1.5 Story In Kentucky

[pickngrin]

Prohome - in case you haven't seen it I found this website very helpful when planning my woodstove size, location, chimney run, etc: http://www.woodheat.org/

[Jens]

how's this for a woodstove.
http://www.webfun.org/woodstove.html

[glenn kangiser]

That's cool, Jens. $15.00 mailbox wood stove.  I understand Air Mail is a bit higher.

[prohomesteader]

nice one jens but we'll pass    still haven't decided on a stove yet,  nothing on craigslist within 50 miles of here and everything new at the store starts at expensive and gets more expensive

we did get the mini solar system installed today. (temporary installation)

here's the panels



and here's the 105ah deep cycle marine battery and the charger regulator thing



the panels only put out 60watts peak (i'll add more eventually) but I don't go there everyday so I'm hoping from now on I have free lights and laptop juice for my visits

[Jens]

I built an aluminum foundry a few years ago, using two galvanized buckets, homemade refractory cement, and a homemade propane burner.  Would start at a cold furnace, and have 6 pounds of molten aluminum in about 15 minutes running at 20psi propane.  I have been considering something similar as a woodstove.  The main advantage, is that with the refractory cement, you can have a very thin metal shell, 2 inches of cement, and still radiate plenty of heat.  The cement holds the heat so well.  The only thing that I worry about with it, is that the heat may end up going up the chimney.  Even still, for about $15 investment, I may experiment with it (outside until worked out), as I think it could be a very cheap, reliable, safe means of woodstove heat.  Maybe 1" of the cement inside a small metal drum, door in front, legs to bring off ground...maybe

[glenn kangiser]

Kinda like my barbecue, Jens.  I used to cast aluminum also.

[b33b]

Glen - thanks for the welcome, actually a past member who changed email addresses and then forgot my password.  Lots of pics, need to study up on how to post them.

Cal

[MountainDon]

One way... using photobucket.com


http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=3512.0

[apaknad]

don, glen, john, i could use some help here. i am not that computer literate and i need step by step(simple) instructions on how to move my pix from photobucket to the forum here. i looked at your thread on doing this and it all looks like greek to me. help!!

[MountainDon]

The short and simple...

Once the picture is uploaded to photobucket, place the mouse cursor over the image thumnail. A menu opens up below the image. Select the bottom one, labeled IMG Code. Click on it. If you have Flash 9 or earlier, a small tag stating "copied' will appear. If you have Flash 10 that tag will not appear, but the code will be highlighted; right click on the highlighted code and copy it. Paste that into the forum write a message field.

[apaknad]

ok, did that but how do i paste that into the forum and write a message in the field? sorry bout the questions that are 2nd nature to most, i just have never done this before.

[glenn kangiser]

When you right click in the message field of our forum, the word paste will appear as an option.  The IMG tag you just copied from Photobucket will be pasted in your message and your photo will appear in you message when you post it.  I use tabs on Firefox so it is easy to copy from one then paste into the other.

[prohomesteader]

put the braces on the front of the house today,  will do more eventually but put 4 on for starters (2 each side)



for those that follow here's what worked for me

I used 4"x6" treated wood like mentioned in the plans cut at 45 degree angles

i used a 3/8" drill bit to pre drill the holes (thanks @phalynx) and then used 8" long by 1/2" thick metal screws (found them in lowes by the lag bolts)

with a little effort they held together really strong in my opinion

[phalynx]

Did you notice how quickly the house stiffened up?  It was amazing to me.  I kept wanting to add more and more braces.  You'll want some going the other direction too.

Hey?  Where's the snow?

[prohomesteader]

Did you notice how quickly the house stiffened up?  It was amazing to me.  I kept wanting to add more and more braces.  You'll want some going the other direction too.

Hey?  Where's the snow?

I could notice a difference but am looking forward to even more.

Snow?  We had a few inches the other day, snow doesn't stay around very long in KY.  It was 60 degrees this past friday.

