Small Victory
Today, Chris, Mimi, and I set up the floor of the eventual studio for hydronic radiant floor heating. It all came together as envisioned, even though I could not, beforehand, picture how any of the steps was going to be performed.
I worried, at some point—usually around 3:30 in the morning—that every piece of the project would present an insurmountable challenge. But each was eminently do-able, thanks in part to a few methods we devised for steps that had kept me lying awake.
First, we had to lay down plastic sheeting over the graded dirt. I was worried that this would be a nightmare of measuring and cutting but the sheet unfolded conveniently and didn’t even require that I tape it to the walls; rocks held it fine until the insulation sheets could be lain.
The sheets were easy enough to score and break to size; Chris fit the tricky bits around the plumbing he installed.
I stapled the next layer of plastic to the sheets; nobody told me to do this, but it worked.
Once I saw holes drilled in concrete with the roto-hammer, I was confident about getting the rebar into the walls and, especially when Chris was hammering, this confidence was well-placed.
Zip-ties were our innovation in tying the steel together. We also used them to secure the mesh to the rebar frame. Industry standard is wrapped wire; our method, though nominally more expensive, was infinitely less trying.
It also gave good work to Mimi. She was our designated “little nipper; her job was to cut off the long ends of the ties drawn tight.
And the only difficulty in getting the plastic tubing zip-tied to the mesh was managing the 1000 foot spool of it; but Mimi, acting as “tube wrangler,” took care of that.
At the end of the day, the whole thing looks we knew what we were doing.
Nobody is more surprised or pleased by this than me.
I worried, at some point—usually around 3:30 in the morning—that every piece of the project would present an insurmountable challenge. But each was eminently do-able, thanks in part to a few methods we devised for steps that had kept me lying awake.
First, we had to lay down plastic sheeting over the graded dirt. I was worried that this would be a nightmare of measuring and cutting but the sheet unfolded conveniently and didn’t even require that I tape it to the walls; rocks held it fine until the insulation sheets could be lain.
The sheets were easy enough to score and break to size; Chris fit the tricky bits around the plumbing he installed.
I stapled the next layer of plastic to the sheets; nobody told me to do this, but it worked.
Once I saw holes drilled in concrete with the roto-hammer, I was confident about getting the rebar into the walls and, especially when Chris was hammering, this confidence was well-placed.
Zip-ties were our innovation in tying the steel together. We also used them to secure the mesh to the rebar frame. Industry standard is wrapped wire; our method, though nominally more expensive, was infinitely less trying.
It also gave good work to Mimi. She was our designated “little nipper; her job was to cut off the long ends of the ties drawn tight.
And the only difficulty in getting the plastic tubing zip-tied to the mesh was managing the 1000 foot spool of it; but Mimi, acting as “tube wrangler,” took care of that.
At the end of the day, the whole thing looks we knew what we were doing.
Nobody is more surprised or pleased by this than me.
posted by Professor Dave at 6:00 PM
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