In this episode I will cover a couple of issues we had with the floor in the garage loft and the ceiling in the utility room. ITB, In The Beginning, will take a look at month 15 of construction, which is starting to get close to seeing snow again, and I will also have an update to the goings on at Our Country Cottage.
The floor in the garage loft was to be low cost. No stamped cement with in floor radiant heating pipes here. In fact I didn’t want any fluids at all in the loft or garage. No plumbing to worry about. I saw the loft being the first place to be shut down to conserve energy in the winter. Sure I have had visions of a small pot belly stove in the corner somewhere, someday.
During a visit to the floor/carpet/tile place I selected an inexpensive laminate that would do the job. These types of floors are very durable, being able to take a lot of punishment. Just the thing for a man cave, kinda place, with the odd table tennis match and work out area, not to mention various construction projects, yet to be thought of.
The only down side to the stuff is that it doesn’t stand up to water very well. Given the plans not to have any in the place, should be good.
Now, I thought it would be nice to have some heat. Maybe extend the shoulder seasons a bit. I looked into a form of electric heating that would go under the laminate. Yes, the heating pad specs stated that it could be used under laminate.
I didn’t want to put electric heat under the whole loft floor but I figured that if I had it under where I would be sitting, I might get enough to keep my feet warm and I could even hang something round my desk to trap the heat in. To this end I worked out that I would be willing to use up to 1000 watts of power for this heat pad, and that a 10 by 10 foot square, in front of the window, directly where I wanted my desk, would do.
I set about to get the flooring/carpet/tile company to do this for me. The first reply, was, that this would not work and I would be better off putting the heater under the whole floor. I had to explain that we were off grid, with limited power, and it was not intended to keep the place cozy in the dead of winter. After all it was a loft over a garage. I ended up by saying I wanted a 10 by 10 foot square centered under the main window, with a maximum of 1000 watts in electric use. They replied that the floor would have to be cut and a border placed around the perimeter. I agreed, restating my goals.
The installers from the company had some issues. I guess they were not used to working so far out of town or something. The first guy showed up, totally unprepared, with no supplies or plans. I guess he just wanted to have a ride in the country. I wasn’t there for most of it, relying on the job site supervisor. He had a few stories.
Anyway, what we ended up with was a 10 by 10 foot square centered under the main window, with a perimeter of a low profile edging. Easy enough to roll a chair over. The border, however, was made up of smaller bits. There was at least two pieces per side. Some joined in the centre some three or four inches from a corner. It was like they used what ever they had laying around. Then there was a thermostat on the wall by the window to control the heat pad. That was OK, but the heat pad turned out to be only 400 watts, less than half what I asked for. I know from my own research that what I asked for would have fit. Again, I think they used what they had lying around.
All this took place in the latter stages of cottage completion and my enthusiasm for battle was, in decline. I let it ride to some extent. I certainly didn’t want these guys back to fix it. I do remember working on some financial bartering about this when the final bill was being tallied.
How well does it work? I’ll let you know when I try it out.
On to the ceiling in the utility room. If you recall from the last episode, the battery room and utility rooms were sheeted with plywood. I had carefully left out the fact that the utility room ceiling had not been sheeted even though the battery room ceiling had, and so the story begins.
Sheeting utilitarian rooms is handy as it gives a surface to mount things to. It also fulfills the requirement to cover the spray foam insulation with some protection from fire. Yes, I had all the external walls and ceilings spray foamed. I had some of the internal walls spray foamed as well, but that’s another story.
As it turned out, when it came time to sheet the utility room ceiling, there was enough stuff already mounted to it that made it difficult to do, so it remained un-sheeted, till the home inspector saw it, and informed the site supervisor it had to be sheeted.
I remember being there when the plywood showed up and was unloaded onto our back deck. It seemed like it stayed there for several months. The contractor was clearly not looking forward to cutting this plywood in and around the plumbing and venting and electrical stuff that was in place and somewhat still growing.
Then, a revelation. The company that spray foamed the cottage etc, said they had a product they could spray onto the foam that would satisfy the fire requirements. They came back, and sprayed the problem away. Not so fast.
And this part was a bit strange. I received an invoice for the spray job and mailed a check off to them, I thought. After about a month or so I noticed that the check had not been cashed and started to doubt the fact that I actually mailed it. If you had any incite to my state of mind, at that time, you would understand.
So I called the company to see if they had got the check, only to find out that, and get this, the local inspector did not approve of the type of spray that was used and would not sign off on it and because of this the company wasn’t going to charge me for the work they had done. Wow! Just goes to show there are still honourable people out there. I was blown away. I still don’t remember what happened to the check…
Anyway, back to sheeting, and yes, the plywood was still on our back deck. Our site supervisor, really not wanting to finagle the ceiling with plywood started looking into other spray solutions, and found one. Happy happy. He even called the inspector to confirm the spray and company.
