Show me your garage

I got a hot load when i did my barn have regretted not knowing what it was and not knowing to send it back. basically had to end up doing a broom finish. my pex is tied to wire and if i am not a total idiot i have enough room to grind it or should i pour a grout mix over it all?

I know it is a real conundrum i want to grind it . i wish i had friends who do this stuff do it but i was too stubborn..stubborness costs$ usually more than it would have if done the right way.. everyone i talked to said grind it ..

gun-driver wrote: Pete, You may be OK since your going to epoxy over it, but I will never use that on a smooth surface that's for sure. As far as the foam for the radiant heat goes any more than around the edges is over kill and a waste of money. (you should have 2" foam around the perimeter footer/block) then 4' or so in on the horizontal surface. Use a reflective bubble wrap instead to reflect the heat back up. In this pic you can see the bubble wrap, its hard to see the 2" foam around the edge. You can also see that they pull back the concrete then pull the mesh up to insure its in the middle.

Paul,
I did at one time look at the bubble type insulation but a couple things came up. First was the cost. Compared to 2" extruded poly foam, there wasn't much difference. The double layer bubble was just about even. Then I have a friend who installs walk in freezers and coolers. He cautioned me about the insulation under the complete floor. That industry always have issues with frost heaving even though the floors are insulated the cold does eventually go down into the ground. If the cold does, then heat will too. For the "R" factor, I didn't feel the bubble costs added up.

I took the slab insulation one step further as well. I insulated the perimeter (vertical edge) with 2" of foam as well plus filled the block cores with poly beads. I've seen a couple of in floors in winter where this perimeter insulation wasn't done and all the snow was melted for a couple of feet around the building! I didn't want to be heating the outside of the northwoods! The 2" extends though door ways and will be covered by the doors thresholds. At the overhead door, there's 3/4" Iso board located under the door as a thermal break. The top edge will be cleaned up and caulked with a self leveling urethane after the aprons are poured.

It will be interesting regarding the fiber issue. I spoke with the painting contractor and he said there will be absolutely no problems with the epoxy floor coating covering the ends of the fibers. He does use the torch method to burn off and exposed fiber. He joked and told me I'm going to have to wear sun glasses after he's done with that floor!! At 150 f.c. per square foot of light, he may be more correct than facetious!

Paul,
I know exactly what you meant about the perimeter. Did you put your foam on the inside or the outside of the frost wall. I don't see any foam on the vertical edge of your slab next to the block. My concept/thinking was to keep the insulation as close to the heat source as possible. That way you aren't heating areas that don't need the heat.

Forgive me if i missed it, but what did you end up with for a boiler? (it may be back several pages and i don't want to go back though it all!! ) I also see your pex appears to be on roughly 16" centers. Did that center distance come from someone who engineered out the BTU load/water temp/floor temp? Mine are on 12" centers. My guy did have to go with 2 circuits in the shop area due to the Sq. footage. With 1/2" pex, and the best pump, the max run is recommend at 300'max. Beyond that the pressure drop gets to the point where the circ pumps can't do the job.    

Tim D wrote: I never said fiber was new. All 70 yards in my driveway has fiber and wire. Fiber might make it harder, I don't know, but it won't keep if from cracking. The floor in my workshop doesn't have fiber, just wire. I wanted a very slick surface, like the floor in Sam's club or Lowes. When it dries and you see the fuzz on top, you can break it off by rubbing you shoe across it, that what makes me wonder what the fiber is going to do.

Tim
The fibers do not make the concrete any harder, it is purely for flexural purposes, and crack control. Both fibers and weldwire are considered secondary reinforcement, compared to rebar and other primary reinforcements. If the concrete wants to crack for whatever reason (poor subsoil compaction, low compressive strength, shrinkage, etc.) it will. What the fibers do is hold the crack to a minimum, at a micro level. Weldwire does the same thing, but the crack is larger before the weldwire takes over.
Fibers are a good product, and do what they are marketed for.

Pete the other thing my buddy recommended is to either mark on the side walls or draw a sketch with good measurements of where your tubes are. That way if you ever want to drill and lag anything to the floor you won’t have a glycol geyser.

Charlie (Brady) emailed me some pictures. Unfortunately I can't open any except for one which came through in the body of the email. The rest seem to be in some kind of file he put them in. I'll have to give him a call and see what's going on. He may need some help from his son with the computer!

It's also a problem when you're not on site to keep a eye on things. Even with the one picture I spotted a issue. I'll have to give my GC a call this morning as well!

This picture was this last monday morning when Charlie stopped on his way home to St. Paul.

LaurelLakeSkier wrote: Pete On a side note, I'm afraid Charlie is on his own with the computer issues for now.....number one son stayed up to work for the week.

Mark,
Well, give him a call and see if you can find out what he did. You've become quite a computer Geek lately!! It looks like he tried to put the pictures in some kind a a "zip" file but it sure doesn't come through that way in his email.

I'm going to forward Charlie's email to you. Take a look and see if you can open up the attached file.

so what is the issue, it looks funny to me but not sure why it's lower than the slab and why it's nothced out.

Those studs are close to the ground. Why didn't you go higher with the blocks?

It's starting to take some shape!!





The two 14" W beams are set too.

Pete, you should be able to heat that garage with a candle.

Pete,
It's looking real good, I should be able to get a better look tomorrow afternoon! Let me know if you need any detail pictures.

Pete,

Project coming along OK. Waiting on the mason to start with the brick. My project is like a shed compared to the work going into your's. However, I have a feeling our needs are a tad different. 95% of the time our detached will be used solely as a place for storage. We are already using it and don't know how we got by without it. It's been nice having a place for everything under roof.

It's really starting to take some shape now!!

The guy on the right I think is cutting in a header so the medicine cabinet will be recessed into the wall. After I received the cabinets from Steve, it was one of them that I opened up and took a look at. It's really designed to be recessed. Even though it's going in a exterior wall, it's nice to have 2x6 construction. I can get 2" of Iso board behind it. That's better than a R15 plus the "R board" sheathing.
I had mentioned the recess to the GC but I'll bet he forgot to pass it on to his crew when they framed up the wall!! It sure is nice to have Charlie stopping by, keeping a eye on things, taking pictures and then emailing them too me.

The other thing I caught (confirmed with my wife this morning) is there's a small section of lower roof (equal in elevation to the lower roof) that needs to go in over the one man door. It's the one on the far right in the picture.

Chris,
Looking great don't you think!! I need to complement your workmanship too! I'm sure glad the GC isn't building off my prints!! (or your and HW's special one's ether!! )

Since this picture was taken, I understand it's sheathed, siding is going on, windows and doors are on site and the standing seam metal roofing will arrive tomorrow.

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