Seed Eco-Home 4 Data Collection

Built Time Spreadsheet

See spreadsheet Seed Eco-Home 4 Calculations

For the next house, see Seed Eco-Home 5 Data Collection

Painting

• Sep 10, 2024 - 5:45 caulking screw holes. Day of hearing + tree inspection.

Sanding

• Jul 27 - started sanding. Should sand after initial prime coat, to sand panels and coat, where coat fixes some imperfections so they can come off together with prime.

Landscape + Water/Plumbing Test

• Sun May 12, 2024 - Total: 6:20 hr. Getting trees, starting planting. 30 min to spread 20 bags topsoil to level ground, rained out. 10 minutes to unload trailer. For travel time - All together travel + shopping (trees, soil, round boxes pickup) = 3:40 hr.
• Sat May 11, 2024 - Total: 4:10 hr. Utility wall - BB + electrical. Completed GFCI bath + vanities. Needed to move 2 vanity boxes, and have 1 left to move - of the 7 boxes. Connected the Bath 2 overhead light. Did 7 circular light boxes to connect all circuits in bed circuit to test vanity circuit on floor 1 [1]. Had to add 3rd wago on all boxes for the circuit tester to show fully correct wiring. Notes. 240V breakers have 3 legs, so you would need to borrow a neutral from somewhere else or split this neutral to run 2 120v legs from it. But, trip on one circtuit trips the other. Major pain - somehow the vanity light on floor 2 was off by 2", moved it. Had to cut through stud. Floor 1 vanity ok [2]. 1:50 hr + 2:20 hr = 4:10 hr

• Fri May 10, 2024 - total: 5:20 hr. Utility wall - BB + electrical. Details: 2 hr for beadboard of Bath 2 Utility Wall, and finish one small section of BB bottom left on floor 1. One place the framing was not flush, wasted a bunch of time shaving it down with wood grinder + multitool. Rest of time was the wiring. Negotiating location and studs was hard. Keys: this will all go fast if technique is perfected, tools work, things are straight, design exists, modularization occurs. Did wiring for vanities on floor 1 and 2, and GFCI for floor 1 and 2. Also connected the wire from overhead light of Bath 2. Connected to wire from B32 - the second floor connection point of bedroom circuit. Send the wire from B32 through a hole in stud to enter the double cavity. [3]. Note that G2 to G3 must go west - the bathroom below is shorter and otherwise you end up on top of laundry closet [4]. Routed box for GFCI 3 and Vanity 1-2 [5]. Magnetic location method works great. For pre-install of boxes - this could be doable if we mark the box and use the box as a rear template - using new work boxes which would make it through legal. No reason why clean boxes [6] cannot be routed out using the box as a template, but this does leave the issue of leaving space for the router bit on the side next to stud. See discussion evolution at Cover_Plates#Work_Doc_for_Routing_Boxes.
• Thu May 9, 2024 - total: 4.5 hr. Breakdown: 3 hr to do story stuck Bath 2, and build out Bath 2: blocking + marking of 4 boxes. [7]. Snorten 15 ga DA finish nails to 1.75" instead of 2" if using flat walls. [8].1.5 hr - Beadboard of floor 1 bath utility wall, first side. [9]
• Wed May 8, 2024 - total: 4 hr. Breakdown: uncapping all closures, cleaning up. 1:30 hr to mark Bath 1 using Story Stick - including cutting out studs. This must be corrected so no cutouts are required.
• Tue May 7, 2024 - Total: actual is 40 min for making 1 template.. Details: 40 min for template test [10]. Test magnet marker - 10 min. Story stick for one wall - 30 minutes. Retest - plugging up slip joints on first and 2nd tubs got vacuum to stay for 15 minutes, but dropped after. Vac was at -7 in hg of 30 in, so about 3 PSI. Redid the bath drain in 1:40 hr including cutting off old, and finding out that a wye doesn't work (too long - drain assembly goes beyond the 8" double wall cavity). Turned out long wye [11] did not work, so had to go back to a vent tee. This is the only exception to plumbing where vertical meets horizontal not with a long elbow. *2nd floor bath drain can be pre-made up to 45 degree bend of the trap, before it hits the vertical drain to main stack. The overflow tailpiece and the drain tailpiece can be included in this, to be prepared 100% ahead of time: like this [12] ending at the end of the trap - and beginning as far back as the brass + rubber insert to the drain [13], just assembled so it can be installed easily even if the framing is already installed in the overall workflow. From there horizontal is cut to size. For the drop, a short 90 elbow (medium, not vent - vent is only above flood line as name suggests). Given that the angle of the trap is 45 degrees - we know this will fit and we can plumb it on the benchtop. Use a 'hidden stub' (means a stub between 2 fittings that is so short that the sockets hide it completely) between the tee and entrance to trap. Entrance to trap is a long street elbow - which is the correct design feature for lowering the trap so there is no standing water in the tub drain [14]. Note that horizontal of drain can use a male PVC-to-slip, while the vertical from tee must use a small extension stub + female PVC-to-slip. Note - only welded PVC traps can be used in concealed locations. Note that slip joint kept leaking in vac test - not a super secure connection in general. This lead stopped once slip joint was capped.
• Thu Apr 25, 2024 - Total: 5:30. Planting day. Breakdown - 2.5 hr erosion mat + silt fence. 1/2 hour correction to fill in washed out edger gravel. 1 hr to lay down erosion control, and 1 hour to put up silt fence. Cut silt fence and stapled with hammer tacker. Seeded grass first, included in above. Seed-rake-roll-pin using small cut wood stakes. For silt fence, did 3 Js, and pinned down edge with cut wood stakes and some of 3/4" ply. Did it hold up to storms? 3 hr - plant planters with sedum. Cut 4" of spacer insulation on bottom, leaving 3.5" of space on top. Used 4/5 of a 2 cu cf bag of potting soil. Drilled holes, laid spacer, laid plastic liner, put holes in liner, filled soil, cut 2/3 of sedum tray lengthwise (tray about 22" long) - so that one box filled exactly by one tray.
• Mon Apr 22, 2024 -Total - 6 hr. Planting. Breakdown: 3 hr planting 2 trees, with mulch. Need to do hole 2x the size of pot, so that means 5 holes for 10" deep 12" wide pot. Auger is 6". Or use 24" auger. On trees could probably do 1 hr with proper auger and logistics all in place. Here just walking back and forth. 3 hr - completing plumbing vac test. Explored many possibilities. 4" mech rubber expanding cap (TestTitan) does not work on 1st floor unless concrete is flush, concrete is in the way right now [15]. 1.5" TestTitans work well for overflows on tubs [16]. Vac procedure is to turn suction valve off first, then shut off the vac [17]. Rubber expander seal around Test Titan does not help - vacuum seal not successful [18]. Long turn elbow can be used to replace short elbow [19]. Sopper on tub cannot be sealed under vacuum - it sucks in too fast and does not always make a seal. Suck out traps with vac and then turn off vac to make stopper seal. But may still need rubber stopper to make a better connection - there could be leakage around the rubber flap, as sucking from far side is different then weight of water down on stopper. To empty traps - leave the closest hole open, close all else. Water from traps is ok to remain in bottom 4" plumbing, without releasing this miniscule amount of water from the cleanout outside. Note that 2" caps suck hard under vacuum - they get tightly concave. But hose clamp is needed to make a vac seal - you can hear leak without it.
• Thu Apr 18, 2024 - 15 min of actual to test, but 2 hours of messup time - 2" ball popped from washer drain and made a big mess. Also flooded out by opening from bath 1 sink - rush of water out, felt high pressure but it was only 8' of column. If doing water testing - fill up one floor at a time, start with floor one filling through tub: this fills the toilet 1, and up to floor 1 sinks. This can check all of floor 1 (tub, toilet, sinks + trap of washer, but not heater pan overflow which is ok as that is a secure connection already.). For this test, all is capped but the washer drain, so that we don't get an air lock. Then, plug washer drain and turn on Tub 2 - leaving toilet 2 uncapped to prevent air lock - and cap toilet to fill the tub 2 drain. This is all complicated - as a procedure must be devised to avoid air locks. For this reason - water column testing can never be done properly, as air locks will always yield incomplete test results. The only viable plumbing test can be vacuum, for this reason. To do that properly, would need 1.5" test balls on the shower overflows and a 3" test ball for toilet 2.
• Wed Apr 17, 2024 - 2 hr - closed off roof vent, 2nd floor sink. Connected vac gauge. With 1.5" barb-ball valve- fernco reducer to 2" , vac hose fits right on hose barb but used heat gun to soften vac hose. 2nd floor toilet was problematic - 4" ball doesn't fit - but 3" would fit after the closet bend. Used caulk + toilet flange for temporary seal. Then plugged 1st floor toilet with 4" ball and outdoor cleanout with 4" ball. Tested vac, but leaked slowly from 6 in hg (3 PSI) to zero - maybe 15 seconds. Means small holes.
• Tue Apr 16, 2024 -1:45 hr of actual testing, but this should go down to something like 30 min as it was only overflow connection, 1 cap, 2 balls - if I have balls in working order, pumps and chucks, and know that I can cap the 2 tub overflows and 2 stopcocks. Basically, most time figuring out test procedure. 45 min - water pressure testing. City goes only up to 45 psi. Turned regulator up and down. Turned hose bib on and off, also washer supply. No leaks - perfect. End of day: sucked vacuum from kitchen sink, with vent open, gets down to -5 in hg - and down to -7 mm Hg with all vents largely closed. 1 hr - took to close off: washer, 2 caps on tubs (both leak, caps need thread tape or ball plug). Cap for 1st floor bath sink. Heater pan overflow - shark bite screwed in and 3/4" overflow connected [20]. Tub drain stopcock seals well. (Overflows removed and capped). Wasted a lot of time today figuring things out - including long time to find vac gauge - which was in front of me but did not recognize mistaking the 30 on the gauge for PSI, not the -30 in hg which is vacuum. Also, hose from chuck too short [21], had to use bicycle pump for oudoor seal. Also, core was missing from 2" test ball! Replaced it from heat pump cores supply.
• Mon Apr 15, 2024 - 3:45 hr. Grass seeding. Rake, seed, and clean up edgers. Raked the lot with 6' rake, drawn behind the zero turn mower [22]. Cleaned up raised bed from construction waste. Used cordless blower and big blower to clean up washout which was down the driveway slope - soil washed out from top of edging mostly on the steep side (retaining wall side) but also on other side of driveway, and by downspout which is not finished. Cleaned up bricks around house and driveway. Seeding in 5' swaths - goes quick. Used 5 setting out of 14 on Scotts Turfbuilder Mini. About 1 hr rake, 1 hr edge, 1 hr seed, 45 min cleanup + wasted time.
• Fri Apr 12, 2024 - 1 hr - raking with hand rake for grass seeding. Ground soft after winter.

Interior

• Thu Mar 14, 2024 - Total hr. Breakdown - 1:20 to finish all of 3rd utility wall module on first floor, meaning aligning everything and taking data.
• Wed Mar 13, 2024 - Total 40 min. Big lawyer day on petition and TRO. Installed 3rd utility wall module second floor, and started on first floor 3rd module but I was recalled.
• Tue Mar 12, 2024 - Total: 2:45 hr - breakdown: 1:10 hr - laser, install top plate, and cut down 3rd panel in utility wall on 2nd floor. Note one panel/top plates install takes as much time as whole of 2nd floor water! Height needs to be trimmed. 1:35 hr - install drain for heater pan (dingle); then hot water distribution - to 1st & second floor. 2nd floor water. Including the bottom beadboard with holes and drain hole. About 1:30 for 2nd floor water hookup is impressive. That is 1/3 the system, with 1/3 on service entrance, 1/3 on first floor.
• Mon Mar 11, 2024 - Total: 7:05 hr. Morn: 5:15 hr to finish washer box - with DIY sharkbite water source added. [23]. Included beadboard on laundry and bath door. Included main feeds on cold side and hose bib, but not yet the sink/toilet supplies. Of this 5 hr, only 2 hr was bulk of the water on first floor (after tribulations with the washer box). Next 1:50 hr for the sinks/toilet/washer supplies including the 3-6-9 template with sink drains.
• Sun Mar 10, 2024 - Total 1:24 hr. Breakdown: 12 min to install last toilet section.[24]. 12 min to install second floor sink drain [25] from preglued piece. 1 hr to do most of the washer drain [26]. Major cutting - bottom notched out, could be solved if trap were higher, and getting the washer box in through the framing. Change framing next time to be in line.
• Sat Mar 9, 2024 - 3:35 total. Breakdown: 30 min - water service entrance install. 30 min 1st floor sinks rough plumbing installed. 2:10 hr for toilet drain minus one last piece, involved lots of creative cutting with recip saw + multitool. [27]. 15 min for 2nd floor sink plumbing.
• Fri Mar 8, 2024 -1:45 hr total - Breakdown: 55 min - to do horizontal + last vertical for stack vent, including fixing to the decorative top band outside. [28]. Good. Next, time, prepare materials and cuts ahead of time so I don't have to carry tools up there. 50 minutes recovery from making work before - fitting in the 3rd utility wall panel upstairs - trim is in the way, and cut down the panel (mistake). This is largely waste but counted for improvement time for next time.
• Wed Mar 6, 2024 - 4:05 hr total. Breakdown: 45 min - closure of refrigerator bottom - more ramset, insulation, 6 beadboard pieces (2 sides in sections from cut pieces) [29]. 3:20 hr to do laundry closet starting from 2 modules - insulation, bb, bottoms, ramset.
• Tue Feb 27, 2024 -6:45 total. Breakdown: 1 hr redo electrical around fridge - moved 3 boxes around. 5:15 hr - do the whole fridge assy - 3 modules (inc. top), insulation, beadboard, closure insulation. Modules were already built, this is just installation + beadboard primarily. 30 min - installed launtry top and one side. Had to cut down the height (mistake). Last day before week break due to tree destruction case.
• Mon Feb 26, 2024 -7:30 hr total. Breakdown: 1:30 hr - mount vent fan and mount 2nd tub wall (inc spacer for tub). 30 min mount main vent to double wye. 1:10 hr to mount shower. 3:50 hr - drain and drains trim. Slow, due do wall being installed already, and having to do a bunch of creative cuts. Next time - use this design - knowing that it works. Had to figure it out this time. Also was not clear on the fittings to use. Prepare this assembly - [30] - with slip fittings, prior to starting, and whole connection will be 15 minutes instead of over an hour, and ideally another 15 minutes to meet the drain double wye [31]. 30 min - did fan vent 2 tube, main stack to bend, and put up wall module next to tub (i21 [32]).
• Sun Feb 25, 2024 - 5:10 hr total'. Breakdown: 2:10 - installed shower faucet and head. 3 hr - did big slit in 2nd floor utility wall, water expansion, and most of 2nd floor tub module (vent fan etc). (there was 1 hr break, i did not count that from 8:45-9:41 - probably rest break.
• February total of cabinets making CM - 26.5 hr
• Sat Feb 24, 2024 - 1:50 modules install - corridor + 1 utility wall. Fighting top plate of utility wall. Second corridor wall hardly fit - why? - too low ceiling, or module too tall? 10 modules, 3:30 hr. 21 min per - 4 flat (laundry + kitchen), 2 tops, 4 filler (utility wall). For flat panels ramset notch works well [33].
• Fri Feb 23, 2024 - 3:10 total - built 8 modules including 2 corridor walls and 6 flat walls. That is 24 min per overall, with 15 minute per for the simple flat. Definitely could use major production overhaul for half the time.
• Thu Feb 22, 2024 -Total 7:15 hr. Day of figuring - i1 and start of top tub wall. Included mounting i1, and top plate floor 1. Installing tub in corner on floor 2. 1:30 hr fan preinstall and i1 module build. 55 min first wall install with trim behind tub. 4:50 more to start 2nd tub wall, and do floor 1 top plate, fan vent connection.
• Wed Feb 21, 2024 - Total 4:20 hr 1 hr start on tub wall + bottom BB; + 1:35 tub install + 1:45 (plumb in the drain and drain trim)
• Tue Feb 20, 2024 - Total 2:50 hr. 50 min water service entrance assembly [34]. 2 hr - clean for tub work. Poked hole for toilet through pre-plumbed concrete - more work than ready knockout - including it possibly caving in so got a vacuum. [35] Cut slot for utility wall - [36]. Almost cut wire - change order made it get in the way.
• Sat Feb 17, 2024 - Total 6:25 hr 1:35 + 4:50. Under stair beadboard, drywall, electrical, insulation, insulation under stairs. [37]
• Fri Feb 16, 2024 - Total : 5:50 hrInstalled utility channel for stairway, drywall and beadboard at utility channel, landing, stringers, ran wire to stair support wall in the channel. Took time on all the beadboard and closure - but essential fact is: bottom out landing against start of UC, leave a couple inches hole for transition to UC. Run supporting wall drywall in closet UC before installing BB. I fished it through under the BB for 5'. 4:50 hr. Issues were: landing was 1.5" too wide, I cut it down. Casing instead of 1x2. Looking for beadboard pieces. Stringer hangers must be adjustable for DfT - had to rehang as stringer fits only at a particular height [38]. Then evening session: put it insulation inside landing for noise, did pony wall drywall + blocking + another blocking for understair drywall/beadboard. Finished with another hour: understair drywall cut [39]. Note to install the pony wall drywall before pony wall - can't fit in after pony wall and must cut. Sequencing note - UC of 110" after landing [40] should be installed at the stairway stage - this protects the wires from fire, but is harder for repair. Question is open whether the wiring should be above drywall, so it remains more accessible. Accessibility is better, the fire protection of wires is nice but what we need is fire protection of stairway, which we achieve with drywall under the wires. It is more difficult to coordinate to install drywall under wires - as we go out of sequence to install Drywakk and UC prior to the main wiring to the common wiring point. This adds another drywall step (a different type of step) at the wiring stage.
• Thu Feb 15, 2024 - Total 6:20 hr. Stairs. 20 min - test electrical (on demand heater power) and put on first UC in under-stair closet. 3:30 - beadboard 3 + profile cut, bottom trim, 3 boxes routed, wires checked. Note 12V at subpanel feed means 6v at each breaker and 12V at 'double breaker'. Of 3:30, 1:20 to put on 3 panels + 1 strip, mount 2 nailing boards, route out contour. This is about 12 minutes per 'beadboard operation' equivalent. 2:30 - put in 2 more walls, bottom plate ramset, top plate, + blocking to support joist weight.
• Wed - Total: 27 hr Ronny + Matt + Denny. 24 hrs. Most 2nd story trim done. Matt cut joist closures, stained them. Then cleanup. Denny did deck, hung boxes, then worked on trim + stairway mid band beadboard. I got up to installing under stair door during work hours. After hours: 2 hrs: modified cutout next to door module, installed second stair module [41]. Door did not fit, cut a square from next module [42]. After after hours: cleaned up paint, 1 hr.
• Tue. Ronny + Matt + Denny. Total: 27:15 hr 24 hr. 1 hr after hours for paint cleanup. 2:15 hr to make understairs modules + door. I did stairway modules with drywall afterhours. Did 1 hour of paint on touchup of cabinet doors - edges need to be done with roller, edges were not coated enough.
• Mon - Ronny + Matt only. Total - 18:45 hrs. 18 hr. + 45 min after hours. Ronny did all upstairs door trim, 2 doors, 1 beadboard around doors in hall, and started a few bottom beadboard. Dinglespackle. After hours - prepared for module making, brought jig downstairs, cut header for door.
• Sat Feb 10, 2024 - 35 min first coat of paint, on both doors and pre-primed trim for kitchen and bath. Created spray bottle pressurized by air, to 45 PSI.
• Fri - Feb 9, 2024 - 24.7 hr - 4 crew no Matt + 40 min to do 2nd coat of primer on cabinet doors. Did not dry in 4 hours last night, so did it today. Installed reinforcing steel to hallway wall - [43] - took 2 cuts of groove -first groove was too narrow and could not bang the steel into the wood. Took total of 3 hours with interruptions - removing former rods - adding the holed repurposes shelf upright. Relatively stiff, about 1/8 thick, wide adge was about 1.5", narrow edge about 1". Cut wire to hall lights, redid it later.
• Thu - Feb 8, 2024 - 25 hr - 4 crew no Danny including me, plus 1 hr to spray paint primer on cabinets.
• Wed - off
• Tue Feb 6, 2024 - 24 hr - 4 crew inc me., Installed top plate on corridor, wired bed electrical interior. [44] Denny installed and trimmed door to garage in morning, and trimmed double door to tapered trim. Door got dis-jambed. Ronny finished his top windows, installed 4 wall modules, started beadboard process. Need to set them up on jacks with cordless cranks. We should do 3 teams on BB on Thu.
• Mon Feb 5, 2024 - 33 hr total. 5 crew inc me, 30 hr + 3 after hours to do corridor walls - 5 or so. Ceilng trim, windows trim (Denny did 6 windows + trimmed out 2nd floor door, Ronny did 2 windows + inner trim on 4 total, 2nd floor wall modules, insulation.
• Sun Feb 4, 2024 - Total 3:10 hr countable - Detes: 3:10 hr to make 7 modules, including 3 irregular corridor. 27 per. Improvements could be many: proper tool belt, all tools ar accessible. No fatigue. Rack of lumber does work well - using scaffold as wood rack; Cordless gun worked. But ejection from jig was most difficult. Premarked template could help - here made all the markings for the template. Marking of blocking should be via chalk on top of jig studs to eliminate all blocking marking. Definitely retain on-demand production of modules. 2 wood racks should be used, for transverse loading of bottom and top plates. Auto loader (9' 1D cnc for wood loading). Cleaner table surface, no extra junk on table. Spare battery supply, extra nails in tool belt. Design for Measureless. Here had to measure many 4 footers, though understanding that -1/2" tolerancing allows quick production of top and bottom studs. Hook-on ejection and slide over is essential, ideally with on-demand ceiling hoist and pile moved over only 8' over to retain 4' working space around the work table. In-Order-Production must be used, so stack is made in the order it will be installed. Better planning is required here. With 24 crew, this production would happen on 2 floors, and in 2000 sf model, in 4 of the house sections all at the same time. Plumbing assies would be made independently, added at the module level or even in place. WIth a 100 house autonomous housing development done in 5 days, a swarm of 2400 builds a village, with one day production of interiors: such as 2 people per house building modules, 2 people building electrical, 2 people building plumbing, heat pump, 2 on power center, 4 on cabinets, water heaters/induction/vent fans, 1 person on light channels, 1 person stairway + landing, 1 person trellis, 1 person front porch, 1 person tree planting, 2 people PV/combiner, 1 person on sewer ejector, etc. See more at Seed Eco-Home Swarm Build. After this, messed around 3 hrs marking and installing sill/top plate with stops. Challenges incurred, where jamming cordless framer was the nail on the coffin, no pun intended. [45]. Heavy learning curve. Needs digital assist with RTK GPS or other tools for coordinates. Looks like digital twin would be needed - see Digital Twinning. Understanding how to mark lines with a laser on ceiling and walls requires detailed procedure for execution.
• Sat - picked up materials, such as 80 sheets of beadboard.
• Fri Feb 2, 2024 - Total - 25 hrCrew - 24 hr. All BB exterior walls, 4 drywall. All insulation. Interior framing started, did 8 modules. Afterhours - 1 hr. 3 modules or 20 min each. Tired. First week cost $1530 in labor.
• Thu Feb 1, 2024 - Crew- 27 hr - interior to 22 more beadboard sheets. 6 hr*4 + 1*3.
• Wed Jan 30, 2024 - Crew - 30 hr interior - up to 18 beadboard on 2nd fl. 6 hr * 4 + 6 hr*no sleep person. One guy go-getter. 2 good, one semi good. Hourlies. Count it 30 hr.
• Mon Jan 29 - prep day - from 2 PM to 8 AM next day - 18 hr day.
• Sun Jan 28, 2024 - Total: 9:15 hr . Detail: 35 min notch with grinder. Too dangerous. 15 min drill 4 holes to common wiring point. all wiring to common wiring point including running down to induction heater and one hole was missing [46] - 5:30 hr of which 27 min wire from L4 to L5. Had to slip under beadboard. 2:55 for 3 stringers but problematic as through-cut marking drifted, so redid marking on 3rd, and initially the shark tooth was wrong due to missing information on tech drawing. Shows how important it is to be between CAD and tech drawing - only intimate knowledge of build will produce good tech drawings. ('Enginnering' for houses is laughable on this point)
• Sat Jan 27, 2024 - Total: 43 min . Detail: 13 min install breaker and connect heat pump wire. 20 min - mark the Main wiring point notching and hole and 72" point from rim joist. 10 min - slit edges with saw.
• Fri Jan 26, 2024. Total: 7:08 hr . Detail: 2hr finish rest of nailing boards. Interim data collection. Inefficiency due to lack of tool hooks, and to corded nailer. Ridgid busted. 1:40 for main stack vent penetration. Probed. Notes: 4" hole for both inside and outside. Note Spyder does not work on vinyl, rips it. Use regular hose saw in reverse. Started with 4.125 spyder hole, then caught myself. For 3" holes - did 3" for inner, and 3.75" for outer (toothed). For range hood, did 4" then 4" outside - will make it fit. Difference in techniques is whether the flange outside tightens into block, or block is supported on wall framing (main stack) since there is no flange outside. 1:10 hr to do fan vent. 50 min to do second bath vent - as I had the block drilled already. Screwed under the grate [47]. 1 hr to do range hood vent hole. 25 min to wire up stove hood between floors with penetration through 12" of insulation. 3 min to drill holes for induction + SA k1 box.
• Thu Jan 25, 2024. 1:30 - first 5 sets of nailing boards [48] up to tub done -[49]. Time getting oriented with measurements. Notes. Nailing boards. Note walls are 1.5" off [50]. Corner is 1" wider at top [51] + [52]. 61" space to nailing board at bottom, but wall has an extra inch on top. CAD shows 60.25" on the bottom to the nailing plate, but I have closer to 61.0 at the bottom of the nailing board [53]

