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OK bunch of stuff has happened since last time, mostly small in increments so I let it pile up before posting an update. First off we got a door to the laundry room now:   Drains are ready and just need to be hooked up, we'll connect them to the pipes which will lead rain water straight into the underground drainage system rather than let it fall right on the ground.  Some indoor pictures, haven't posted alot of these since there's not a lot to show. Mostly whats happened here is walls have been put up and the floor has been sanded, mostly living room and kitchen seen from the main entrance:   Heat puump got moved into place:  Then just today it was hooked up, electricity earlier this week. Now all we need is water and it's ready to start heating the house.  And work has started on the garage too, ready to put up panelling, windows installed, two doors have been installed as well (not shown): 
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Feb 18, 2014 19:42
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Looks great. That heating pump would be really useful in colder areas in the US too, but I've never seen one.
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Feb 21, 2014 09:37
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Really cool thread, your house is looking great. Would you mind telling me a bit more about the geothermal heating? Does it heat your floors and provide water for taps, showers, and baths without needing additional heating? What temperature is the water heated to, and is there any risk to do with tectonic shifts which might damage the pipeline?
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Feb 21, 2014 13:24
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Rockybar posted:Really cool thread, your house is looking great. Would you mind telling me a bit more about the geothermal heating? Does it heat your floors and provide water for taps, showers, and baths without needing additional heating? What temperature is the water heated to, and is there any risk to do with tectonic shifts which might damage the pipeline? It's not really geothermal, it's a form of solar that extracts heat from the groundwater flowing through the ground. The material is flexible and I think the bedrock here is ultra stable anyway so tectonic shifts aren't something you need to worry about. The pump can heat the water to around 50 degrees celsius which is around 122 degrees F, it'll provide heat for all hot water needs as well as the floor heating. It won't be able to heat the house and provide other needs without additional heating all year round, but the pump knows when it needs to kick in an electric cartridge to heat the water like that. It's a big energy saver but it's not going to be entirely self sufficient no.
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Feb 21, 2014 14:05
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Were you working on your house when Finland got their asses kicked by Sweden in ice hockey?
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Feb 22, 2014 00:18
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Probably, I dont watch or care about sports, haven't watched the olympics a single time yet.
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Feb 22, 2014 05:58
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Garage construction is proceeding quickly:  Got a de-humidifier:   The heat pump is keeping the house at a steady 20C now, I think the warmth in the floor is making the moisture leave it faster since it feels more humid inside. The de-humidifier took 4-5 liters of water out of the air over the last 20 hours.
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Feb 22, 2014 16:15
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His Divine Shadow posted:The de-humidifier took 4-5 liters of water out of the air over the last 20 hours. What/where is it emptying into? Do you have any need for a sump?
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Feb 22, 2014 18:32
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daggerdragon posted:What/where is it emptying into? Do you have any need for a sump? Into a 10 liter pan in the back of the de-humidifier itself. It came with a hose too if you wanna lead it straight into the drain, but I wanna keep check on how much water it's collecting.
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Feb 22, 2014 19:25
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Another slow week, Garage is mostly built externally now. I started on the inside today and cleaned it out, tomorrow I will continue putting up the insulation. They finally got some outlets in the house now so I can move the extension cords and lamp into the garage so I can work there after dark. I'm real happy we didn't have to put up the roof under the car port.    Been fiddling with the heat pump too this week, trying to optimize it to run more efficiently. Came out some new control software from the manufacturer todat which added auto functrions for the circulation pumps on the warm side of the system which should be a lot more effective than manual settings as it can adjust based on perceived needs. Still weird though, the in temp on the fluid that cycles from the borehole-pump-borehole varies from 1-5 degrees celcius, which is strange to me, from what I understood the temperature would be quite constant. And a lot of the time the out-temp is warmer than the in temp, which makes no sense at all, the pump is imparting energy rather than taking away?
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Feb 28, 2014 22:00
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I'm not sure how tech-savvy you are but I'd be completely lost if our pump hadn't been assembled and programmed by a professional, who also took time to explain the basics to me. Unless you're reading the statistics wrong, that does sound bad.