I could tell that our site supervisor was very upset when he was telling me this “good news”. He told me that when he called the inspector to see if they would accept this spray done by the company he had found, he was told, yes, we use them all the time. What! They use them all the time.
I know, for ethical reasons, the inspector might not be able to recommend a company, but really, they couldn’t even give us a clue?
I can only imagine what was going through our site supers mind. He is the kind of guy that would have spent a lot of time trying to come to a solution for us, only to find out the inspector had the answer all along.
So the ceiling got sprayed and a sticker, with information of the product was given to me to put on the electrical panel. I took a picture of it, in place, and emailed it to the job co-ordinator, who passed it on to the inspector. Done and done.
Just keep in mind this ceiling issue went on for several months. Oh, and the plywood, on the back deck, was picked up and returned for credit.
Next
ITB, In The Beginning, Month 15.
In this segment I try to remember how we got Our Country Cottage. For the most part I refer to pictures I took when we visited the site. From time to time I kept a journal, but, I have found that when things aren’t going well the journal suffers. Pictures are easy to take and can reveal more info than you expect when you review them. So if you are building, take lots of pix and make sure the date is correct on your camera.
Our first visit to Our Country Cottage, for month 15, revealed several changes.
-First, we had steps up to the deck, all the decks. We no longer had to fear a groin pull, every time we went into the place.
-Number 2, we had a garage door complete with opener that we couldn’t use, cause we had no power.
-And C, a different car was parked in front. It was the painter, checking out the place, sizing up the job. Oooh paint…
-There was also a big pile of gravel waiting to be spread around.
Our next visit found the wood, tongue and groove, ceiling had been installed in the living room. That was a big job.
Back in the city we visited the light supply place, trying to come to terms with selecting vast amounts of light fixtures with the picture references I had made. Sorta worked.
Back at the cottage I had made a cardboard stand in for some of the lights and we took turns holding them in place to get an idea of scale. The bathtub upstairs had been spray foamed as requested. This was an attempt to retain the temperature of the hot water for long, soothing baths, while looking at the scenery.
Hey, and the generator was put on the generator pad. The solar suppliers had also left us their solar trailer. It had panels on the top and batteries inside with an inverter. The idea was to have the trades use the power from this, as there was a delay or something with our cottage solar power system. As it turned out, no one actually used it. I guess, unfamiliar stuff. A nice thought, though.
The garage and garage loft got dry walled. I was surprised to see the actual garage dry walled, but the contractor said this was standard for them. I still have to paint it but it does make it nicer.
We then had another visit to the lighting supply place, with our findings and to firm up the order.
In the last week, or so, of the month we found solar equipment boxes in the battery room. The utility room had a water pressure tank and the air exchange unit was installed with the duct work.
The last visit of the month, had us being the only ones there, with snow on the ground.
And now,
An, Our Country Cottage, Update
Funny how things work. If you remember the last update I mentioned that I went up to the Cottage to check on the batteries and reported the batteries were fine but a trail cam had stopped working. Well for some reason the batteries were weighing heavily on my mind. Maybe I should have topped them up, after all.
Then, the alert system, that was supposed to send me the temp twice a day, failed. I got that sick, gut check, feeling, I get when technical things go wrong.
My vehicle was in the shop for the morning, and my partner was at the dentist. I took the time to verify the system I had at home, for testing purposes, to take up to the cottage, and swap out the supposedly bad one.
I had visions of the batteries running out of water and failing or the spring thaw finding its way into the battery room and flooding the place out, causing catastrophic failure. Or maybe the place burned down.
My vehicle was ready when promised and my partner returned from the dentist in good time so I made an afternoon run to the cottage.
More nasty scenarios played out in my head during the drive, solar panels covered with snow, but when I got there, all was OK. The solar panels were clear and the cottage was standing, with no sign of bad things happening. The monitor in the back hall even reported the batteries were at 100%, fully charged. Real good.
There were piles of snow here and there with a bunch hovering over the battery room hatch. I pulled most of it down with a roof rake, cleared off the hatch, because that is where the snow lands when you pull it off the roof, and went into the battery room. Everything appeared normal, so I topped off the batteries, good for another six weeks, and went into the cottage to see why I wasn’t getting my alerts.
A quick test revealed nothing, so I just swapped it with the one I brought. I ran another quick test on both systems and they both reported with the usual, All OK, email, along with the temperature. I would test the failed unit in the city.
While I was there I decided to check the trail cam that was giving problems last time. It was working perfectly, and, when I got the SD card back to the city it showed how much snow had fallen and disappeared, several times in the course of a couple of weeks, at Our Country Cottage.
So, the batteries needed topping up and the trail cam was fine.
Just the reverse of the last update.
When I tested the failed alert unit, in the city, it worked perfectly. I updated the operating system and all seems OK. Electronics!
Next podcast, Episode#15 Doors and Dividers and ITB “In The Beginning” month 16 of construction.
For pictures and more info, you can visit our website at www.ourcountrycottageanarrative.com
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Till next time, have a good one.