Building a new house and shop (4 Viewers)

[1911]

Rented a trenching machine today and dug 3 trenches (plus used it to extend a drainage ditch I had made with a mini excavator several years ago).

 

[greenbeast]

What did a day with that fine piece of machinery cost?

 

[1911]

What did a day with that fine piece of machinery cost?

$220 with tax and everything. I was kind of surprised it was that cheap to tell the truth.

 

[Dunbar]

With rentals it's sometimes not the daily rate but if the unit will actually run when you get it to the site. Always have them start it to see it works. My daughter built an amphitheater for Camp Valor in Conroe for her Stars and Stripes project, think Eagle Scout project but for American Heritage Girls, and raised to the 3rd power. It's a reahab camp for Vets and first responders with PTSD. We had to drill 36 post holes with a 12" auger 3' deep. The first 2 man unit was crap. Throttle and safety kill were inoperable. When started, it stared turning without control input and would die on load. Got 3 holes done in 3 hours. Threw her whole schedule off with over a dozen volunteers. Next day rental company, different location, have us a new one and the other 33 holes took less than an hour.

 

[greenbeast]

$220 with tax and everything. I was kind of surprised it was that cheap to tell the truth.

Agree, doubt I can rent attachment for skid steer that cheap.

 

[1911]

I've been working outside in the early mornings from just before sunup to about 10:00; by then it is hot and I am tired. The trenches are taking quite a bit of clean-out by hand, because of the unavoidable intersections between the three trenches, and having to reverse direction with the trencher. I also had to deepen the water line trench by hand, with a pickaxe, for a maybe 6' stretch where the ground is 100% hard clay and the trench goes up the side of an incline. The trenching machine could not dig straight down there, being off-camber. The cutting teeth and bar were laying to one side and the friction would make it bog and not be able to go deep enough. So, I had to deepen it another foot or so there to get the water line deep enough not to ever freeze. A lot of work, chipping out a couple of inches at a time with the pickaxe, and then having to manually push the clay off the blade of the pickaxe after every stroke. I probably lost a couple pounds of water, but got it done this morning and got the PEX line for the water 90% buried in cushion sand. Had to shovel in the cushion sand by hand, from the tractor bucket into the trench, half the time stepping over the other trenches. My workout for the day!

Satisfying to do it all myself at 66 years old. Mrs. 1911 did help some with cleaning loose material out of the trenches, but her arms are too short to reach the bottom of the trenches.

 

[1911]

Power lines all pulled through the 2" conduit and connected to the main disconnect next to the meter base:

Back-filling the trench with cushion sand:

Electric co-op is coming out on Wednesday to set the meter.

 

[1911]

Coincidentally the same day as @knuckle47 , the electric co-op came out first thing this morning, passed all of my work, set the meter, and connected everything to the transformer - so now I have power available inside the house any time I want it by flipping the big breaker on the 200-amp disconnect.

 

[knuckle47]

@1911 great to hear you have the electric connection behind you…. Kind of cool to walk inside the dark building now and flip on the lights.

 

[knuckle47]

@1911 am I looking at 18 different conduits?

 

[1911]

@1911 am I looking at 18 different conduits?

Yes. Remember that my house is all concrete (except for a few interior walls that will be framed up), so 90% of the conduits were cast into the concrete walls and ceilings, then run under the concrete floors to that utility room. Hence for all of those, there can be no drilling through studs to run them where you want, they just are where they were when the concrete was poured.

In that photo, everything to the left of the URD main power cables is 120 v circuits for the house. The empty, slightly larger conduits are going to be for 240 v for the oven and HVAC. The four taller conduits to the right of the URD main power cables are all "media" cabling; ethernet ports, cell phone boosters, satellite tv, etc. Though now that we have Starlink, we ditched our satellite tv service so there is coax run to 5 rooms that won't be used now. The media cables will have their own separate dedicated panel/enclosure in the wall.

 

[knuckle47]

@1911 this had to have taken some very advanced thinking …..And planning. But, I did forget about this being your home as well. I would also think that any change of design would make it harder but you have most of the hard work done and you can still chase thru the framing in some places

i was so excited to have my electric line and trench inspected and approved so that the power company would get to the top of the pole, I forgot to run a separate conduit in that trench for the tv and internet stuff…now that’s planning!

thank goodness for direct burial cabling

 

[1911]

@1911 this had to have taken some very advanced thinking …..And planning. But, I did forget about this being your home as well. I would also think that any change of design would make it harder but you have most of the hard work done and you can still chase thru the framing in some places

i was so excited to have my electric line and trench inspected and approved so that the power company would get to the top of the pole, I forgot to run a separate conduit in that trench for the tv and internet stuff…now that’s planning!

thank goodness for direct burial cabling

Yeah, we had to know/approve where all the outlets and switches would be before construction of the concrete shell began. Of course, knowing what we know now, we might have made some different decisions, but there's nothing we can't live with so far. And you're right in that there is a ton of electrical work that is already done for us in the basic construction, so that a bunch of it will just be putting in outlet receptacles, switches and lights, and connecting the other end of the wires (already pulled through conduit) to the main panel. As soon as I get the main panel in, I can start doing that.

