decided on splitting the master bedroom closet for the guest bedroom instead of a larger MB closet and a bumped out guest closet.




ON-Q box in white will house the CAT5e network hub, the coax hub and phone hub.



Beginning of my sink drain


I always dry fit everything before gluing.


I found some PVC connectors to join the pump together with


A preliminary tub drain proposal


I will have to use an internal PVC pipe cutter to recess the 3" cleanout and toilet pipes into the slab


The kitchen sink DWV rising to the normal stub out of 18". I'm considering an AAV for terminating this series instead of running pipe out through the roof.


The whirlpool tub had proprietary coupling adapters so I decided to hacksaw both off and file them back down to their original diameters.



There is more to come next weekend 

[drainl]

NICE dude!



looks like quite a bit happened.  Judging by some of the pics look the floor is drying out nicley.

jeff

[Bishopknight]

Thanks Jeff,

If this knowledge will help anyone, I did research today on a shallow jet well pump for my house because I have a spring on my land. I found that the Goulds 1/2 HP J5S, 3/4 HP J7S and 1 HP J10S pumps were the best residential pumps on the market for homeowners. 

They are expensive though, they go for over $300 on ebay but they are easy to repair, parts are widely available at many local pump/pool stores and they have the best reliability track record.

If you search Craigslist, you may be able to find one cheaper. I just located one today, a used JS5 w/out the pressure switch for $40. I called a parts place and the switch costs $27 to replace. I learned the pressure switch turns the pump on and off once it reaches a particular PSI. For the JS5, thats 20-40 PSI, which should be fine for my house since my spring is very shallow.

[MaineRhino]

Looks great BK! Good info about the pump. I'll be sure to look that one up this summer when I do my waterworks.