Author: Matt

Bath Fan Exhausts

April 7, 2021 / / 0 Comments

One of the things I worked on with Dean the night before spray foam was the bath fan exhaust ducts. Historically, these are installed using regular 3-4″ metal ducting, but it can leak steamy air into the ceiling assembly. Because the metal conducts the heat and cold from outside, it can also condense on the outside of the duct if it’s not insulated. Both of these can cause mold within your walls or attic. While you can seal the duct joints and insulate it, a simpler and cheaper solution is to use PVC pipe and slope it to the outside. It won’t leak, and moisture will drain to the outside, and the plastic generally won’t condense water on it.

I used regular 4″ schedule 40 PVC to do the basement bathroom and found that the challenge was the connections on either end, both to the fan as well as the exterior vent cap. Because both are 4″ in diameter, neither fits inside the other easily. For a number of years I just had a drain cap on the end of it, but Dean has a metal crimper and helped me get a proper vent cap onto it.

Main bathroom fan

For the rest of the house, I learned my lesson and switched to drain and sewer PVC. This thinner walled pipe is what we used for our drainage project, before which I wasn’t really familiar with it. Because the pipe is frequently used in long runs, each 10′ pipe has a flared end to allow connecting one to the next. It just so happens this flared end fits the vent caps perfectly, and the thin wall of the straight end fit to the bath fans just fine too. You can glue it up just like regular PVC and then seal the connections at each end with caulk.

One of the exterior vents

Before the siding went on, Dean brought over his hole saw kit and helped me drill holes in the exterior wall as well as holes in some blocks of wood and rigid foam insulation to attach to the outside of the house so that the holes would be flush with the exterior foam. The powder room and main bath were simple straight runs, so installing the pipe and caulking the ends was a matter of twenty minutes on the ladder. The master bath, on the other hand, was a bit of a challenge. Like the others, I’d cut the exterior hole in the wall to be a straight shot from the fan, about five feet long.

Unfortunately, the electrician wanted to put the ceiling light in the center of the shower, which I agreed would look nice, which meant the fan exhaust would need to zig zag around the can light. Not the end of the world, but then the plumbers ran the overhead shower through that same space, after I asked them not to, and the run would have to jog up and then back down, which could lead to condensation pooling instead of draining. The next time they were out I asked them to move it, which (after some grumbling) they did, so I finally got this last run installed.

Master bath zig zag around can light

We’re working on batted insulation in interior walls and ceilings for sound and fire block, HVAC work has finally started, and I’m wrapping up the wiring for the security system, so I should have some additional posts soon.

Network Conduit

March 18, 2021 / / 0 Comments

I mentioned in the last post that Dean and I ran some conduit for networking. I had decided early on that even though I’m a computer guy, we use tech everywhere, and I genuinely prefer a wired connection, there wasn’t much point in running a whole patch panel home run network install. It uses a ton of wiring, it takes up more space in the basement somewhere, and everything has to go down to the basement just to come back to where it’s going.

This junction ties together the master bedroom, the back attic room, the first floor den and back of the basement, as well as connecting to another junction serving the front of the house

Instead, I wanted point to point conduit. Essentially, this means that if I need to I can connect any two rooms in the house with a cable, presumably ethernet, but anything else that the future brings that isn’t wireless like coax, fiber or even HDMI. Because this wasn’t a conventional networking setup, I didn’t have the electrician do this. With the suddenly spray foam situation we had last Thursday evening, this plan was paired down to a minimum, but since we learned they were only going to spray the first floor on that Friday, it meant that I had the rest of the weekend to put in more conduit.

I picked up ten sticks of 3/4″ EMT because there was a bulk discount, assuming I wouldn’t need all of it, but I managed to go through it, in addition to the handful that were already lying about. It’s big enough that I can run several cables in the same tube. Dean and I had run conduit in the living room to connect a TV to the basement as well as support a hidden wire wall mount. We also ran a second line from the basement to the office area in the back of the first floor and then all the way up to the attic behind the knee wall.

  • Complicated conduit bending
  • Looks better when installed
  • Adding a drop to a room
  • Post-spray foam work in progress

I ran a line from Derek’s bedroom up and over the attic bedroom and down to a junction box in the crawl space behind the knee wall on the other side of the house. From that junction it drops to a connection in Emily’s room as well as a box in that guest room.

