February 11 - Prepping the Floor

Aiming for the Big Pour -
It seems like once The Blue Duct was safely interred and the dirt leveled, the next step should be to pour the concrete. But not so. First  the dirt needs poly covering followed by two inch think foam pads.







Then some nuisance things like locating outlets that will be in the floor must be attended. Sam and TIm decide where the junction box needs to reside. Once the location is finalized, it must be fed by conduits which are cut into the foam pads.

Then orange heat tubing is stapled to the foam pads. We need to keep The Blue Duct comfortable in the winter. Brian lays out the tubing while Pete secures the tubing to the foam with staples. Adrian follows behind with more staples to make sure the orange tubing can not escape or change its location.

Pete and Brian finish locking the tubing sections into the manifold. The larger white tubes in front are the hot water supply tubes that will carry hot water from and back to the boiler.













Then with the sanctuary decorated with festive orange overlaying a baby blue foam pads, I am thinking that it now must be time to bring on the concrete. Again, not so.












Remember the size large concrete footings keeping the laminated posts up and the roof down? They need to be covered with a woven rebar mat that extends well beyond the footing perimeter. The poured floor will then add still more weight to the roof-holding-down capability of the footings.

Now we are nearly ready to add the concrete. Just one more detail. We need to add some wire fencing to hold the concrete together. Dan and Kevin roll out the fencing.


The picture below shows Pete getting into the act also.When their work was done, they had made a mesh of the sanctuary.

Randy takes care of one final detail in prepping for the concrete pour which is scheduled for Friday. A form with a foam barrier is set in the big doorway. Now, if the weather is favorable, the special edition Friday crew will work with the concrete contractor to pour the floor. One more significant milestone in the project.

Milestone on the Outside -
With all the emphasis on the floor prep inside, the mild winter weather allowed for significant progress on the outside of the building. A milestone of sorts was achieved Saturday when the first piece of actually, factually siding was nailed in place. Tom and Ben are shown building the outside corner for the siding. Once the corner is in place, the first piece of lap siding is hung. There are about 8,250 square feet of wall to be covered. Each board of lap siding will cover about 9.3 square feet. So, one board down and 884 to go. The purists will complain that not all of the wall surface will be covered with lap siding since the front and back bump-outs will have sheet goods applied, but this is a detail. I am sticking with 884 to go.



















Bob, on an earlier, colder day, was hanging trim on the windows. By Saturday I think all the window trim was in place.

 Bob had his boys secured in the lift bucket. I thought at first that he was using the bucket to keep the boys under control, but it turns out that they were helping him measure and record measurements for trimming the various openings for vents and the like.

February 4 - Covering The Blue Duct

A Time to Plan -

Somehow this week's picture looks a lot like last week's picture - the planning commission still in session. Well, not literally still, but again.
Planning time was available since The Blue Duct did not  hold his pressure for the first test.

Not wanting to waste the time while TBD received further instruction, the workers planned, and in anticipation of ultimate success of the project, began reserving seats in the sanctuary.

After a good deal of intense instruction including more goo, more tape and some new bands, TBD successfully completed his five minute pressure filled examination and was then eligible to receive a full covering of dirt. So Saturday was used to backfill the trenches and bury The Blue Duct.





Many Workers and an Excavator - 

Busy workers - Greg on the machine, Spencer and Lars partially hidden beyond the machine, Eric operating the compactor, Tall Sam spreading dirt, Brent standing at attention and Mark taking pictures.

As the excavator moved the dirt from the pile, shovel and rake operators did the fine tuning. Loren, on the far right, is checking the floor height relative to its final grade requirement. Bob worked inside for a time then went outside to trim the windows. He said he did not think he could make the grade.

Some thoughtful reflection is required to make sure the dirt is properly located. Spencer, Lars, Brian and Tall Sam are thoughtfully reflecting.

Brian and Sam continue reflecting. Some decisions just cannot be rushed.













The civil engineers used available lumber to build size large beams so the excavator could be driven over the partially buried center aisle ducts. Brian and Sam pile dirt to stabilize the beams on the far side while Lars and Mark do the same on the near side. Greg checks the alignment with the machine treads. In the background a nice level, trench-less, hill-less left side floor of the sanctuary.

 Once across the bridge, the hill on the other side is being rearranged to fill the center trench.














Another New Thing - 

I love photography and all my experience is with still photos. I have not ventured into this new fangled video stuff even though my camera does record video. Some scenes, however, seem to demand recording video instead of still.

--- UPDATE ---
Okay, I tried but admit defeat. The wonders of technology are beyond my comprehension.
I edit this blog on a Windows machine and the video works. On my iPad, no video and only a blank spot is displayed. My Android device tells me it is missing a plugin. So, I added the still photo of Short Sam using the pipe heater since I do not know how to make the video display in these varied environments.

Okay, Sam (short Sam as opposed to Tall Sam), what are you doing? "Making spaghetti," came the reply.

The green box is a heater through which the rigid plastic is placed. The operator spins the pipe and moves it forward and back until the desired length of the pipe is warm enough to bend. Then, with the help of an assistant, the pipe is bent to the desired curvature. When it cools, the pipe again becomes rigid. Kinda like makin' spaghetti, Sam, but not quite.

Using the excavator to make a trench, the pipe is run up to the front of the sanctuary. This is the conduit through which the sound system cabling will run.

















Sam and Loren bend and coax the pipes into the necessary shape to fit into the trench.



