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Mar 2, 2014 00:41
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The pump was installed by professionals but apparently all they did (so far) was to leave it on factory settings. Perhaps they mean to continue changing it. They haven't been there all week. It's pretty hard to read the stats wrong when there are just two data points saying "Brine in: x degrees" and "Brine out: x degrees". The house is keeping a steady temp of 20C though so the heating curve seems to work without needing adjustment. I also turned on a 10 day continuous cycle for the brine fluid pump to help get rid of air in the system. This weekend I put up the last of the insulation in the walls of the garage, an extra 25 square meters of it. Goddamn I hate working with glass wool, everything itches and the protective glasses where useless (fogged over). Thank god for the mask though. Been kicking myself that I did not bring the full face plate rebreather I got.   Next step is the moisture barrier (blue plastic), almost out of it, will have to get more.
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Mar 2, 2014 17:35
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His Divine Shadow posted:Still weird though, the in temp on the fluid that cycles from the borehole-pump-borehole varies from 1-5 degrees celcius, which is strange to me, from what I understood the temperature would be quite constant. And a lot of the time the out-temp is warmer than the in temp, which makes no sense at all, the pump is imparting energy rather than taking away? My first thought would be: find where the brine temperature sensors are. If they are external to the pump, check that the sensors have not been miswired (i.e. the IN sensor is wired into the IN contacts and not into the OUT contacts, and vice versa). There is a Finnish heat pump forum that you might want to browse: http://www.maalampofoorumi.fi/
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Mar 3, 2014 07:17
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The strange values always come up when the pump isn't running. I was told that might have something to do with it. When it ran it was a more normal 3 degrees in and -2 degrees out. Some new stuff that's happened this week, they spread some goo over the walls of the bathroom:  Added another moisture barrier in the roof too, the roof in the bathroom looks like it will be lower than the other rooms:  They also painted something on the walls in the smaller toilet, not the same stuff but I guess some kinda primer or moisture barrier:  Here they also cast a cement foundation around where the pipes and stuff come out of the floor, I don't really know why, stability perhaps: 
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Mar 8, 2014 08:54
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His Divine Shadow posted:Here they also cast a cement foundation around where the pipes and stuff come out of the floor, I don't really know why, stability perhaps: If you don't do something like that the floor around the pipes will end up lower than the surrounding area because you can't get tiles there. I have no clue what they did to your walls, I've never seen or heard of that kind of thing. But I've only had training for Kiilto and Ardex water barrier materials. I know that's not a water barrier at least since there are no corner strengtheners.
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Mar 8, 2014 12:04
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I asked and they are water barriers they say. Weber Vetonit. I don't know what a corner strenghtener should look like, might be for a different system like the ones you mentioned, or they are gonna be put in later? I do know they have left the floor and the lowest part of the wall bare yet so perhaps higher up on the walls you don't require the same amount of protection? We're avoiding the floor on purpose because the concrete needs to dry out still.   Also got a shipment from Turun Uunisepät, it's my fireplace, yay soon I can start burning stuff! 
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Mar 14, 2014 19:11
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Who bled onto your wall there?
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Mar 15, 2014 01:01
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I had to go and check with other pictures I took to make sure but it's just a weird reflection of light.
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Mar 16, 2014 06:41
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Had to carry all the pieces of the heater into the house last night according to the assembly people, I guess I can understand why, the heater is 1250 kilos, or 1.25 metric tons, if I had to carry this inside I would not have any energy left over to build it. And we had to be two people to even move the heavier parts. Stuff:  More stuff:  They've started on the chimney, it's a double chimney:   The other side of the wall is in the sauna, so the two heaters share the same chimney: 
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Mar 18, 2014 19:26
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They built the rest of the heater today:   What's left is insulating the chimney which they will do next week.
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Mar 19, 2014 18:56
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Is that a gas burning heater? Why does in needs those metal drawers? And what are those giant Lego pieces just above it? edit: Might as well keep asking. What are those two holes on the wall just under the switch hole? And that weird looking plastic slot on the bottom of the same wall?
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Mar 19, 2014 22:14
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It's a wood burning heater, it's a secondary heat source, but mainly because a fireplace in your home kicks rear end. So the metal drawers are for ash. The lego pieces I assume refer to the thing behind the heater which is the chimney and protective / heat absorbing wall. It's a masonry heater and it will keep its heat for many many hours, the ventilation system will also help ferry that heat around the house. All the slots on the walls will contain either outlets or switches for lights. I want to tile the area around the heater but had problems visualizing it so I drew a mockup in photoshop, despite its fakeness (just used some random laminate image) I think the concept looks nice: 
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Mar 20, 2014 05:49
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Why did you go with glass wool for walls over a better insulator such as sprayed polyurethane?
