Crzypete's new Studio

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Tue May 08, 2007 8:55 am

Today is the start of what will hopefully be the sound of dueling fiddles. As I have enjoyed the pictures of Nektai's new digs I have been planning my own similar build.

Later today excavation will begin and hopefully later this week I will be posting photos and documenting the build.

As an initial taste, here is the outline of the future Machinejunkie World Headquarters building. This photo is taken from the porch of our new home and you can see our crappy barns through the trees. The building will be a 32 x 56 shop.

Here we go!

nektai · Post by **nektai** » Tue May 08, 2007 11:02 am

Nothing like a little friendly competition!

I hope it goes smoothly!!

mystry_tour · Post by **mystry_tour** » Tue May 08, 2007 5:06 pm

Oh boy, looks like you guys have a great start on the snow. Hope you can get it up and going before cold weather so you can have a hideout for winter
Tour

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Fri May 11, 2007 11:26 pm

I am back to having internet. Much has happened and I took many pictures.

I will post the full tale tomorrow, but for now how about a little before and after. I refer to my first post as the before........

here is the after...

It's going to be a fun summer.

Pete

dadude · Post by **dadude** » Sat May 12, 2007 8:56 am

congratulations pete! great news

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Sat May 12, 2007 12:13 pm

Ok, here's a little step by step with more details, probably too many details.

Day one: Clearing the top soil with the bull dozer. It is amazing ho quickly a large area can be brutalized. It is also amazing how much more are gets cleared than just the actual shop.

Already we begin to dig for the footer. Drainage is not great, so a bed of gravel is put down. Grades are is checked with a laser transit and receiver mounted on a stick.

At the end of day one we have part of the foundation dug and the land cleared. Some of the digging was rather slow as we encountered numerous rocks. Fortunately the machine was more than capable of moving them.

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Sat May 12, 2007 1:51 pm

I will continue to add multiple posts in order to not overload the thread with pics. If it is any indication of my propensity for taking pictures I shot 100 pics during the 3 1/2 day excavation process.

Day 2
Work continues on the footings. Similar to Nektai we are adding a step to the footing due to the changing grade.

Here are some of the rocks we removed. I had a huge grin every time my excavator Joe pulled another rock out the ditch, he just shook his head. I am excited about the landscaping potential as you will see in some of the later pics.

This little pebble was extracted from the foundation drain trench. It was, of course, right next to the power supply for the house.

Here is the trench you can see th epower for the house

Joe was off at the Dentist that afternoon, so Dave the assistant was running the machine. This meant I got to work in the trenches. This afforded me excellent views of the machine.

Drain in place, the trench is back filled with gravel.

Quite a mess so far

The day ends placing the "pebble" from the a few pics back. It is really no match for "the machine"

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Sat May 12, 2007 2:02 pm

Day 3:
My evening was spent among other things cleaning our new lawn rock. Spiffy isn't it? Kinda lonely looking though......

The day starts by finishing the drain which goes quickly. By lunch they are digging the last of the footings.

Complete. For an idea of how the grade will change, the actual slab will be 16" higher than the top current grade.

Lastly we add a few more stones to the lawn.

mystry_tour · Post by **mystry_tour** » Sat May 12, 2007 3:50 pm

Nice touch Pete....isn't it odd how one project flows into another one...
Tour

nektai · Post by **nektai** » Sat May 12, 2007 5:31 pm

Crzy

It looks like a very good start to the project. The gravel will make a nice dry bed for your footings. I have to say that i have lost sight of the grade. I am not picturing the slab 16" over the ground. By my eye that would mean a fair amount of backfilling as the footings do not look that deep. I am sure that I am not reading it correctly.

Nektai

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Sun May 13, 2007 10:26 am

Nektai, Some of the photos are deceiving- He often dug in two steps due to the crumbling nature of the ground. The only corner which will really need any backfill buildup will be the back left- he was hitting underground water and had to step up sooner than he would have liked.

The forth day Joe was back at the dentist and Dave was at an emergency dig with another machine, fortunately they both showed up in the afternoon and quickly ran a trench to the house for a 1" water line and an additional 1.5" conduit for internet, phone and what-not stuff.

I had rained the night before and we quickly found some water.

I like the mud patterns the rain left behind.

Joe quickly made it to the house- about 160' run. The machine dwarfs our little shed.

Joe and Piping in the trench. Unfortunately we hit bedrock and the depth ran a tad shallow. Joe advised that we insulate the pipe with foam then cover with fiberglass and that it will be fine- I am a tad skeptical.

all ready to be buried

Poked through the house foundation- no need for a core drill here- a hammerdrill and a hammer make quick work of the block.

This concludes our excavating portion of the show. I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of our masons who will begin some time this coming week.

Pete

nektai · Post by **nektai** » Sun May 13, 2007 10:45 am

Boy did I have a hard time keeping track of my own grade in the carnage of excavation so I expected that I was not seeing yours correctly.

