Concrete home construction

[czechsonofagun]

Paddy,

I am very pleased you like my city - Prague - so much. Enjoy your stay in September.

 

[Paddy]

Prokop,

For you I must say Praha! I stay at a 'penzion' near the St. Charles bridge in a small beer hall, U Medvidku on Perstyne 7, Praha 1. They serve the real Budviser beer. I prefer Pilsner Urquel though. Can't beat it, 0.5L beers for $1.25. Rooms are $110 per night. I brought my wife last Sept, '05, she loved it. I would bring her again but I must stop by Thailand the week before. Now that's the long way to Praha! 3/4's the way around the world

So I imagine you know of the Klokner Institute, end of the Green metro line. I work at the lab EGU, www.egu-vvn.cz east of town. It's a short distance from Cerny Most on the yellow metro line. I'm a high voltage enginerd. I spend 6 weeks a year in my favorite city, Praha

When did you leave and how often do you go back to visit?

 

[czechsonofagun]

Paddy,

It is a small small world My dad worked in SVUSS - which is right next to the Klokner Institut for like 30 years. We lived in Praha 2, near Namesti Miru and my old man used to bike to Bechovice every day.
My high school was electrical engineering oriented and I had a month of internship in EGÚ in 1980 or so.

Now Klokner Institut is right next to my college - I have MSc from CVUT FSI (mechanical engineering)

I married an american 1994 and we moved to states 1997 - and I typically go back every year in February/March - in the cheap air ticket season to catch up with my folks and local food and beer and buddies - you name it

 

[BobRip]

Is your house one level? Sounds like your happy with concrete!

Yes, it is one level. We do have a crawl space which has 2 inches of concrete so that the plastic on the ground is protected. The crawl space is not vented and acts as a thermal storage to help stabalize house temperature. At least that's the theory.

 

[bugstruck]

Still a one year to maybe?? 16 month house in Maryland guys. We do make incredible upfront efforts to get all the specialty products and finishes nailed down early. Why wouldn't you go several states out and pay shipping for windows, custom moldings, and cabinetry? Even hire in out of state subs on stone, ceramic, etc. It's cheaper to pay transportation, per diem, and lodging for sub crews than carry debt service on projects that size when they are in the late stages. You can buy a lot of lodging etc. for $15 to 20K or more a month. You're still married to local site contractors, HVAC, plumbing, and electric but much of the other trades could be from anywhere, unless your licensing requirements extend into trades ours don't. Even then you could sublet the subcontract labor. I compete with the Chinease on commercial casegoods that are supplied on jobs with one year and slightly shorter cycles. They aren't getting that product here on planes.

We do limited residential cabinetry but when we do it's super high end. I can turn $200K in custom residential molding and cabinetry from kitchens to wine cellars in 12 weeks max. including shop drawing design and review assuming a week is enough time to bless the drawings. Every stain grade stick and box would be custom stain matched and finished to approved samples too. Exotic finishes could add a week to 10 days. All while doing perhaps two premier restaurants that would dwarf that residential job, two hospitals, 12 to 20 other real jobs. If you were on a one year cycle I'd probably have shop drawings in for submittal review before the house was dried in because we would have started while it was being framed. Nail the design and finishes down, stage the materials orders based on lead-times, pull in every equipment cut we have to interface with, and wait for final field measurements. Then, off to production. We do this a few States away fairly frequently. Mostly 10 to 30 thousand bottle wine cellars. Most of them are 6-8 weeks phone call to punchlist close-out. Every one is full custom. Production time on this type of residential work including finishing and on the truck is seldom more than 3 weeks.

Regarding the State and those permit and review times. Whew. I don't doubt the timing that's quoted, it's just beyond, way beyond, my comprehension.

 

[_RaT_]

Still a one year to maybe?? 16 month house in Maryland guys. We do make incredible upfront efforts to get all the specialty products and finishes nailed down early. Why wouldn't you go several states out and pay shipping for windows, custom moldings, and cabinetry? Even hire in out of state subs on stone, ceramic, etc. It's cheaper to pay transportation, per diem, and lodging for sub crews than carry debt service on projects that size when they are in the late stages. You can buy a lot of lodging etc. for $15 to 20K or more a month. You're still married to local site contractors, HVAC, plumbing, and electric but much of the other trades could be from anywhere, unless your licensing requirements extend into trades ours don't. Even then you could sublet the subcontract labor. I compete with the Chinease on commercial casegoods that are supplied on jobs with one year and slightly shorter cycles. They aren't getting that product here on planes.

We do limited residential cabinetry but when we do it's super high end. I can turn $200K in custom residential molding and cabinetry from kitchens to wine cellars in 12 weeks max. including shop drawing design and review assuming a week is enough time to bless the drawings. Every stain grade stick and box would be custom stain matched and finished to approved samples too. Exotic finishes could add a week to 10 days. All while doing perhaps two premier restaurants that would dwarf that residential job, two hospitals, 12 to 20 other real jobs. If you were on a one year cycle I'd probably have shop drawings in for submittal review before the house was dried in because we would have started while it was being framed. Nail the design and finishes down, stage the materials orders based on lead-times, pull in every equipment cut we have to interface with, and wait for final field measurements. Then, off to production. We do this a few States away fairly frequently. Mostly 10 to 30 thousand bottle wine cellars. Most of them are 6-8 weeks phone call to punchlist close-out. Every one is full custom. Production time on this type of residential work including finishing and on the truck is seldom more than 3 weeks.

Regarding the State and those permit and review times. Whew. I don't doubt the timing that's quoted, it's just beyond, way beyond, my comprehension.

Wow Chris, very impressive, you obviously are organized and know your stuff. Mark

 

[Bill Barrett]

Here check this ICF, little different idea. I like this idea, doesn't burn, it's environment friendly, mass is on the inside which is good if you are doing solar . Remember just R or U value is not the whole story! I do HVAC in ICF’s all the time be sure to get someone who knows what’s going on.
http://www.durisolbuild.com/

 

[5030tinkerer]

I do HVAC in ICF’s all the time be sure to get someone who knows what’s going on.

Funny - I am presently building my home out of ICF's from IntegraSpec and am having trouble locating anyone with a clue on sizing HVAC for an ICF home. Any tips on where I can look?

 

[Bill Barrett]

5030tinkerer just find one that will do a complete heat loss heat gain on the project. Most HVAC guys that do geothermal would be a good start. If you have a electric or gas co-op would be another source.

 

[_RaT_]

Here check this ICF, little different idea. I like this idea, doesn't burn, it's environment friendly, mass is on the inside which is good if you are doing solar . Remember just R or U value is not the whole story! I do HVAC in ICF’s all the time be sure to get someone who knows what’s going on.
http://www.durisolbuild.com/

Excellent point and one that the folks from Nudura mentioned.