Cabinets

• Jan 17 - 1.8 hr Cabinets: 3rd coat of stain on base cabinets (boxes, doors and drawers) + cleaning up staples on wall cabinets
• Jan 15 - 0.3 hr - Cabinets: 3rd coat of stain on cabinet boxes only
• Jan 10 - 2 hr - Cabinets: second coat of stain on base cabinets + prep of wall cabinets (label, remove doors) + work space organization
• Tue Jan 8, 2024 - 2hr - Cabinets: first coat of stain on kitchen base cabinets (boxes, doors, drawers, 1 spacer)
• Thu Jan 4, 2024 -2hr - take off doors and sand. Organize workspace. [54]

PV Combiner and Power System Finish

• Wed Jan 24, 2024. Total - 6:55 hr. Inverter output wiring lengths - [55]. Detail: 1:45 to prep inverter [56], DC disconnect [57], AC disconnect [58], and finish prep on the combiner module [59] and load up the truck. 5:10 hr to mount transfer switch [60], subpanel [61], inverter [62]. Finished so far at wiring output from inverter and final ground from Transfer Switch to main panel, need AC/DC discos still. Note that after mounting the subpanel, the rest of the 2/2/4 wire was cut to connect to main panel - need to get exact wire lengths, where precutting 2/2/4 and some prebending is a good idea. Things started getting tight inside transfer switch - 2/2/4 gets tough in small space. Still controversy whether the transfer switch can be the bonding location, given that it is equivalent circuit to bonding at main panel. Is there any functional difference? I see that there is more wire wire running to ground - but does that matter given that ground serves as trickle connection only (5 ohm resitance required)?Tolerancing notes: Subpanel bung location identical match to CAD (44.5" [63]). Bung center 2" above bottom on subpanel and TS. But bung location was right on edge of stud while CAD shows bung edge about 3" from stud [64].
• Tue Jan 23, 2024 - Total - 4:30 hr. Detail: 48 min to prep with Subpanel and few breakers. Out of this 2 micky mouse holes in back of TS took 45 min. 1:50 hr +1:55 = transfer switch prep in 3:45 hr. Need to figure out how to do the holes - drilling takes over 1 hr. Figuring out things, such as location of the ground bar was reworked.

• Mon Jan 8, 2024 - 2 hr - did combiner submodule parts prep + some build [65] up to stained wood, LFMC on side (figuring out that it is easiest on the side, closing the extraneous MC4 connectors since we have output go into LFMC. Cutting the 4/0 was tough for ground, need insulation strippers. Exessive time on figuring the wiring. It should take under 1 hour.

Transition

• Fri Dec 22, 2023 - Total 1:30 hr build time. 57 min - paint coat 2 of garage interior, no backrolling [66]. Included setting up a new paint bucket (added 1 gallon to big bucket, then at end transferred all to 1 gal container, so paint change took probably half the paint time. Otherwise painting was fast. Count 30 min for cleanup. 3 rinses to this kind of water consistency [67] then filled the interior with storage fluid using a short provided suction stub [68]. Probably save 1/2 hr for paint cleanup, but cleanup procedure must be rigorous: 1. pump out all into original can. 2. Use a big bucket of clean water. 3. Repeat. 4. Repeat until water is only cloudy. Then run through with cleaning bucket of diesel. Then run clean diesel. For cleanout in general, use water to clean out oil paints. But, note that paint hose will be full of water, so would also need to purge the paint line. thus, take off paint line, let it dry. Note that outlet would need to be plugged to prime with oil storage fluid, otherwise we have a bunch of oil or water in paint line. Thus, you'd be wasting all the fluid in the paint line. Solution: take off paint line, after washing with water, let it dry. Plug the pressure outlet. Have all internal cleaning (bump the pump, bump the gun) with water. So at stage when high P outlet is plugged - we can prime-cycle with oil, bumping the pump as well. This oil should be relatively free of contamination, so it can be reused many times. Then suck up the final clean storage fluid, not much is needed before it starts its prime - about 50 ml (1/2 the provided 120 ml bottle suffices). 0. To save all the fluid in the hoses - need to suck from another container (water for water-based, diesel for oil paints). 50' of hose has about 1/10 gallon of fluid in it. To not throw out the fluid in it when switching between water and oil - could use a separate set of lines for each. 50 ml internally - including short suction stub - is only .01 gal. Then screw the lines into each other using a 1/4" fitting. To clean oil-base: prime diesel and back into the original can, until excess hose gets to diesel. Take off tip, and empty gun into paint container, excess going back into the cleaning bucket. Then all inside the hose is mostly diesel - just save it for next time, can use the bit in the hose to thin the next batch. Summary: suck from stock to reuse all paint from machine, either water or diesel. Take off tip during entire procedure to allow for easy return of paint etc into source can. Bumping is activated by trigger, not presence of tip. Can bump gun without tip - bump will probably be greater as more pressure release can happen faster.
• Thu Dec 21, 2023 - 1 hr total. Painting garage, first coat. Included - mix paint and do 1st coat of paint in garage [69]. 2 hr - doesn't count as it's error fix - but it was to do a second drip edge to get water into gutter. [70]. Did rivets every foot, and used 4.5 strips of 10' drip cap. Used 3 pole barn screws, 2 at end, 1 at junction. 3 more junctions - done with 2.5" deck screws. Tight fit under old drip cap, now water goes in gutter instead of down the siding.
• Wed Dec 20, 2023 - 2:10 hr total. 30 min - replace window-trim assembloes (4) on first floor [71]. 1:20 hr - primer on interior of garage [72]. Does not count heating paint. 20 min cleanup.
• Tue Dec 19, 2023 - dead day, thinking about progress. Set up airless, cleaned above garage deck from leaves. Gave up on DIY spray roller, will just get a pro one.
• Mon Dec 18, 2023 - 3:27 hr total. Breakdown: 2hr - caulk the garage trim for painting. 1:04 hr - masking for painting garage. 23 min - caulked bottom drain, fit split wire loom around for UV, and added 2 clamps to get the angle for draining. There was some icy water in the horizontal already.

Heat Pump + Mulching 2

• Fri Dec 15, 2023 - Total 2:50 hr. 2:30 hr to mulch 2 more bales, rake the edge, blow leaves and mulch away. Main idea was to finish off the edge so it's grass-ready for next year, still needs crack sand. 20 min - tee + tubing install for second drain. Still want to use caulk + split wire loom.
• Tue Dec 12, 2023 - Total 2:20 hrs - in winter conditions around freezing. Downspout install/system tidy- 1:47 hr including cleanup, with 15 min cleanup. Includes water drain and second drain, but missing the tee at this point for the 2 drains. 30 min of this wrapping tape - so not too onerous but feels like tape is the major part. Just a lot of steps. - Will cut tee in later. Downspout plumbing cover- 33 min to full prep [73]. Of this 23 min for the top cap. Should just print one or get one, but it's only online, not bix box store.
• Mon Dec 11, 2023 -Total 5:30 hrs. Heat pump run starting at connecting outdoor plumbing! out of 8 hr and -2:10 bale break. -:20 for not having ga 6 strippers, lost temporarily. Overall many lessons: earned kinks in tubing, solution is 4/0. Flare nut wrong way. No flare nut. Flare too wide for 3x cut ends. Otherwise, smooth process, pumpout quick, but expect bunch of leakage from within body of valve core tool - at first it looks like a leak but it's only leftover fluid inside valve core removal tool body. This is the install process for the piping outside and electrical to disconnect - inefficient, all steps can get better. Ferrules and spade connectors ok, but the terminals suck. Too small and fragile, can lose the nuts. Also terminated the indoor unit connections, these weren't done yet. Now tidy detail.
• Sun Dec 10, 2023 - Total 4:11 hr. Breakdown: 15 min - set up to mount first beadboard, using lift table [74]. 28 min to mount the 2 beadboards - [75] - need to optimize this while using the lift table. Beadboard keeps slipping off the lift table, needs holder add-on. Lift table hydraulics seem to be acting up. Handle for moving beadboard in place is great, green laser is great and should be used more extensively. 7 min to route out main thruhole [76] for heat pump. Ended up with 3/4" safety margin from edge, but not near center - meaning for 3" hole, was off by 3/4" [77]. Expected, on high side. 16 min to route out outlet - with error on blade. Had to lift blade for shaft acting as bearing. Worked with 3/8" bb - want to use 3/4" template to make this practical with spiral panel pilot or flush trim bit. 16 min to pull wires through old work box - wire was too short, was fighting it, and sent it through upper knockouts, which shortened available wire further, and sheath was cut making it harder to pull through. Worked, but short wires will be more difficult for final correction. Need to patch up the cutting mistake. [78]. 45 min for heat pump interface plate [79]. 53 min to mount interface plate on heat pump. Marked template in place, then drilled 2 fiducial holes, then mounted on heat pump. Taped with painter tape so the mount doesn't come off, or front latch does not open. It is a mess to hang the actual mount - fingers work, but the bottom 2 snaps never fit right - so it is a very good idea to do the interface plate and not have to fight both the bottom snaps nor the plumbing bundle blocking your way. Lift table is a good idea. But don't use this heavy lift table, too hard to get it up. Use 2 motorcycle jacks (adjustability) and scaffolding near the correct height. With heavy lift table, took 40 min to position the heat pump indoor unit [80]. This should be done in about 5 minutes - pending the scaffolding being adjusted easily in height. Easy-to-adjust scaffolding is yet to be designed into the operation. 16 min to mount pump with 4 screws. Had to redo 3, as they did not suck in properly - next time use larger holes so they suck in the interface plate, with 3.5" screws. This should take 5 minutes. 15 min to measure (outdoors), mark, cut the copper lines in the house [81]. Ready to flare. Length is 5', with about 6" extra.
• Sat Dec 9, 2023. Total of 7:05 hr. Breaddown: 40 min - main through finished [82] up to ready for beadboard. Add 30 minutes of initial PVC cut + 2 hole saws, the total goes to 1:10 hr for main through feed.37 min - to finish exterior outlet penetration starting from blocking up to wire-ready [83]. 2 min - caulk 1/2" PVC penetration holes. [84].8 min - heat pump indoor unit blocking [85]. 23 min - heat pump outdoor unit blocking, double [86]. 1:20 hr - heat pump disconnect block prepared (PVC + block), hole drilled through wall, penetrated from inside through vinyl though should use a hole saw for neater edge. Mounted the disconnect, PVC glue, fed wire through it (after disconnecting wire from inside (next time just coil the wire and don't connect inside prior to mounting. Wire stapled to corner wall [87]. Main mistake was having to add blocking as blocking didn't work. 15 min - running wire to Module 50 outlet. Tricky around corner - staple after bend in wall works, not before. Pump mount probing to predrill of mount holes - 15 min. This should been 5 min, but time was spent figuring out SAS 3. Details: Mount pump - 1:15 hr, which was absolute SAS due to SAS 1. 1:40 hr to insulate complex 2 walls, with learning curve to preslitting. Improvents for next time. There was a good amount of SAS today. SAS 1 is that the monolithic mounting of heat pump was no-go, because the lag bolts provided go into the mount groove and as they get tight, socket wears out metal - thus no way to do this outside of full leverage and overpowering this and abrading the mount metal. And forget about thick-wall sockets completely - these will not fit at all. Thus had to remove the heat pump from the mounts, attach the mounting bar separately. Good thing: hydraulic lift table is indispensable and makes adjustment easy. Solution: make our own mounts for the heat pump for monolithic install with control over mounting hardware, also allowing more space behind the pump for venting. SAS 2: mud, so had to spend extra time to get heat pump in place, which took 30 min. SAS 3: Next time do the probe through the stud, which thus automatically locates the right vertical (and right mount point) of the heat pump mount [88]. . SAS 3: exterior disconnect block failed [89] - so next time make penetration 1/2" from bottom of mounting block so that the 3 screws fit on the block. the hole direction for the top screws should be downward to fit on a 2x6. - Learning 4 - wire from outdoor box must be 24", not 18". It was tight to mount the interior box and pull the wire through it. [90] . Learning 5 - precut the slits for blocking before installing insulation - measure and slit, take out insulation if needed for boxes - so that Module 49 ends up looking exactly like 50 https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1YF44L9WZ75y9LLAr8AwxbeC-K__OKJVt7FZzvzeQQ6Y/edit#slide=id.g2547ba733cf_0_20] (blocking covered, can't see behind any more) as in this picture [91] - Module 49 has blocking, but can't see it with proper slit-staple facing over the blocking. Learning 6 - siding nails get in the way of inserting insulation behind blocking. Best way to mark studs is probably finish nailer-based marking from inside the house with 1.5" finish nails, where the finish nails are punched back in when doing siding.
• Fri Dec 8, 2023 - Total: 30 min. packing materials - 3 hours to pack everything up from big shopping list [92], but a lot of this time was organizing, inventory, and testing things - in an efficient op this should be quick. Another 2 hours to clean out inside - moving building supplies etc, so didn't get much actual work done. Only relevant work: doing the slanted main thtrough-hole - 30 min - [93]. Slant cut needs cutoff saw and angle adjustment, I did it on cutoff with concrete blade, no angle as didn't have Allen but yes to spacer, which works well for PVC. 3.75" hole worked well - but out of all hole saws never got 3.5" so used 3.75" with Spyder rapid core eject, worked the 2x from both sides after pilot, for beadboard-side hole. Used a crappy 3.5" hole saw for tight fit on OSB. Fit is nice and snug, so water tightness will be good.
• Thu Dec 7, 2023 - Total: 4:33 hr relevant of a along day of 7 hours in the shop and 4 hours unloading pellets etc, cleanup, and got up around 7AM so another 3 hours on ass prepping docs. Of this, next time goal is -2 hr on base, -45 min on outdoor unit (how to get the cover out of the way for knockouts? Maybe just drill a hole with step bit, don't mess with knockouts. Thus, next time goal to this stage should be about 1:45 hr. Detail: 10 min for 2 fittings on heat pump [94]. 2:20 hr - to mount stand. Completely ridiculous, this should take about 15 minutes: put pump on work table, bolt-washer-rubber-mount-rubber-foot-rubber-washer-nut - took a bunch of time to figure this, and that 2"x3/8 or 5/16 bolts are the right thing, with 5/16 easy to get through the rubber holes in the provided mount and 3/8" has to be pushed in with a lot more force. Of course the right bolts did not come with the mounting base - finally finding some usable bolts took most of the time, used most 5/16 and one 3/8". But base is all together elegant, though the proper thing to do is a rebar base, per spec of Universal Construction Set - which is a top 100 degenerate construction set of materials and parts and tools that are most robust in application. Literally, that with which you would go to an uninhabited area to provide robust civilization from scratch. 50 min to prep indoor unit bundle [95]. Maybe just use tape next time - the provided wrap is difficult to work with - only careful unwind management can get you right - but that is still difficult as it is easy to let go and the thing unravels. 10 min to prep interface plate wood for indoor unit [96]. 3 min to do 1st outdoor LFNC [97]. Outdoor disconnect prep - [98] - 1 hr. Was fighting wire unspool (tried 2 spools on dispenser) and fighting 2 knockouts. No good access to get to the knockouts, started stripping left one so used center back - need to move thru-hole over corresponding 2". Put box in a large vise to block/hold knockout so only 1 would come out at a time. Identified 11/16 and 15/16 as the right crowfeet sizes for the 24k btu plumbing. [99]. Summary: betweed documentation, prepping docs, and actual work - day was 17 hrs from 7 to midnight sleep time, with 14 hours of work, with of course the followup fatigue.

