Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days

[hawkeye08]

I would avoid the plastic multipart manifolds if at all possible. I worked for a hotel with Manablock sectional valves (much like Viega MANABLOC Water Distribution System, Central Manifold System) and it was leaking between sections to the point where the threaded rods had to be re-tightened in ~3 years and several had to be replaced in 5-6 years.

Personally, if I ever redo my house, I will run a 3/4" trunk and tee off of it with 1/2" pex. Then I will re-setup a thermosiphon to keep hot water circulating along the truck. My problem with home runs is that they mean that I would need to run all the water in the line out to get hot water, so 60' of 1/2" pex vs 10' of 1/2" pex

Aaron Z

If this turns out to be a problem, they sell little pumps that sit at the end (near faucet). When you want hot water, you press a button for the pump and it pumps the hot side into the cold side until hot gets there.

 

[aczlan]

I like your idea of a circulating hot water trunk line. It would work well in Pete's mom's house due to the location of the bathrooms, kitchen, and mud room. The circulating trunk would take some additional electrical energy to keep the water in the pipes warm but would be great.

If this turns out to be a problem, they sell little pumps that sit at the end (near faucet). When you want hot water, you press a button for the pump and it pumps the hot side into the cold side until hot gets there.

We have a indirect hot water heater hooked up in series with a electric on demand heater (not my first choice, but it came with the house). We heat the indirect tank with a wood boiler or an oil boiler.
In the winter, when we have the heat on, we run the indirect hot water heater and the thermosiphon keeps enough water flowing through the pipe through convection that the hot water trunk is warm. It probbaly uses a little more energy but it also means we dont have to run enough hot water to empty the 50' 3/4" copper pipe between the hot water heater and the kitchen sink every time we want hot water.
Here is how it is plumbed:


Aaron Z

 

[Ranger Rick]

Eddie, you mentioned spray foam in attics that are heated/cooled with the house? Wha?? Man, I never heard of that before, therefore, it canno' be true!:wink:

Really, though, does this happen?

Two years ago we remodeled our old farmhouse and used spray foam on the underside of the roof and on the gables of the attic. We put one air handler of the geothermal system in the attic. It has been great. When we had snow last week there was not any melting on the roof from the heat inside the house. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Rick

 

[FairfaxStu]

I like your idea of a circulating hot water trunk line. It would work well in Pete's mom's house due to the location of the bathrooms, kitchen, and mud room. The circulating trunk would take some additional electrical energy to keep the water in the pipes warm but would be great.
Ron

We had this circulating system in the house I grew up in and it worked quite well. It was necessary because the house was 3 stories and some 8500 finished square feet. The problem is that you have to run twice as much hot water plumbing. For those that don't get it, you basically run a big loop between the water heater from outlet to outlet and back to the water heater. Then you have a pump that maintains circulation thereby giving you nearly instaneous hot water.

In my house, I used a much more simple yet very effective solution. I have a pump on the hot water side of the water heater that is timer controlled. This makes the hot water side of slightly higher pressue than the cold side. Then, in the kitchen (the farest point away from the water heater), I have a tempature controlled valve that recirculates water from the hot side to the cold side - back to the water heater. Because I only run it during hours when I need hot water, it really doesn't cost much to operate. I get hot water at the sink in about 2 seconds whereas it used to be 30 seconds or more. Granted all of my plumbing is in a crawlspace and is copper.
-Stu

 

[pacerron]

as a final thought on fiberglass batt, walking my dog's this spring morning, 14 deg. F, looked at my cathedral ceiling roof, 2x 12 with air space, I could count EVERY 4 foot batt in the roof, because fiberglass SHRINKS, roof is 35 years old, but have been researching how to fix for many years. Ask your Contractors, building supply retailers and manufacturers how you keep your house tight if fiberglass shrinks over time, roof looks just like a view thru an infared camera. So this is why I have reserched how to fix, answer is foam or celulose (medium pressure) to fill voids including the air space, WHICH IS ONLY REQUIRED BECAUSE FIBERGLASS NEEDS, VENTILATED TO REMOVE WATER VAPOR. Water vapor leaves the house through bathroom venting and kitchen venting, should not be driven into the insulation. The Building Code requires venting with fiberglass, but no venting if you use foam.
Extra cost? how much energy will you pay for to compensate for fiberglass over the life of the house?

May I ask what is keeping you from fixing your own roof problem with foam?.....
I would think that an experienced foam company, who would guarantee you no blowout or bulging of your interior ceiling covering, could fix your problem
and give you all the resultant factors that you support.
Since you visualize that the existing fiberglass batts have shrunk and are loose between the rafters, the foaming company could remove the ridge vent and the soffit vents. Then they could hook and pull the batts out of the cavity from above and below. They have extension hoses for their injection guns, so working from the ridge vent opening and the soffit openings they could fill the void entirely. They all have heat sensing monitor/cameras to be sure they have filled everything.
Then they fill the open groove with sheathing or whatever type of roof base you have, recap the ridge, seal up the soffit and you have whatever R factor that figures out to with no airflow under the roof.
35 years is a very long time for your old roofing to not need replacing if it is of composite shingles!
Do you have an estimate of what that would cost? How big is your roof?
Ron

 

[pclausen]

Day 59

Last update from phone. Should have Internet service back tomorrow!

Day 53

 

[J F]

Really starting to come together. :thumbsup:

 

[MacLawn]

pc, I put pipe insulation on ALL of my water pipes, it's cheap, easy to do now, and, man am I glad I did that! Hot water stays hot longer at faucet, cold pipes don't condense in humid summers - a great, cheap thing to do while the pipes are easy to do!

 

[s219]

s219,
Sounds like a good balance between cost and efficiency. Congrats.
How far under the ground and how long is your geotherm piping?
Ron

There are 4 wells, each about 220 feet deep -- the circuit loops through each well. The supply/return trenching is about 3-4 feet deep.

 

[SPIKER]

PClausen that is really starting to look like a HOUSE in mid construction. Looks like a couple more days for Plumbing & Electrical (Concrete with temp/time) then Insulation & Drywall painting & finish carpentry flooring/appliances FINAL touch up and the MOVE!


Mark