products galore: warmboard revisited

if you recall we installed a product called warm board, here,  as our subfloor as well as an in floor heating system.  this 1" subfloor with a thin, 1/8" thick sheet of aluminum plate will be keeping our feet toasty warm once the house is complete.

the system was designed in several zones.  the first floor of the "north house" is one zone, the kitchen and great room two separate zones and the second floor of the "north house" a fourth zone.  the layout was such that we could build all of the interior structural walls before installing the tubing for the hot water to run through.  however, in order to be very efficient and heat each zone correctly a few of the non-structural walls had to wait until we could install the pex-aluminum-pex tubing.

we finally received the tubing yesterday and we were eager to install it.  first we had to really clean all of the areas where we were going do the installation. all of the grooves in the sub-floor  had to be free of debris to ensure that the tubing will not be punctured or damaged.

the tubing coming up from the floor to the manifold location

the loops of tubing can only be so long in order for the hot water to not cool down as it is running through the system, so that for example the second floor is one zone but is made up of three separate loops of tubing which go through the floor and then back up to the manifold location in a panel in the bathroom. matt and björn drilled holes in the floor for the tubing, and used a grinder to make sure the aluminum and wood around the holes was smooth in order to not puncture the tubing.

björn and matt installing the tubing

the manifold, which we haven't ordered yet,  regulates the water and tells the water heater to send hot water to a location.  we originally had designed the system so that all of the tubing met the manifold in the crawl space however not having the manifold above the level of the tubing can cause issues with air bubbles so we changed the location today as we were planning the final layout.

tubing installed in the warm board subfloor system, utilizing nailing plates
to hold it in place

the tubing is simply pressed into the grooves using a rubber mallet and in areas where it is having trouble staying put björn added a nailing plate to keep it in place.  today we finished all of the second floor tubing and we are planning on tackling the lower floor tomorrow.

this is a supply tube through going through the second floor 

the pex-aluminum-pex tubing must divert around the toilet, so that it
does not melt the wax ring

each tube is clearly labeled for return and supply for each loop, the manifold
will eventually be located here in this wall

supply and return tubing

we also made a dr. seuss hat out of some extra tubing 

deep in thought

weekend update

happy monday morning- the sun is still shining here in Durango and temperatures we beautiful all weekend.  saturday was a very productive day with mario, pilar, and björn working hard to get the second floor system completed and ready for panels.

warmboard on the second floor

the same system was used for the second floor as seen here on the first floor.  i-joists were laid up on the tops of the first floor sip panels with some spanning the entire 35' and others being supported by the first floor structural walls that björn and i built a little while back as seen here.  rim board finished the edge of the second floor and then the same warm board product was applied with floor adhesive and 16d nails (all this refers to is the length of the nail- they are 3.25")

the view from the top

mario and pilar then applied the same 2x8 nailing plates to the perimeter of the second floor, which the sip panels sit down on.

putting on the nailing plates

björn and i worked on building the rear wall of the great room.  this piece is quite the puzzle because of all of the windows that are in this wall, and the fact that this wall is supporting the ridge beam which supports the roof.  this simply means there is a lot of lumber that we have to fit into the panels to give enough support for this wall.  we actually have taken a few days to figure out this wall and it is now finally all ready to hoist up sometime tomorrow.

working on our puzzle

other things we worked on this weekend- cleaning up the site- again!  this is a continuing project and sometimes feels like we can never keep up but björn and i made a pretty big dent and the site looks wonderful now and ready for the week.

our roof panels are supposed to be showing up on the tractor trailer today along with the old douglas fir beams that we bought from San Juan Timber Rights.  these beams should be beautiful and i can't wait to photograph them and share them with you.

looking down on the great room

proud parents of the house

the second floor is complete

big windows in the lower level bedroom

raising the stairwell walls

the second floor panels are up top and ready to rock!

the puzzle coming together- we hope to get it up monday

grandma shirley getting a lift to the second floor

photos via shirley hargraves and whitney warner