Garage Interior

• Photos - [100]
• Fri Dec 1, 2023 - Today 4 hr total. 5 right wall panels, 10 small top pieces, all trim, yeast hole. Did 5 right wall panels in 6.8 minutes per panel - 5 panels in 34 minutes [101] - using a handle [102] to help with initial alignment. Did small top pieces - 10 of them - in 72 min - or 7.2 min per small piece - which includes having to cut it to size. Thus, this is pretty good. Small time nailing, longer time on cutting. For the 5 panels in 34 minutes, 2 of 5 had cuts. Then did all garage trim outside of bottom stained - in 2:05 hr. Did the DC source 'yeast bud' cutout in 5 minutes - actual cutting is only a minute. Summary: balls out prediction is 5 minutes per panel - and we are about there given the 6.8 min included the handle making.
• Thu Nov 30, 2023 - Total 3hr. Details: 5 min marking studs [103] - finish nails work well for this purpose, could use 16 ga but 15 ga is currently used. Distinction between double and single stud is clear [104]. 15 min - finish marking studs 1b 1c - pic [105]. 1 hr till first panel is up - lasered and put on a 3/4" piece of trim [106]. Nailing works well for 19/9 edges/field, using 2" nails (actually should have used 2.5" for house side - total is 1/2" drywall, 1/2" osb, 3/8 BB so 2" nails go in only 5/8" into stud. Definitely use 2.5" for trim nails. Figuring: tape does not stick to floor, used gravel. No major delay. 9 min per panel for 2 more panels. 7 min for door panel. 9 minutes to route out door! Way faster than marking and cutting [107]. And this was with a router that kept stopping - battery repeatedly drained. Need good batteries. And I was going medium router speed to get the hang, not 10. Then 1 hour to do 5 more panels (back side) - which included the Power Wall (marking + Yeast Cutout) - so 12 minutes on average is not too bad. At 12 min, we would need for 46 interior and 79 exterior - a total of 171 beadboard (BB). That is 34 hours. To half this to 6 min and 17 hr would be good. Note cutting time was included - all corner panels are cut. Definitely doable at a fast pace with everything working, so tooling is probably issue #1. The nail gun kept jamming, just about every panel - I had to clear it about 10-20 times. Some appeared to be a dead battery. So we can test for optimal rate: 5 panels left, can I do that in 25 minutes if it goes without hitch? 19 nails on bump mode per edge - 30 seconds if done right. It then breaks down to cut-carry-install. Little handle for tightening edge gap would be useful
• Tue Nov 28, 2023 - Total 3.5hr. Did last row of garage ceiling panels (5 panels, cut and some 2 ways. Major off day: 1. Redid first 2 panels, and first panel twice. It was not straight: had to cut off part of corner to fit parallel. Just a mess. Needs sure way to to get initial panel in row to align - laser to continue starting panel would be critical - add this to procedure [108]. 2 Hurricane ties were in wrong direction so had to grind them [109]. Jam, could not get it to unjam initially [110]. Seems nailer is faulty. Mistood FN nails for DA nails, and these worked for 2 nails and jammed. Did not recognize it was wrong nails for 15 minutes. And another panel towards end had to be cut down as it didn't fit, and I think the last one. All in all 42 minute average per panel - which I would consider the absolute worst case rate scenario.

Final Grading, Soil Cover, Mulching

• Machine returned: meter time: 1618.7 [111]. My initial guess is 20 hr machine time - but it turns out that per operation. 558.2 start [112]. 60.5 HOURS! 2.2 hr average per day. That is a lot. 70 gal and $280, making it 1.2 gal/hr, and $4.6/hr in fuel.
• Sat Nov 25, 2023 - Total: 7:45 hr Details: Stub extension for cleanout - 6" (measure phone case to upper part of cam window) [113]. Coupler (instead of butyle tape) is missing. Breakdown: 35 min, then got some vertigo from Thanksgiving dinner and solid stretching + ablutions in the morning. Afternoon: 7 hr, with gas run. Leveled everything wiht backward downbucket using smooth bucket (bobcat rake). Works well, not like tooth bucket. Thus, can use a little soil at end, then spread it going backwards. Finished front first: cut down by water meter for solid drainage, back to original grade after initial pad. Soiled front of house to the brick edge. Smoothed out sewer digging area, took its extra soil to extend steep grade at west end of house. Dug down to original grade. Then spread 1/2 bale at front of house, mulched through it with lawnmower. Works well. Then did the back, bobcat rake primarily, getting a good stretch of the neck. Final deposition of remaining topsoil at back, and West side. Dug down west side to smooth out grade to corner post, smoothing the area where large pile of topsoil was located. Then mulched remaining 1/2 bale at back. Doing the West side, added 6" exposed 4" pipe (or 7.75" pipe section going into one 4" cleanout tee socket (1.75" insertion)). Kept the tracer wire at cleanout, while water tracer wire is right at house on top of sewer location. Note that sewer goes straight out, then curves - and water is right there with sewer at house exit. Done, last 4 hours were with the snow starting at 3 PM [114]
• Fri Nov 24, 2023 - after T-Day - Total 6:15 hr Breakdown: 1:30 hr - grading finishing, smoothing back, getting rid of wet soil in front drainage. Remedy for rain - some pockets were drenched, so I removed soil from walkway area to fill in with dry soil, to be able to finish now while still have the bobcat. 4 PM picked up trailer fix ($300 fix, $150 parts, $150 labor); car wheel was $50 to put on rubber and balance? After chai, did 5:15 to 10. Could see leveling with Spider Sense at that point - got down to virgin soil in many cases, whereas before it wasn't obvious where original grade was located. Getting down to original grade is the best idea, since that is thought out with respect to the whole subdivision. Also spread good soil behind garage and raked it. Noticed how that just eats up time. Remedy for wet soil: throw it 'overboard' - the edge areas of steep incline. That worked to get the masses of soil - lots was left - over the original grade.

Driveway

• Sun Nov 19, 2023 - 7:15 hr total. Breakdown: finishing grading and soil edge next to brick, burying back retaining wall. Brick Edge Soil is a distinct step, took probably 3 hr total. Could be facilitated with pulverized soil delivery, automated instead of shovel by hand. 1:24 hr to soil-edge the from back [115] to finish of driveway [116] (about 160'). Abpout 2:15 hr for finish grading - curving the back retaining wall and North-East pit, moving soil from the West. 20 min to bury and even out the back retaining wall [117]. 1:30 hr to grade front of house first. 2 hr main break.
• Sat Nov 18, 2023 -5:50 hr total. 1:20 morning - adding growing soil on far edge triangle by apron of driveway. Added more soil to 'raised bed' by front deck, and added most soil to far edge of driveway. With loader, but raked into place. Ok, but fights clods. About an hour of time to rake out the soil dumps in raised bed and by retaining wall + driveway [118]. Thus, soil edge time on raised bed and far edge was about 2:20 hr including soil moving. In afternoon, used a 6 hp tiller for raised bed to break clods, couple of passses through. Shift to cleanup and grading: about 2 hr of site cleanup including forking left over cement, wall block, and pavers onto pallets, moving everything including trailer edges (for gravel) out of the way. (Took trailer to Dtone repair for the wheel over lunchtime). Then did 1.5 hr of moving soil from the west piles to the big hole by northeast corner in back of house.
• Fri Nov 17, 2023. 5:20 spreading gravel, including clearing trailer. 2 hrs to clear off trailer should not count. But maybe it is closer to 1 hr because this time was used to spread gravel [119]. 1 hr+ for clearing trailer should be avoided next time. 1:15 hr for compacting. [120]. Spreading gravel all day. Did it once, then topped off for second layer, needs another compacting. All together got the straw bale for mulching all dirt, got back at 2:40 PM (fixed tire in meantime - need Airless Tires. Next time for remaining edge: break clods with bottom of bucket, not tiller. If I can do this to break clods fine, that will save a lot of work, relegating the hard work to the machine bucket bottom.
• Thu Nov 16, 2023 - 6:30 hr actual work time - filling geogrid. Sensitive to driving over - exposed it in a few places, so I cut out the dead spots with shears. Buttoning down edges takes most of the time. Spreading not easy - would work better with flat, not circular, gravel. Used 1.25" flat, which spreads easier than 1" circular. 3 hr detour to gravel pit - ran out of gravel [121]. Started with half filled [122], so it takes tremendous amount of time to fill. Loading from trailer is slow (falls over sides, rips geotextile), and going up the driveway is slow as can't skid, and have to watch for brick edge, and apron careful over plywood.
• Wed Nov 15, 2023 - 7:20 hr total, geogrid day. Takes way long to button it down correctly and to connect the pieces in an irregular shape. Morn 2 hrs, aft 3:20 hr, night shift 2 hr. Started filling in rock. Driving on trailer. Pain to connect and pin down the geogrid. All day. Probably don't need to staple every bump. But filling in and cutting odd pieces was a pain. Pegs take time. For stakes, cut up a bunch of cattle panels, 150+50 about, about 200 - every bump held.
• Tue Nov 14, 2023 - 8:45 hr - beauty - [123] Did apron in pavers, to edge with concrete, and crack sand, starting on geogrid. Fixed rise at garage to avoid bump. Needs touchup. Feady to fix geogrid with stakes, and do the rock. 13 of60 lb bags cement used for all edging including the apron. Apron 35 block wide (about 23') at street with 5 courses + vertical course [124].
• Mon Nov 13, 2023 - 8:45 hr - from finishing leveling gravel, to almost finished with entire brick laying - still doing the apron, after raising its height with more gravel. Cut lots of bricks for angle with 14" concrete blade.
• Sun Nov 12, 2023 - 7:40 hr - 3:10 at night to near final spreading of leveling gravel. 4:45 morning session rocking the apron, spreading soil, laying the pipe for leveling.
• Sat Nov 11, 2023 - 3:30 hrs total - recognized ran out of gravel, that blew the day. 2 hrs at night - 1 hr to smooth all gravel with 3/8" leveling gravel spread - minimum amount as running out. Then 1/2 hr compactor (final compaction) and 1/2 hr more leveling spots, checking with level. Morning - 1.5 hrs, covered geotextile with all the remaining 2" road base. Ran out. It is clear that the remaining gravel will not suffice - went for a run to get 9 tons of clean 1" - break from 11 AM to 5 PM back at work.
• Fri Nov 10, 2023 - 5:45 total. Breakdown: geotextile - 1:40 to roll it out and bury slightly. Of that, about 20 minutes for initial bury. Time included a home run for getting more geotextile, needed 40' more of 6' wide to cover entire driveway - somehow 4 rolls were not enough (2 of 6x60, 2 of 12x27). 1:20 to tamp [125]. 45 min for base gravel layer for correcting the base. Wetting the rocks was a bad idea - mud sticks to plate. Spread more gravel over the mud. 2 hr - from getting diesel, to final cleanup and marking of driveway. Deepened road edge to 9" or so. Big breaks: walmart run and sleeping in (to 8 AM).
• Thu Nov 9, 2023 - Total - 7:25 hr. Breakdown: 2:15 hr - start of driveway. 3:25 - continued driveway to mostly done, and sloped the upper hillside and retaining wall area. 1:45 at night to finish the road edge of driveway - cut off the edge with concrete saw. [126]. Cleaned it off, dug down about 7".
• Wed Nov 8, 2023 - 4:15 hr total. Breakdown: 3:15 hr - did 2 edges for the garage (1:15 hr)[127] then started to grade the driveway with markers at 10' out [128]. Then at night, one hour to mark driveway, with it emerging that wide curve must be made. Key step is 1 [129] - marking exact curve. By eye, the sloping along that curve is made.
• Tue Nov 7, 2023 - 5 hrs total 12:20 started after put together Steele Mixer and set up water, forgot trowels, so blew another 15 min to go back to workshop thus effective start is 12:35 PM with 2.5 hr break (conf call + break). Got back to grading for 40 minutes (big pile in front of garage) and 25 min on the skirt termination (6x6 block). Had a leak in water, blew one hour to fix it. Crimp on non-pex with pex ring did not work. 28 bricks per bag, 9 bag total (60 lb) for 152 feet of about 17' per bag. Steele Mixer is magic. Drop concrete right off pallet on bobcat. Follow me bobcats next time. About 60' per hour for edging, including mixing about 4 bags. Could do better on troweling - via understanding better 'definition of done'- can it be really rough for the edge, or do you need to work it to smooth? Are air gaps in edging ok, or tamp them down hard?
• Mon Nov 6, 2023 - 6:40 hr total - 9:50AM to 7:50PM with breaks for 1:30 walmart and 1:50 lunch. Breakdown: for deck correction (wasted time lowering it by 1.25" for the decking (forgot about that) up to laying and straightening all brick along string, leveling some - mostly by eye as sometimes by eye it is easier and more effective to make sure that the brick edges line up. Sometimes level did not line up brick edges, so by eye + even edges are a better guide to visual appeal. Solid base made it in general level horizontally. Moved strings right to edge of bricks - to perfect course straightness. Probably could have moved the string right next to edge of brick, but I wanted a little space to not be hitting the string all the time. In retrospect, easy enough to re-align block with quick taps - that doesn't take a lot of time, and saves the string from getting in the way all the time. Main sequence was disperse brick, lay all quickly, go back and level/straighten, then readjust the string for final straightening. Next time: lay all quickly, top down to vertical level, move string for final straightness + some more taps if needed - watch for height against the string.
• Sun Nov 5, 2023 - 7:15 hr total . from finishing insulation (about 40 feet) to first line of brick laid, including starting to fit the deck in place but need to readjust its height. - 1:20 -15 min break - 1:20 walmart. End 7:50 start 8:40 = 11:10-2:55. 7 :15 total work time pedal to the metal. I cut 2 block only - down slope by deck to hide wide gap where bricks start to go down. Because deck sticks out 1.5", made next to deck 14" out, elsewhere it was all 12" for skirt, without actually having to cut any bricks.
• Sat Nov 4, 2023 - Skirt day. From 11 AM to 8 - 1:25 hr = 7 hr 35 min total. Did up to the insulation, half way. Started at 9" down skirt + 11" down for deck. Compaction, correcting base, laying geotextile. Messy part started at skirt insulation, where clods right next to house made laying insulation impossible, had to clean up clods everywhere close to house. [130]. It took 48 min to make frame of deck. [131]. Could use better brush. Roller doesn't work. Rag smoothes it out. Probably best way would be a chemical spray bottle - followed by rag. The bulk of the time was applying stain - ragging it down is quick. Ideal: spray in 5 minutes, rag in 5 minutes, flip. Or suspend somehow, no flip needed. Need to figure out large part painting, and in general large part handling (such as paint) or other touchup. Improvement notes: for the deck, nails were 28 deg and gun was 21 etc, looked for gun. Gun that was right size - didn't work - had a leak. Compressor - waited for it to charge. Materials - had to move them around. Mobile off-road table would be useful. Relevant also to wireless internet meshes, maybe even on short wave for minfo (minimal info) Solar Operation. For the insulation not fitting: must grade and install even as part of foundation prep, including grading at that time. Then, the first step for skirt would be geotextile, leveling gravel, tamp, final level, block. Foundation should include bulk cement bags with Mudmixer and self-mixed concrete. Revisit concrete cost to see what value the cement truck is providing, and in what scenario it would be useful to diy mix. Automated DIY delivery + mixing would be ideal. For the bobcat - sitting delay, turn-on delay, safety bar, and unpressable brake shutoff make for the most annoying operation. This should be hybridized where a small compressed air electric operation could do immediate start in rapid-cycling operation. Further, follow-me slow solar addition and automated movement sequences could be a boon.
• Fri Nov 3, 2023 - 7:30 hr total. session 1 - start 11 AM to 5, then 6:30 to 8. Cut down top for reinforcement. Stapled geotex to vertical. Laid mesh (deer net 750 lb tensile per sf) after course 6 [132]. Laid reinforcing geotextile on course 9 [133]. Laid separating geotextile on course 12, and reinforcing mesh on course 12, going down gravel then up the soil. Thus, 3 layers of reinforcement -
• Thu Nov 2, 2023 -total time - 10:10 hr. Details: Retaining Wall Day. morning start 8:20 AM. Time to finish-level of base course, after 'correcting the base', first layer of base, compacting [134], rough second layer of base, rough pipes [135], leveling course, pipes, compaction of leveling course [136], final leveling of compacted leveling layer [137], final covering of leveling pipes [138] + [139], final raking + screed of pipes using a level (shows level in the transverse direction [140], and final removal of pipes and ready to lay - [141] at 5:06 PM. Basically: all day to prepare for first course ('7:10 hrs = 8:20 to 5:06 minus 1:35 hr lunch). Then after this, should take 2 hours to lay. Spent 3 hr to lay from first course to course 5. Interruptions - Should have cut back the roots as wall must be significantly non-vertical to make up for the 8" of angle caused by back lip, over 12 courses (3/4" per course). 2 delivieries. Talking to visitors. Sharpening pick axe, tool run to workshop for rubber mallet. Unpacking the compactor. Taping up pipe ends (so gravel doesn't get inside). Not having staples for geotextile - repurposed flags for this. Lots of time being careful with machine right next to house. Having to go around house for materials. Needs better cutters for geotextile. Roots in the way. Best is a sharpened pick mattock. Next - need to scrape some soil from top (2') to lay down reinforcing geotextile.
• Wed Nov 1, 2023- 6 hr total - primary bulk earthworks. Lasered the retaining wall, most of retaining wall done.
• Oct 31, 2023 - 5hr total - machine time earthworks. Of this, about 1/2 hour site exterior cleanup including folding down scaffolding, rakes and shovels, ladder, wood, stake moving. Not counting 20 min to drive SV280 to build Maysville site. Got to 1/2-most way of bulk moving and leveling, exposing retaining wall, starting skirt 7". 7-9-11 - 7 for skirt, 9 for 10' out finish grade, 11 deep at front porch - bulk step before driveway grade.
• Oct 30 - 1 hr - buried exposed water main connection and pit connection. Couldn't get trailer off ball, spend 1-2 hours on it.

