plumbing rough-in

The past several weeks have thrummed along with good progress. It was exciting to see so much activity on site with several trades working concurrently. Work done over the past few weeks includes:

Interior walls and service walls built, framing finished
Exterior insulation installed
Exterior wrap started, including soffits, fascia, window capping
Garage doors installed
Plumbing rough-in
Electrical walk-through and rough-in
HVAC rough-in
Chimney and air intake rough-in for woodstove
Ceiling insulation installed

Our house was recently assessed at 61 percent complete – finally more done than there is left to do (in theory at least)! We’re getting to the point where we can start tackling some of the work ourselves. First task will be installing the final layer of insulation in the service walls before the drywallers come at the end of April.

Image of exterior house under construction — The snow is finally melting!

Image of exterior of house under construction with exterior insulation visible — The snow is finally melting!

The service wall consists of 2×4 studs along the exterior walls and 2×2 furring strips on the ceiling. All the electrical and plumbing are meant to run through the service wall so that there’s a continuous layer of insulation to the outside. We’ll be adding R-14 Rockwool insulation batts to the 2×4 walls for our final layer of insulation, bringing the walls to R-48. The ceiling had 22 inches of cellulose insulation blown in with an R-value of 77.

Prior to the electrical rough-in, our electrician drew a draft plan of where he thoughts light fixtures, switches and outlets would go, we then made edits and did a walk through to confirm placement and types of fixtures, making sure things like switches weren’t placed behind doors or furniture. Unfortunately, when it came to the rough-in, something got lost in communication and the electricians who carried out the work ran wires through the attic, poking holes in the vapour barrier rather than running along the service wall on the ceiling, so that had to get patched and sealed. The electrician has also had some back and forth with Hydro Ottawa, trying to convince them to allow the service line for the electrical hookup to skirt around the driveway rather than cross it, as crossing under the driveway will require encasing the line in concrete ($$$). That plan was rejected, however, so we’ll have to have concrete poured. On the plus side, a new hydro pole was finally installed and the culvert was unblocked after several calls from our project manager. Because we only needed one pole, which is located in the right of way, we didn’t have to pay for the replacement. It came in the nick of time too, as a recent ice storm brought down several trees and hydro lines throughout the area.

This week, we should receive our first blower door test to determine how airtight the house is, along with final framing inspection so we can get to work on insulation and get things cleaned up for the drywallers. We’re also working our way through a long shopping list, getting things like bathroom fixtures, vanities and cabinets bought so they’re ready to go when we need them.

Image of birch trees that have fallen — We lost several birch trees in a recent ice storm

Image of wood beams in house under construction — We lost several birch trees in a recent ice storm

After delays with excavation, we were excited to move on to the foundation and then framing where we would finally start to see our house take shape.

Foam for our foundation was delivered on a stormy day at the end of August, precipitating a mad dash to the site where we ran around in the mud getting everything under a tarp so it wouldn’t blow away in the wind. The foam was neat though, like Lego blocks that fit together in a tidy puzzle.

Our house is being built on a raft slab foundation. This type of foundation forgoes footings below the frostline and instead ‘floats’ on top of the ground. A thick layer of foam insulates the concrete slab against freezing and frost heave. Loops of drainage tile and grading around the slab move water away. Benefits were that we could avoid blasting through bedrock close below the surface and cost savings due to ease of installation. The slab designer didn’t quite get the design right, overlooking the need to insulate between the heated house slab and unheated porches to avoid thermal bridges but our project manager caught this and was able to correct it during install.

With the foam laid, next came install of tubing for in-floor radiant heat. My toes are excited for this feature. We had tubing laid in the garage to give us the option to add a manifold to heat that space in future.

Image of foam under tarp with muddy foreground — Our foam nearly blew away in the wind

Image of plumbing rough-ins and foam perimeter for raft slab foundation — Our foam nearly blew away in the wind

Things were moving along at a good clip when we hit our next little snag. A national cement shortage halted work for a few weeks while our project manager sourced cement for our pour. Luckily though, the wait wasn’t too long and the slab was completed by the beginning of October. A sealant was applied after the pour, which will need some touch ups toward the end of the build but this will be our finished floor. I thought it looked like the skating rink we’d cleared on the pond the winter before.

Image of freshly poured concrete slab foundation as sun sets — The freshly poured slab

Image of concrete slab foundation with plumbing rough-ins visible — The freshly poured slab

Foundation done we were ready for framing.

Marlborough Forest House

Building our eco home in the forest

Rough-ins

The Foundation