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Ryan and Sara's Journal: Page 4

(Submitted Friday, July 6th, 2007)

Just like prior to the first Build week; a whole lot of things go on between Build weeks. During the first Build week we went from an outline of the foundation to having all the exterior walls up, a shingled roof, all the windows and doors installed and enough siding up so that the power meter could be attached. It looked very much like a house on the outside, go through the door however, and you’d better be prepared for a drop. The floor, well it wasn’t even a floor—the ground which consisted of loose gravel was about 12 inches from the door jam. On the inside of the house you could tell that the outside was a shell for what would become------- because all you could see was the inside of the exterior walls and the roof trusses along with the roughed in plumping.

The next step was to set in the floors so that the interior of the house could be prepared. Having energy efficient homes help to make Habitat homes affordable for Partner families. One of the ways they do that in Kingston is by using hydronic radiant floor heating to heat their homes. Rick Lemmon of the Wolseley Hydronics Group is a pro at this stuff and we were lucky to have him as part of this Build. Radiant floor heating is a method of heating a structure by applying heat within the floor. Comparable to warming yourself in the sun, this type of heating warms objects as opposed to raising the temperature of the air. To achieve this, plastic tubes are laid within a floor that carries hot water into specific rooms or “zones”, dispersing the heat through the floor surface. The cooler water returns to the heat source where it is reheated and sent out again in what is known as a “closed-loop system”.

After the tubing for the hydronics system was artfully laid into place the team from Lafarge arrived in their mighty machine to pour one, nice thick slurry of concrete that would support the framing for the interior walls.

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(Submitted Saturday, July 14th, 2007)

This past build week was the second installment of volunteer build week, and although I was not able to attend for any real duration of time, Sara was present for the whole time. This week the interior walls would be constructed and set into place within the current structure. In a typical house design the framing for the interior walls would go up before the roof so that they could first be secured to the floor using nails, screws, and then attached to the trusses while being installed.

In a house with hydronic radiant floor heating that resides a few inches below the surface of the floor, you do not want the floor being penetrated by anything because you could puncture the plastic tubing beneath the floor. So in homes with this type of heating, they actually build the shell of the house first and then install the interior walls. This is done by using a strong glue to affix the bottom plate of the interior walls to the floor and then attaching it to the trusses.

The great thing about hydronic heating and the seriousness of puncturing the coil is that it is quite easy to play practical games on the one in charge—in this case Sandy! For dramatic effect you really should refer to the dialog and photos on the website. I was not present when the gig went down, but Bruce mimicked the hydronic tubing being punctured right in front of Sandy. Sara saw Sandy’s reaction first hand and it was priceless.

The siding was also put up during this build week. The colour of the siding was actually a result of Sandy and Sara’s first shopping trip. I think the color they chose complements the shingles perfectly! Sara is very big on the color pink, and so she was very excited when her pink tool belt arrived.