On the other end of the house, we added a drop in our bedroom that goes up to a box in the back attic bedroom above, then jogs over to a second box in that room on the other side. I decided this made more sense than putting a junction in the knee wall crawl space, because it’s much harder to access in this part of the house. This same box also connects to the line that Dean and I ran up from the office. I started running a second line down to the other side of our bedroom, in the event we (or more likely future owners) have a non-wireless TV on the wall opposite the bed.

The spray foam installation wrapped up late Tuesday, and after I picked up some more EMT, I got the junctions on either end of the house connected together and connected the last few parts of this system. For all I know, I’ll never use this, but it’s good to have it in the event I need it. The electricians got a couple remaining items checked off the list, and the plumbers finished up the rough-in for the tubs in our bathroom and the main second floor bathroom.

Spray Foam

March 17, 2021 / / 0 Comments

As I mentioned in my catch-up post, we got spray foam installation. They showed up Friday and did most of the first floor, then came back Monday and finished late Tuesday. The difference is amazing. Not only does the house look much closer to finished, it feels warmer and quieter and more stable. We got some windy days and the previous “sway” we’d notice in the upper levels is much diminished. It even smells better! We did have some scrambling to prepare for this at the last minute, but it’s exciting to have this step done.

One interesting part of this process is how they did it. With spray foam, the concerns are under spray, over spray, and gaps. They did a really good job of this. They filled wall cavities very thoroughly, only a handful of areas that weren’t 100%. To counter the overspray, they used a wire brush wheel on an angle grinder and just smoothed everything down. This resulted in a colossal mess of tiny foam pellets, but they did a decent job of vacuuming it all up. They also followed up with canned foam to get all the small gaps, including windows, doors, and narrow spaces between studs.

The crew put down plastic sheeting on everything before spraying, so there wasn’t much in the way of drops or mess other than the aforementioned pellets that blow around, and as I said, they did a good job cleaning up. The house is now staying a comfortable room temperature, and we’re very pleased.

Catching Up

March 5, 2021 / / 5 Comments

Wow, there has been a lot going on recently, so much that I scrapped some posts-in-progress since I’m falling behind. So, let me catch you up on where things are, what’s happening next, and I apologize for not providing all the details as it’s happened.

Pex connections in the mechanical room

First, with the radiant panels installed and the core upgrade complete, I finished pressure tests and got the manifolds connected on each floor. Dean helped me get the new controller mounted and hooked up. We just jumpered the first and second floor thermostats to the basement, since we don’t have thermostats on each floor yet.

I got the first floor filled, but the water didn’t flow initially because of all the air in the lines. I had to loosen and then re-tighten individual lines on the manifold and let the air out, catching the water with a rag, then I flushed several buckets through until it was finally flowing. The new pumps have a GPM meter, but since the old one doesn’t I don’t really know if the rate is good or not. I ordered and installed some air bleeders for each manifold, thinking this would make the second floor go more easily, but it really didn’t. Ultimately, I had to do the same process to get the air out of the lines before it would start flowing. So, water is flowing through our radiant floors, the attic radiators won’t be hooked up until after drywall.

Next up, we finally got our new permit! After the final corrections from the architect were submitted, they issued our permit and I used bill pay through my bank to pay the fees as well as the expeditor. Meanwhile, the GC scheduled rough inspections. Unfortunately, that bill pay took forever, and when the framing inspector showed up, I still didn’t have the official paper permit. As luck would have it, he was pretty understanding, and he passed us anyway. We signed the previous permit and noted in their system that it was passed for the new permit.

The expeditor did get the check and the physical permit, and I drove over and picked it up. Then the plumbers had rough inspection, but in the months since they were here before, I’d received some things like the bathtub and valve bodies for the showers, so they were rushing to get that installed as well as run the rest of the supply lines. Since that involved them shutting off the water and being in the basement, we got an AirBnB for the day and just left them to it. They wrapped up and passed inspection. Electrical inspection was Friday (all of this was last week), and he passed as well.

Next the GC said that the spray foam contractor was going to come out to provide an estimate on Monday, which he did. I’ve continued working through my list of items and figured I could wrap some of that up this coming weekend. Then the GC called me yesterday afternoon to say the spray foam guys were coming today (Friday)!

Solar tube installation in progress

With less than a day notice to get everything ready, Dean came over and we started rushing through some items that needed to get done for them to be able to spray. Some of it was simple, like putting down more ram board to protect the radiant floor or moving stuff away from the exterior walls. Other items were getting the bathroom exhaust ducts connected and caulked, finally getting started on the interior portion of the solar tubes, getting that second floor radiant flowing (so it would be warm enough to spray), and vacuuming out the walls and attic to remove the sawdust and debris that keeps building up through this process, which Sarah did most of. Dean and I also ran some conduit for the TV and network, not as much as I’d planned originally, but enough for what we need. Most things are wireless these days, so I’m not too worried about it.