Garage Painting

Garage Interior Finishing

• 10/26/23 - Total 1.8 hr - 3 tasks: got MicroTrac over to the site (1 hr) and get trailer back. Stained trailer deck that evening (1:30 hr, doesn't count). 40 min - Buried water line beyond freezing - with 2" of insulation for water at house end [142] including poly on top - and some gravel/cave-in sides at the tap side in 45 min. The tractor would not move in the mud, it just rained - so had to do it all manually. 25 min - to route out 2 panel electrical boxes (G1 and G2) [143] - with router and template, riding smooth shank on template, bottom bearing (not used) spiral upcut (which should really be no bearing, spiral downcut with pierce point on plunge base. First box - 17 min - second - 8 min. Process improvement - use a template with 3-5 standard locations, template is numbered 1-5, corresponding to the different routing cases with the correct location already included so that no measuring is required. Template has a quick-mount attachment to the plywood. Template applies to outlets in house, kitchen/bath cabinets, and possibly wall-lights + fan registers. Needs a bit with a pilot - so we use router + template only, no measuring. This avoids marker-tape, predrill, screwdown with trim screws: 2 power tools and 4 tools total. Revisit Cordless Router for a: pilot, spiral downcut.
• 10/25/23 - 1:20 total - 1 hr - did another 1.5 panels, got 2" instead of 2.5" nails - the 2" nails sink fully usually. But the nailer sucks. Really bad ergonomics wear out the hand. See [144] - got a Dewalt one instead. And, nailer jammed, can't fix it. Day off to design work. Bad hair day - my hand was worn out from the bad ergonomics of yesterday - plus I fell off the 2' scaffold, nothing major but the nailer actually likely contributed to it as I had to spend too much energy on it and did not notice that I stepped off scaffold. Evening - 20 minutes - to measure out the retaining wall design.
• 10/24/23- Day total of 5:30 hr. Breakdown - 4:45 hr to do almost 9 sheets of ceiling beadboard [145]. Of this 45 min to do cutouts/wire up the ceiling BB for the light/garage opener [146]. Shit efficiency - had to knock down 30-50% of the 15 ga finish nails, 1/8" would not go in so switching to 2" instead of 2.5" nail. Also I cut up the box-routing jig - so I redid it with jigsaw. Measureless BB jig did not work for ceiling - it is too difficult to keep it lifted - maybe it will work for walls. I nailed it in to ceiling, then taking it off it shifted so it did not work. Fixed router bit by welding on bearing stop - [147]. 25 min - brought down another scaffold for use, cleaned out trim from workspace, moved first BB panel into position ready for nailing. 20 min for city to turn on and test water - [148].
• 10/23/23 - 1:15 hr - move down the drywall jack - did't notice that it disassembles readily, instead I took the head off, wasted half hour. Rest was moving the other scaffolding down, setting all up ready for ceiling. Note that header is exposed - [149] should not have done the drywall side yet, just the ceiling so there is more room on header to attach beadboard. Note this 1:15 should have been 30 minutes to carry down scaffolding and jack, but instead I could not figure how to disassemble duh. 20 min - evaluate site for retaining wall. Street level is 46" [150] above garage floor. Tree is 7' in front of house and 11' to the side at an ange - where these 2 intersect we may get away with 30' of retaining wall for tree. 12 min - remove door bottom frame [151]. 1:30 hr - do all the drywall on house-garage wall, except for one sheet that was already on. Rather quick - it felt much longer doing it. [152] In this I also measured the Wall 67 result of hole locations. Good to +/- 1/4". 45 min -cut water line (no tools, used circ saw duh), capped with sharkbite valve, cut copper line to fit and connected to the water main. Took measurements. It is 36" at top of bend, 48" at pipe. [153] Measurements with respect to far end of meter pit cap, and to property corner.
• 10/21/23 -4.9 hrs total. Detail breakdown: 55 min - don first sheet of drywall, retrofit 6 blocking behind it. Screw it on front edge, rest was siding nailer [154]. 5 min - tape up DC feed, ready for closure behind wall, set up such that it can be routed, wires out of the way [155]. Also 9 min for tape-up and pull-through the 2nd floor end - to get the wire where needed [156]. 48 min - install all blocking (5 wall modules) - for beadboard [157]. Did chalkline, then measureless jig, then cordless nailer 4 nails each. Would be way faster benchtop, though. 4 min - staple front garage door wire, part that was inside house. Total wire length: 31" + 75" + 97 + 7 + 36 + 52[158]+ 6 [159] +6+8= 318"=26.5' . Second wire - 40+ 127 [160] = 167" = 13'10". 6/2 wire for heater - 8 min to staple manually. Had to take out blocking as I forgot to thread it behind blocking. [161]. another 14 minutes to thread through to main breaker panel, determine length, label. 18" of 6/2 heater wire sticking from outside of main power feed [162], and 27" sticking out from the room side - 9" of nipple (6.75 tube +1" of threads on each side [163]. Thus, we have 27" + 8.5" thru-wall +21" for the length up to house entrance = 56.5". Wiring - 2:30 for the 2 garage boxes, light, garage opener, garage opener signal. Drilling holes above door wasted a lot of time - finagling with multiple buts, breakage, etc. Took 50 minutes to do the 5 holes through wall at impossible lengths - going through 4 studs. Hit a nail or two. Used spade, auger, regular bits. Used right angle, flex bit, flex shaft. Only things that work - spades and regular. Augers get clogged. Long flex slips. 1" solid bit is too hard to drive through without good leverage. Also did cleanup.

• 10/20/23 -20 min unloading 28 sheets of beadboard inside house next to garage. 10 min - loading 28 sheets of beadboard [164]
• 25 min - Cutting wire for Light, signal to door opener, door opener, 2 GFCI, and on-demand heater. Inefficient - couldn't use the wire dispenser as spools were tangled.

PV Feed Wire

• 3 min - feed through 20' conduit from second floor - [165]
• Getting down from roof, getting spool of 10 ga THHN wire, cutting wire, 51' x 3 - marking with tape - 20 min [166]
• 25 min - connecting all PV panels. Do this upon installation, it is easier then when everything is exposed.
• 5 min - drill out DC disconnect holes [167]. Compare to CAD [168]
• All blocking was measured off bottom plate not floor, shifted all interior blocking 3" (outside of main power feed through wall), 20 min, doesn't count.
• 5 min - cutting LFMC - not circular but grinder. 20' of it.
• 25 min - drill all holes and feed LFMC. 3 Holes: through floor [169], top plate, and 2nd stud - was tight so did not use rightmost bay. 2nd stud hole 75" from ground. See all holes - [170]

Water

• 10/14/23 - Total 6.6 hr, with 2.8 hr dig time
  • 580.2 [171] on Terex at end of water, and 577.4 [172] at beginning of water - 2.8 hr total dig time, including burying everything towards the end - leveling sewer, and burying water keeping water tap pit exposed and keeping area around meter pit not buried.
• Bagged machine up 4 PM - 20 min. Finish of actual work 3:36 PM.
• 14 min - final cleanup of tools ready to go back..
• 40 min - final bury and level of ground.[173]. Left water coil exposed, rest buried, meter pit semi-exposed
• 6 min - cover copper with soil, ready to bury all blue and copper line [174]
• 2 min - ran the copper pipe. [175]. 6 min to dig in pipe over high spots in clay. [176]
• 16 min - added tracer wire to water line to pit, coming up right at house insulation [177].
• 13 min - sealed with silicone tape [178]
• 18 min - Water line uncoiled, cut, and sharkbite connected, both to water pipe and copper pipe - sweet. [179]. This joint needs protection using self-sealing silicone tape. Note both pipes are CTS.
• 9 min - Water connections tightened, meter pit placed over meter, and meter pit leveled with ground. [180]
• 8 min - second connection to water line made with pack joint - [181] after cutting and deburring.
• 25 min - meter ready with stub. Stub cut, pack fitting connected and tigthtened. [182]
• 12:25 - 1:40 hr to visibly exposing water line. Dug along, and below. Extensive probing in the run from the house, as I suspected another potential water line there. None found, though there was some area I thought had pipe but it was probably some gravel. While it took over 2 hours to expose the water line - probably could have cut 1 hour if I were sure there was nothing in the way. Another 28 min to finish exposing to move on to connections. [183].
• 10:07 start - 38 min to dig first pass of second leg to water tap. (Don't know what I did in another 20 min - but in 20 min after aligning with flags dig was done - see picture of pink flag [184]
• 9:10 start - Dug first branch. [185]. 20 min - had the pit fitted - [186]. Another 37 min and had pit leveled with gravel under. Useful to do this so later it keeps even, even if have to shift around. Went enough past pit (4'?) so next straight leg did not bury the pit when starting on the backhoe.
• 9AM start - Location of water is 12' (143") away from corner stake [187] and about in line with corner of opposite house and street sign next to street name sign [188] but actual exposition later showed that we are in line with back door of that house (just a tad to the right). Measurements and pix - 10 min

Sewer Take 2

• Start on meter - 571.9 to 574.0 on Day 1 - 2.1 hr digging day 1. 577.4 day end 2 - 3.4 hr digging on Day 2. Note dig time is actually small - everything else around it takes time. The surprise is the overwhelming busywork on the ground, rather than machine time. Key to speed is thus automating the 'busy work'.
• 10/13 - 11.0 hr total- 12:20 hr by time outside lunch, 11 hr by actual detail. May want to review to see how 1:20 dead time adds up. There was maybe a little break, but it doesn't seem like 1:20 hr of documentation time. Some may be just muda of walking around etc, but some may be valid for situational awareness - probably would be fair to add 40 min to the actual work total from the recon/thinking time. Lunch break, at 11:30 AM to 2:06PM ... first picture in afternoon. Started at 6 AM, got to sewer at 9:25. 3.5 hours. In that time, leveled 2 more sections of pipe. Nicked sewer slightly. Hell began in terms of trying to dig at an inconvenient angle - I reset by moving dirt pile and resetting angle. Took 2 hours to dig to expose pipe, until 11:30 AM. Got back at 2 PM. 1:20 hr to add a section, plumb bob it over the sewer tee - setting a stake to hold the correct position. Also tested water flow, and glued on down angle [189]. 5 min to drill hole for first tee. [190]/. 22 min to mount tee with hose clamps, up to adapter [191]. 18 min to do riser: pvc sch 40 stem to tee, coupler to SDR, then SDR. SDR was about 5'. The trick was to view level, mark height of SDR, and cut it so we remain at exact level using level jig. Note level on jig is center - as there are spacers of the correct drop on the jig. [192]. 22 min to measure, drill hose clamp the second tee - at 3' away from first [193]. 14 min to install and cap a 7' long so it is above the first sewer elbow [194] . 6 min to finish the tracer wire. Which is cheating as same tracer traces the second sewer. City sewer was 1" per foot drop - will that work? [195]. 22 min to start bury and put a concrete protector around first tee - [196]. And another 13 min to do concrete around second tee [197]. Getting ready to bury. Water line crossing is 41' from cleanout [198]. Sewer pit starts at 81' [199] and goes another 6' to drop [200]. 10 min to do warning tape [201]. Burying. Second sewer is about 16" higher than first [202] and 27.5' from far edge of manhole cover by street [203] and second sewer is 29'10" from far end of manhole [204]. 2 hr to bury everything [205] - but time taken because of measuremetns and 2 units of sewer, and awkward machine - bobcat would be much faster.
• 10/12 - 4:55 hr Got backhoe out late in the afternoon. Morning: 5 min to slit two rubber sewer tap tees. Depth to water line - 5' by sewer [206], had to reroute and move over to not hit water line. Ralph at City Water did it with a Vaccon truck [207]. See [208]. Started to dig at 3:03 PM. [209]. Finished at 7:53 - laid, leveled, and graveled 3 more sections of pipe. [210]. Ready for pit. This was invonvenient - had to turn existing line at an angle, and bend pipe around corner, which takes more effort than straight due to need to hold it in place. Also set the tracer wire down the whole length. Dig with backhoe is fast. Most inconvenient for moving around, though.

