"The Shed"

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Byron510
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Re: "The Shed"

Post by Byron510 »

greenthumb wrote:Have you investigated the new(ish) wall mounted condensing boilers? Supposed to be pretty efficient.
Hi Henk, I didn’t answer your questions earlier this week. A little further above I mentioned the Rheem wall mounted boiler. I looked at one at our local heating supply outlet; they are bigger than I had envisioned the unit. But yes they do talk about very high efficiency. The heating guys tell me that hot water tanks will soon be a thing of the past as we are about to be mandated by the building code to eliminate hot water tanks all together in new construction and move to these in line style heaters for higher efficency.
greenthumb wrote: In my experience you don't want water that is too hot in a floor hydronic system. The heat spikes after the setpoint has been reached are not comfortable (as well as a waste of energy). That slab acts as a giant heat sink and keeps radiating that heat after your setpoint has been reached if the water is too warm. Some type of mixing valve may be required depending on the temp of the hot water coming in. The hot water tank may just be the ticket, although not sure what the muni will think of that. Of course after the final, you can do what you like.
My good friend Dan also mentioned this too me. I went out and bought another elbow to sink a pex line out into the middle of the floor. In this dead head line (capped off) I will run a thermostat temperature probe. In this way the thermostat is reading the slab temp, and not the air temp. This can avoid the ups and downs experienced by the air temp changes. I am mindful however that I may need to one day supplement the building with a forced air heater anyway, for those cold days when you open the bay door.
greenthumb wrote:A used tank could be had pretty cheaply, which would be less painful if it is inadequate. A tank replace is pretty easy if necessary down the road. One thing I would do is put a sloped drain near the spot you plan to have the heating source, in case of a failure down the road.
My .02 anyway.
good luck!
My thoughts exactly. If I go with a tank, and not a wall mounted unit, I do intend on placing this up the wall, on a raised edge platform, with a slope and drain back to the sink – I do understand that hot water tanks are not to be trusted!
Thank you guys for your thoughts on the subject – really appreciate them.

Byron
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Re: "The Shed"

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Yesterday I manages to get the in-floor manifold installed - fancy looking unit I must say.

And it held a 70 psi pressure test. I left it pressurized overnight, but I haven't gone out there to look at it this morning yet.
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Re: "The Shed"

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I also dug down to the footing level outside the man door, to prep the area for pouring a 7X3' slab. As the door swings outward, I'm worried about frost heaving affecting the door in the future. The slab will slope away from the door, but there still could be an issue. So my thoughts are to just get the water out from under the slab in the first place. The hole below is step 1.

Next I intend on packing the 3/4 crush with fines in the bottom at a slight angle towards the drain tile.

Since I have a roll of that dimple drain material left, which I used around the foundation, I might lay it down on top of this slight slope. Then fill up to the bottom of the slab level with 3/4 washer drain rock.

I have considered laying down a sheet of foam insulation under the slab as well, mostly to help stop the cold from getting down into the ground next to the door in the first place. Once the slab is poured, I can also insulate an angle away from the slab edges to help stop the frost. Or maybe this is just overboard in our climate where freezing is not a common occurrence.

I'll work on this some more tomorrow, hopefully finish up this area. Just for reference, the slab and finished grade will be roughly the bottom of that orange coloured strip on the dimple mat against the footing/foundation. The two pipes you see are the bay door drain (top) and the drain tile (bottom).

Byron
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Re: "The Shed"

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"BYRON"

The # 1 name in shed engineering!

Byron, after seeing your attention to detail I can't imagine the sloppy shortcut work which would be done by some contractors. My own house comes to mind. Heck I have a shop at our local airport where the entire floor drains AWAY from the sump drain. Concrete... it's there for ever. Door frames out of square by a couple inches, the list goes on.
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Re: "The Shed"

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No work being completed this weekend on the Shed as I'm 4 time zones away, but the weather has been fairly good for a south shore NS winter this past week. Certainly better than it was in the arctic 2 weeks where I was in Inuvik (north of the Arctic circle) for that week.

However last weekend I got 2 good days in on the Shed - and one good day with the family => making use of the family day long weekend.

First up, had to tighten down a few of the black pipe fittings on the water manifold adapters as it lost about 10 psi from Saturday to Monday. A dish soap mix told me I had small leaks at 3 joints. A few cranks on on two of then solved the problem. One had to be removed and a second wrap of tape applied - all looked good. Held perfect over 24 hours. I called in the inspector and on Wednesday the plumbing inspection on the in-floor heating was completed and I'm good to pour concrete on it - yeah!