Today the spray foam installers showed up, and we learned they were going to start with the first floor today. They covered windows and doors with plastic and got to work. We couldn’t get any shots in progress because I couldn’t get in the front door while they were working, but after the first day alone, it’s a transformation. They almost finished the first floor, but a lot of the time was prep. They put down plastic sheeting over all the windows and along all the walls.

AC installation should be in a few weeks or so and drywallers are getting lined up. I need to run the wired security system once the foam is in. I may try to run a bit more conduit for network.

Radiant Core Upgrade

February 11, 2021 / / 0 Comments
Existing “Core” with basement and radiator loops (radiators disconnected)

With the panels installed and the pex run, the next step is to prepare the radiant heat distribution in the mechanical room. Initially, I was under the impression that the system we had was all ready to accept the new zones, but it turns out that Lester didn’t really set this up for everything to just easily connect. Even though our plan for the radiant heating hasn’t changed, and our house still has the same number of floors and hence distribution zones, our existing system is only set up for three zones, and the controller is equipped for only one zone.

Unfortunately, this means that the heart of the system needs to be replaced with a larger unit. This is properly called a “hydraulic separator/manifold” but I refer to it as ‘the core’ because it’s easier and it sounds cool. Without getting too far into the weeds, the way our system works is the boiler has a supply and a return line that both connect to the core. The core in turn, has supplies and returns for each zone, or floor, of our house. It’s like an octopus reaching out to the rest of the house. On each floor there’s a supply and return manifold to distribute to individual loops on that floor.

A manifold just splits the flow of hot water from an inlet to several outlets with individual valves or, in the case of a return manifold, combines several inlets to one outlet. This way each floor has a water circuit to and from the boiler. Each zone has its own pump, and all but the hottest loop (the radiators in the attic) have mixing valves to adjust the temperature down from the boiler temp to something more suitable for that floor, since radiators generally run hotter than in-floor heat. Each zone will also have its own thermostat, so that they can call for heat individually.

I bought the same brand core as the old one, a Caleffi Hydrolink, just with more ports. I did this partly because the basement mixing valve is also made by Caleffi, and it’s sized to screw directly onto the supply and return ports. The only major change was that the new core has more ports, and one of the pairs of ports is on the bottom, which can go directly to the basement loop, and the other three sets on top can go to the first floor, second floor, and attic. I also bought fancy pre-built mixing valve and pump combo units to run the first and second floor units. I already had the parts for the attic from when we ran the radiators on the second floor.

The biggest concern is that it’s winter, and the system is running to keep the basement where we live warm. We need to shut off the heat, drain the water, completely take it apart and reconfigure it, hook the basement back up and hope nothing goes wrong, nothing leaks, and that we have heat when it’s all done. For a project like this, I called in Dean.

New Core installed, problems afoot

We got to work, and at first things mostly seemed to go smoothly. We got the system drained and the old core removed, but once we had the new core in place, we started running into some problems. First, there’s a port on the bottom that fills the system from the water supply that wasn’t in the same spot, so the plumbing didn’t line up. I hadn’t accounted for this, so I didn’t have the parts to adjust it. Before I ran to the store, though, we decided to see if everything else worked, and that’s when we discovered the bigger problem.

Mixing valve with janky connection

Caleffi apparently changed the spacing on their supply and return ports at some point in the last several years from 90mm to 120mm. This meant the Caleffi mixing valve for the basement loop that I already had didn’t fit on the new core. The new stuff fit, since it’s from the same model year or whatever. So I went to the store and picked up some brass fittings and we got it together as best we could.

Planning alternatives

Unfortunately, things didn’t line up very well, but it was getting late, so we made do and turned it on. For the next week the system had some slow leaks and the heat couldn’t quite get up to the thermostat even though it wasn’t all that cold outside. I came up with a new design, got some new pipe fittings, and started reconfiguring it yesterday. I discovered my new design still wouldn’t work, so I decided just to remove the mixing valve for now, and hooked up the system without it.

Mixing valve removed, cleaner connection

Since we’re not using the radiators right now anyway, the whole point of the mixing valves isn’t that important right now and we can decide if and when to change it later. The next steps will be connecting the pex lines that go to the other zones, running electrical to the new pumps, and replacing the controller.