[prohomesteader]

put a couple windows in today

the first was a 36/62 with a cost of $204 @lowes - we will be putting one on the other side of the door when we move the solar panels eventually



here's the kitchen windows, 36x36 for $95 at lowes



also forgot to add one expense from last month; $600 on insulation for the walls and floor (we haven't purchased the ceiling insulation yet).

we're holding off on the stove for the moment.

[phalynx]

Looks good.  That's the one thing I wish I had done, tall windows.  I don't know what I was thinking with the 4' tall windows.

[prohomesteader]

@phalynx - sounds like a good upgrade to make

we started building the deck in the front.  we would like to do a wrap around but money and time don't permit at the moment so a 20X8 deck in the front is what we get

got the piers and joists done and put a few pieces of decking down

we got all the wood except the railings and stairs for $325 and the additional hardware (joists, screws, etc) came to $90

[Redoverfarm]

Looking good pro.  A nice place to have your morning coffee.  You have came right along this year.  I too wanted a wrap porch but decided against it as well $$$.  I am going with a large deck area in the back to compensate.  Hard to learn the lesson " Enough is enough".  Wish it didn't have to be that way.

[prohomesteader]

thanks @Redoverfarm we hope to move in  when the warm weather hits so the mornings will be nice out on the deck

did a bit more decking today:



might pick up some pvc and start working on the plumbing vent system.  I recently purchased a plumbing book and I think that's where I'm headed in the next few projects

is there any basic plumbing info for the plans?  I looked but didn't see anything, but maybe there has been someone that did a layout around here somewhere?

I need a vent for:

kitchen sink
bathroom sink
toilet
tub
washing machine

should I run them all through the roof separately, combine the vent for one side of the house and the other and run 2 through the roof? Or is there a way to combine all the vents and just go through the roof in one spot?

Thanks.

[MountainDon]

It is possible to run them all to one appropriately sized vent stack. However, I'm not up on the details; like is there a maximum distance from the vent stack...    Glenn may know some but ScottA is the man.
We'll see what he has to say.

Could you post a rough drawing with the items shown, walls, etc? Might help with the advise.

[prohomesteader]

It is possible to run them all to one appropriately sized vent stack. However, I'm not up on the details; like is there a maximum distance from the vent stack...    Glenn may know some but ScottA is the man.
We'll see what he has to say.

Could you post a rough drawing with the items shown, walls, etc? Might help with the advise.

thanks  

I've just got the standard 1.5 story plan



after posting that pic it seems obvious to run everything but the kitchen sink through one vent on the bottom left and the kitchen sink by itself on the top right through the roof, but that's just my untrained eye looking at it

[Redoverfarm]

Like Don said ScottA is the plumber.  If at all possible try to hold your roof penetration to a minimum meaning one of a larger diam say 3".  You can probably tie most of them together in the attic area.  Let Scott guide you in the vent/traps.  I am sure if you could draw up something for him to look at.  If not dry fit what you think is approiate and take photo's and post.  That way you can make the changes without having to cut glued pieces.

[bobtheengineer]

Ahh plumbing... You should be ok, with one 3" stack up thru the roof.  You can tie the kitchen sink in up above the 2nd floor ceiling (or even above the 1st floor ceiling if you want to drill alot of holes in your floor joists).  It really isn't that tough to run a vent line up thru the roof.  You'll see the plan has a 6" wall behind the toilet and bathtub.  The wall is sized that way, to accomodate the vent stack.  Generally speaking there is not limit on distance for a vent line.  You can go horizontal 6" above the fixture rim.  Some of these particulars vary from state to state, or even locale to locale, depending on the code.  The book probably does a pretty good job explaining things.  Usually the toughest thing to deal with is venting the kitchen sink.  The window is always in the way.  You have to be creative to vent the kitchen sink, but there is always a way.

[Micky]

I posted something a few years back, but I think it was the old forum.  Here is a print of what I did.  It was kind of anal laying it all out, but I am very inexperienced with plumbing and the store is an hour a way.  This gave me lots of tries to get it right.

The layout is hard to read.  It is two different ISO views. 

I am in snow county so I wanted to keep a single vent and keep it high on the roof.  Everything worked well.



Here is a zoomed in view of the 1st floor bathroom.  Makes it a little easier to see...