Sewer Start, Power Finish

• 10/11/23 - 33 min - fed the string line using metal fish tape, tied up ends, taped pole end shut, and replaced deadfront/cover for main power center + meter base. Rain, so had to clean off the covers as they were left outside near ground. Detail: 10 min to install pull string = metal fish tape + tie + pull + tie + release string from fish tape [211]. 18 min to clean and install dead front + doors + cover the meter base hole. 3 min to tape up the pole side end, and leave spool for saving the string.
• 10/10/23 - 2:12 hr - Tuesday after equipment return yesterday. Finished meter base except for pull string, which got caught and I had to leave. 5 min to rake. Cut conduit for main load center to 55" [212] and started ground rod within 10 minutes. [213] After 10 minutes of trying crdless rotary hammer, gave up. Made a knocker. BS alert: proper technique yields 1 minute [214] knocking time, but admittedly the guy in the video had much softer soil than us (he said ground was soft- and that he did the first few feet by hand shows just how soft it is) because no way can a cordless do the job - I don't think his Dewalt did any magic. Hard time with rods - welded up a knocker, used high up. 5 min to finish knocking with blunt end of post hole knocker [215]. Get a high power corded rotary hammer. 10 min to measure and cut sch 80 conduit with pipe cutter (use something more efficient - that was slow. [216]. 5 min to thread on the ground rod adapter and lock ring with mistake - did not put the adapter ring at the submodule stage [217]. 17 min to bend wires for fit into the meter base, and to cut off excess wire with circular saw. Circular saw works great on soft Al. (which I was hoping not to do - do it better next time) - 16.5, 17.5, and 20.5 excess [218] - but guy cut wire to 7' instead of 6' so this should have been a 4.5", 5.5", and 8.5" excess - which is close given that I cut down the stub by 2.5" [219] from original 5.5" - this would really be 2.5", 3.5", and 6.5" excess - where the discrepancy is in the different distance to the terminals. If we remember the difference in distance, then cutting down neutral by 1" and second power wire by 4" would make this work perfectly. The wires should be benchtop pre-bent, now that we know specific bends required. This is down to a science. Saves a lot of time bending in situ - where the box gets in the way of bending so that benchtop would be easier. Draw up technical drawing for wire bends - so people pre-bend at submodule stage from plans. 6 min to strip the wires - [220]. Used Jokari for round then utility knofe for the longitudinal cut. Is there a faster way to strip fat pipe? 30 min to make connection to meter base. This meant torquing down with 275 and 350 in lb, and having to remove the plastic guard to access the neutral with channel locks to hold it down due to large tightening force. Also used antioxidant paste. 1.25" was stripped on all 3 wires. This time can be cut down when not documenting at the same time. 3 min to add 3/4" sch 80 conduit (52") to meter base [221]. 8 min to clamp down the 3" and 3/4" conduit [222]. Misfired on screws! [223] Clamps were 15" down from meters, it should be 14" down or so. But maybe move 6" down next time - the clamps are a little too close to box? [224]. 10 min to knock down second rod [225] and 3 min to put on both clamps. [226]. 10 min to thread metal fish tape through - but string got caught so aborted as I had to leave at 4 to mow.
• 10/9/23 (Monday) - 1:50 hr -Detail: 25 min to shorten 6" stub (2" conduit) to 4" [227] (only 3 min), then mark mount holes [228], predrill, level box, and finish hang of the meter base box [229] and 15 min to tighten down conduit rings [230] and mount 2 remaining bottom screws of meter base [231]. 10 min to fit elbow (digging out minimal soil) and cut the sch 80 3" to size to fit slip riser [232]. 48" interstem of sch 80 was used [233]. It took 30 minutes to glue everything including the full run (70') including elbow at pole end and 3-2.5 reducer at house end. Section of 3 sticks is easy to move: glued above trench, then moved conduit into trench. Glued first 4 one by one in trench, then last 3 as a 30' piece outside of trench [234]. Easy. Key to speed: quality dig at ends with 4-6" from pole or wall means little manual diggomg, as the digging was front-loaded at the excavator stage for quality finish at ends. 8 min to mount warning tape - using cordless coil siding nailer into the soil [235]. 20 min to bury everything starting with extricating myself on trench straddled backhoe (did it with backhoe, should have gone straight to bobcat). Then Bobcat finished it off in minutes - very quick burial. 2:45 hrs later - it took to load up, travel, unload. Back home, trailer unhitched, at noon, which is 4 hours after finishing, minus a 30 minute detour to Harbor Freight, which means the loading/unloading + travel time is 3:30 total for a trip to St. Joe Rentall. This was with 2 machines, one machine may take 3 hrs total. Measure it next time with 1 machine, from leaving the house, to starting work.
• 10/8/23 - 7:35 hr. Broken day as I ran into second unmarked water line, then moved to 1:50 of digging the power line, 80'. Start of day was taking the lasered trench, and marking the laser line on both sides at bottom of trench about 6" above bottom. This took from 8:05 [236] to 8:18 [237] - only 15 minutes. Then leveled out base by re-burying with loose dirt, 1 hr [238]. It took 35 min to even out base with 3/8" gravel - easy to work with as it is very loose like pea gravel. [239]. Then started sewer at the stub - [240]. It took 35 minutes (while documenting) to do the sewer drop in 9 pieces from angle to cleanout to drop to long angle to transition to SDR 35 green sewer pipe [241]. It took 10 minutes to glue the first 3 pieces of SDR - until retardation was discovered on leveling [242], so I built a leveling jig at 1/6" per foot slope by using a 1.5" spacer on one end and 1/2" spacer on the other - [243]. Using the jig, it took 50 minutes to level AND bury 3 sections of pipe [244] using gravel from a readily accessible bobcat bucket. Procedure is robust: just let the bubble be between the 2 lines, jig sits on top of the pipe, and need to expose only the 2 saddles on the jig for jig to sit properly on the pipe. Then dug another 2:20 hr including beginning to mark the level line with laser at bottom of trench [245] before running into the second water line- and stoppe. Water line happened to go right above the proposed sewer tap location! Stopped there and moved on to power line. Note on technique: dig about 6-12" deeper, mark laser line, bury trench about 4" to laser line [246], fill with gravel to about the laser line [247]. Lay pipe, using level jig, and bury as you go along to stabilize pipe, in 10 foot increments. Which means you go by level, as the laser line was just about buried after the first base layer (correcting the base) so could not be used for leveling any more, and level jig took over from there.
• 10/7/23 - 2:20 hr - Saturday sewer start to about 30' from house. Note that total dig time on mini excavator was 5.6 hr, of which 1.8 hr was power trench. 3.8 hr total dig time of sewer trench. Detail: 15 minute to unload. Then pictures, and 6:10 start [248] and 8:15 finish for 2:05 dig total up to rough + smooth with laser. Rough dig finished at 7:40, or 1:30 hr of brute dig time, with 35 minute smoothing touchup using laser. Makes sense.

Power Wall

• 35 min - mount mains submodule. There was interference between the back nipple and the side feed. Shit design of knockouts - back knockout can't be so close to side knockout. SAS [249]
• 40 min - mount through-tube assembly. Mark, drill OSB + vinyl, set tube, glue outside, caulk inside. [250]
• 1:40 hr Prep Mains submodule - [251]
• 50 min Prep meter base submodule - [252]
• 40 min - Prepare through-tube preassembly with blocking. Took time to figure things, such as 6.75" length not 5.5", set screw length. Should be 15 min next time.
• 1:40 hr Blocking - interior and exterior, but not main feed-through blocking [253]. 10 min to determine setpoint (main power feed location) and verify outside, 10 minutes to mark all exterior blocking, 42 min PITA holes- inaccessible through garage to house - tight angles and ran into nail. Do this at module level, save 30 minutes. Mounted outer blocking in 17 min. 6 min to mark inner blocking. (Effed it all up by 3" too high - should have measured from ground not top of base lumber, even though I QCd in 2 minutes - QC happened from wrong reference point. 13 min to nail everything.

Door Trim Paint

• 9/7/23 - 1:45 hr. Second coat yesterday was 1:15 so far. Caulk was not dry, so finishing today. It takes long to paint - is it easier to do it benchtop? Maybe, but logistics are about unboxing doors, then boxing them again. Or flipping upside down if horizontal.
• 9/6/23 - 3:20 hr. 1.5 hr to finish first coat. Doors take long. 35 min to caulk any gaps [254]. Razor cut blobs [255] + caulk more. Caulking and spackle should be all done up front. Note - need to fill in stained wood holes - [256]. Can use filler, then stain over touchup with a rag?
• 9/5/23 - 6 hr. Finished nailing off around garage white trim + some screws to even out trim. Spackle + first coat paint: front door, little bit on garage (5 minutes), then terrace door started with first coat. 1" high quality brush works well. Taped around hinges, otherwise all manual. Used edge guard like this [257] or piece of cardboard. Forget about 2.5" roller, can't soak it in paint properly. Tape [258] but lengthwise with 1 strip of 2" and cut with razor. Peel back gasket and paint under [259]. Note: paint around bottom gasket [260], don't rip it off. Paint outside [261] and inside [262] - inside will be trimmed but make sure its edge is painted so unpainted trim doesn't stick out. Spackle screw holes [263]. Note: need to add door hardware [264] for locking.

Window Trim

• 8/9/23 - 1:40 to touch up all 10 frames last time - first, spackle cracks, then white paint for cracks and some screw holes , then stain with brush. Did it one step at a time, standing with frames against wall. If all laid out on large surface, would not need to move them and could do it production line style instead of moving them 3 times.
• 7/20/23 - 4:40 to make 9 more frames. 1.5" stainless finish nails too short - use 2". Solid connection. Started with 1/4" spacer just for tip. increased to 3/8" wide enough to rest gun on. Latter works, minimal shiners. Miscut for 4 windows- forgot completely that the 6 top windows were narrowed and I cut all lengths for narrowed - means had to scab all the bottom windows as best as possible. Probably lost 1 hour or even more. If 3:40 for 9, 25 minutes per window. Way too long. Good work table would help - I did everything on the ground. Move the workpiece on the table, not the body. Probably could do it in about 15 minutes per on a work table. So probably discounting errors, this time took 3:40, and next time it should be 2:30 for all 10 windows. With the correct spacer and cordless nailer, it should go really fast - optimal is probably 10 minutes each. Use jig (2x with endstop on end, and lines marked on 2x) for correct cutting length. Still may need to touch up stain on corners, and fill in cracks + touch up last time, including any shiners through front of white trim.
• 7/29/23- 2:40 - did first frame. Figured out procedure for the stained trim [265]. Cut 1/3 the stained pieces.
• 7/28/23 - 1:15 - retouching up the window trim assy. Spackle + paint once more, last time rain came hours after, paint was not dry. This time moved the frames inside.
• 7/16/23 - 3:20. Window trim rework. Time does not count. First wire wheeled old paint which chipped in patches in several places - not throughout [266]. Note that cordless grinder wire wheel eats the wood right up, put a circular (not cup) wire brush on a drill and that worked well without damaging the trim. Put CWF(Clear wood finish)-UV on back of all window trim assemblies. (Note diesel does not mix with it [267]). CWF'd all 10, then spackled holes, touched up paint. Did inner and outer edges touchup. Used nailing plates as spacers between the stained/pained frames. Next is adding the stained edge with stainless steel 15 ga finish nails, then nailing top windows with 15 ga stainless finish nails and deck screwing the bottom ones back in.
• 7/12/23 - 1:45 hr . Window trim rework. Reduced width of top 6 window trim frames, to shorten the width as discussed in point 4 of [268]. I cut down the window frame, then nailed it back with the plates. For the 4 bottom windows, on those I just replaced the bottom piece with a longer horizontal to fit below the verticals instead of between, to extend the height of windows 4" to match top windows better. This was Catarina's miscalculation, as she cut the bottom window trim. All together 48 plates nailed, 10 taken off total, and a several 3/4" thin strips of truss plate added to reinforce some corners. All this time does not count, this is rework. Future: if we use J-channel-less windows, then we build the wood frame (even with window flange and siding J-channel or 1.25") then install the j-channel + window trim on the benchtop - during the module build phase, and house wrap goes over the j-channel sides. Thus we extend the windows build time, but installation is quicker including having some of the J-channel done at the module assembly stage.

Ceiling 2nd Floor

• 6/20/23 - 6 hr. Ceiling Beadboard. Making it about 9:45 total, compared to 16.5 hr on Seed_Home_v2_Data_Collection#Interior_2nd_floor_Ceiling which is 60% time savings over equivalent 23 hr of last time (700 vs 500 sf) - it took only 42% of the time for the same equivalent! Good start. Major delays from hose routing and generator work - each air load would do about 2-3 panels, thus 10 extra trips up and down. Added extra tank of Ingersoll Rand compressor. It's a good idea to have a spare tank available. Hose logistics were probably 20% time waste. Workflow: 1. Set up panel lift for loading 2. Carry panel to it, lock in raising position. 3. Roll panel lift into position. 4. Lift 5. Move 2 scaffolds into position to work the ceiling 6. Fit to ceiling 7. Pick up nail gun and Nailoff start. 8. Put down nail gun Lower the lift and move out of the way. 9. Move the scaffold into final nailoff position. 10. Pick up gun and Final nailoff 11. put down gun and Move scaffolds out of way. Optimization: 3. Use floor markers (premark floor) for exact position of the 3 lift wheels to locate in correct raising position. 4. Automatic lift - add some motor to it? 7,8, 10 - putting down nail gun - add a hook to the gun, use cordless. lots of time spent on picking it up. Use roof width measuring jig. Also: I added all the complication into 2-cut, 1 hole (light) panel, not using the 48" wide panel. There was time to figure the dimensions, as the directions did not show which side of beadboard to work from - so probably 15 minutes spent figuring it out. Also, many times the plywood was lifted onto the wrong side of lift. And about 3 panels that did not fit, so had to be recut. All in all, expecting to improve time - primarily by locating panels more exactly, with exact position on the lift. Perhaps mark the panel to the correct location (center) on the lift. And lay out panels so I don't have to spin and flip them at the material pile, so the leading edge is oriented on the correct side. Need to start in mid of house for good fit, so the cut of the bathroom panel to size and location of light hole has to be very digital paying attention to both cut edge and leading edge, and upside down. Directions need more detail. All in all, did not need to add any material to joists, all panels fit. Some gaps, but all is covered in trim. 42% is good, can probably save another 50% just with cordless nail gun (hose tieups with 3 rolling devices (2 scaffold + lift) were a pain) and more rigorous location of lift (panel centering marked, floor marked, and specific orientation of tripod - so that lift is very close to final position and adjustment time is minimal. If 24 sheets total - 25 frikkin minutes per panel! Should get it down to 10 minutes, I know there were some panels that were very quick. Note also that we added 2 penetrations and stapled wire + installed box - so that is to be streamlined. Good hole saw is a start - it took for ever to drill the hole - and still had to do the slight notches, as hole saw size needs to be 3.75" for the 'smart boxes'. From 25 minutes to 10 minutes - should be doable by a pro team. Cordless + mark floor/panel.
• 6/19/23 - 3:45 hr. Ceiling Beadboard. to insalled 8 pieces of ceiling beadboard. Included marking the first joist and 8 feet away on each side, and adjustingonly first line. Used laser mounte on top of window frame. Includes moving all pieces to 2nd floor by standing them up on a 3/4" ply on truck bed, so they reach about 11', and I have to reach over to lift from there. Did not count time to set up panel lift. Clock started at beginning of moving the beadboard to 2nd floor. Of this, probably 3 hr just for install.
• 6/18/23 - 1 hr clocked exact to finish ceiling insulatin [269] . 47 batts. (11 bays + 3 more). Battshit fast: 1.3 minutes per including fluffing. 15 minutes to bring over the remaining insulation (really needed 1 pack more of 8 batts).
• 6/17/23 - Total relevant: 3:30 hr including 25 min materials handling. Total relevant insulation - 2:45 hr. Likely shave off 45 min by not stapling support strips - but it could also turn out this is efficient as it saves on all the stapling and poking holes? Outside of false start (15 min) - actual install is 1 hr to cut strips and 1:45 insulation time. 3:00 to do insulation in ceiling, got half way. Of this, one was a false start - did 5 batts and they started falling down. Started with packing tape. Still dropped. So decided to cut thin strips of house wrap and stapled 6 of them - 1 holding the edge insul, 2 each for 2 middle rows - 6 strips of 43' or about 250' of strip. Stapling was quick, worked on top of scaffolding - with small step ladder - very ergonomic for up and down. Probably spent 1 hr cutting and stapling strips, leaving 2 hr for midpoint of insulation. As planned but did not know about fluffing which takes 2-3 times the time. Install is fast: push against one edge, install other (over support strips), even out sides. Prediction was 3 minutes per batt (assuming 8' batts) buts ours are 4' so prediction is about right. Actual: 120 minutes for 44 batts - actual batt installation is about 3 min - but that includes the 2-3x factor for fluffing/opening packs. Thus, if actual predicted was 1.5 min, we did 1-2 min per batt. Battshit fast. Suggestion: open up packs the night before for self-fluffing? I did that last night, see if today it is better???. Suggestion 2 - use faced insulation then poke holes in face? If we have 12" and gap is an extra 5" above - gap next to ceiling or roof? I'd say next to roof to minimize vapor space closer to outside. Next: 3:30 Cleaned out 2nd floor for insulation installation. move insulation 11 packs, stood on cab of pickup to throw insulation over the terrace. Each bale is 4 packs. Each pack is 8 batts - only 48" long. Each pack is 23 lb, each batt about 6 lb. 11 packs is manual work - under 300 lb. 1/2 ton starts into hoist/power ladder territory - such as panels 45*27=1215 lb. Moving was about 45 mintues from pickup (half the time) to dropoff (half the time). Relevant time - 25 minutes for material moving, if delivery - then would not need the time. Also spent about 45 minutes cleaning up, trimming, blowering - terrace RPE-EPDM seam - leaves and sawdust and wet. Pulled EPDM by sticking my hand under. Another 20 minutes to do 2 layers of white butyl tape. Relevant time (if did not rework - about 20 minutes deck seam for 2 layers of butyl tape.
• 6/17/23 - CM total relevant - 45 min. Brown trim around windows - Catarina - 3:30 hr - stain, remove windows, cut new bottoms. Probably 45 min actual relevant for staining, as recut and frame removal doesn't count - using cross cut jig. All else is rework.

