It has been something of a slow week at our Concrete Casa while we waited for the main level floor to cure before being polished.  We arrived at the site yesterday and met briefly with the HVAC guy to strategize on the location of returns, etc. and checked out the floor in the master bedroom.

It is incredibly flat and has no visible defects after curing for just under two weeks.  The floor over the basement is much thinner (2″ vs. 5″) so is a little more prone to cracking - there are two that have appeared so far.  That is very much par for the course, they will just be filled with epoxy before polishing.  If all goes according to plan Micah and his crew will be there early next week.

I also checked out my concrete stair treads - Doug popped them out of the forms and they looked a lot better than I anticipated.  As I thought, the corners are a little rough and the shape isn’t quite perfect given the hastily constructed forms.  I don’t think they will make the cut for the stairs, but would be great to make a walkway outside somewhere.  I’m planning to build some new forms as I mentioned, I just need to get some materials and carve off a little time.  I’ve also been reading up on another technique called GFRC - Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete - that allows for the construction of much thinner panels for concrete countertops, etc., without the need for steel reinforcement.

We are going to work on some admin tasks this weekend and perhaps start building some forms for the driveway so the next time Citywide calls with some scrap concrete we will be able to put it to use.  I spent some time last week looking into cabinets (Ikea entered the race) so we will probably mask off areas on the floor for the cabinets and kitchen island to get a sense of the flow through that area.

The only other news is I think we killed the idea of using stone on the exterior of the house.  The panels and the silver roof lean much more to the modern while the faux stone is a lot more traditional.  We are going to replace the stone around the entryway with cedal planks, similar to the look you see here courtesy of ‘hotfunk.’

We originally started reading about Splatgirl’s house on LiveModern while researching the exterior options. She is a designer in Minnesota who played a similar role in the building of her house (albeit much more hands on than we have been).

Hers is an ICF house built using Logix forms, and my only regret is that I didn’t come across her site sooner.

She has been gracious enough to spend some time filling me in on some of the pros and cons of her build process, and has provided some great advice. In addition, there are some very unique design ideas that I think we are going to harvest.

Thanks, Splatgirl!

After all the prep work on the floor the prior day I hung around to watch the flatwork. I got to the house about 6:30 to put expanding foam in some of the cracks in the foam and cut some strips of metal lathe. Zane and Robert arrived shortly afterward, and the four of us double checked a few things and waited for the concrete truck to arrive.

‘Bob’ got there right around 8am, and backed the truck up to the bedroom window. I didn’t have any boots, so my role was relegated to handing tools and a few other miscellaneous tasks. As the concrete began to roll into the space, Doug and Zane used their ‘come along‘ tools (like a rake without teeth) to level out the concrete. It was pretty amazing watching them take the fluid mass and level it out out perfectly up to the chalk line. I followed them around, pulling up on the metal mesh to get some concrete under the pex tubing so it would be embedded closer to the center of the concrete rather than on the bottom adjacent to the foam.

Across the transition from the main floor we dropped in the strips of metal lathe to give the concrete a little support across the bigger drop.

It only took them a few hours to get everything smoothed out, and Zane and Robert left, and Doug continued to work on the floor with a bull float. The truck had about 3/4 of a yard of extra concrete, and between the scrap lumber, the extra concrete, and a plethora of tools the temptation was nearly irresistible.

Doug gave me a quick form building tutorial, and I built two quick forms out of plywood and 2×4’s in the shape of the stair treads. I worked in some of the still-wet pile of extra concrete, and went to work with the trowel and edger. When it was starting to set up, we sprinkled in some color hardener to shore up the surface and add a few experimental shots of color. The corners were a little rough and I’m not terribly confident in the integrity of the forms (especially since they are now curing sitting on the uneven driveway) but it was a very fun experiment. I read Concrete Countertops by Fu-Tung Cheng a few months ago, and it was great to see some of the concepts in action.

