iT House construction blog

noreply@blogger.com (John Southern) — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 19:44:00 +0000

For new updates on the Orange County iT house (and Allegresse Vineyards, Three Rivers, and Gamma Gulch iT houses) please visit the iT house blog at www.tkithouse.blogspot.com

Week 35

noreply@blogger.com (John Southern) — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 06:12:00 +0000

It's been a while since we last posted progress on the iT house. We have moved into the "finishes" phase which will slow down progress considerably. Normally the iT house has all factory finishes, but this house has custome terrazzo tile flooring, a custom resin shower, drywall, as well as a number of other custom time-consuming items.

The owner has been in Europe for the last couple of weeks and we are waiting for the custom resin shower enclosure to be fabricated and installed by Modern Arc. But a few things have happend in the meantime including the paving of the pool area with the help of the neighbor, Rick, installation of the island by Euro Kitchens and the rest of "spine" section carcasses of kitchen cabs by Systems 32. A major milestone was passed when we passed inspection on all the electrical rough-in and plumbing rough-in.

The "spine" cabs still need to have doors and shelves installed. We are holding off until all construction work is completed to insure that there is no damage inflicted upon the doors by accident.

The kitchen island will have a waterfall caesarstone top and a kickplate installed once the finish tile floor is done.

The island rough-in plumbing and electrical is ready to go.

Brand new concrete deck in front of the iT house.

Week 30

noreply@blogger.com (John Southern) — Thu, 11 May 2006 17:01:00 +0000

This photo shows a view from the kitchen. The cabinet will be extended and an island will occupy the center of the kitchen floor. Off to the right is the living room up against the retaining wall and across the courtyard to the right is the bathroom. Across the courtyard to the left is the master bedroom.

The stucco-based waterproofing called Grailcoat at the fireplace cab has been started. The photo shows the first of three coatings. For future iT houses we are also looking at translucent plastic sheathing as a way to cover the outdoor section of the cabinet. The Grailcoat looks great because it is so minimal in appearance, but it is more difficult to coordinate because it is a unique sub contractor. By using a plastic sheathing we could easily prefabricat the cladding by the cabinet contractor and have it installed by our framing crew.Dandoy has completed the installation of all the glass units, flashing, and glazing angles. They have a couple more days of work to finish the silicone sealant. Now that we are nearly enclosed (more sealant is needed at the structural frame to be totally watertight) the next item will be sheetrock - then the rest of the cabs - then plumbing and electrical finish - then the tile flooring.
A leak was discovered in the rear retaining wall. The owner uncovered some of the hillside at the wall to discover that the concrete contractor had actually removed some of the waterproofing just before they backfilled. This is highly unusual considering that we had observed and photodocumented as the waterproofing fully installed. It was covered in such a way that apprears that they concealed their sub-standard work. The owner has already severed ties with the concrete contractor, having been extremely upset by their slow schedule, so now he has hired a new waterproofing sub who is doing the remedial waterproofing work on the retaining wall. The black Bithuthane area in the photo will be covered by stucco.

The reflection of the glass is looking great!

Week 28

noreply@blogger.com (John Southern) — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 22:17:00 +0000

Above is a view from the master bedroom looking at the newley installed Fleetwood sliding glass doors.
Standing outside looking toward the bedroom across the fireplace courtyard.
View from the kitchen towards the fireplace courtyard with sliding glass doors in place. The fireplace cabinet which can be seen towards the middle right of the photo will be extended through to the kitchen - ending approximately where I'm standing taking the picture. They will contain a refrigerator, wall ovens, and storage on the kitchen side and an ironing board, coat closet, and bookshelves on the hallway side. A kitchen island will occupy roughly the same area as Dandoy's temporary work table viewed in the foreground. The rest of the cabinets will be installed only once we know the building is watertight at the glass, roof, and structural joints.

Week 27 Thursday

noreply@blogger.com (John Southern) — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:43:00 +0000

Dandoy Glass continues with the installation. The immediate goal is to enclose the area around our fireplace cabinet so that if it rains, the sensitive interior finish won't be ruined. First are the awining windows above the cabinet and the fixed glass units in the hallway.Then the sliding glass door frames are put in place. During the first part of Week 28 the sliding glass doors will be installed in the sliding glass door frames.

