Roselea

Category: Build Progress

  • Number 2 Module’s Hole is Dug!

    This afternoon, we dug the 2nd hole in our ground, under the house, for the next Energy Module. This one is situated under Bedroom-2 and it is 2.5 metres by 3 metres, holding about 5000 litres of water.

    Module-3-Rough-dug-hole

    Module-3-Rough-dug-hole

    We have been putting the sand / dirt around the edges of the house where the footpaths are going, along the swimming lane and round the corner and along the garage and garden shed sections too. It is already filling up and we probably will have to hire a removal lorry with a grab to take away the excess material. We still got another two big holes and one small one to go yet!!

    Peripheral-edges-raised-to-ground-level-2

    Peripheral-edges-raised-to-ground-level-2

    Peripheral-edges-raised-to-ground-level-1

    Peripheral-edges-raised-to-ground-level-1


    Tomorrow, we will level the bottom of the hole and then start cleaning the next bunch of the Aquacell crates, 30 of them this time!

    Now when you watched the movie did you spot Shaun having an accident?

  • Footprint of house Scraped and Level – Part 2

     This morning, Stephen finished off scraping any excess soil lying within the footprint of the house. There was a little bit here and there but not much this time, in the area covered by the kitchen, bedroom 1 and the great room.

    Now, over to the next job of digging the next hole for an Energy Module!!

  • Scraping and Levelling the Footprint of House – Part 1

    Today, we went out to find out how level and flat the ground is for where the footprint of the house is going. We created an attachment for both the batter boards and for the dozer blade on the mini-digger to generate the laser line and receiver respectively, to allow the mini-digger to move around the area and accurately push excess soil away.

    Laser-generator-on-bracket

    Laser-generator-on-bracket

    Laser-Detector-on-Diggers-dozer-blade

    Laser-Detector-on-Diggers-dozer-blade


    We started in the middle to work outwards so all excess material (if any) is automatically out of the way. We have done half the house from the front door and everything to right of it. There is no excess soil in this section, there are lower points but we can easily fill these up with the output of our Energy Module installations.

    Level-checked-and-scraped-as-nessesary

    Level-checked-and-scraped-as-nessesary

    We are very glad that we had done this job before we did any more Energy Modules as the mini-digger made short work on the task, but if we had discovered that we needed to remove this excess soil AFTER we had installed all the Energy Modules, by Jupiter, it would have been a massive manual labour job!!

    On Monday, we will do the other half and then go back to digging and installing the Energy Modules.

  • Drawing house outline in powder

    We used the newly placed batter boards to string out and mark (with cement/plaster powder) the outline of the house and all the ground floor rooms. The marked line s are the center of their respective walls. View the video to see a 64 times speeded up video of the work.
    The rooms are (top to bottom, left to right) are

  • Great Room
  • Kitchen, Bedroom 1 (Shaun’s),
  • Hall and Stairs, Cloak room (with linen cupboard), En-suite 1, En-suite 2,
  • Entertainment, Cupboard 1, Bathroom, Bedroom 2 (Stephen’s)
  • Cupboard 2, En-suite 3
  • Utility, Bedroom 3 (Daphne’s)

  • Second and Last Set of Batter Boards are Inserted!

    We finished off inserting the back set of batter boards. These were L2 and R2 which defines the foundation line running from left to right, near the back of the house, that are the sides of bedroom 1 and bedroom 3. L1 and R1, which are already in place, defines the furthest foundation line at the back of the house and delineate the edges of the Great room and Bedroom 2.

    All the B1 through B6 (Back) batter boards are duplicates of the Front boards have been inserted too. This now allows us to string a line from back to front to guide us to where various building features are.

    Back-row-of-batter-boards-21

    Back-row-of-batter-boards-21

    Back-row-of-batter-boards-11

    Back-row-of-batter-boards-11


    There is a total of 20 Layout points on 18 boards. We got three extensions in our house plans so lots of ins and outs and corners!!

  • Batter Boards Inserted – The Front Row

    Today, we calculated from our technical drawings on the computer, the positions of the front set of the Batter Boards. These Batter Boards are a horizontal board supported on two legs, which allows for nails to be placed, to delineate the edges of building features (for example, Walls, foundations etc). These define the two foundation strips that supports the front walls of the house namely the great room, kitchen, front door, entertainment room, and the utility room. These are marked as L3, L4 (the left side) and R3, R4 (the right side).

    Included in this front set, are the markers that defines the “front-to-back” foundation strips as follows:

    • F1 – Left side wall
    • F2 – Great Room / Kitchen
    • F3 – Kitchen / Hall
    • F4 – Hall / Entertainment Room
    • F5 – Entertainment Room / Utility Room
    • F6 – Right side Wall

    Site-Markup-Started-2

    Site-Markup-Started-2

    Site-Markup-Started-1

    Site-Markup-Started-1

    Site-Markup-Started-4

    Site-Markup-Started-4

    Site-Markup-Started-3

    Site-Markup-Started-3


    We sprouted a lovely collection of Batter Boards!

