Crestone Domes

After getting the trusses up, we had to keep shoveling snow, inside the house, until we got the boards on. Lots of work… We used 5/8″ OSB wafer board, and the trusses had to be pushed left or right to straighten out the roof as we were going. So, how do you get the roof straight if you don’t even know if your bottom or sides are straight?

Here is a trick we used. Measure from each corner 48 1/2″ up and put a string line across the trusses. Once you have the first line of boards lined up correctly, the rest follows without trouble. But, the beginning must be right. Also, mark the edge of the board every 2′ so you know where the center of each truss has to come to. If the trusses are a bit off, make sure you push them to the correct place before nailing them in place, or you’ll get in trouble on the next row.

After putting all the boards in place, we covered the roof with 30lb felt paper. Why not ice and water shield? You try getting that to stick in freezing weather! And, not only that, it is way expensive, too. We have always used felt paper in the past. You just have to cover it up quickly so it doesn’t get blown into shreds.

Tags: roof

We ordered the trusses from a company out of Albuquerque called Champion Truss. It is a rather large company so I thought we would be guaranteed nice trusses, since that is all they do. But, unfortunately, you can’t assume anything, and we should probably have researched it more.
When the trusses were delivered, the first thing we noticed was that the end trusses were made to the wrong dimensions, and the bottom truss was smashed to bits. The company asked us to send them a picture of the broken truss and sent us a signed architect drawing showing us how to fix it. The only problem was that the drawing described a part of the truss that wasn’t even broken.
My husband can pretty much fix anything, but a truss that is completely smashed and splintered is beyond his capasity to fix. So he got a hold of the owner of the company and the owner agreed to come and see for himself what the trusses were like.
As they went through the trusses, one by one, they discovered another truss with a break through the top cord, even though it had a stamp of approval on it as well!
Basically, they ended up replacing five of the trusses, but the owner insisted that the end trusses were fine (which they were not!), so we didn’t get those replaced, and it caused two weeks of hassles trying to fit the out riggers on trusses that were made to the wrong dimensions.
Anyway, a week later, the new trusses were supposed to be delivered. The driver showed up in a semi just as the sun was setting, and my husband had to rig up lights and try to back him in as far as he could up the driveway. They had to unload the trusses by hand, and as the driver was leaving, he took a 20′ tree out on the way out of the driveway! Needless to say, my husband was fuming. After negotiating with the company for another week to see if they would give us some kind of compensation, the owner basically told my husband that it was his fault that the tree had come down, because he had tricked the driver into a difficult position, and that if we wanted to go to court, this was the story he was going to stick to…
Anyway, we got the trusses up onto the walls, and they were so twisted and warped that Nigell got really depressed. Some were higher than others, some were longer than others. They didn’t even bother to measure accurately that the 2×4’s on the end trusses were 2 feet apart. It was basically the shittiest trusses we have ever seen, and we want the whole world to know that if you can take your business elsewhere, you are better off avoiding Champion Truss. The workmanship is way below par, and they have no integrity or customer service. I hope they lose their stamp as well as their business…
So, when it comes to ordering engineered trusses, make sure you ask local builders who they would recommend. Trusses cost a lot of money, and if you want quality workmanship, you must ask around to save yourself both hassle, grief and aggravation.

Tags: trusses

Calculating the concrete for ICF is not difficult. Basically, every 8′ block with 6″ spacing inside takes 6cu ft of concrete. So, if you measure your linear feet, you are using 6cu ft of concrete every 8′ (18″ inches high).

This measurement is pretty accurate, so once you figure out the numbers, I usually add 1/2 yard for waste.

When we poured the stem wall, we used a conveyor belt truck. (Those things are big, so make sure your driveway is wide enough!)

There are many advantages to using a conveyor belt truck. First of all, he has a very long reach, and can easily put a sock on, which drastically reduces the mess. Second, when he stops the flow of concrete, it doesn’t just keep falling out of the sock. And third, there is no waste!

After pouring the concrete, make sure you run around and check if the walls are plum! Now is the time (before the concrete goes off), to adjust the plumness by screwing the blue ICF bracing in or out. It is a bit stressful, so make sure you have enough people on site for cleaning and fetching things.

Tags: calculate concrete for ICF

The first thing to do is to calculate the concrete. If you are mathematically inclined, you can do it yourself with a simple calculator. Just remember to calculate everything in feet, so if your slab is 4″ thick, that is 1/3′. If this doesn’t appeal to you, CLICK HERE to get access to a concrete calculator that will do it for you.
Before calculating the amount you need, you have to try to get the pad as level as possible. We actually got down on our knees with a large level and scraped and raked until it was as flat as we could get it. A little over the top? Not really. If you are trying to calculate the concrete for a 42′x42′ square, and you are 1/4″ off on your measurements across the whole pad, that adds up to 1.4 cu yards! It doesn’t take more that a 1/4″ discrepancy to screw up your calculation!
This is why people end up either short, or they’ll have 2 yards of concrete sitting somewhere on their property, and I tell you, 2 yards of concrete is hard to hide!
Anyway, on our pour, we ended up with half a bucket left over! We did the measurements as accurately as we could, after flattening everything with a level, and then we added about 1/2 yard to that, and it worked great!