Week 27 Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (John Southern) — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 21:48:00 +0000

Glass! Dandoy Glass delivered the majority of the glass today and began installing the fixed glass pieces.These are the fixed glass pieces for the clerestory areas above the 8' beams. The narrow pieces go between the lower roof and the higher roof.The standard fixed glass units -- called IGUs (Insulated Glass Units).To pick up the glass, the guys and Dandoy glass use suction cups.They carry them to the respective locations and use the suction cups to lift the glass once its roughly placed.Once the glass has been placed and leveled, they drop in little sections of the glass stops to hold it in place until they're ready to come back with the full-length pieces.
View from the gate to the back yard....
Clerestory glass being installed....
Here's what the iT house is looking like from the street. Dandoy comes back on Monday to install the sliding glass doors and awning windows around the courtyards and up against the fireplace cabinet.

Week 27 Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (John Southern) — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 17:29:00 +0000

Systems 32 came to install a section of their cabinets today. This cabinet spans across the courtyard and will contain the washer/dryer as well as the radiant floor controls and the boiler with hot water storage. In the center of the outdoor side will be a fireplace. The cabinet comes in three parts and is joined together in the field.Some of the base parts of the cabs had to be cut out to acommodate the electrical and plumbing that was cast into the slab.
The large opening in the middle is the pocket for the pre-fab ventless fireplace.
The hole at the left is for electrical panel.

The interior side of the cabinets are high-gloss plastic white laminate
The exterior of the cabs will be covered in Grail Coat which is an elastomeric stucco application.The fireplace is set in the cabinet.Insulation is placed in the cavity of the front wall of the cabinets. Tomorrow a large section of the glass is to be installed.

Week 26 Glazing

noreply@blogger.com (John Southern) — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 02:21:00 +0000

The rain finally let up and let us get starting on the glazing. We were also supposed to install the cabinet that holds the outdoor fireplace - and that is partially inside and partially outside, but the Owner had unknowingly scheduled digging work (to change his pool) that made it impossible for the cabinet maker to move the finished pieces across the yard. They have been rescheduled for next Tuesday. Otherwise this week we finished placing all the Fleetwood shash pieces for the fixed glass. And installed a few of the packaged units such as the Awning windows and Sliding Glass Door frames. The three weeks of on-again, off-again rain not only stopped us, but it also has messed up most of our subcontractors' schedules as well. A lot of this week has been spent on the phone trying to work out scheduling and coordination for bringing them all back into the project to get moving next week.

Week 25 Rain!

noreply@blogger.com (John Southern) — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 16:41:00 +0000

Rain is forecast through Wednesday. Cabinets and Glazing are waiting for some dry days to get started.

Week 24, Friday

noreply@blogger.com (John Southern) — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 21:36:00 +0000

It was raining today, but we went out to the site to inspect the Fleetwood units which were delivered by Dandoy Glass yesterday. In the photo above, you can see the sliding glass door panels on their side in the foreground.
Pictured here are the awning window units that go in the corners of the house. Also visible are the sliding glass door track and jamb frames.
Dandoy began installing the Fleetwood fixed track (marked with blue tape) and the glazing angles for the clerestory windows before it started raining. Much of this week was scrapped due to rain and more is forecast for Mon & Tues next week. Starting next Wednesday then, the glass is rescheduled for installation along with the big cabinet that contains the outdoor fireplace and which extends through to the kitchen.

Week 24

noreply@blogger.com (John Southern) — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 21:14:00 +0000

The waterproof roofing has begun. It's a multi-layered process finishing off with a lightweight concrete topping. The picture here shows Tuesday morning during rain. More rain is expected Thursday and Friday of this week when we had hoped to have a finished roof and the fireplace cabinet and some storefront glazing begun. Looks like not very much more will happen until next monday...

Week 23

noreply@blogger.com (John Southern) — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 20:10:00 +0000

Electrical rough-in continues this week while the roofing starts. Also in the roofing package is the installation of the galvalume gutters & fascia which gives our roof it's finished edge.The custom bathroom we created for the client was built out of standard steel framing instead of our usual cabinet/walls. The wall framing contractor normally only does museum walls, but was so intrigued by the iT house design that he decided to make an exception.
The electricians took a lot of pride in their work by making sure that the electrical was put out of sight. In a normal house this is simple, but in a house with exposed structure, they had to slip the conduit inside the columns and beams to get it up to the ceiling fixtures.Rough plumbing for the custom shower, bathtub, and lavatory also was placed in the wall framing. Modern Arc, the fabricator for our custom orange resin shower enclosure, will come out to the site to measure for all the valve locations before they generate their resin pieces.
The gutter/fascia is attached to 2x nailers at the perimeter of the roof decking.
EPS rigid insulation board is passed up to the roof.
The galvalume gutter/fascia installed around the courtyard...The finished gutter/fascia looks nice and neat when complete. The tapered insulation gets built-up and adhered to the roof decking.Next week the waterproofing will be installed over the rigid EPS insulation board. For the rest of this week, the roofers will be "tapering" the insulation in order to create a positive slope to the gutters.