  • Shuttering and Putting Rubble in around Air Chamber and Tunnel

    We have been building some extra shuttering down the sides of the tunnel to form an extra thick footing to support the main house foundation as it goes over the tunnel.

    Earth-tube-tunnel-finished

    Earth-tube-tunnel-finished

    We have also built shuttering to form a ‘chimney’ to take the air from the tunnel up through the foundation and floor slab. This has been topped with a temporary air filter to allow fresh air into the earth tubes as we use this for fresh air in our living quarters.

    Earth-tube-chimney

    Earth-tube-chimney

    Also, while the shuttering was being constructed, old rubble and soil was loaded around the the Air Mixing Chamber and the Tunnel, compacted down and built up to somewhere the right level for the floor slab.

    Ground-filled-around-tunnel

    Ground-filled-around-tunnel

    We will fill in with more sandy soil and adjust with more accuracy when the foundation strip is poured and set, we would have a marker to line up to then.

     

  • Chamber and Tunnel Covered in DPM

    And finally, this afternoon, we screwed down the cement board that we mortared down a couple of days ago, and then wrapped everything up in DPM plastic to protect our air supply from getting damp with heavy rain showers and wet ground.

    Earth-tube-tunnel-wrapped-up

    Earth-tube-tunnel-wrapped-up

    The final step is to put in stuttering to form the chimney that will come through the foundation and floor slab, plus shuttering down the side of the tunnel where it crosses under the main house foundation strip.

  • Number 1 Module now Finished – Part 3!

    A lovely warm day to finish off our first Energy Module, by sliding in more insulation panels around the sides of the rubber covered tank. We also put the much needed DPM plastic cover over the top to stop dirt and soil from entering into the tank, and it will also serve as a condensation barrier during the life time of the module when the water gets very hot.

    Module-1-Side-insulation-in-place

    Module-1-Side-insulation-in-place

    We filled up the remaining gaps around the edges of the hole with sandy soil, and packed it all down. Don’t tell anyone, but we chucked in all the off cuts and broken bits and pieces of insulation panels down in the gap too!! Finally, we put the insulation lid on top.

    Module-1-Shaun-ramming-down-fill

    Module-1-Shaun-ramming-down-fill

    Module-1-Top-insulation-complete

    Module-1-Top-insulation-complete


    We have made holes to allow the water and temperature conduits to pass through into the tank, all labelled and measured so we know what is what and how long the wires needs to be!

    Module-1-Ducts-in-place

    Module-1-Ducts-in-place

    The pipes has a ring of white duct tape wrap around them, with the coded info written on it. They read “1-wl”, “1-wh”, “1-tl”, “1-th”, and “1-tu”. More conduits will come together for more temperature probes later on when we get near to pouring the main floor concrete slab.

    Module-1-Ducts-are-labeled

    Module-1-Ducts-are-labeled

  • Number 1 Module being Assembled

    And this afternoon, we went back to our Number 1 Energy Module to carry on
    with the assembling of the underground hot water tank.

    First of all, we drilled down a metre in the middle of the hole to allow for
    a temperature sensor to be placed under the Energy Module. We inserted our
    new 20mm plastic pipe to act as the conduit for the temperature probe, which
    will be installed later.

    Module-1-Temperature-sensor-conduit-drilled-down-and-buried

    Module-1-Temperature-sensor-conduit-drilled-down-and-buried

    After that, it was grabbing pieces of the PU foam to build up the required
    200mm thick insulation barrier between the bottom of the module and the
    ground.

    Module-1-Insulation-in-place

    Module-1-Insulation-in-place

    We then carefully laid down the rubber membrane on top of the insulation
    boards, ready to wrap around the plastic crates to hold in the water.

    Module-1-Rubber-sheet-placed-and-Aquacells-started

    Module-1-Rubber-sheet-placed-and-Aquacells-started

    Then came the plastic Aquacell crates themselves, placing them in a grid of
    5 by 2 to form the 1st layer of 2.5metres by 2metres block.

    Module-1-Bottom-layer-of-cells-finished

    Module-1-Bottom-layer-of-cells-finished

    Then, we had to cut access holes to allow the insertion of the water pipe
    and another temperature probe to go down inside the energy module, right to
    the bottom, plus also a larger hole to allow for inspection of the water
    level.

    Then the second layer goes on, and more access holes are made, this time for
    the 2nd water and temperature probe to be inserted.

    Module-1-Top-layer-finished

    Module-1-Top-layer-finished

    Finally, we pulled up the rubber sheeting around all the edges and folded
    the corners in, just like a parcel. We will put on a layer of DPM plastic to
    seal off the top surface of the water tank to stop steam and moisture
    escaping out of these Energy Modules.

    Module-1-All-wrapped-in-Rubber

    Module-1-All-wrapped-in-Rubber

    Tomorrow, we will put down around the 4 sides more insulation panels and
    then fill in the remaining gap with the sandy soil and compact it all down
    nice and solidly.