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Mar 22, 2014 05:10
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I didn't, it was how the house came. I haven't ever heard of that stuff being used like that so it has never occured to me. I started out knowing absolutely nothing about houses and I still don't know much. I selected a very complete package due to that. Oh yeah, my dad, who knows a lot more about stuff like this said we could use polyurethane foam in the garage corners to insulate them, because the way the garage was built (was meant to be uninsulated), we couldn't get insulation into the corners afterwards, but you could just spray in polyurethane foam in there and it's gonna be fine & dandy he says. His Divine Shadow fucked around with this message at 08:32 on Mar 22, 2014 |
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Mar 22, 2014 08:30
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jm20 posted:Why did you go with glass wool for walls over a better insulator such as sprayed polyurethane? Because fiberglass is vastly much cheaper than the spray stuff. I asked around for quotes for spray insulation on my 1,600 sqft house, lowest was $13,000. Fiberglass rolls by the pallet: $400 plus a few extra rolls, and another $300 for the wider rolls for the ceilings. $20 for a gigantic box of hammer staples, and I borrowed 2 staple hammers. $720 and lots of swearing about itchy clothes vs $13,000. Sure, the R-factor is a little higher, but how long would it take you to break even on the additional $12,280 on your utilities from the savings?
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Mar 22, 2014 17:25
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This is exactly what I ran into during the office addition to my pole barn. Both 2" rigid foam board and spray foam were considered. Both were well over 3x the price of rolls of craft-faced fiberglass, which included enough studs to make stud bays for the insulation (it is pole construction, so normally you wouldn't have/need that) AND 1/2" rigid foam board outside (under the siding, where the 2" was originally going). The only stuff that was expensive was the R-30C, as I couldn't find it anywhere other than building supply hoses (i.e., not a bog box store). Even though the insulation was expensive and rocking a cathedral ceiling is at least 100% more miserable than a square room the results were still worth it.
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Mar 22, 2014 19:51
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daggerdragon posted:Because fiberglass is vastly much cheaper than the spray stuff. I asked around for quotes for spray insulation on my 1,600 sqft house, lowest was $13,000. Fiberglass rolls by the pallet: $400 plus a few extra rolls, and another $300 for the wider rolls for the ceilings. $20 for a gigantic box of hammer staples, and I borrowed 2 staple hammers. I didn't realize you were also living in Finland and building a house, eagerly awaiting your pics and other localized opinions to add to the thread. His Divine Shadow posted:I didn't, it was how the house came. I haven't ever heard of that stuff being used like that so it has never occured to me. I started out knowing absolutely nothing about houses and I still don't know much. I selected a very complete package due to that. What are the energy costs for the location you will live at, for instance, cost per cubic metre of gas, kilowatt hour of electricity, and say water costs per unit? I'm curious how they compare to other parts of the world.
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Mar 23, 2014 01:51
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jm20 posted:I didn't realize you were also living in Finland and building a house, eagerly awaiting your pics and other localized opinions to add to the thread. Why are you being a big loving baby because someone answered your question with a fairly solid response?
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Mar 23, 2014 03:19
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jm20 posted:What are the energy costs for the location you will live at, for instance, cost per cubic metre of gas, kilowatt hour of electricity, and say water costs per unit? I'm curious how they compare to other parts of the world. Electricity here is around 6 €-cents per kilowatt hour, but there's an added transfer cost that roughly doubles the cost of electricity to 12 cents per kwH. We don't use any gas, gas is quite uncommon here actually. Water cost is 1.15 (excl. vat) euros per cubic meter (1000 liters) but there's also sewage costs (we are hooked up to the municipal system) which are based on water consumption so the total cost is 3.65 per cubic meter, that's including VAT now. In addition to that there are some set fees for municipal water & sewage that come to 220 euros per year,
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Mar 23, 2014 09:09
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Been working hard lately, but not a lot to show for it, spackling and sanding drywall is slow and tedious work. Also got the water meter so now I can start paying for municipial water, yay  It was actually free until now. Last night I also made my first fire in the house:  
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Apr 2, 2014 05:04
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Still spackling and sanding, it's the most boring and dirty work I've ever done, almost finished now though! Getting nice and straight corner was difficult until I learned of these metal corners that also reinforce the corner so it won't get damaged as if would if it was only plaster and someone knocked into it with something hard.  These corners where even worse though as there where no metal corners for the angle they where made in:  I was going crazy trying to get straight corners until I heard of this product:  It's called multiflex tape, allows you to get a straight and reinforced corner in every angle you might want. And the electricians came by and installed some wiring in the garage, didn't even know about it until I noticed by chance:   We also got a fiber optic cable installed, so now it's just a matter of hooking everything up, we have CAT6 wire and ethernet ports in almost all rooms: 
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Apr 13, 2014 10:19
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On our project we had a team come in and spackle all the walls. Took them a few evenings of spraying and saved us a lot of time. Think it did cost quite a bit more than doing it yourself.