Week 22

noreply@blogger.com (John Southern) — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 19:22:00 +0000

Electricians install the recessed ceiling lights - typically in the iT house there are no lights in the ceiling because of the added complexity of the coordination between roofer and electrician. The owner in this case elected to add this feature as a customizing option and was willing to accept the additional time and expense for added funtionality. The j-boxes for the recessed fixtures fits in the channels of the steel roofing. Conduit is chased out to the perimter for the minimal interference with the roofing process above. Before the sound-absorbing insulation can be placed in the roof decking cells, a wire mesh is rolled in to keep the insulation from showing from below.Foam rubber stoppers are placed at the end of the cells to prevent air flow through the perforated decking and over the beams and down into the conditioned indoor spaces. With the perforated decking, the batt insulation acts as a sound asborbtion material to help the indoor spaces feel more comfortable.

A quick stop at the local Bosch distributor: Automation Controls.

CABOOM03

noreply@blogger.com (John Southern) — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 17:52:00 +0000

This weekend Taalman Koch presented the iT House to the public at their booth at CABOOM03. For those who don't know what CABOOM is, imagine a tradeshow of designed "lifestyle accessories" These could range from metal wall panels that grow plants to full-blown architecture like the iT House. The event gives the general public a chance to check out some of the most cutting-edge products on the market- some of which have graced the pages of design magazines such as Dwell, Metropolis, Architecture, ID, and other trade magazines. We took the opportunity to interface with the public and show them all of the intricate details of constructing the iT House, as well as showing folks that the iT House is different from other "Prefabs" because it is more about lifestyle than economics (of course we had some data on hand to address the dollar side of things as well).

Since the iT House is considered Prefab, we were given space in the Prefab section of the event and got a taste of how hungry the public is for the concept. The TK crew manned the iT House Booth from Friday morning when the show opened, to Sunday evening when it closed. We passed the time by answering questions and educating folks about how great the iT House is.

Week 21 Thursday

noreply@blogger.com (John Southern) — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 00:47:00 +0000

A long and busy day at the iT house...

The stainless steel cables for the cross bracing were installed today. They help the structure stay rigid against lateral loads like wind or earthquake.

Also, the metal track was installed for the bathroom walls. Typically, the iT house doesn't have any normal walls, but in this case they were added by the client's request. Additionally, part of the house is lodged into the hillside against our new retaining walls. Track has also been installed in these areas for the upcoming sheetrock phase.

The last of the Epic roof panels were put in place followed by the wood blocking used to attach the galvalume gutters to be installed around the perimeter.

The last bit of sunset from atop the kitchen section of the roof decking. Next week the roofing materials will be installed to make it waterproof.

And the final touches were finished to complete the framing phase with the expoxy anchor bolts being installed at dusk.

Week 21 Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (John Southern) — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 03:04:00 +0000

The roof panels come pre-cut to length and are 24" wide on-center. With electric shears, the panels are cut to width onsite along their edges and are lifted up into place. After snapping them together, they are then screwed down to the beams every 4" to create a structural diaphragm.

With much of the roof in place today, you could finally get a sense of what it will be like to be inside the finished product.

The roof panels are like miniature structural beams. They will also be the surface of the finished ceiling. Above the panels rigid insulation and roofing membrane will be applied in the next couple of weeks.

This project has two different roof levels; there are higher "pop-up" roofs at the living room and bedroom. The structure for the higher roofs is tranverse to the lower ones, creating different patterns in the ribs of the roof structure.

Week 21 Roof Framing

noreply@blogger.com (John Southern) — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 05:20:00 +0000

After some rain delays, the framers came back out to finish tightening up the structure. After lunch the first roof panels went up. Tomorrow the remainder of the panels will be dropped in place and fastened to the structure.

Week 20: Aluminum Framing Continued

noreply@blogger.com (John Southern) — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 18:01:00 +0000

No work today- It's raining.

This marks the continuation of the erection of the Bosch frame system. We've experienced a couple of weather delays so things have been moving sporadically. Our framer, Chuck Moffit began to tighten and square the frame at the key joints so as to finalize the alignment of the structural members. As the photo illustrates much of this takes place with the aluminum "L" connectors. In the background is an aluminum "T" connector that forms part of an "X-Brace" which compensates for the shear forces on the building. Next week we should be done with the framing and into the roof sheathing. Stay Tuned!

Week 20: Trenching

noreply@blogger.com (John Southern) — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 20:10:00 +0000

With the concrete complete and the framing started we dug our trenches for the utilities today. This involved 2 trenches:
1 "dry" trench for gas, power, and telephone.
1 "wet" trench for water, sewage, and drainage (see the photo below of the 8'-0" deep sewer excavation).