Tags: Concrete pour

This is what it looked like before we put the plastic on top.

After all your plumbing trenches have been filled in and the ground has been somewhat flattened by machines, it is time to check your levels. If you take the time to rake away the high spots and filling in the low spots, it will be much easier to calculate the amount of concrete needed. So, whatever time you spend leveling is well spent.

Here, we used a long level to move the dirt around with. Dig up any rocks that are in the way, as long as they are of a managable size, and leave whatever you can’t move.

After we flattened the ground, we put 2″ of gravel on top and buried a 4″ pipe with a t-piece on the bottom into the gravel. This will become a passive radon system later. In Colorado, the radon levels can be very high in places, and putting a pipe in under your slab, with a vent going through your roof, makes all the difference in the world. Then the gas can simply get out from under the house, without actually going into your house. It costs a few hundred dollars in gravel, and a bit of labor, but it is well worth the hassle.

Around the edge, we suspended 3 rows of number 5 rebar. We simply made up some u-shaped piece of rebar that were knocked into the ground, and tied the rows on rebar on top of theses. Don’t forget to put an L-shaped piece of rebar in for the electrical grounding!

In Colorado, you have to ground your electrical panel, and any copper pipes, to the rebar rings in your foundation. So, what you need is an L-shaped piece of rebar tied to all three rings, sticking up from the concrete enough that you can tie ground wires to it.

After spreading the gravel in an even layer, we covered everything with thick black plastic, taped together, to keep the radon gas from entering the house.

After passing the plumbing inspection, the next thing to do is to mark the forms with stringlines and stakes. The foundation needs to be totally square, which means that both diagonals have to be equal. So, how do we calculate the diagonals?
Do you remember that old school math? If you have a right angled triangle, the square of the two sides equals the square of the diagonal? This is your secret formula.
Say for example that your house is 20′ x 30′. What is the diagonal?
On the calculator, compute 20 x = and put the answer in M+
Then, compute 30 x = and put the answer in M+
To find the diagonal, push MR and then the square root button, and voila, your magic diagonal shows up as 36′ 1″.
So, how do you use this magic number? First, put in two corner pins. Then, put a measuring tape on each pin and move towards the third corner. You’ll need two people for this part. One person’s tape should be the length of the side, and the other person’s tape should be the length of the diagonal. Wherever the tapes meet, is where your third pin goes.
Do the same to find where the fourth pin goes, check that both diagonals are the same (make sure you use metal tape for this since fiberglass tape is useless since it tends to stretch).
After you get your pins in the correct places and the diagonals are perfect, make sure you check that your plumbing pipes are still coming up inside the rigth walls. If everything is just right, you are good to go.

Tags: marking concrete forms

Once the digging is done, a lot of planning takes place. First, you have to mark exactly where you want the house with accurate corner pins and string lines. Then, you have to consult your drawings and mark where your plumbing pipes are going to come up under your house.
The kitchen sink pipe (2″) has to come up either in the wall behind the sink, or inside the kitchen cabinet, preferably in a corner.
The washer drain (2″ or 3″ depending on local code), must come up in the wall next to, or behind the washer. If you are even an inch off, the whole wall has to move, so measure ACCURATELY!
The toilet drain (3″) has to come up 12″ inn from the finished wall behind the toilet. Vanity (2″) must be inside the wall behind the vanity, and the bathtub pipe depends on what is happening. If you don’t have a crawlspace, it is common to put the pipe into a small sandbox under the tub. After the concrete is poured, the sand in the box can be dug out, and the pipes connected. If you do have a crawlspace, the bathtub pipe can come up right under the wall, just like the vanity pipe does.
In our case, we ran the main drain pipe in a 45 degree angle through the house, so all the branches connect with 45 degree long sweep elbows. Make sure the pipes have the right fall, to. It is supposed to fall 1/4″ per foot, or 2 1/2″ per 10 foot. All the branches has to hit the main drain at the right level (which is sure to give you brain burn before the day is over). Don’t forget to put a cleanout outside the house (we put one outside each bathroom as well).
This part is never fun, but once it is done, that’s that, so hang in there, and good luck with the plumbing inspection.

Tags: underground plumbing

We started out with a beautiful piece of land. It looked like a park in the middle, and it was difficult to imagine a house there. But we marked the corners out, got our plans approved and started clearing the land. We cut down the trees in the building area, saved what we could and took the small branches to the dump. After a lot of hard and sappy work, we got ready for digging just after July 4th.

Tags: new piece of land