Window Trim and Trim Rework

• 6/16/23 - picking parts at Menards. 30 minutes for all of rough-in + sinks plumbing! Using the mini-connector concept. 30 minutes more for lumber, 1x2, connector plates, plumb bob, clamps, downspout connector.
• 6/11/23- 5:30 total. 4:00 gutter - [270]. Clean, spackle, paint, water stop mastic, termination bar predrilled and screwed (cut off 4") sting line, start at downspout, every 2 fit to mid point then 2.5 after, first hanger 1' away so seam ends up between hangers. Cap 1 end, 2" gutter +cap on downspout side. Joint: slip on in place, slide out. Gutter Joint Detail. Added another strip of EPDM as the former didn't reach gutter, and finally rubber caulked. Drip cap rework (30 minutes waste only, rest is legit- 1:30 - slit + z-flash + predrill holes + screw down roof metal. Double the screwing - no riges next time. didn't need the j-channel on top - the siding still has nails intact where slit. I don't know how z-flashing fit under there with the nails - but it did - it must have ended right before nails. Pinch down on ends so drip cap drains away from edge. pay attention to screw schedule. Do not screw on ridges - that makes the valleys make a lot of noise as they can vibrate.
• 6/10/23 - 4:15 tot.. 3:30 canopy. Wire fed through (11') to first cavity next to door. .220 screws preattacged, 2 at each door stud. Metal cut with Malco attach, metal cleaned, rope hung, lifted by my counterweight. Hung - correcting for tilt of trim + j-chan. Still need to install 1x2 trim, but all is precut, preassembled, prefit already from yesterday. Now need to reinstall another j-chan + drip cap. 45 min - Hung main gutter: set screw from top to hold, then 2 brackets. Need to figure out exact height from ground after considering gravel box around house. Took long - night and rain. Need to make downspout closer to corner by 3/4" - mount did not fit so had to bend gutter slightly.
• 6/9/23 - Total: 2:20 hr. 1 hr 50 on canopy - up to drilling holes for trim and precut and preassembled white trim. Got stuck on detail of where electrical penetration will be, and wire length required. Put it not in door module - right next - as space is tight for a double box.Trim takes long as it is detailed measurement throughout. Need to digitize by understanding tolerances. Studied door closely. It is not symmetric! Mid between 2 doors is offset by 5/8" from the frame included in door [271]. But on the outside, the 'mid of door' appears more centered as it has a rain lip on it. Build time so far: 33 min. Remove trim from garage door , 45 min. 10 min - to paint 2nd coat on 1x6 trim ultrabright. Garage door trim replacement: 23 min- cut to size, seal cut ends, install with ~2 screws each (8 screws total, 4 pieces). Remove all top window LP trim - 2 hr.
• 6/8/23 - Total build time: 3 hr 25 min. Build time so far: 1:50 hr. Prediction: 30 min hr to dismount the front door trim. 30 min to rebuild. 30 min to dismount the garage door trim, 1:30 min to rebuild. Actual: 1:08 to dismount front door trim. 1:50 to rebuild. This time was spent to: cut, add truss plates, add white trim, reinforce, mount, put nailing board on back side to suck in trim. Not spackle, caulk, or repaint. What went mispredicted? 30 min may apply to a small assembly - try the second door. What takes time: screwing in from the back, on edge. Just takes time. Only way this could be fast is if it is 3D printed in 3 parts, assembled, and hung as a single part. Note that last time, triangle correction took 3 hrs - just for the triangles! So this is 1 hr time shaved off to hang as one piece. Note this time we had the triangle pieces cut already. Next: terrace door prediction: 1/2 hr to dismount, 1:30 to build. Actual: 1:35 hr. Dimensions were different - see CAD vs as-built. [272]. Dismount was just 2 screws, so only one minute. Standard technique now is to build the 6-piece assembly. Build included: cut of the tapers and LP; truss plates; cut of the tapers. Floetrol protection on back. Drilling holes for 2" deck screws. 2" deck screw is the right depth, 2.5" is too long and there are more punchouts with 2.5". More detail from pix: 1:02 hr from 6 parts cut to finished and sealed assembly. 11 min to hoisted to terrace with a rope. 7 minutes to install: just 2 screws. Time could be saved: it took 45 min from measurement to finished cuts. Cuts should just take 10 min - most of it was orientation around discrepancy of CAD to build. What is the discrepancy? it may be the flange around the door, which makes the trim lengths different. Difference was 2".
• 6/7/23 - 2 hr 30 min so far. Time to do trim - 10 min to cut 18 mending plates [273] into 2. Needed 24 for 1st floor windows, 6 per. 50 minutes to figure how. First window included all deck screws, spackle, caulk in cracks. Can't clamp, too difficult - 3 lb hammer on concrete surface is the answer. Then 45 minutes to hang 3 more window frames, 4 screws. Technique is to observe torquing of wood out of plane, and sucking in too deep to penetrate LP smartside, then backing out so head does not stick out. To keep from torquing upon suck-in, put it a spacer behind other side of trim. Backing out the screw sets the proper spacing of trim. Worked against the lines of siding, not lines of windows. 15 min - did first coat of bright paint with roller - onto the 6 pieces of 16' 1x6 textured LP Smartside. T0 this total time - add Catarina's cutting time of trim, which was 30 minutes if correct dimensions are available. So 2:30 hr total so far. Then did 1 hour of cleanup, not counted in this time. Cleanup strategy: prior to leaving, empty all your pockets of screws and tools into one bucket - separated at the beginning of next day as people gather on site or same eve if people are bullsitting around. This one hour included 15 minutes, starting to replace the trim on the front door.

Canopy + Top Band Finish (PV System Done)

• 6/6/23 - Total relevant: 4 hr 30 min. This is total of 2:50 for the canopy so far. From procedure at [274] - cut lumber 11 min, build up to 2x4 treated frame - 1hr 15. 16 min more to install front 1x6. Pix [275]. Electrical box hole is 3.5" hole saw - pix shows 4"hole saw which was too large but still worked. Smartbox works, note the SAS detail in left box, making it unusable in production: the old work screw flange goes out to nearly the outder rim of lip, making it impossible to drill a suitable hole with a hole saw: 3 added notches have to be reamed for the lock-down flanges. 1:08 hr - install of light box, stain of entire structure - brush + rag to even the stain. In the morning - 30 min - install last top trim band. This means cut to size, hang (used 1 hang screw at front mid then attach one end then attach other end, spackle, paint. Tougher working around panels. Painting from trellis. Pretty good workflow all together. 10 min - evened up PV panel height for picture. Started the day with 1.5 hr of cleanup (hoisted sample PV panel back to ground), took down the power ladder, claened up a little. Then another hour of cleanup prior to my 3 PM call, so it would be 6 hr total if included the cleanup. Including just the 1 hr for Power Ladder takedown in the 4:30 total time of today.

Garage

• 6/5/23 - 7 hr total. Breakdown: 2:30 - Finish Nail + Caulk + Prime + Paint inside front garage wall. 4:30 - garage door. Slow, learning the ropes. Instructions pretty good except one picture incorrect + not clear if you had to predrill steel for angle bar + short angle brackets were not there - only long angle brackets. Prediction - 1 hr to caulk and prime + paint, 2 hours to mount garage doors if don't need a 2x6 around edge.
• 6/4/23- 5 hr - Tasks: 1. Concrete relief cut in garage. 2. Did rough electric for front of garage - 2 lights wound through to switch inside house. 3. Did front interior garage beadboard - 5 on top first, 2 sides next. Issues on aligning - had to cut off 1.75" on bottom to make sheets uneven on bottom? Header slanted? Not clear why it didn't add up.
• 6/2/23 - 2 hr - loaded up 6 sheets of drywall. Cleaned out garage. Cleaned up materials from inside house, not all - prepping for carport finish.

Gravel + Runners + PV

• 6/1/23 - 5:30 total. PV Mounting. Prediction 1 hr to mark + . drill 104 holes for PV mounting. 1 hr to screw it down. Another 30 min to double screws on bottom the back - 54 screws. Actual: 5:30 hr total or 3 hours more. This would have been feasible in 2:30 if all panels were placed in the correct orientation (16 right, 11 left) so all holes could be drilled on the pile. Otherwise, there was a lot of looking, flipping panels around. Then significant fighting with the slits. Thin kerf of dewalt cordless is too thin, it rained, wood swelled up, slits closed up or if not straight, had to fight them. Otherwise, it was probably 3 minutes when everything went in as it should. Next time - make sure the cut is wider. Kerf of dewalt is 0.065". Twice that or 0.13 would be great - that is 1/8".
• 5/31/23 - 7:30 hr total. Marked locations for blocking (1/2 hr), then cut all blocking, slit the flat blocking prior to cutting, slit the back blocking in groups of 4, including messing up angle of cut (redid all, should be angled down). Mounted all blocking - nail gun + ring shank (can't pull them out with hammer) for the front, some starter screws to hold in place. Rear was a hole predrilled in support, then 3" deck screw. Mounted everything, then stained in place. All mounts prepped and in position in 5:15. 2:15 to get 27 panels up with power ladder in pairs including one aborted 3 panel lift (dod not want to risk, poor balance). This included mounting one panel fully - holes predrilled for deck screws, and 3" deck screws through block. Feels pretty robust, doesn't appear to need the joist hangers - for 50 years. Maybe add joist hangers in 20 years if needed? Savings notes: 5 minutes per pair of PV panels using power ladder means 14*5=1:10 for lifting them all. If it took 2 hrs now for 15 lifts - total is about 8 minutes per lift even now. Proper Endstops mechanism should probably half the time - one can walk at the same time, and the thing lands in load position without fuss. (Take some pictures)
• 5/30/23 - 1 hr total - moved 3 sample panels to roof, did first rear support. Decided to simplify rear support to vertical 2x6, not angled 2x4 - so this work should not count. Another hour - forking PV panels onto truck, and modifying the power ladder for PV panels. Toyota tacoma works for 27 panels, but it's way loaded down. None of this should actually count, counting 1 hr for relevant panel lifting and experimental mounting, mounting deprecated.
• 5/29/23 - Total - 5 hr 40 min. Breakdown: 1:55. Protected more screw locations with butyl tape, spread gravel ready for stain. 1:10 - stain, including one messup of using old stain which clogged filter so aborted and loaded with new stain. Used [2] 33 oz cups [276] of stain - 2 coats on top, 1 on each side of runner, + front band mount - 2 coats. 1:25 - spackling [277] top band and corners of trellis. 1:10 - second coat of paint on top band, touch up trellis corners, and actually went over entire trellis - North and East needed touchup, and just retouched South and West while I was at it.

Trellis Finish + PV

• 5/27/23 -5 hr 20 min total. Breakdown: 1 hr - load up gravel on truck with forks (40 bags). Shifted a pallet so there is only 40 bags. Full pallet is about 60? Lifetrac tips at 60, can do 40. 1:15 - move 40 bags to roof with power ladder. Watch the spool and watch ramp on top, sometimes wheels get stuck between ramp pieces. 1:40 - patch EPDM, do cuts + staple in gravel holding screen [278]. 45 min - caulk 3 sides by top band with EPDM caulk. Works nicely. Nail off top band - 40 minutes. About 120 nails. On back - do 4 nails between every PV runner, and one on each side of runner 6" away (both minimize water penetration by keeping uncaulked behind-runner away from nails - can't caulk behind runner).
• 5/26/23 - Total 5 hr. 38 min - trim EPDM above drip cap for final top band preparation. Folded corners and screwed them down. Note that West side had EPDM under drip cap, like a termination bar. Everywhere else it was over drip cap. Strategy is to EPDM caulk between band and EPDM to protect holes from punctured EPDM when installing top band. Next - top band minus one piece - 3 hrs 7 min. Power laddered 36 bags of pea gravel, 1:15 hrs. Not counting the forking of 36 bag pallet onto the truck bed.
• 5/25/23 -5:45 total. 45 min to EPDM caulk front termination bar + fill in about 10 missing screws. 5 hr gutter hang (downspout not included). 3 hours for steps 1-8 in [279]. 2 hours more to finish, all way to end caps. 10' sections, 4 sections + 48" piece. Time savings: lay string line, and after that mark locations + trace through the hanger for 2 screw holes.
• 5/23/23 - 1 hr finish front top band 2x6 mount, with screen - sections 2 and 3. I forgot to log, so 1 hr is my memory, it may have been as much as 1:30 but not much more, that went fast.
• 5/22/23 - 3 hr total. 45 min to seal back of top band [280], 1:25 to paint, and 50 min to cut gravel screen and install first 14' front band edge with gravel screen attached to it. For screen - cut ready roll on a cutoff saw to speed up the cutting.
• 5/18/23 - 30 min. hoisted top band to roof - 2, 3, 3 pieces at one time. Outside this time, Figured implementation of the gravel bucket system plus power ladder v2.
• 5/12&13/23 - 1:15 + 1:30 to finish 4th corner. Mowed around the house, blowing straw into the dead zone.
• 5/11/23 - 2 hr to finish corner 3 of trellis.
• 5/10/23 - 2 hr. Finished 2nd corner. Did a crossbar that pulled up side trellis from drooping by hanging from the front trellis.
• 5/9/23 - 3 hr - stained about 18' of 1x2 treated for the trellis band. Worked on 2nd corner. Do not measure all at same time next time if all members are different legnths, easier to just go along. It takes for ever. Thinking about doing separate corner modules next time. Any sawing for final length of trellis is hard - can only do it from the top of a ladder, quite precarious. Working piece by piece is hard. Next time - either to a corner with all members of equal length, or do corners as separate modules dropped independenently of the main pieces. Would need to figure out a balanced way to drop it, perhaps using a holding stop if working with as one person.

Trellis Drop

• 4/30/23 - 2 hr - finished first corner of deco band. 2x4 rinforcement spacer underneath, 2x4 reinforcement on corner. 2x3 reinforcement on top, second strip of white band. Take pictures and plan the process, now that it's been done once.
• 4/29/23 - 3:30. 2 hr to add blocking between modules on front (not at 4' marks but 2 middle studs) - only 10 needed on front as above windows there are headers - 2 on ends +3 between each set of windows +2 for a total of 10. And 4 on the back, plus screwing in on 1/3 of back. The process was - screw in on all the double joints (easy to hit). Next time, add the blocking on the front (10 pieces) and back would need 20. These are simple 1x3 size and larger for guaranteed hit instead of many corrections. Done from roof. Second half: 1:30 on starting the corners. Cut the 19" plywood, 1x3 for reinforcement, and stained piece, mounted first 19" ply corner + 1 strip. Not too bad - next time have the 2x3 reinforcement and more of the band File:Pieces on hand - the stained band pieces were used up.
• 4/27/23 - 4 hr. Starting from dropped trills [281] - righted it - took about 30 min to right it. Snagged a bit on top window trim, so it didn't want to straighten out. Screwed in front at every double stud. Added 1/4"x3" screws to joist hangers on back and right side, where some of the joist hanger nails started coming out, one on each side.. I would do just 2 5" screws instead of joist hangers. 2 to house, 2 at joist, 1 on other side of joist. Table [282] says about 500 equivalent head pull-through. 500 lb x 22 is about 20x safety factor - each screw holds 500 lb and is 5 in long (pullout about 200 lb/in) . Whole weight of band is 500 lb, and we have 23 screws into endgrain at 80% factor for endgrain.
• 4/25/23 - 4 hr. 1:10 to repaint white. 30 min 3 out runners. Can do t-style or long adjacent. 20 min - 3 main winches connected indirect. 20 min - 2 secondary winches plus band protector. 1:40 for drop, moving slow to not make.noise at night near midnight. Dro means edging over with blocks + prybar. Drop means 5 winch. Probably shave an hour with vivid motion and impact drivers. Ready to right and attach, adding extra blocking inside for faster screw-in by not missing studs. Mote I also added SDWS .22 on joist side - these definitely pull in the joist close - more than the joist hangers themselves [283].
• 4/24/23 - 3:30. Fixed most of the North trellis, 10' on each end, and 4 screws at 20' and 30' - fixed in place. Dismounted all attachments, remounted winches for dropping South trellis, moved trellis 1.5' from drop position, adjusted to ttohe E and W for dropping. Next - attach all cable/strap. It took about 2:20 to do the screwing, but only of 1/2 the band - takes long. Optimize by added bloc.king on other side to increase available screw area? Adds 2' of blocking, but blocking could be any scraps 8" or longer. Halves the screwing time to 2 hrs. Overall. 2 hr drop*3, 2 hr screw times 3, 2 hr prep x3. 18 hour trellis install optimal time.
• 4/23/23 - 3:15. Dropped the Trellis, attached at ends. Took 2:20 for drop, including having to add one extra runner (only 2 overhanging runners were found under the frame); added blocking on ends to lift against the E and W trellis, to make them even. Stub on the left side of dropped trellis - made it unevent - but pulling up (with winches) and down and stepping on trellis, pretty much straightened the trellis fully. Just attached today, evened out the trellis the next day.
• 4/22/23 - 4:45 hr - started drop of rear long trellis. Snags: 1. getting caught on hurricane straps. 2. Needs blocks fixed to runners on each end as leverage points for moving. 3. Straps pinched under d-ring for the main straps. 4. Protective wood on trellis for the wire attachment. Ready for drop.
• 4/20/23 - 3:30 hr- dropped the East Trellis, up to fixing in correct position. Double time inefficiency - dropped it, then found out that there must be supports under the trellis frame so we don't rip the EPDM. It does not work to have just the 2" overhang of 2 runners - the frame jumps over them and rubs on the EPDM upon drop. To fix this, I moved runners over. For initial positioning side-to-side - I did winch [284]. For universal support under the frame upon drop, just place the runner under a frame joist- frame joist rides on top of the runner. It is easier that attaching a bottom to the trellis itself - as that means putting the trellis upside down to access the bottom for attachment.
• 4/19/23 - 3:30 hr - screwed in West trellis, prepping for drop of East trellis. Moved West Trellis 2" lower to be in proper mount position as in Moved into drop position for East Trellis. Dragged the 2 big trellises with winch over the edge to liberate space for East side drop. Snags: Missing studs. Redid 5 screws. Couple still left improperly. In one place stud was inaccessible as a trellis joist was in the way. Could have angled it perhaps, but it was through the double reinforcement so it would not reach the wall stud. Removed belts, one belt had to do from under, not hard, but could not pull it up from the top. Removed the reinforcement. Angle looks ok, can fit at very end. Set up safety harness. Mostly figuring out how to attach screws - lots of movement from top of trellis to under trellis. The reinforcement pretty much disallows screwing in from the top, it's hard to work from the top. For actual build, probably use 1/2 overall time - 1.5 hr to fix in place, remove belts, etc. Improvement: add a 16 mm socket drive to the winch to move winch quicker up and down.
• 4/18/23 - 3:15 - dropped the West Trellis. Snags - cutting the 1/2" indent in place - as it is 12" wide - can't do simple guidance with circ saw - plus nails got in way on one side [285]. 15" exactly - hang of frame over edge. Band sticks out 2.5" more to 17.5" on each side exaclty, so with the other trellis, should get 18" total. Process summary: drop to edge, release the angle fully. Begin dropping each side. Trellis clears drip edge via 1.5" rail overhang - angle control must be released fully to allow trellis frame bottom to clear the drip cap [286]. Down motion is smooth as long as angle is released. Sideways motion is smooth - just tapping belts over and moving entire trellis. Spacer is inserted for middle winch - to facilitate the pull angle for righting the trellis at the bottom of the drop. Snags - double tie to main frame does not work [287] and [288] and [289]. It must be a single tie like this [290] and [291], otherwise ropework complications occur - as either top or bottom strap can be pulling. Initially had outer winches on first runner [292]. That does not work - need more belt length - moved to second runner from the west [293]. Note the (1) single strap, (2) wire only for the middle, (3) wire tied around band in middle for safety in case d-ring fails, (4) strap tied to frame in case 2 outer strap d-rings fail, (5) reinforcing 16' plank. Bulk of trellis can be screwed from under, with straps still attached, with straps taken out from under after 4x min safety factor screws + mid wire are in place. Each screw is 600 lb shear (200 lb/in with 3 inches of thread [294] or so unless we miss a stud or go only through a single 2x on the end. 8 screws=1600 lb min, likely 3200 lb for a 450 lb trellis here - 7x safety + wire hang. Thiis for 8 screws - 4 on the end, 4 on studs in walls. Note also the plank should be shorter so we can screw in the trellis from the roof on the ends, without going under trellis until attached securely. Here reinforcement plank ended before screwing location into corner [295], but other side the plank was in the way. To move trellis sideways - remove screw and tap from perfect arrow alignment to the desired direction [296] such as here moved over 1" to the right. Note that notch was from 15" for 12" wide - to clear the 7.25" corner + j-chan. But we should do the notch before moving trellis to drop position, it was hard to reach on the corners prior to drop. Now we know the distance is 15" from end of trellis frame if house was 16'3". May need to ajust if house dimensions are off - but in the future they should be probably to within 1/4" of 16' - here we were 16'1" prior to tightening the tolerances. See [297]. If house with corner trim is 16'3" - then the trellis must be about 19'3" at the white band. In our case - we have 16'3" at the house - with 15" sticking out - so a total of 18'9" and 3 inches are missing. This has to be made up on the white band. The white band sticks out 2.5" and 3" to the 2 sides - so we should be able to match the 18" width of the front and back trellis quite precisely, cutting off about 1-1.5" of excess white band on each side. This requires a safety harness at this step. The 18'11.5"appears to be wrong - it should probably be the 18'9" + 2.5" + 3" excesses - or 19'2.5" - meaning 2.5" total excess must be cut from the side band to match the front and back. All as planned.
• 4/17/23 -3:15 hr - set up for drop of first trellis. Included marking (10 min - vinyl shows it) adn paint touchup. notes and pictures
• 4/16/23 -3 hr - finished all bands. Nightmare on siding nails not going in to the LP smartside, lots bending. Shited to full nailing from front. Screws from back + angle of siding nail from back - nightmare. Or roofing nail from back with offset - nightmare. Dismounted the power ladder after moving materials to roof and running out of gas, to drop trellis next.Summary: too short a plywood back means top strip required an additional reinforcement. And nails kept bending, even after nailing from front. At times all of them go in to the treated ply. Seems like LP smartside is too hard. But sometimes it would just work, other times, most just failed. Thus, the data points on full install are not accurate - reduce the trellis time by 1/2 for practical purposes, and get data next time. Also, some mold started on the white paint of trellis - interesting. need to touch up a bit. Also - don't try the top and bottom strips install before middle ones - they may not fit. Ideal - mount everything before painting. Stain everything. Paint the white.
• 4/15/23 - 2:30 hr - Struggling with band nailing.
• 4/14/23 - missed data? or did not work? If worked, it was no more than 3 hrs. Looks like no work as it rained 2 days.
• 4/13/23 - 3 hr. Nightmare on trellis band, as top stained piece needs to be remounted with extra reinforcement. For cohesion one long trellis almost done with white - finishing top stained piece reinforcement. Using an extra 1x strip, stained, about 1.5", as reinforcement.