Now that I have a little experience (and relatively easy access to extra concrete, it would seem) I’m going to build some real forms and try to make another version of the treads. The ones I did today were right side up (with the showing side of the tread up) but I think It would be easier to keep everything smooth if I made them upside down, with the face of the stair inside the form. More on that later.

With the gravel subfloor leveled and all of the plumbing and ductwork installed, it was time to prep the floor for radiant heat. The idea is fairly simple, you embed closed loops of tubing (called pex) in the concrete slab, heat water, and circulate it through the floor to bring it up to the temperature you want.

We spent quite a bit of time getting the transition from the main floor, separated by a form partially filled with concrete from the pour of the main level walls, to the lower gravel subfloor cleaned up. That just involved breaking off the foam, cutting the plastic ties, chipping out some dried concrete and smoothing everything off to avoid any sharp drops that could stress the concrete.

Once that was ready, we laid sheets of extruded polystyrene foam flat on the gravel, cutting out notches and knockouts around all the plumbing and vents. The primary purpose of the foam is to prevent you from heating all the gravel in the subfloor, and keeping the heat in the concrete slab where you can feel it. Compared to everything else it was surprisingly easy, and within about an hour and a half it was all covered. To provide a surface to attach the pex tubing to we then cut strips off of a giant roll of rusty metal mesh. These each had to be bent backward to straighten them out so they would lay flat. Once they were laid atop the foam sheets, we just unrolled the bright orange tubing and attached it in two loops in rows about 18″ apart with plastic zip ties.

After clipping off all of the zip tie ends, the last step was to get the floor lights (a chain of three of them underneath the master bedroom hallway window) installed. We got quite lucky in that the lights were at the perfect height (level with the top of the floor) when they sat on extruded polystyrene foam boards. To hold them in place, we ran the plastic conduit underneath the metal mesh with the light boxes sticking up.

It sounds like a fairly straightforward process, but I’m quickly learning that most tasks take about thrice as long as originally expected. By the time we finished it was about 10:30 and we were working in the light cast from some temporary lights. The concrete trucks were coming first thing the next morning, so it was definitely worthwhile.

Jill and I went back down to Springfield this past weekend to take some boxes and see if we could lend a hand with the construction process. Additionally, we were supposed to meet with Jeff from Summit Roofing to confirm the color selection and put down the deposit for materials.

Jeff called last week to check on our schedule and to let me know that the silver color we chose for the standing seam metal roof had a four week lead time. I let him know that there wasn’t any problem with that due to the cure time for the concrete before it could be polished (and subsequently the walls and roof deck framed). He persisted, saying that it would be hard to tell which color we really liked, and that the galvalume would be very nice. I was a bit nonplussed, but figured it couldn’t hurt to see it in person before signing up.

We arrived on Saturday and went to the house to check out the floor, and before going to meet Jeff we were scheduled to meet with a siding contractor. He seemed competent if not a little odd (asking ‘So, what can I do for you today?’ after we described all the work we wanted done), and didn’t have any concerns about our plan for using the hardipanel siding. I asked about using some kind of J-Channel flashing between the sheets, and he asked if it was just for aesthetic reasons. I said that it was primarily to prevent from water coming in between the panels and he immediately insisted that was not necessary because the foam was waterproof. I’m no expert but I’m fairly certain that getting water underneath the siding is not a recipe for long term success. We’ll see if we can get that little mystery resolved.

We left to go meet Jeff, and as we were driving out I got a voicemail from him saying he couldn’t meet as planned due to his girlfriend taking him to Oklahoma unexpectedly.

Tired of contractor oddities we got some beer and sat on our new floor drinking them. That can never be a bad idea.