I know exactly what you mean about being excited to have power trenched in and approved; my wife laughs at me (a little bit) for being so excited about having it done, but it's a major step forward for sure. It will seem much more like a house when I can plug stuff in or throw a switch and have a light come on.

I was forced to consider my other trenches and conduits for propane and water at the same time as the power, because they all come out the same end of the house, and will be under a concrete slab driveway for the garages, so I needed to do them all at once so that concrete can be poured without having to dig across my power line conduit at a later time. More work in the short term but a work savings in the long run.

I just finished cutting, cementing, and laying my propane-line conduit last night. The second regulator has to be outside the house, and the conduit comes out of the house right under the garage and eventual driveway, so the second regulator is going to be just past the corner of the garage driveway, up against the foundation footer for the northern retaining wall:

I'll eventually have to make one more trench from here to the propane tank, another 100'. I cut probably half of it when I had the rented trencher, but stopped because I'm not ready to lay that line yet and I didn't want a trench left open in an area that we walk on all the time. Have a lot of planning and calculating to do, to design the the right line sizes and regulators to make sure that I have enough line pressure and volume for the water heater and clothes dryer that will be at the other end of the house. It is 100' from the tank to the second regulator, 70' from the second regulator into the kitchen of the house on the north end, and another 76' from the entry point in the kitchen back to the water heater and dryer near the south end of the house.

My grandsons are coming over later today to back fill all of the trenches the rest of the way. I've already got them at least half full with nice clean and sorted cushion sand.

 

[1911]

Five months later; progress is coming! We've been waiting on the builder to come back and show us how to skim/plaster over the interior concrete, and he's finally got the time to come, he'll be here Sunday night and work for us all the next week. I'm going to take the week off from any consulting work so I can observe and learn as much as possible. Anticipating this being a major step forward, which will enable us to keep forging ahead on our own and make steady progress. We're pretty excited.

 

[scrapdaddy]

You're going to have one heck of a story to tell when it's all done.

 

[65swb45]

Five months later; progress is coming! We've been waiting on the builder to come back and show us how to skim/plaster over the interior concrete, and he's finally got the time to come, he'll be here Sunday night and work for us all the next week. I'm going to take the week off from any consulting work so I can observe and learn as much as possible. Anticipating this being a major step forward, which will enable us to keep forging ahead on our own and make steady progress. We're pretty excited.

Ask LOTS of questions! I've been doing stucco and drywall since I was 17, and there's SO much I take for granted at this point. Knowing how much moisture to have or not have on the surface to be treated beforehand to control the drying rate. How much moisture to have in the product itself (varies by the layer). Some guys like to trowel lots of product and don't worry about how much falls off the tool before it's spread. There are percentages based on the tools being used.

If he starts in the middle of the wall, instead of the top or the bottom, there's a reason. There is so much technique that's just taken for granted after doing the same thing for decades.

 

[1911]

Ask LOTS of questions! I've been doing stucco and drywall since I was 17, and there's SO much I take for granted at this point. Knowing how much moisture to have or not have on the surface to be treated beforehand to control the drying rate. How much moisture to have in the product itself (varies by the layer). Some guys like to trowel lots of product and don't worry about how much falls off the tool before it's spread. There are percentages based on the tools being used.

If he starts in the middle of the wall, instead of the top or the bottom, there's a reason. There is so much technique that's just taken for granted after doing the same thing for decades.

Thanks Mark. This is all new to me; I plan on taking lots of videos, if I can while watching and listening. I'm willing to try most anything. I didn't know a thing about AC house power and wiring a year ago, and now I'm pretty comfortable with it, so I guess an old dog can learn new tricks.

 

[PIP]

I did lots of drywall without a clue. Tons of sanding. A dozen cycles of mud and sand lol. Then a friend sent me a video "How to mix your drywall mud correctly" or something. Guy showed all the tricks and explained it great. I did my shop office that's 14'x30' in no time. Taped it in an hour. Did all the mud next day in one coat. Touched up with a sponge, shot texture, painted and it looks great. Best drywall I'd done. And it was so easy with the mud mixed right and using the tools right.

 

[knuckle47]

Funny but i also did tons of drywall with no real experience. Then I bought one of those vacuum sander with the 12” discs…..PIECE OF CAKE. Lessons learned form 20 years of intermittent sheet rock work

 

[Honger]

I did lots of drywall without a clue. Tons of sanding. A dozen cycles of mud and sand lol. Then a friend sent me a video "How to mix your drywall mud correctly" or something. Guy showed all the tricks and explained it great. I did my shop office that's 14'x30' in no time. Taped it in an hour. Did all the mud next day in one coat. Touched up with a sponge, shot texture, painted and it looks great. Best drywall I'd done. And it was so easy with the mud mixed right and using the tools right.

You got a link to that video? Ha!