I figured I would post some picture of the construction of our new house and 2 level garage build. We are construction a medium sized home with high efficiency systems and a Geothermal system heating system. The garage will have a 30' x 45' foot print and use Pre-stress concrete slabs.

 

The story behind this property is pretty cool. The original owner did the Cannonball Run back the 70's a number of times with a Porsche 930. He spent some time in a Mexican jail where he end up losing the property to foreclosure. It was bought, lived in and then the house burned down and sat burnt for 6yrs until we purchased it.


I have a ton of pictures of the build that I will begin uploading.

 

Very cool. I'm an Architect, and have done several homes with ground source heat pumps. Great systems. Given your size, the pay back will be relatively quick. Looks great!


Beautiful piece of property as well.

 

Well here is what we started with.....I ended up buying a backhoe to tear it down but an excavator with a thumb would have been a better choice. The house weighed 228,000lbs in debris.

 

Finally cleared.... less the swimming pool of course. The wife was not going to allow me to remove that.

 

Beautiful setting!

I see a tractor w/multiple attachments in your future.

 

We got very lucky when we were able to buy this land. It is the highest point around the city that is buildable. We have an amazing view at night.


So digging went pretty well. We ended moving over 3000yrds of material for the foundation. We went with 13' garage ceiling and 9' basement ceilings. I wanted the height for the garage area to have a lift and if we ever finish the basement for a theater room we the head room.

 

I put in an aerial view that I took of the construction site. My neighbors have not been happy with the all dirt removal but when it is done it is going to be beautiful.


On the footings and foundation wall, I had them sprayed with a rubberized membrane and then I installed 2" foam around the entire perimeter. I put foam on both the inside and out on the footings. I am going to get an energy star rating on this house so I had to do it. I did research and figured that the payback for the foam is not easy to calculate but it appears that it will take a while to pay for itself.

 

Next we installed the geothermal system for the house. I hired a company out of Canada who has been doing these for a really long time. The US is way behind our neighbors to the north on these systems. They are extremely basic and I can not believe that people did not do these sooner. Other then electricity I will never have to buy fuel. I will have a fireplace and woodstove.


For geothermal systems, most people have to dig a well and use the water to extract the energy from. The problem is that you need a really deep well or a lot of water which is expensive to do in the Granite State. I installed (9) horizontal loops, 600' long 8' deep on the property. In all I have 1mile of 1.25" piping in the ground for my 9Ton Loop.

 

In my lower garage I did not want any overhead beams to look at or columns to be in the way. I ended up hiring a company that builds bridges to design me 30' wide x 8' deep x 10" thick pre-stress concrete planks that weigh 14,000lbs each. The are brought to site and installed using a crane. In 1 hour we had all 5 planks in place which was nice.


I built myself a 4" brick shelf in the foundation wall for the planks to sit on. This allowed me to have a super clean look and from the outside and no-one knows that I have another lower level below from first glance.


After the planks were installed I temporarily installed a main support beam underneath the concrete planks and keep them level for when the 1st floor is poured. If you do not, then you will have sag in the planks during the pour because concrete when installed is super heavy. The floor is designed to hold 50lbs per ft on top of the 60tons that they weigh. Most commercial applications do this type of construction, not residential but I wanted it done right. My ceiling is perfectly flat and level.

 

I am using forced hot air in my house but I decided to install radiant heat in the 2 garage levels and the basement floor. After looking into the cost of having radiant installed I decided to do it myself. It took (1) full day per floor and (2) buddies. The worst part of the ordeal is cutting the zip ties.


I did my research online as to how to design the radiant system. I ended up using 1/2" PEX positioned every 8" so that I can use the geothermal heat pump to run the system. I need 90degree water. If I went 12" spacing I needed 118degree water which is much harder to generate from geothermal systems.


I have 2400' of PEX in the floor in each level.

 

In the lower level we compacted the stone and then installed the 2" foam, steel grid and PEX tubing. When you install the foam you need to make sure that you have compacted the floor really well and it is even or you will get cracks and it will sound almost hollow.


Again knowing the layout for the radiant is important to make sure it is efficient. I figured out where the (2) 2-post cars were going to be located and made sure that I gave the PEX a little extra around the mounting plates. I am going to use the Forward DP9 Lift only because there is a local guy who sells them and the price seems right for them.

 

I needed a wall to allow for an access road from the upper level to the lower. I chose to build a wall using engineered blocks. I could not justify spending money on a concrete wall that will crack, look terrible and eventually lean outward. These blocks can be sprayed to look like granite or antiqued which we will do in the spring when the rest of the wall is installed.


The most import part with building a wall that will last and look good is the first level and the base that it sits on. You need 18" of nit pack and stone for drainage. A wall is expensive and I see so many that are not level after just a couple years. I did make the mistake with the spraying of the membrane, I am going to need to figure out how I finish the foundation wall to tie in with the wall and stone work on the upper level.


We own a metal fabrication company so I was able to build all my own rebar headers, stainless steel door cases and pass-throughs. My plan is to have a ton of copper in this build for detail work. The exciting part is finally starting to come.

 

Our architect sent us some drawings that include the correct colors and features in the house for us to review. KL Studios has done a great job working with us and her specialty is in the details of the house that are yet to come but we have some really cool items to comes. This makes it look a lot better when you are looking at an empty lot and loam piles in the backyard. I just need the neighbors to have some vision as to where this is all headed.


I have a neighbor hitting me up to build them a retention pond because water might flow downhill towards his house. I always thought that water flowed downhill whether a house was present or not on apiece of land and one neighbor is worried about property lines that the surveyors put down. Building house is never easy.

 

Looks like it is coming together pretty nicely! Congrats on the good purchase, and i hope you are enjoying this snow that we got dumped on us!