Next up was twining the electrical box in the floor. As these outlets only support 1 plug, and since I ran 2 conduits, I figured two boxes were in order. One for 110V, the other for 220V or possibly 3Ph if required one day.
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Re: "The Shed"

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Next up was finishing the form preparation outside the man door. As noted above I was concerned about frost heaving. So I dug down to the drain tile, packed a slope towards the drain tile with road base and tamped as best I could by hand.
I build the forms on top, pounded in some stakes and secured the form to the wall. I’ll need to put one more brace to the center of that long board shown, it was a bit wobbly and the last thing I want to see is a blow out on pour day!
Once the forms were hung and in place leveled with a ¼” slope, I laid down some rail screen dimple material left over from wrapping the foundation and then filled up the hole with ¾ clear crush. I bought a full yard of crush thinking it was way more than I needed. But it actually wasn’t enough- damn. A bit deceiving when I looked at the excavation and the gravel loaded on the trailer. I’ll need another ½ yard I’m sure.

I had foreman dad come out and check my work - got his thumbs up.
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Re: "The Shed"

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I'll definitely be placing more rebar on a 16" grid in this pad, but this pad will be separated from the slab in the building by a compacted paper strip, unlike the drain outside the bay door which is connected to the shop slab.

Another feature I thought I’d add here was insulation under the pad to help stop cold transfer through the pad into the ground - to assist in eliminating the frost heaving. Is this over engineering it? Any thoughts from the builder’s peanut gallery out there? I’m all ears.

Byron
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Re: "The Shed"

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And since we are on the topic of the shed - I just found this on a ZX forum - man I love it. And I think I'm going to have it. I have a couple broken ZX tranny's around.

One guy commented that he was going to build a pair of V8 headers for faucets, so he can always wash his hands with two Hookers and a Tranny.....

Byron
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Re: "The Shed"

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This just reeks of awesomeness!!!
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Re: "The Shed"

Post by WxMan »

That is genius!

If you used a 4 spd you could put a hinge on the inspection cover have some storage space in there.
The company motto seems to be "We're not happy 'till you're not happy."
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Re: "The Shed"

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WxMan wrote:That is genius!

If you used a 4 spd you could put a hinge on the inspection cover have some storage space in there.
I like your train of thought my friend.

Byron
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Re: "The Shed"

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Looking at the long term forecast, yesterday I pulled the trigger on the concrete - Wednesday is slab day! I see the overnight temps are falling to 3 C now, dropping 1 degree from yesterday, but I hope all will be ok for the pour.

I have lined up the concrete supply company and delivery - Lafarge. Tom concrete pumping will supply the pumper truck again. I have Brookville Contracting coming in with 4 guys to do the placing and finishing. The thing with concrete is that you have only one shot to get it right, so hopefully my homework in selecting the right contractors works out for the best.

The concrete needs to be 32 MPA to meet the engineering spec, and an estimted 19 cubic meters is needed for the 5-6" slab ~ $4000 for the concrete plus delivery. However there are options;

-Hard Cem
-Lithium densifiers
-sealers in many ranges

The Hard Cem is a concrete hardener put into the mix at the plant - before it even gets put in the truck. It will significantly harden the end product throughout, but also has the additional bonus of creaming a bit better on the surface, allowing the finisher to create a more dense surface which will end up being less porous. Cost $50/meter - $950.

I like the lithium densifiers. This product is applied after 28-32 days, is a chemical applied to the surface that densifies the concrete, significantly hardens the surface and also becomes a permanent sealer that can not wear off. I was told you can drop a sledge hammer on this treated surface and it will not break, and that the hammer would litterally bounce back at you. However this treatment comes at a cost - $4.5 sqf - $5800!!!

Sealers are applied after the concrete has cured, and last 1-2 years depending on use. There seems to be some lithium based sealers as well, I'll have to look into these a little more closely. Cost is significantly less that the former two options, but also less effective. $100-500 depending on product.

I think I am going to go with the Hard Cem, and then apply a sealer once cured. The lithium densifier option sounds great, but at what costs! it's more than the concrete itself. Anyone out there have any testimonials?

At any rate, I'm pretty excited to be soon getting my floor.

Byron
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Re: "The Shed"

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Byron510 wrote: One guy commented that he was going to build a pair of V8 headers for faucets, so he can always wash his hands with two Hookers and a Tranny.....

Byron
That sounds like dark web material! :mrgreen:

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Re: "The Shed"

Post by dscottdatsun »

You might also consider painting the floor with a urethane after it cures. I worked for an outfit that applied it in the pits under the cnc machines at Boeing. It was chemically resistant and made for easy clean-up.
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Re: "The Shed"

Post by 66DUCE »

Stopped by to look at this mammoth project, nice to meet you Byron. Pictures do not do this project justice good luck on the cement work!
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