Sunday morning we got up early and met Doug to get our hands dirty. The area under our master bedroom / closet / bath was filled nearly level with gravel, and had all the plumbing for the vanity, tub, shower, and toilet installed. The ductwork for the HVAC that we got is plastic, and looked like large diameter sewer pipe. Using metal ducts under gravel isn’t a good idea as it tends to rust over time, collapsing and filling with gravel and probably leading to a whole host of nasty issues. To get the tubes in, I went to work with a shovel digging big trenches in which we laid the pipes and glued them together. It took quite a while as the pipe (which we had to special order) was just a few inches too short to be placed ideally and reach through into the basement. We made some…ahem…field modifications to extend the pipe and got everything put together before pushing the gravel back over the top of it.

The whole process was pretty tiring, and we topped it off by adding some additional gravel to get the floor up to level. By the end of the day we were ready to move on to finishing the preparation of the floor but out of daylight so we called it a day.

Jill finally got in touch with Jeff slightly annoyed by his ruse about the color change and told him just to order the silver that we originally wanted. It all became clear when I went in on Monday to drop off the deposit and sign the paperwork. I asked if he had a sample of the silver color on metal so we could use it to match with the siding, fascia, etc. and I heard him tell one of the office girls that they didn’t have it around ‘because that is a specialty color, and costs $.30 / square foot more than galvalume, that is why I tried to talk them out of it.’ I guess when you consider the fixed bid and the fact that that $.30 is coming out of their margin (and likely his commission) who could blame him. So it goes.

When you are building with Insulating Concrete Forms your cladding options are virtually unlimited, the smooth surface makes it easy to attach any type of stone, brick, stucco, or other siding.

Here is a link to a post on LiveModern.com, where Jill has found a number of good design ideas. We have been going back and forth between lap siding or HardiPanel, and have always liked the look that ‘Splatgirl’ has on her house exterior. If you look around a little bit you can find a lot of blogs where homeowners mention using this material.

Here are a few other images from an Architect’s site:

I think you would have to be careful not to look too industrial, but if done correctly I think this could look great on the exterior of our concrete house.

Micah and his crew came yesterday and poured the floor on the main level. This will cure for three weeks before polishing. If you look closely you can see the knockouts where the lights will be.

The last picture also shows the pillars that will be used to support the deck. Sweet.

Here are some pictures of the walls on the main level. I have to say that I continue to be impressed with the ICF system, the concrete walls are going to be incredibly durable and energy efficient. Our concrete house would probably hold up well to a tornado strike, although I’d prefer to never find out.

Since the floor will be poured shortly, we have been running out of time to finalize the placement of the light tiles in the floor. Last night I cut out a bunch of tiny post-it squares to put on the plans, and we cut out several 4″ X 4″ squares of paper to lay around the floor of our house.

I had been a little hesitant about using all 12 of the lights, wanting to avoid the Billie Jean effect.

I really like what we came up with, somewhat of a theme and good spacing throughout the main area of the house. The sketch below is a rough outline of the doors / walls where they will be situated.

It has been a month since the last update, I guess we are due for some refreshed content. I’ll try to catch you up on what we’ve been up to.

We made a few trips down to Springfield, one of which was (we thought) to help our with the pour of the second course of walls. When we arrived, it turned out that things were not quite ready, so we spent the weekend with Doug and his brother Clint stacking blocks, putting in rebar, and getting the window openings situated.

The pour that was originally set up for Friday didn’t end up taking place until the following Monday after we came back to KC. All the reports were good, and there were no problems with blowouts or similar. All the walls were filled up to the roof line, including a peak in front of our master bedroom. The concrete was struck off level at the top of the walls, and anchor bolts were included along the very top to allow the framers to put the roof deck on. I must say the structure is very impressive when you consider the mass of the concrete standing 20′ high.

That weekend we also met with Malissa Nowack, a mason who will most likely put up the stone exterior. She had a lot of questions and information for us, and is pulling together some pictures from her portfolio to share with us. Our current plan is to do the front of the house up a few feet, the corners from bottom to top, and a few other locations in stone, and the remainder in James Hardie siding. As I probably lamented earlier the exterior design is quite challenging when you are not choosing from a Chinese menu of options. We have yet to nail down (pun most certainly intended) a contractor to put up the siding, but are expecting some names shortly.