The complicated part was that we had to "saw-cut" and trench through the driveway and not cut through the existing utilities which are all "live" and connected to the main house. Over the next week we will install and cover all of the utilities for the iT House so that it can be connected and functioning by the time our finish work is complete.

Week 19 Aluminum Framing

noreply@blogger.com (John Southern) — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 04:17:00 +0000

Framing started up again today and the result was a complete rough frame. When the framers return, the members will all be carefully squared, plumbed, and anchored. Immediately following will be the steel roofing planks. Below see more pictures of the framing.

Week 18: Aluminum Framing

noreply@blogger.com (John Southern) — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 22:45:00 +0000

So this week started out with the initial erection of the Bosch framing system. Chuck Moffit, our trusty fabricator, met with Alan on site and together they laid out the frame of the iT House. After everything had been figured out, Chuck and his crew began assembling the frame piece by piece. After two days of work a majority of the house was complete and you can see the results for yourself.
What makes the iT House so unique is that unlike a steel building that requires welds at the connection points, the aluminum system bolts together, saving both time and cost. Most important however, is that it produces an aesthetic that is cleaner and more refined than steel. Because aluminum has a stronger cross-section one is able to specify thinner members, producing a structure that is both elegant in its appearance and economy.

After the Bosch system is complete, the roof will be installed next and we will the iT House will truly begin to look like a building.

Week 16: Courtyard Slabs

noreply@blogger.com (John Southern) — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 03:52:00 +0000

The courtyard concrete work is done at a different time than the rest of the floor becuase the courtyards are depressed lower than the floors (about an inch) so that water will not flow inside during rain. We also need to put insulation around the edge of our floors to help prevent the warm radiant floors from "spilling" all their heat out the sides. To do this we had to wait a day for the floor's concrete to harden enough to safely remove the forming boards and insert our insulation in their place. Now we fill in the courtyards and cover up the insulation.

Each courtyard in this particular iT house has a drain in the center. Normally, we would just slope the courtyards to drain off into the perimeter, but in this case we are building up against a hill and have trapped our courtyard from natural drainage.

With the courtyards done, we are finished with our concrete work!

Week 16 - Concrete Slab

noreply@blogger.com (John Southern) — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 03:07:00 +0000

Today is Concrete Slab day and it starts at 6:15 AM with the pumper and the concrete truck arrival.

As the concrete is poured in different areas, the finishers step into the wet concrete and start leveling it out with a 2x4.

This is the slab at the end of the first truck of concrete (10 yards). The process up to this point took about 45 minutes.

Once the slab is leveled, the floater comes in to smooth out the surface and bring the excess water to the surface. It takes two or three passes and a couple of hours to finish this process.

After the floaters are done, the steel trowel finishers start to put a fine touch finish on the surface. In this iT house, the Owners have decided to add a tile floor on top of the slab so the finishing process ends at this point. In the other iT houses with finish concrete floors, there will be a further step in which the concrete is polished to a super-smooth texture.

The iT house cabinets will have to fit over the radiant floor stub-ups and around the vent stacks and electrical distribution.

Here I am on the cell phone TCB! It's great to finally see the slab in place because now the exciting work begins with the aluminum structure. After tomorrow when we pour the courtyard slabs, work will stop for about 10 days while we wait for our framer to free up his schedule from another job. Once he starts though, we're expecting to go pretty quickly!

Week 15: Radiant Flooring

noreply@blogger.com (John Southern) — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 22:05:00 +0000

Wow! Things have really moved forward this week. The slab is almost complete and we are looking forward to start erecting the aluminum structural frame. The only thing left to do is pour the concrete on Tuesday and then we'll start setting up the iT Kit pieces.

On Wednesday the mechanical subs moved back onto the job-site and began laying out the radiant flooring. After they outlined the different radiant paths, they attached the radiant tubing to the rebar grid with plastic zip-ties. It was a fascinating process to watch and I was most surprised at the speed at which the work was being completed. By lunch time they were pretty much finished and were working on building the piping for the Munchkin boiler, and radiant flooring controls.

Inspection is scheduled for Monday morning. By Wednesday we'll be posting images of the finished concrete slab.

Week 15: Slab Rebar Layouts

noreply@blogger.com (John Southern) — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 21:00:00 +0000

This morning the rebar benders were back and began laying out the grid for the floor slab. By late afternoon, they were finished and the next step was to lay out the radiant flooring. By this time next week we will have poured the slab and starting the Bosch framing system.