Wall Shop-Drawing Final Review

Friday we did a complete review of the window and door placement and some finer details like the lugs for the deck, porch roof and garage that will be cast into the walls.  We spend an hour and half with the architects making minor adjustments to the plans and then another hour with the engineer for Ideal Precast to make sure we had it right.  With that behind us the walls will be constructed this week and set on 7 and 8 July.  A slight delay in the setting of the walls but we felt it important to get a good final shop drawing review done since once the walls are cast, changing anything is costly and could cause a significant delay.  Our walls will be constructed in Durham and because they are case face-up we have a choice of 1 of 4 finish options which are smooth brush, rough brush, bull-float, and "stucco" which is really a rag-roll like finish on the wall.  Due to the design we feel that one of the brushed finishes will be best suited although we will be covering a large amount of the concrete surface with hardi-panels or a wire-grate/panel system. Ideal Precast has set up a new facility to allow them to case two panel sections side-by-side to better match the finish on the adjoining panels.

 In the past several weeks we've made some minor changes to the design that simplify plumbing and wall construction.  The guest bathroom in the basement has been moved from the East wall to the North wall adjacent to the mechanical room. This allowed the waste-pump to be placed in the mechanical room and reduces complexity of the drains as well as provides a better slope to the drainage system.  The changes to the walls was basically simplifying the design of the South stairwell window to be a straight wall instead of a complex wall - which makes for a cleaner installation as well as reduces the thermal bridging challenges.

  Due to the size of the panels, there well be two cranes and a bucket-hoist used to set the walls.  The two cranes will allow two panels to be set at one time with better stability while the bucket-hoist will prevent the workers from having to work 20' up on a ladder (much safer and more stable).