The past few days I have been in Springfield working with Doug on replacing the original subfloor. The original subfloor (sheets of plywood glued and nailed over the wooden floor joists, or TJI’s) was of suspect quality. Springfield Mill and Lumber, who originally provided it, suggested that we use it after we informed them of the application. After getting wet just a few times it soaked up incredible amounts of water and lost its shape as well as a considerable amount of structural integrity. The main purpose of the subfloor is to hold up 2″ of concrete that will comprise the main floor, in addition to providing a surface to which we will attach the tubes for radiant heat in the floor.

We discussed at length and determined that the risk of a failure of the floor outweighed the cost of replacing it, so we began tearing out the original floor. This consisted of prying up the sheets of plywood, removing the nails (10 or so per sheet) and scraping up all the construction adhesive from the floor joists. Given the heat index of 110 or so for the past few days it was thirsty work but worth doing. Springfield Mill and Lumber delivered a new stack of better quality plywood, and their reps came out to look at the quality and indicated they would compensate us for both the lumber as well as the labor to replace it. I am a fairly cheap resource, but that is still very kind of them to make things right. Thanks Larry!

Probably the best part for me was standing in the basement with a long iron bar that had a small ‘T’ at one end. I would position myself underneath the corner of a sheet, and ram it from underneath with a guttural scream reminiscent of Charlton Heston in Planet of the Apes. Eventually a rain of debris including scrap concrete, wood splinters, nails, and other detritus would come down and the sheet would loosen up. It would then get hurled out the back door into a big pile adding to the demo factor.

Now that the new and gleaming subfloor is in place, Micah Stowe from A&M Crete is planning to come out early next week with his crew to pour the 2″ of concrete on the main level. They will put it in with the third visit from a pump truck, and then the floor will need to cure for three weeks before they can polish it. Unfortunately not a whole lot else can happen inside the house during that time, due to the fact that the polishing is *much* easier if the floor is a wide open space with no walls framed. So the short term time line will be pour concrete / wait three weeks / frame interior walls and roof deck / apply roof / install windows and doors.

In addition to that we did a little prep work on the supports for the deck on the back and side of the house. Doug has an anti-wood bias that is fairly contagious, and we decided that the first 10′ or so of the supports for the deck should be concrete pillars rather than wood. He dug a big trench in the back of the house that will get filled with concrete and have some ‘L’ shaped pieces of rebar placed into it with the long side of the ‘L’ sticking up where the deck / roof supports will be (part of the deck will be covered by an extension of the roof as shown in the plan). That trench will become a giant anchor, and over the upturned rebar we will put some ’sonotubes’ - essentially a large cardboard tube that you fill with concrete. Once the cardboard is stripped away after the concrete cures, the deck will use those concrete pillars for support rather than wood beams that have a tendency to warp / crack / burn / be lunch.

We are in the process of finalizing the placement of the LED tiles in the floor, choosing a wood stove for the basement, and deciding on the colors and materials for the exterior.

A few other random thoughts…Bolivar Insulation is one of the companies bidding on the guttering and associated components. Their rep told us about a product called AirTight Spray Foam - closed cell foam with a very high R-Value that is used for insulation. In a relatively new application they spray it on the underside of the roof deck (as opposed to the attic floor) which turns the attic into a semi-conditioned space. It is (surprise, surprise) more expensive than blown cellulose in the attic, but sounds like it may have some advantages.

Also our front door was delivered on Monday by UPS freight. It is very nice, a massive specimen of Alder wood with side lights on either side, but unfortunately the packing was less stout than one (namely, me) would have hoped. The meager packaging was flayed on one side, and there was some marring to the top of the door. We filed an ‘exception’ with the UPS driver (this basically says the delivery was sub-standard) and let the door maker know about it. I imagine they will either pay us to have the door repaired locally, ask us to ship it back, or send us a new one. I’m sure along the way there will be a lot of finger pointing back and forth between the door manufacturer (Red Rock) and UPS.