Mystery Hill House Construction

It’s been quite a while since the last post; things have been super busy both at work and on the construction front – but progress in the last month has been excellent.

 First, Gibson Timberframes completed the frame and the installation of the SIP panels. This took a few extra weeks of hard work, but the end result is spectacular.

John, Richard and Jamie also installed the ceiling (tongue and groove pine) over the second floor, before the roof SIP panels were installed. Most of the boards were primed before being installed, so this gives quite a good idea of how the ceiling will ultimately look (natural beams with painted T&G). 

John and Richard (B&C) also continued work on the first floor of ICF – finishing the master bedroom and hallway. This was poured in mid-august (I missed the pour unfortunately – was away on vacation). The roof of the wine cellar was poured at the same time.

Since the pour, John M has been busy with the backhoe, filling in the garage and completing rough grading. We also (finally) got the electrical service sorted out; Hydro was out earlier this week installing new poles at the street, the transformer, the meter and doing the final hookup.

Finally, Rene and I spent last weekend installing Typar over the house walls (SIP panels). We are not quite done yet (the high parts of the walls could not be done with laddrs – they will require extra scaffolding) but all window openings are closed, which will help keep the inside of the house dry. The main drawback of the Typar is how ugly it looks – the house is now a big ad for Home Depot. I much preferred the look of SIP panels with rows of screws and washers.

It’s been a while since my last post on the blog – in the last month we’ve had amazing progress.

After the ICF was completed, Richard, John and Michel switched to doing the floor decks. This involved first installing all the supporting steel beams, followed by the floor joists, and finally the plywood subfloor. As expected, this was more complicated than we anticipated, but we got it completed in time to allow the Gibson Timberframe crew to start raising the timberframe.

The timberframers then arrived and started assembling the frame. It is quite amazing to see some 200 pieces of pre-cut lumber get unloaded and assembled to form the skeleton of our house. Even more amazing that the pieces all fit!

The frame got raised over the last couple of weeks and was completed at the end of last week.

The Gibson crew has now moved on to installing the SIP panels over the roof and walls. You can see the roof panels below over the great room:

They are continuing to put panels up all week and next – we should have this part completely closed in sometime late next week. In the meantime, Richard and John have continued the ICF over the master bedroom, but have been diverted for a few days to install the pine T&G ceiling over the second floor roof in the timberframe (we are installing the pine ceiling before the SIP panels are installed). 

Things have progressed quite a bit since the last post. Richard and John from B&C construction along with Michel did most of the work. First, they continued laying down row after row of ICF blocks. Once this got to 4 rows of blocks (about 5 feet high), they started installing the special ICF bracing. The bracing is pretty cool as it not only supports the walls, but also creates a scaffold that you can walk on to install the higher courses.

 

We initially had rented 50 sets of braces. This turned out to be well short of what we required. Richard had to call various contacts and in the end we obtained another 60 sets (for a total of 110 braces). Richard, John and Michel continued installing the bracing and the blocks; this turned out to be more time-consumming than expected due to the complexity of the house.

Initially, we set as a target to pour the walls on June 22, but as the week progressed it was clear we would not be ready – so we re-booked the concrete and pump for the Monday (June 25). Even with the extra days, Rene, Richard, John and I had to work non-stop on Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning to be ready for the pour. This is how things looked on Monday morning:

For the day of the pour, we had a total of 6 people – Richard and John (B&C), Michel, John Marquardt, Rene and myself. The concrete pump showed up around noon – we got going and poured until 7:30 that night.

This was a very large pour but all went quite smoothly – no blowouts or major problems – but it was a long day. In the end, everyone was happy with the result:

Now we have to move on to the next stages: remove the bracing, clean the site, install the waterproofing and install the floor. After that, we will be ready for the second ICF story and the timberframe.

Out of interest, we have been keeping statistics on the materials we have used. This is how the basement stacks up:

• 500 feet of wall 
• 750 ICF blocks
• 38 corners and angles
• 110 braces
• 7000 feet of rebar
• 64 metres of ICF concrete
• 3 weeks to build and pour

This is of course on top of what was used for the footings – 27 metres of concrete and 1000 feet of rebar.

Marco and John came back this week to survey and mark the house corners on the footings. After that, the ICF folks started laying down the blocks, starting with the more complex parts of the layout. Here’s a couple of pictures showing what this looks like:

 Rene came to visit for the weekend; we worked to take apart the formork for the footings. This was a pretty difficult job, having to pry and dig out the stakes. It took a whole day to completely dismantle the forms (this took Michel 3 weeks to build). Here’s all that’s left of the forms:

Rene and I also installed most of the drain, covered it with gravel, and started leveling the crushed stone in the basement floor.

After lots of last minute preparation, we were all set to pour the footings Saturday morning. The concrete pump was scheduled for 7:30 AM with the first concrete truck set for 8AM. The pump arrived as scheduled and got set up.

 We had lots of help lined up: Michel, John, Derrick, Brian and Linda. The day was cloudy and humid, perfect conditions!

Things went very smoothly, we were basically done pouring the concrete by 11AM.

 

The end result – the completed footings!

Michel spent the last couple of weeks completing the formwork and levelling everything. The was grueling work (there is almost 500 feet of footings with many steps and angles); he worked relentlessly to get this completed for Saturday morning’s pour.

For the forms, we used the FastFoot product (a plastic membrane that holds the concrete). It has several advantages – first, the formwork is built with 2×4 suspended above ground (instead of full 2×8), making it easier to level and place the forms. Second, the plastic membrane stays in place after the pour, providing a continuous moisture barier below the footings and the floor slab. Although not required, we also installed rebar in the footings for added strength and crack control. Here’s an example of what  the formwork with the Fastfoot product looks like (you can see the future screened-in porch in the back):

Here’s another picture that shows the plastic membrane used for forming steps:

We had the building department inspection and the engineering (geotechnical) inspections Friday afternoon. Both passed and were are have the green light to pour the footings.

Michel, John and I worked late Friday night and started again Saturday at 5AM to finish the Fastfoot and rebar installation before the concrete and pump shows up at 7:30 Saturday.

Rene and Jacob-Alexandre visited us on the weekend. Christophe, Marie, Felix and Femmy came to help on Saturday. Below is the weekend crew:

 We got many things done: cut rebar, dug  footings, took care of the trees, all while Felix played in the sand.

We also received the first load of ICF blocks on Friday night. Here’s Jacob-Alexandre showing off the big stack of blocks:

We finally got the permit a few weeks ago and started the construction! The excavation was quite laborious, it took over 3 days to complete with a backhoe – thanks to Elio and John.

Next we will start the laying out the footings. It’s all very exciting!