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Apr 13, 2014 10:30
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His Divine Shadow posted:These corners where even worse though as there where no metal corners for the angle they where made in: If you get the same metal and plastic corner bead we typically have in the US you can easily make it work on anything from a 45 to a 135. That tape looks interesting, but I'd be worried about long term durability compared to a solid bead. Also, nothing raised to screed against on that, which is one of the big benefits of corner bead. Overall it looks great. The one big thing with mudding is that once you get into practice you not only get faster at putting the mud down, but you end up sanding way less. A friend of a friend does it professionally and his third coats (completely unsanded) typically look good enough to paint over. Maybe a couple wipes with a wet sponge here and there and you're good to go. It's nauseating to see how good he is at it when you've just struggled through your own project and are up to your ankles in drywall dust at home  One BIG hint that you may already know: make sure you sand everything to your expectations before any primer or paint touches it. It's comparatively easy to deal with that stuff right now. Finding high spots is much easier with a bright work light shining down the wall (put it almost up against the wall you are working on and shine it across to make shadows of the high spots).
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Apr 13, 2014 15:06
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Yeah been doing the light thing, and going around feeling the walls as well. I was actually thinking that applying the primer would help spot any areas that we've missed. Also some spots are less important as there will be paneling there (around windows, doors, etc) or they will be behind cabinets and the like. I was so fed up with this kind of work that I tried my hand at carpentry today. First I built a saw horse:  Then I decided I should try and build a wood shed:  The idea is to make a slant roof, I am thinking two big doors that open in the front later. All in all it was a nice spring day, the evening sun on the house: 
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Apr 13, 2014 18:31
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His Divine Shadow posted:I was actually thinking that applying the primer would help spot any areas that we've missed. If you're absolutely sure you've gotten everything you can see a coat of primer is the next step. But once that's on it makes the sanding 200% more miserable. And there's no more "using hot water and a sponge" which takes care of a surprising amount of unpainted mud smoothing duties.
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Apr 13, 2014 20:55
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His Divine Shadow posted:All in all it was a nice spring day, the evening sun on the house: It still makes me giggle that you've got what looks like a pool ladder on your roof.
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Apr 14, 2014 02:21
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Motronic posted:If you're absolutely sure you've gotten everything you can see a coat of primer is the next step. But once that's on it makes the sanding 200% more miserable. And there's no more "using hot water and a sponge" which takes care of a surprising amount of unpainted mud smoothing duties. Never heard of using a wet sponge actually, we've been sanding everything after it dries with sandpaper, so much dust.
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Apr 14, 2014 04:44
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His Divine Shadow posted:Never heard of using a wet sponge actually, we've been sanding everything after it dries with sandpaper, so much dust. A wet sponge will help with small rises or dips (like scratches) - it's good for a final smoothing. For a very expert level third coat it's pretty much all you need. A foam sanding block can be soaked in water to cut down on the dust, but since you're under construction and covered in dust already it's hardly worth it at this point, but a good thing to keep in mind if you're ever doing repairs in a clean/furnished place. Motronic fucked around with this message at 04:51 on Apr 14, 2014 |
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Apr 14, 2014 04:48
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We've given all surfaces three coats, I think I went to four on some because I wasn't happy with it, some are only getting two and very rough sanding however, stuff that's coming behind cabinets for instance. And where there will be wallpaper I am told it's not as super picky as it is where you'll use paint.
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Apr 14, 2014 06:02
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Easter weekend here so Friday's a holiday, so I decided to spend the day doing stuff. First I painted a room, almost all the rooms are now painted with primer color, only lovely cellphone pics to show today: I really hate painting so after one room I decided to do some outdoors work instead, looking for excuses to use my new framing nailer. Redesigned the sawhorse so it stands wider and thus lower, was a bit high at first, also made it so it can collapse when not in use.  Got quite a bit done on the woodshed as well. Not too bad for something I am winging without plans and using leftover bits and pieces. I'll finish the rear wall and trim next, then move onto doing the roof and finally the doors.  The house is getting pretty warm as well because I found a function for drying the floor in the heat pump menus, meant to help dry out concrete slabs by running a 7 day program where in the house will get real warm.
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Apr 18, 2014 20:08
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