#9 - Mission Accomplished!
I mentioned Friday that we would be working on installing the hydronic tubing that we'll use to heat the bottom floor of our addition.
I called first thing yesterday morning to schedule an inspection, and wouldn't you know, I learned ANOTHER new thing. It's not called hydronic tubing, guys. It's hydronic piping! When you say hydronic tubing, the inspector's office will be completely thrown off and won't know what you're talking about. So, a) pretend all the uses of "tubing" in my last post actually say piping. And 2) if ever you call to have a radiant heat system inspected, save yourself the trouble and use the right words. (tubes and pipes are not equal...apparently, not even similar enough to get you in the ballpark of what you're trying to communicate.)
I'm positive the women that run the county building department office laugh their heads off at people constantly. Matt was in there once and a guy came in and said, "I'm here to pick up a permit." They asked him what job he was on and he didn't know! His contractor boss had sent him to pick up a permit and didn't give him a single bit of information! At least I'm in good company.
We had planned to work on the PIPING all day Friday and Saturday but because of the setbacks I mentioned before, couldn't really get into it until Saturday.
We got up nice and early, and rallied our willing, enthusiastic, super-excited work crew. They were biting at the bit to get started, almost couldn't even sleep the night before! In my head.
In my head they were willing, enthusiastic, super-excited and too eager to even sleep. In reality, they were compliant and at varying levels of enthusiasm. We had one kid who was pretty excited and stayed that way, one kid who was initially excited but fizzled out quickly, and one kid that showed zero excitement, but worked the longest and most diligently.
I had these grand visions of a fun family work day. The problem grand visions is that negative factors are magically eliminated - like hot sun, hard work and bending over. The kids were helpful, they didn't complain, but eventually, it was very clear that this was not a realistic family project anyway. It just wasn't something that takes 5 people to complete. Before I learned more about the process, I assumed there would be pipes to snap together (like k-nex or pvc), but there aren't. It's just one long 250 ft. tube. There's no snapping or assembling. No giant life-size K-nex for the kids to enjoy. It's just unrolling and stapling.
So, the girls helped with measuring and marking where the pipes would lay and Ezra helped Matt with putting in the last pieces of insulation. Afterward, the kids were on their way to more exciting Saturday activities and Matt and I installed the pipes. We snapped chalk lines on the points the girls marked and followed those line as we worked. It was a simple process to understand, but it was somewhat difficult to complete simply because the piping isn't very pliable. Matt read that its a nightmare to work with in the winter! Lucky for us, The Great August Swelter is an ideal time for the pipe to be at its most pliable. But, it still wanted to be a Slinky, it did not want to be a straight line, so it took a lot of manhandling on Matt's part to uncoil and untwist it. Once it was in place, I stapled it. (The black things are staples.) We got a pretty good rhythm going and I think we were finished by 7 p.m. We laid almost 1,000 feet!
On Sunday afternoon, Matt finished securing everything, and tested the pressure to make sure there are no leaks. This is where the pipes will come up out of the floor in our utility room.
And as I was typing this, the inspector was here and we PASSED two inspections!
We passed the inspection forhydroponic tubing hydronic piping (and the inspector marveled at the beauty of the piping layout. He said two or three times how impressed he was and how great it looks, all neat and tidy and straight - THANKS KIDS for your precise measuring!)
We passed the inspection to have the slab poured. (I had another unfortunate conversation with the building department regarding the slab, too.) There are 23 "things" coming up out the ground. This has been a huge logistical dance. And Matt, as the general contractor, has done a wonderful job choreographing everything.
Since we passed inspection, the slab will be poured tomorrow! All of the details of the floor are finished (Thank you, JESUS!!) and we'll be ready to move on to the next step! We thank the Lord very regularly that things are moving along so smoothly. We cannot WAIT to see the actual building take shape!
SOMEONE PINCH ME! (I still can't believe we're doing this.)
I called first thing yesterday morning to schedule an inspection, and wouldn't you know, I learned ANOTHER new thing. It's not called hydronic tubing, guys. It's hydronic piping! When you say hydronic tubing, the inspector's office will be completely thrown off and won't know what you're talking about. So, a) pretend all the uses of "tubing" in my last post actually say piping. And 2) if ever you call to have a radiant heat system inspected, save yourself the trouble and use the right words. (tubes and pipes are not equal...apparently, not even similar enough to get you in the ballpark of what you're trying to communicate.)
I'm positive the women that run the county building department office laugh their heads off at people constantly. Matt was in there once and a guy came in and said, "I'm here to pick up a permit." They asked him what job he was on and he didn't know! His contractor boss had sent him to pick up a permit and didn't give him a single bit of information! At least I'm in good company.
We had planned to work on the PIPING all day Friday and Saturday but because of the setbacks I mentioned before, couldn't really get into it until Saturday.
We got up nice and early, and rallied our willing, enthusiastic, super-excited work crew. They were biting at the bit to get started, almost couldn't even sleep the night before! In my head.
In my head they were willing, enthusiastic, super-excited and too eager to even sleep. In reality, they were compliant and at varying levels of enthusiasm. We had one kid who was pretty excited and stayed that way, one kid who was initially excited but fizzled out quickly, and one kid that showed zero excitement, but worked the longest and most diligently.
I had these grand visions of a fun family work day. The problem grand visions is that negative factors are magically eliminated - like hot sun, hard work and bending over. The kids were helpful, they didn't complain, but eventually, it was very clear that this was not a realistic family project anyway. It just wasn't something that takes 5 people to complete. Before I learned more about the process, I assumed there would be pipes to snap together (like k-nex or pvc), but there aren't. It's just one long 250 ft. tube. There's no snapping or assembling. No giant life-size K-nex for the kids to enjoy. It's just unrolling and stapling.
So, the girls helped with measuring and marking where the pipes would lay and Ezra helped Matt with putting in the last pieces of insulation. Afterward, the kids were on their way to more exciting Saturday activities and Matt and I installed the pipes. We snapped chalk lines on the points the girls marked and followed those line as we worked. It was a simple process to understand, but it was somewhat difficult to complete simply because the piping isn't very pliable. Matt read that its a nightmare to work with in the winter! Lucky for us, The Great August Swelter is an ideal time for the pipe to be at its most pliable. But, it still wanted to be a Slinky, it did not want to be a straight line, so it took a lot of manhandling on Matt's part to uncoil and untwist it. Once it was in place, I stapled it. (The black things are staples.) We got a pretty good rhythm going and I think we were finished by 7 p.m. We laid almost 1,000 feet!
 |
| (Don't be fooled. I just said that I did the stapling, except during the taking of this photo. That is NOT my arm.) |
On Sunday afternoon, Matt finished securing everything, and tested the pressure to make sure there are no leaks. This is where the pipes will come up out of the floor in our utility room.
And as I was typing this, the inspector was here and we PASSED two inspections!
We passed the inspection for
We passed the inspection to have the slab poured. (I had another unfortunate conversation with the building department regarding the slab, too.) There are 23 "things" coming up out the ground. This has been a huge logistical dance. And Matt, as the general contractor, has done a wonderful job choreographing everything.
Since we passed inspection, the slab will be poured tomorrow! All of the details of the floor are finished (Thank you, JESUS!!) and we'll be ready to move on to the next step! We thank the Lord very regularly that things are moving along so smoothly. We cannot WAIT to see the actual building take shape!
SOMEONE PINCH ME! (I still can't believe we're doing this.)
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