At Home In The Woods

[eepete]

Once the rough in plumbing is done, take a big piece of cardboard or some plastic and tape off the fiberglass tub. Otherwise, everyone and their brother will be putting stuff in there and it will get scratched. Drywall and electricians will put ladders in there and stand on the rim to reach stuff.

If you're using fiberglass insulation: When you have pipes in outside walls, consider putting the round pipe insulation on there and tape it with the way too expensive metal tape (about $17 per roll). The 1/2" thick stuff in the box stores is OK. You'll have to play cutting games when pipes are against studs. Note you could also put the foam in a can around the pipe. Put less foam towards the inside of the house so the pipe can get some heat from the house. 1.5" to the outside wall, .5" to the inside of the house or cut it flush with where the drywall will be. You can cut it after it's formed. Since the pipes are (correctly) close to the inside, this will help them on the super cold nights as they will not be directly exposed to the air in the wall cavity, and will get some warmth from the house. Anything to insulate with a closed cell "block the air" type of product.

The box store 1/2" thick slip-on pipe insulation is good on any interior hot water pipes, such as what you see going to the laundry connection. Less heat loss year round and in the summer you don't pay to heat the water and then cool the air. I had a 50' run to the mater bath in our old house, and when we did a renovation I was able to insulate with that stuff. We were then able to turn down the water heater by about 5 degrees.

I know you're in the "fog of construction" big time now, and these are a few more little home owner things to do, but if you can do them they all add up to less headaches and a better quality house down the road. Give a shout when you're coming up on electrical and low voltage wiring if you want some ideas there. I'm still enjoying the thread, thanks for taking the time to keep everyone informed.

Pete

 

[firefighter9208]

I did the blown in cellulose insulation in the walls. Basically it's shredded newspaper with fire retardant and glue. They spray it in the walls and then come back with the contraption and "cut" off the excess and vacuum it up for reuse. There are no voids around the outlets in the walls. You have to have all your rough in wiring and plumbing done before installation.

Don't try the DIY blower from Lowe's or Home Depot. BTDT on a friend addition. It took us 4 hours to blow the attic of a 20x20 addition.

We have 2x10 joists between the first and second floor. The insulation company stretched a thin white membrane over bottom of the floor joist and then blew the cavity full of the insulation (the subfloor for the second floor was already in place). My sheet rock man was skeptical and the insulation man assured me and him that if there was any sagging that he would remove the membrane and the insulation and install batts.

When they finished there was no sagging. I can now zone off the upstairs of the house and heat/cool the first floor only. You can also "have a party" upstairs and not hear all the noise downstairs. It was a very good investment for the cost.

I recommend that you install R13 (often called garage insulation) in all your interior walls. We did this and it's wonderful. Our master bath backs up to the living room. We made sure to insulate the wall (heavily) behind the shower. That way you don't hear the water running in the living room when someone is bathing (Or that God awful Ionic hair dryer) :ashamed: . I remember in my parents house that you couldn't hear the TV over the water running in the shower. There was only 1/4" paneling on the wall behind the shower.

Insulate, insulate, insulate. That's my advice to you. You can never have too much.

Chris

 

[CurlyDave]

Once the rough in plumbing is done, take a big piece of cardboard or some plastic and tape off the fiberglass tub. Otherwise, everyone and their brother will be putting stuff in there and it will get scratched. Drywall and electricians will put ladders in there and stand on the rim to reach stuff.

Pete

Total agreement on this. You will be completely amazed at what ends up in an unprotected tub.

I have seen a big double handful of dry wall screws end up in there and then people walk on top of them. Scratches like you would not believe...

 

[Obed]

I'm no expert by any means, but shouldn't there be a trap on that drain that comes through the floor for the bath/shower? Or is that the drain for the toilet (after thought)?

That drain was the toilet drain.

However, tonight I looked at the drain below the master shower and there is no trap. The plumbing at this spot is not finished but it appears as if the plumber does not intend to put a trap below the show.

TBNers, is there supposed to be a trap in the shower drain?

Thanks,
Obed

 

[Obed]

Once the rough in plumbing is done, take a big piece of cardboard or some plastic and tape off the fiberglass tub. Otherwise, everyone and their brother will be putting stuff in there and it will get scratched. Drywall and electricians will put ladders in there and stand on the rim to reach stuff.

Pete, that's a great suggestion that I'll be sure to do. That would have never occurred to me. Thanks!

Give a shout when you're coming up on electrical and low voltage wiring if you want some ideas there.

We think electical work will start next week if I can finish digging the electrical trench.

I believe that I will be doing all the low voltage stuff. I wired our last house for Cat5 and cable. I really overdid it last time. This time I plan on waiting until I know where I want a Cat5 jack and then run each jack as we need it. I can run the Cat5 wires after the sheetrock is up.

Right now I'm trying to figure out what to do about security wiring. We have a lot of windows. We have all the basement windows and doors to account for plus the main floor windows and doors. And since we have a cat (kitty), we can't do the motion sensors. Any suggestions would help.

Obed

 

[Obed]

The battery charger would not charge the tractor battery. I'm guessing that the battery is bad. That's good news assuming that the alternator is fine. I need to get the tractor going so I can finish digging the electrical trench.

 

[Obed]

This drain line was placed where the basement fireplace flue will run. The 90 degree elbow is right where the flue needs to go.

The plumber rerouted the pipe to miss the flue. He first tried to use two 45 degree turns but couldn't make it fit through the trusses. So we ended up with this.

 

[Obed]

These inline ball valves will cut off all the water to the kitchen. We will also have cut off valves on the supply lines to the hall bath and have cut off valves on the supply lines to the master bath. In addition, we will have cut off valves for the laundry sink and for the washing machine. The goal is to be able to work on plumbing in any area without having to turn off water to the entire house. Thus, if we get a leaky shower fixture, we can turn off water to that bathroom and still have water for the other bath, the kitchen, and the laundry. Then fixing the leak would not be an emergency.

Our main supply lines that run almost the length of the house are 3/4" copper.

 

[CurlyDave]

...

TBNers, is there supposed to be a trap in the shower drain?

Thanks,
Obed

Short answer is yes.

Long answer is yes, because it prevents smelly sewer gas from coming out of the drain. All drains should have a trap. The trap is built into a toilet so no external drain is needed, but there is still a trap.

 

[Obed]

We are trying very hard to get all the plumbing and H&A ducts to be run inside the 24" high floor trusses. We would rather not have to lower the basement ceiling if possible. The bottom of the trusses are 9' above the basement floor. We have room to lower the basement ceiling if needed and could still have an 8' ceiling but are trying to avoid doing so if possible.

The H&A guy and the plumber know each other. They seem to be working well together to try to route the plumbing and H&A ductwork in ways that won't interfere with each other. Today the plumber lowered the drain line shown here because the H&A guy asked him to do so to make room for a H&A trunk line.

When interviewing the potential H&A subs, some of them didn't give us much confidence that they would do their best to keep the ductwork inside the trusses. They did not get the job.