Vinyl Siding on Back and Rest of House (see front side below)

• 4/11/23- 3:20 - Finished 5 top sections - West, and 4 back ones. See starting point - [298]. Also recaulked one front top strip which got loose. Vinyl now complete.
• 4/10/23 - 3:20 HR - 2.5 hr to do 3 sets of 12' rows - first 12' vinyl, then double strip of backing wood for trellis, then cover. All at height, so 150 minutes for about 60 sf, or 0.4 sf/min. Technique to make it faster: go up attach 12' strip in middle. Move ladder to one side, attach. Move ladder to other side. Attach. Move back to middle, remove the first set point - it is used just to hold the vinyl in place. Then finish off the mid. On the 4th up - take the wood backing up as well. so you finish the row, and start the wood backing on one trip. 4 pieces can be brought up - [2] of 8', [2] of 4' - with 1.5" shorter than 4' to make it between the j-channel. Then Do 2 more trips up - to nail in the one and other ends. Same nails as siding can be used. Then do 4 more trips to cover than row with vinyl. Next, there are 2 rows left to the top, one full, other partial. These are easier from roof. The row before the backing wood can't be done from scaffolding, too high. So we are seeing about 10 trips up and down per 12' section. Ladder moved each time. Can save a little if have 2 or 3 ladders available...Time here included cutting the backing material, finishing last row on back of garage (top caulked row half missing). And glued in top row (caulked) on the East side of house, which was cut, just needed caulking. On top of roof - did one 12' section, bringing materials up there. Caulking at top to finish off.
• 4/9/23 - 3:15 hr - Vinyl - finished off garage side with backing for trellis, light mounting block, and all way to the top. Missing caulk for top row, but cut top row. This took 2:20 (including forgetting light block and working around door trim placeholder). Then moved to back side 59.25" section - finished one missing top row on ladder (can't reach with scaffolding) + backing for trellis + top row, but left 2 top rows unfinished so could work them more easily from roof. Now only the back top rows remaining, then prepping for trellis drop - finish white bands, set up for drop, and drop.
• 4/8/23 - 3 hr - Vinyl - did back side of garage, 2.5 hr, and 1/2 hr of deck area around door. 2.5 hr = 150 min for 250 sf? = 1.7 sf/min.
• 4/5/23 - 3.5 hr - did the East side, finished to top, added drip cap all 4 sides around deck and finished 3 sides of garage outside the back. Next: finish back, deck door area, and top backing for support on 2 remaining sides.
• 4/4/23 - 2.5 hr tot. 1.5 hr siding, then 1 hr to do the band under water runoff. Used 2 layers of LP smartside siding, for a total thickness of 3/4". Bottom was 5 pieces, just cutoffs. Top was already painted, a leftover from SH2. Ok, except I cut one remaining filler, and now need to trim off slightly - it sticks out slightly below the top one thus making for a gap in the j-channel that will be there. Gutter hides crack, so only rain >27 degrees will penetrate, but in future use z flashing there. Production rate: Vinyl east side up to trim band under water runoff. Did starter strip. Did 9 strips in 1.5 hr, so with 90" of height, this makes for a production rate of 1.7 sf/minute [299].
• 4/3/23 - 3:30 - West side vinyl top 1/3 including mounting 2 strips of trellis backing. Time included cutting 60' of backing, so need about 88' more for the back side (2 rows of 44'). Width was 2-1/4 and 2.5 inches - bottom one sits right on top of nailing fin. Used a piece of vinyl as a template for the required spacing.
• 4/2/23 - 5 hr total. 3.5 deck door and 1.5 siding. Deck side vinyl starting with door install. Deck door - 2:06 to Step 6 in [300], then another hour to full alignment, final securing, all shims, etc - so about 3.5 hr including drip cap. Transition to about 1.5 hr of vinyl siding. Starter strip, j-chan, 6 rows. Long- straightening waviness everywhere - nails always go too deep, have to pull out to remove waves.
• 4/1/23 - 8:15 vinyl siding, after cleanup of site (straw layout too for mud). Breakdown: 45 min - 4' garage wall (not doing last strip, which will be done from terrace). 2:40 hr - front of garage with 2 mount boxes at 22" from trim (mid of 3rd row above [301]. Used 1 scaffolding + A ladder and walked on extension ladder with board. Good system if using 1 scaffold. 2:30 hr - West Side to needing double scaffold. Did 1 scaffold + ladders just like on garage front. Calc is 1.2 sf/min? Cf 3.3 sf/min for optimal just laying them up (3 full in 9 min example). 1:20 - Finished 5' wide back strop to 2-scaffold limit. Included adding 2 high J-chans. (90 sf at 1.2 sf/min?). Last, 1 hour on est side. Did upper J, but more or less aborted as it was after 10 PM for the neighbors. Put materials on scaffold at 2-high scaffold, but that is too tight. Need to simply drag full pieces up there one by one, laying vert againsts scaffold. Felt ok after today - new lesson is to do stretching after work to take care of body.
• 3/31/23 - 3:30 - did 5 j-chan/corner posts on garage, some beginning strips of vinyl. Slow day, working through the mud after rain. Included hoisting deck door to second floor. Specifically - [302]. 10 units of j-chan, starter strip, corner posts (2 units each). 2.5 hr or 150 min - or 15 minutes per unit. Still, that sounds really long. Ran string. Ideal: hang string, 15 min. Mount 3 j-chan starts - 15 min - not even cut at top, to be cut later. 15 min per corner post. 1 hr instead of 2.5 hrs. Need that clarity, need proper tool management. Make scaffolding movable around corner - it can't get past front right corner as space is too tight. Also was the door - started J chan on deck, so actually did 11 pieces. Point: once mastered - can do this in rapid time such as 2-3 times faster. Do pros really do this fast? Having ability to cut vinyl on spot would also be key - no cut station. Move material once only, but requires carrying cutoff and nailer at same time. Can't be muddy - or material gets all dirty and 2x speed loss. Maybe just don't do it in muddy weather period, too much time waste.
• 3/30/23 - 7:30 hr = 450 min- did 2 bays in the back. '4 sections equivalent.' - started 2:50-10:45 - 8 hrs, 30 minute break. It takes less than 9 minutes to do 3 rows when flowing, it's quick. This was at 12' high at optimal height. Thus, a 10'x12' wall section should be 35 minutes. Whole house if ground level - 180 perimeter - could be 9 hours. Double that for the j-chan etc as the base figure? This meets the formula of double the actual install time to calculate trim time.
• 3/29/23 - 4:50 or 290 min - Did up to 2nd scaffolding max (about 17') - trellis level backing left. 1:20 to do 44' of starter strip plus J-chan (2 sides) to start left bay on back. Procedure: measure on top, run string line from top to bottom for guaranteed fit, period. No messing around with midpoint, Chinese wise man says. 15 min for first 5 rows - shows the optimized speed if not dealing with heights. 75 minutes optimal speed per section. How close can we approach that? For one, could be done in a one-story house. Time savings - I was messing around with miter cut in place - and figured that it is necessary to run string line, not try to fit j-channel as we go up - which misses the long-distance straightness and suffers from need for multiple micro-corrections.
• 3/28/23 - 77 min or 1:17 hr - 45 minutes to stain one full trellis. After the dropcloth was placed under. Stain verticals for back of house - 5 + 5 minutes 2 coats. String line - 22 minutes including messing with tangled string and cutting housewrap that was too long on bottom. Design it next time so housewrap can droop. Likely put in concrete anchor bolts after foundation.

Trellis Build

(one video was 40 sec of painting at 3 sec interval - or 48 minutes to paint all the trellis bands white. Is this here below somewhere?)

• 3/27/23 - Total 390 min or 6:30 hr. In 4 hours: 1. put on rest of 2x2 on bottom (44'). 2. Put 2x2 at top (126'). Nailing room was missing, wasted bunch of time. 3. Slit 2x6 as top reinforcement, screws to hold, then nailed off. 4. Replaced one 2x2 bottom which was the first trellis sample, had 1.5" instead of 1.75" band. Probably save 1/2 hr (correction + nailing room on top) next time. Then last 2.5 hrs to stain - did 1 long and 2 short (2/3 of total) - so expecting total paint time of 3.75 hr. Long. Probably benefit by prestain of 2x6 and 1x2 and plywood - but workflow is not great. Prestain on roof but prior to assembly? evaluate this. Trellises tip rather easy - but they do have to to be flipped to get the top and bottom. Need to stain 3 sides of 2x6 (one side + edges, easy - but still need to flip unless space them out properly. Probably 50% stain waste if stain finished product. Maybe learn to stain finished product faster - more methodical way to do it. For the pre-paint route - we double the material moving - unless we lay out in staining position on top of drop cloth - at the first materials transfer stage. That would work, and eliminates the double materials moving. Don't need to move 2x6 (3 sides stain ok), ply (3 sides ok), 1x2 (2 sides ok). Toughest is the 2x4 top edge reinforcement - 3 sides with 2 flat sides. Can be done standing the lumber on edge.
• 3/26/23 -Total: 112 min. 39 min - make and attach [6] 22.5" reinforcements (house side) on trellis. 9 min - take off scabs on trellis side. 22 min cut all 1x4 for stained bands. 42 min - add bottom stained band to half the trellises (44' + 19') with cordless-nailed 1.75" ring shank coil nails
• 3/25/23 -3:55 total (235 min) ' - 1:10 (70 min): 3 bands of ply n last trellis. Screws to hold, then 1.75" siding nails. Protruding nails bent w hammer at end.1:45 - final joist attachment with the 2.5" joist hanger screws. This time included assembling the last short side (frame). To summarize - the frame of trellis involves: marking and attaching joist hangers. Cutting the joists. Initial assembly with scrwes--Inserting joists and putting [2] 5" screws on the trim side, and 1 3" 1/4" screw on the joist hanger side to suck the joist into the joist hanger - otherwise there are always gaps. Final assembly step is the 2.5" joist hanger screws. 1:00 - attach all plywood (2 long, 1 short - with the short attaching only one 9.75" piece (using scraps, so it takes longer). 1 hr includes only the first strip of 3 of the scraps.
• 3/24/23 - 3:53 total (233 min). Attaching joist hangers to make frame. 1 hr to attach all joist hangers (3 trellises) with nailer. 45 min to cut all joists? 1 hr each long trellis - to assemble joists on 44' of strand to make the frame (minus the 2.5" joist hanger screws. It takes time to suck in the 5" long screws, then the third screw on joist hanger side to suck joist into hanger (ready for 2.5" after joists are sucked in - not before!). Also hammered end joist hangers flat so that I could use the same joist hanger - DIY end joist hanger. But, reinforced with 5" screw as the end joist hanger went into end grain.
• 3/23/23 - 5:15 hrs (315 min). 2.5 hrs to join 2 rim joists of frame into a 44' strand using scabs, + mark all locations for joist hangers.. 1 hr each for the 44' trellis, 30 min for the 19' trellis. The 19' already had the strand with the joist hangers attached. Bent a joist hanger to make it an end joist hanger. About 2:45 more moving more materials - so it turns out most work was logistics and could be eliminated in the future now that we know the workflow. Moving materials on roof involved laying out everything on roof as in Step 2 of Trellis Build Procedure [303]. Roof is 44'4" at front, 44'3" at back, and exactly 16'1" front to back accounting for OSB - so 16' is perfect, and we are 2 & 3 inches over on front and back respectively. Thus if we move the materials into position when we put the materials on the roof - we save ourselves the 2 hours or so of moving the materials into place. The 2 hours was long as there was some cleanup/disorganization from prior work and from moving things around. Nonetheless, the actual time should go from 5:15 hrs to only 2.5 hrs, with the rest of the time included in the power laddering of all materials to roof, and laying them out ready to build the long strands.
• Figured out trellis drop motion with 3 gear worm winches.
• 2:37 hr (157 min) - up to putting on the two white trims and bottom trim (to be stained) on trellis on the trellis, moving in position - ready for hoisting. Figuring out screwing. Most time figuring things. Count the final trellis build from other side. Relevant steps - no scabs on ply, attach ply to frame, screw from back with clamp. Intensive screw schedule needs correct screws.
• 5 hrs (300 min)- Built the first side trellis (up to plywood, no trim) + one extra 19' runner with hangers. Cut joists. Took 1:45 to build a complete 19', marked, and added joists + scab. Second time once all set up: took 35 minutes to make a 19' 2x6 with all joist hangers attached. Notes: don't worry about straightness and flatness - use the flat roof runners as a base. Once all joists are cut, 2 strings are automatically parallel. Used strong drive screws to pinch the wood together. I would perhaps just use those and not joist hangers? One into each end. Cheaper and apprears stronger than joist hangers. So just use 2 per end - 4 screws per joist. No joist hanger! Engineering calls for joist hangers on house side, but 5" SDSW screws on outer side. Observation appears that the screws are stronger, as they clamp the 2 runners very tight. Screw Withdrawal from End Grain vs Perpendicular to Grain
• 1:30 - began building trellis. Cut 2x6 to size (not joists), cut ply and scabs to make 19' total length of plywood assembly. Marked all joist locations with double line. No cut of joists. Single strand of 2x6. Decided to do double.
• 2 hr - Paint all trellis trim - 30 min setup, 50 min first coat, 40 min second coat. With roller. 2 hr wait between coats - on a windy 60F day on roof..
• 0:16. Finished hoisting 4 sets of 3 strips of ply. 4 minutes per trip - including walking myself. 2x-3x faster if had 2 people. 2 min max round trip of 40'. 40 fpm hoist speed - 20' up. 1 minute just travel time.
• 95 min - hoisting. Inefficiently, until rope snapped. Got all materials up except for 19.25" strips of ply. 2x6, 1x12, 1x6, 1x4 treated all went up.
• 45 min - cutting 3/4" ply
• 30 min - Materials collection from yard

Front Vinyl Siding

• Mar 8 - 5:30 hr. Front vinyl finished. Included doing last bit above windows. Then the full course above windows. Second course above the windows got the backing for trellis - 2 rows of 1.5" and 2.5" bands as backing, 3/8" from beadboard. Then 2 more courses above that - the one above could be done only from ladder. Only the very top full course could be done from roof, but that is slow as it's done on the belly inching over like a worm. The very last partial course - cut to about 3.5" - was caulked in to the former, no undersill trim for that. Vinyl hours for front including j-channel and and starter strip - 29 hours.
• Mar 7 - 5:30 hr. Started with cutouts above windows. Was fighting one piece that did not want to align over the leftmost windows. Did 3 cutouts like this, for 2 windows each. Rest was all ladder work - rather slow. But good news is we can dofrom scaffolding all way up to top cutouts of windows, with 2 layers above that on ladder, with 2 final (full and prtial) from the roof. The trellis does end up on no man's land.
• Mar 5 - 5 hr siding almost finished to top of 2nd story windows.
• Mar 4 - 5 hr siding one strip down from second story windows.
• Mar 3 - 8 hr. Up to vinyl to first floor window cutouts. Did J channel, starter strip, above door (canopy) trim in 3 hrs. 5 hrs for siding to now. The measuring aligning takes long. 9 nails per strip should take 1 minute. Minute to place. Minute to cut. 3 minute cycles. 20 strips per hour. 200 sf/hr. 3000 sf in 15 hr

House + Garage Trim

• Mar 2 - 400 min 6:4O tot. 2 hr spray stain garage mostly T1-11. Ok. Key was mixing paint well. Spray is way faster as otherwise need to brush cracks. Sometimes stain doesn't absorb and must be smeared with rag - ex on treated lumber. 4:40 - measure, make , hang 2 corners. Way long. Front had unequal lengths. No scrails on edge. Also too short to attach to house. Increase speed by equalizing, and making measurement unnecessary with known heights? Also, shims needed to make corner fit, also some under J chan as house is not straight enough.. Next time: premake all trim angle assemblies.
• Mar 1 - 490 min - 8:10 hr total. 4:40 to do garage door trim. Top Railing: 1:30 to add 1.5". Paint: 2 hr (45 min spray, 1:15 to do one side of 20' with roller. Top railing: included finish the bottom end 1x4 on balcony. Overcut 24 feet since drain edge doesn't need it. Cut from 1x stock. Garage trim: Ridiculous. Procedure should be: left and right angle posts, measure between, build 3rd top angle between span. Cut down 1.5" and use as balcony trim. Instead: did first, did half of 3rd, then did 2nd. Nightmare to cut in place including recip saw, put spacers behind, and form angles. Preferred procedure is to use screws (not trim screws) for angle formation, or use 2 screws, rest being scrails. Spacers behind were used. Don't need many. Without spacers should work - keep eye on vertical with bullet level. Instead of 4:40, should be more like 2 hr or 1:30. Use trim screws to align 2 members butting if needed.
• Feb 28 - 250 min 4:11 to do the 1x8 on the garage, 1x4 at bottom, 2 north corner angles from whites (to fit to the railing). Also cut down T1-11 on garage as it was not flat with main house.
• Feb 27 -180 min 3 hr - top 1x10 of the garage. Mitered corners [304].
• Feb 26 - moved beadboard into garage. 3 hrs - tractor + reshuffle + cover things from rain.
• Feb 25 60 min staining - 1 hr - stain garage door lumber, and back of the house verticals. Includes setup, layout, touchup. Painted on the ground on the straw surface. Needs second coat. Could be streamlined - think carefully about layout. Ex. Back boards stained on side of house closer to back.