Do you know how to marry a copper waterline into the 1" black pipe? Also I assume that a 3/4" line would run into the 1" poly. I am planning on bringing a section of the pipe to my plumbing supply house and ask them but I always like to come in with a bit of knowledge.

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Sun May 13, 2007 10:55 am

I believe you use the 1" poly as the water line- it is what all the wells I have experienced use as well line and that comes into the house and goes to copper there. I believe you buy a barbed to threaded coupling and you are golden.

P

mr douglas t · Post by **mr douglas t** » Sun May 13, 2007 9:53 pm

My shop has the black well line running from house to shop (300 feet) and it carries the water directly. I used the barbed fitting ant the ends with a hose clamp to secure it. For the garage (50 feet from house) I ran the same line and left it empty until the inspectors left. Than I pushed 1/2" pex tru it and hooked up the water. It got a little hard to push, and any thing over 100' I would use the line directly. as far as petes shallow area for the water, I would not worry. the fiberglass is doing nothing once compressed it will offer no protection. 2" of ridgid foam at leat 2' wide would protect it just fine. Keep it wide. Frost cant travel sideways that far.

nektai · Post by **nektai** » Mon May 14, 2007 6:25 am

Thanks guys.

I could have been more clear the 1" polly, which I plan on running water directly through, will need to be connected to the houses water system. I have a bathroom nearby that I could splice into. This would mean a 1/2" copper pipe would feed the black 1' polly pipe. Should I take the trouble to run a new larger diameter line from the pressure tank to the basement where the Polly pipe enters the house?... does any of this matter?

I like Mr douglas t's idea of the rigid foam in the place of the fiberglass. Is it too late?

dadude · Post by **dadude** » Mon May 14, 2007 8:36 am

definately supply 1" with 3/4" copper from house, also be sure to always use non corrosive fittings in the transition, the "barbed" slip on to NPT (national pipe thread) fitting is best sticking to pastic and straight, conduct your bend or right angle transition in copper or brass. The metal "barbed" fitting are galvinized and my experience with them is corrosion is a realtively short time frame, also always double hose clamp the slip on fitting, a little heat from a soldering torch (practice with a scrap of pipe) will help greatly getting the slip on fitting seated fully, also be extremely careful to not kink the black direct burial pipe, the lighter wall or schedule kinks very easily, DT is correct, fiberglass is fill at the point of compression, rigid offers the best protection, however water lines should be buried at an appropriate depth for frost and insulation should not be needed, 30lb felt and hay and proper backfill procedures should prevail, soft fill a foot above, sand is great and rocks should be keep away if possible.

dadude · Post by **dadude** » Mon May 14, 2007 8:37 am

nice work pete! and nico, all these new shops! better get my old shop a new paint job, in and out! later guys and gals

DenaliPilot · Post by **DenaliPilot** » Thu May 17, 2007 12:19 pm

I read about your water line hitting slab. I don't know how crazy you want to get, but the standard Alaska utilidor is a PT plywood box filled with blue foam, whole thing ends up being about 12" on a side and as long as you need to make it. Also,the Wirsbo/ Upinor folks who make PEX also make a ready-made foam-filled utilidor with a plastic shell, and you can even get it with red and blue supply and return pipes already installed. Sounds like your friend's idea of hay and tar paper might be simpler and cheaper. How about laying down rips of blue foam, putting pipe wrap on your lines, and adhering the wrapped lines to the foam with Great Stuff. Then chuck some more rips of blue foam down on top of the mess to complete the sandwich. I guess you aren't dealing with 8' deep frost for seven months the year, though...

Also, you ought to look into pro-press fittings if you are doing a lot of plumbing. The PEX folks all have their own styles. RIGID makes a good unit that we have. You can get barbed, NPT, reducers, whatever you need to go to plastic, sweat, NPT, etc...

DenaliPilot · Post by **DenaliPilot** » Thu May 17, 2007 2:55 pm

Pete seems to be encouraging me to post to his site. He knows me well enough to take all my advice in it's proper context- The rest of you, just remember that it's worth what you paid for it!

From experience, black vinyl hose freezes and thaws just fine- no worries about damage to your lines- only possibly to the barbed plastic fittings, but I understand Pete's are located inside heated buildings, and not in the ground.

Another standard practice in the land of permafrost is to preemptively bury heat trace alongside of your water lines. Leave the plug sticking out of the wall or floor for ease of access. Then, whenever you need it, it's ready to go. The packaging cautions against letting it criss-cross itself. This is probably prudent, but I have any number of neighbors with their drains wrapped to death in heat trace, and no house fires yet...

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Fri May 18, 2007 10:36 am

I love the Alaska stories. It makes building in Northern NY seem so sane. I figure Alaska to Northern NY is about the same ratio as Northern NY to Long Island.

I heard from the mason this morning, Footers are coming soon. Hopefully I'll have some pics in the next couple of days.

Pete