Using the widely accepted free pour application technique, glue is slopped on to the pipe and connecting pieces added. The ninety degree elbow pieces being glued on are stock parts and do not have to be custom formed as the long non-standard bent pieces do.

I finally get to see some honest to goodness duct tape in use. Alas, it is only to temporarily cap the ends of the pipes until the concrete floor is poured.











Leveling the Floor - 
Our old friend the laser beam is again employed to help level the dirt floor. A shallow grave is dug and the laser rests therein, with the beam shining at the proper level. Any dirt that gets hit by the laser must be removed.

Rake and shovel operators then attack the red-illuminated material with vigor, driving it just below the beam. When only a tiny ridge shows, the operator will stomp it down with his foot. Watching this whole process is like watching the videos of cats chasing the red dot from a laser pointer.

The compactor gets into the action, fine tuning the dirt surface. Eric noted that when the dirt surface is very near level, the compactor will run itself, without human intervention. Look, ma, no hands!












One Final Note of Interest - 

When I arrived Saturday morning, Troy was busy with the welder and the portable grinder. What are you up to, Troy?
"Just repairing the door for the mobile forklift."
It seems that the door can swing all the way around to the front and tangle with the wheel. Should that happen when the machine is in motion, the door does not perform well.

When your door falls off it is nice to have someone who knows how to put it back on.

January 28 - Inside and Outside Work

The Electrician Comes and Goes -

The electrician comes when no one else is in sight. I only know he was here because he leaves tracks. Tracks in the floor, tracks in the walls and pipes sticking up from the dirt. The photo on the right portrays the electrician’s work. What had been a perfectly good, solid piece of foam now has a fracture and a patch. On beyond the foam, a mostly buried pipe is seen. The buried pipe runs from the electrical panel towards the back of the building.  

Adjacent to the main panel is a series of pipes. These run through the dirt to various places in the building. I don’t know where all they run, but I hope the electrician remembers.

I asked Bob some time ago about wiring in a building with foam walls. I know with stud walls, the wiring is roughed in before the drywall is attached. Since the drywall will be attached directly on top of the foam blocks, and there was no provision for wiring in the concrete filling of the blocks, how does the building get wired, I wondered. I did not see it happen but again the electrician left tracks behind. Flexible metal cable is tucked into a trench in the foam, running down to an electrical box. So, how did the trench get cut into the wall? I am told that a hot wire did the trick. I did not see it happen but I think of a toaster and the red hot wire that toasts the bread. A device that heats a loop of metal wire gets inserted into the foam and melts its way down the wall to the spot where the box need to be. Maybe one of these days I wll sneak up on him when he is not looking and catch him in the act of making these electrical ‘foot prints’ that now adorn the floors and walls.





In Floor Heat - 

I got the story on the in floor heat tubing that was started last Saturday. The first noteworthy thing I learned is that there is a plan for laying the bright orange tubing. The vendor that sells the tubing, the manifolds and associated supplies also designs the layout.

The diagram shows how the whole building will be laid out. There are four manifolds denoted by the blue squares with a line to its location in the building. Each of the four manifolds has a number of tubing runs coming out of it. For example, the manifold on the lower left side of the diagram, physically located in the kitchen, has ten runs. Hot water comes to the manifold from the boiler at 140 degrees and is distributed out through the ten valves. Each run has a maximum of 450 feet of tubing. So the tubing for a given run must go out and back using less than 450 feet. So the only challenge is to figure out the number of manifolds needed, position them, they must be inside of walls, and lay out the tubing runs so the entire floor gets properly heated. The engineer figures this stuff all out and sends along this maze with the corresponding amount of tubing.  

The tubing comes in size large coils as shown stacked up in the corner. In total there will be about 12,500 feet of pretty orange tubing buried in the concrete floor.

Glen made up this handy dandy spool thingy to facilitate pulling tubing for positioning.

Plastic staples hold the tubing in place.

The maze of tubing will all be encased in concrete when the floor is poured. That is too bad. I think this maze would be a much greater challenge for the rodents than the wimpy rat runs in the trusses.



Pressure Testing the System - 

When all the runs for a given manifold are complete the system is tested. Glen hooks up a compressor and fills the tubes with 50 lbs of air pressure. Glen claims that if it does not leak air it will not leak water. Seems reasonable to me.

















Fifty pounds of pressure is approximately one and one half times the operating pressure when filled with water, so it is tested with a good margin of safety. For the final test it needs to hold the air pressure for 24 hours.








Planning the Next Steps -

Thursday evening the crew chiefs and their assistants met at the building to plot the next steps. Nate, Mark, Brent, Phil, Brian and Ken (behind Brian) gathered around the prints.

The result of the meeting is the chart now hanging on the wall.

























Immediately under the very legible chart is this diagram, which possibly encapsulates all of the chart information into one simple picture. It is also possible that it does not.
















Outside Work -
Saturday was warm enough that outside work could be done if one dressed warmly enough. And many workers dressed accordingly and labored out in the fresh air. No concern for excessive carbon monoxide levels on this day.

Aaron cuts soffit cover material.

Bill and Aare ascend the lift to hang the soffit covers.















Ed and Justin put up strips for
hanging siding.

I saw these benches stacked up outside the building. I am not certain how they are intended to be used. I could not help but wonder if after eight years of sitting on school cafeteria benches for services, is the building committee considering just using these for the church pews? I think it is not likely, but I have been surprised by so many things on this project already that I am just not sure of anything.