Windows

• Feb 24 - 2:26 hr to make 4 more integrated window trim assy for second floor. 2:45 to install 5 more of these on the second floor with 12' scaffolding
• Feb 23 - 3 hr first window up to mounting. 54 minutes second window trim. 30 minutes to cut all treated back layer for 4 windows. Also finished up door trim, 30 minutes - detail of alignment and shimming behind to close gaps.

Double Door

• Door triangular trim correction [305] - 3 hours. Picky in terms of spacing, angle, flatness of wall, specific length. Had to redo: first, cut top door trim same length as top correction trim. House trim is 4.75" longer on each side. Second, the top correction sticks out an 1/8", so am moving the sides forward with shims. This is the type of custom work that eats up lots of time.
• See Build Finishing
• Door install part 2: 1.5 hr. Trimmed off the bolt blocking tab to open door, and inserted/trued the door.
  • Ultimate procedure is 1. Open door to attach 1 hinge, plumb-plumb-level (3 dimensions). Door closure on opening door was cut. Before that, removed the 5 extra screws, 2 movinghandles. Forgot to caulk on bottom . Sides do not touch, so were not caulked behind casing trim.
  • 2. Close door insert shims on 2 other hinges, open door and remove 1 screw to finish off the working (opening) door hinges. If still p2l (plumb-plumb-level) - add second screw on top.
  • 3. Open fixed door, p2l the top hinge. Mark p2l location, close door, shim, open door, fix shim in correct marked location.
  • 4. Note the door can still parallel with 2 top hinges. If you remove the bottom 2 attachments on the moving door! For next time - I would still lock the right hinges fully - and if door is parallelogrammed (skewed in a plane) (it was the case here) then wedge from the bottom on the corresponding side to unparallellogram the door. To do this correction step, only the top hinge on moving door must be fixed.
  • You must work the shims very carefully, and observe miniscule changes. This is a great case of The Chinese Wise Man Once Told Me.
  • To summarize: 1. Fix top hinge on moving door. 2. Fix side. 3. Fix other top hinge. 4. Check for parallelogramming - this will be an error that happens if foundation is not level. This will get you a perfectly closing door. 5. Final step is fix top middle of door frame to house frame, using shims again.
  • How to recognize quality: 0. Visually it is from quick glance not crooked. 1. Space between 2 doors and frame is same throughout on top. 2. Vertical space between 2 doors is equal. 3. Bolt mechanism goes into holes easily and readily. 4. Door closes flat, no part of door face protrudes from frame in closed position.
  • To summarize the failure point: if foundation is not level, you can still get a perfectly closing door. This door will be square, but it will be slightly tilted to one side when looking at the door, following its placement on the uneven foundation. If this is 1/2" or less, ok. If larger, may consider shimming under door. Such as 6 layers of EPDM scrap strips are 1/4" thick. Could use rolled up pieces of EPDM to achieve the correct shimming. If 1/2" - use 1/2" OSB, etc.
• Door install part 1: 1.5 hr. Feb 18 - 1.5 hr - flashing + insert door, started on fixing one upper hinge, but got stuck on faulty bolt latch on top. There was an easy solution - cutting off a tab that prevented the bolt from moving down further with a multitool in about 30 seconds without damaging the tab. See video tape for cutoff. Procedure was to put in the vycor on front face, cut and fold away. Then caulk. Then put in flexible pan (Future Flash) as a U in the door frame, then cut and fold down toward ground. Forgot the flashing corner on bottom, used it on top. Still have to install the sill support, which will be caulked. Also, walls were not plumb, so door comes out 3/4" on top, meaning bottom has 1-1/4" of casing thickness off the wall on bottom (flush) and 2" on top (3/4" gap). Need a triangular trim to fix that.
  • Method for door transport is 4 blocks screwed in to inner front face with 2 3" screws each, to lay 2 2x4s across the front as convenent handles for final insertion with 1 person (remove handles on side. Then one vertical 2x4 on back side pf 2 'rails' as added handle. Then one person can grab by the bottom rail and middle handle and using the thigh to help, lift the coor teh 8 or so inches. I used a 2" tall platform to reduce from 10" to 8" of lift, which is minimal and can be done with one strong person (207 lb + about 20 lb of 2x4 or 227 lb total). Can go higher on platform if needed.
  • For transport, 2 rails lay on top of truck bed. Door is put on its side, and slid up by the rails. Another 2x is attached to lock the rails to the gate so door is fixed horizontally to truck bed - cannot slide back, and can move little to the sides - ie - moving the door moves the truck (test for solid attachment). When loading on to truck bed, lean against side, not from gate side, and lift bottom side starting at a 45 degree angle so not too much lifting is done. Works great, is doable with one person.
  • The 2 rails serve 3 purposes: loading and unloading from top of pickup bed; rails for moving the door on the ground without damaging; handles enabling final raise of door into elevated (8" elevation) door hole.

Foundation Flashing

• Feb 17 - 4:20. 4 hrs to finish (layering 2x 1" to get 2" where it was flat with wall on West side). 20 minutes for large rivets. All in all: digging out insulation that separated from wall was about 1/4 the time, another 1/4 for getting to correct thickness, 1/4 time fighting the narrow tab. 4x faster next time. Some time spent fighting the 3/4" tab, which tended to push down and lower the assembly when the nail gun was used. Extend to 1.5" tab for total comfort. Probably move to 14" vinyl trim. All together 14:40 hr for foundation trim (hell) and it should go down to 3-4 hrs.
• Feb 16 - 7 hrs, from 2-10 with dinner. Went all way up to back left corner.
• Feb 15 - string line for foundation trim, + trimming excess house wrap. 1 hr. 1 hr for digging in first piece of trim, cutting and wedge-shaping more insulation. Working from 1 in plan around garage corner. Nightmare indeed. Just learning curve. Need plan for making this process-inegrated - to match sill plate with consideration of foundation trim.
• Feb 14 - 2 hr - bending 10 pieces of 10" vinyl, 16' long including cuttings from coil. 15 minutes to cut 10 from 4 rolls. More time is spent getting the machine, travel time, etc. Maybe just bring roll over next time, set up on a trailer in front of the rental place. Ask for this possibility.

Exterior Trim

• 1:41 - Painting one edge + Coat 2 - 1:40 hr. Laid same trim on the side to paint the edge, did all at once. All except for 3/8x12. Second coat was needed. Put fan on ceiling and ran heater. Drying temp is 38F inside at 4 PM, goes down to 18F by 7 AM. Will it work? Maybe will go in there to cover the second floor hole more effectively or cover the 2nd floor door which will be leaking cold air. Full bottle of propane is 37 lb, 17 lb when empty. [306]
• 1:24 hr - Coat 1
• 40 min - lay out plastic, lay out 29 boards. 15 1x4, 4 1x6, 8 1x8 1 3/8x12, 1 1x2.
• 1 hr - cleaning space: leaf blower + 3 fans, blows all the dust esp from concrete cut.
• 15 min. Cut sill plate on main door, take out nails, cut sill gasket with recip wood blade.

Garage Deck

• Mon Feb 13 - 5 hr total work- 2.5 hr on front side House wrap + T1-11. Included one last top plate. 2 hr more for back side House wrap + t1-11. And protruding panel on front side. Used 3 2x6 as rollers to punch down or stretch the pond liner. Then finished bedroom house wrap, another 15 min. Needed to fix one hole - nail not punched down all the way, but layers below protected pond liner as intended. Another was scissors dropped point on. Not sure if hole was made. All together, about 2 pm to 10 pm.
• Sun Feb 12 - 2 hours figuring out pond liner + carpet. Pond liner is not flat. Seam on carpet must be clean.
• 2 hr -Lay out 2 layers of poly (4 mil) as base, with EPDM lready there - added poly, tar paper.
• Cant strip cut -45 min. Included figuring things out. Cutting 72 feet of cant strip, 1" on short sides, using angle on cordless Dewalt skil saw. It is easy here to cut off a corner from standard 2x lumber, and still use the lumber elsewhere for 0 extra materials usage.

Concrete

• 1:15 hr, 3 cuts, 66' total including marking and managing 3 fans plus several generator overloads per cut

PV Runners

• 2:50 hr - 50 more straps (25 runner ends) attached. Steps: 1. Bend down the straps for locations 2. Paste down strip of butyl tape. 3. Mark hole locations with marker by tracing though actual holes. 4. Lay a circle of water stop around the 8 holes. 5. Nail down. Start with a long 2" or 3" galvanized nail. 2" of nail is needed for full penetration, I used 3" as I didn't have them.
• 1:50 to attach all straps to runners (56 straps, 14 runners), and to attach the first 3 of 28 to the wall. Attachment means typ 5 nails, 2 are long (3") and rest 1.5". Under is butyl tape and water stop for the punctures. Time included cut of [3] 36" steps to 11" pieces as I was short 6 straps. Gauge 16 for the 36", ga 18 for others. Tin snips work to notch 2 sides, then break along fracture by bending. Saves you a skil saw blade.
• 1:10 to mark all columns (28 marks)
• One hour to lift 2x6x16 treated runners on the roof - one person.
  • Put in .22 screw at 9 foot mark for lifting with a rope and carabiner around screw, screw pointed down at 45 degrees so carabiner does not slip off.
  • Took off truck and leaned against the garage
  • Went up to the garage and lifted them individually, leaned against railing. Took screw out.
  • Leaned them against the ladder to the roof
  • Lifted them to the roof, sliding up one another at about 50 degree angle against ladder to not damage the EPDM.
  • Did that in 2 batches of 7 for 14 total.
  • Hard part is the weight. Some are literally 2x as heavy if wet.
• Do not lift in one go from ground up 20' with rope as above - unless there is some power assist.. Difficult to get over the edge, as the lumber is heavy enough that it can pull you off the roof if you slip.
  • I did this for one. When over the edge, lumber was on 3/4" rope. Rope pressure against edge, with lumber on top, punctured the EPDM! EPDM is not as strong as I would like.
  • I had my tool belt, with needle nose pliers sticking out. Point of pliers went into the EPDM as I put my weight on my belly on the pliers, lifting over the edge. Another hole in EPDM from the pliers - the soft insulation underneath allows poking through. If substrate were solid, hole would likely not happen. Now at 3 holes - one hole initially from using clamps to try to pull the EPDM when it was frozen.

EPDM

• 2:45 hrs. Front drip cap. Starts with string line, predeilled 10' drip cap in 3 places, install 44' of drip cap, apply 44' of water stop, apply termination bar with 22 screws per 10' section. Redid 1.5 sections because term bar was 1" above drip cap, mistake because top edge of drip cap was mistaken for bend of drip cap so went too high with term bar. Watch for this - under EPDM - can bend drip cap down so back comes off wall and it looks like back is the drip cap bend - making for 1" error. Probably would not happen if it were not night or ice conditions.
• Spent around an hour massaging the EPDM to break up ice stiffness and stuckage. After that, it is easy to move around.
• 30 min - EPDM unroll into position in icy conditions (stiffness from ice pockets from recent melted snow). Got to 8"-10" overhang on front, 10.5" in each side, rest on back.
• EPDM edge unscrew - 20 minutes, 120' perimeter. Under icy conditions.
• Window replacement - 12 minutes to screw in window, see hole pattern in pictures. Including drip cap, already pre-cut.

Insulation Installation

• 5 hours total. Steps: lay down 66 sheets, screw down 3 screws with washers per, cutting edges to fit, cutting some broken pieces, fixing some broken corners; tape up all seams on top including some breaks and some seams in layers below, roll EPDM temporarily over it to protect it. Packing tape dispenser works great.

Rigid Foam Moving

• Using 600 lb hoist - easy to load 24" thick pallets or buns. Up time is quick. Don't get stuck on house wrap. Lift over edge by leveraged tie to other side of bun. From 6:30 start - took to 7:50 for 3 buns. Need about 4 total. This is one person, so bigger time is tying up and walking down + up ladders. Material lift machine would help here, should build an add-on for LifeTrac.
• 1.5" layer - 16' house depth is 2 sheets minus 3" cut
• Second layer staggered only in 3" direction. With blown off insulation, do 2' stagger.
• Back to original pattern on 3rd layer.

House Wrap

• Summary: will be easier next time not having to fight existing house wrap. Also, probably work from bottom up, where corners are difficult due to underlappin? Better yet - work from second row, so top is still done with full sheet, taking advantage of using the roof instead of scaffolding or ladders at height, definitely use the roof to drop 10 feet, from which point height is manageable. This is especially for when a manlift cannot fit in tight spaces or mud prevents access.
• Note - this seems to miss the second layer of insulation - front of house to left side. Missed that somewhere in the data collection.
• 5 hr - finished remaining house wrap (Feb 11, 23). Started at garage corner, all around to finish. did 3rd small strip at bottom, which was 2-4 feet wide. This was due to slope of roof. To make house wrap more even, start at high side and cut off extra, do not try to do the small sland of roof and then even it out. Did it on ladder, ok. Did not use a support to hold the roll off the ground.
• 3 hr for 120 feet. 1200 sf. One roll plus small bit. Hooked on top. Used tiedown strap plus clamp to hold at top ridge. See pix. Stinger stapled at top and bottom with 5 middle feet blank. Careful not to bust out windows!
• Calculation from video: 10 seconds on 3 sec timelapse - 12 minutes for 44'. Thus, the layer (120' long perimeter around house), should take only about 1/2 hour. Roll change at 100' with 100' rolls, which would add setup time. Take away message: setup is critical to workflow. The more that a facility can be 'set up already' - the better. This is the key challenge that Flexible Fabrication needs to solve in a multipurpose facility: how to be set up at all times for a multitude of tasks? For OSE, that means shifting from building houses, to 3D printers, to tractors, etc.
• For the bottom stapling at 6' - 8 seconds for 24' - using Time Lapse Calculator - about 10 minutes - or for 120' - 50 minutes. Thus, top layer with top and bottom stapling - takes 1 hr 20 min. Actual time was 3 hours (once unrolling mechanism was figured out)

Taping

• Complicated by: blocking corrections, House wrap in the way; ambiguity in which is nailed, some 1" strip missing; nails sticking inside, screws sticking outside; redo of top band, which was not connected to roof joists, and roof joists not connected by wide band at top of 2nd floor. Ties at garage, house wrap stuck between modules.
  • Future exterior nail and tape: bottom OSB to sill plate. Mid band- wide joists to first floor blocking to 2nd floor blocking. Top floor lip - to roof joists. Top band - to roof joists, to roof box. Corners - short side flange to front and back. Rework this.

Nailing Off

• Garage straps - 10D nails take 15 sec each with Ridgid palm nailer and constant nail feed. Nail feed is important. Some places it won't go in, hammered in. Much less force than a good hammer. If 60 nails per strap, expect 30 minutes. 6D nails would likely half the time, so do it at the framing stage. Here used longer nails for going thru OSB.
• Jan 14, 15, 16, 17 - 2 half days and 2 ful days taping, figuring out scaffold, finishing hurricane ties in garage, redoing 2 windows (1 day). For taping rate - see video tape. Taping - 2 inefficient days of going around obstacles, and setting up scaffolds. Estimated production rate for taping seams - 8' per minute.
• Jan 13 - 2 hr to nail 2nd floor sill, top plate, joints between walls, and corners. Plus 42 blocking corrections nailed. See steps [307]
• Jan 12 - 4 hr - tested 2-story scaffolding. Corrected 42 errors in blocking on 2nd floor, moving to first floor. Corrected but not nailed.

Garage Front Wall and Railing Framing

• (4.5 hr tot = 270 min) Took 2.5 hours to do the front top wall, then another 2 hr to finish nailing board, hurricane ties, top plate. All together promise remains of 1.5 hr total instead of 4.5 hrs. 1" inaccuracy + spacers + bend of header + alignment added all the time.
• Railing - (180 min) 1 hour per post. 3 hours total up to cutting + installing railing top plate and fitting/screwing down 3 posts under, with EPDM layer underneath. Included T1-11 on the sides.
• Railing - (135 min) 2.25 hr for all the rails. If had 20' pieces would half this time. Included insect closure at bottom.
• Railing - (225 min)3.75 hr for all the sheathing + its blocking. Included cutouts around garage door, using vertical sheeting. For railing outside it's horizontal (used 10' sheets). For inner railing - vertical T1-11.

Garage Front Wall

• Garage header bent inwards towards garage about 1". Made the top modules curve accordingly at top. Best solution - attach modules to top of header, then use top plate + string line to align everything. If difficult to align to header - use blocking to suck in the modules even [308]. Once aligned, nail off the blocking to garage. Used spacer where deck was 1" from the front garage walls. Ideally good quality control means all goes into place without 1" distance discrepancies. Right garage wall was 1"-1.5" too long - hence the gap at the right side of front top garage wall.
• Used a nailing board for front top garage hurricane ties - added a 3" board from the underside, screwed through deck (watch dangerous screws) and nailed off from the edge side from inside the garage. This nailing board should be installed prior to front top garage wall (at the joist phase) as one side of nailing board is inaccessible due to blocking on garage wall modules. Hurricane ties are a known material but this would likely need to be engineered.

Logistics Notes

• Experiment - can a house be finished with [5] 40' trailer loads directly from the store?
• Most effort of house build is materials movement if you stop and think about it. Typical: store to site. Site to storage. Storage to module build. Module storage. Module transport. Module storage on site. Module installation. How can we short circuit from store to module installation in 1 step instead of 5 steps?
• Ex. 1/8/23 - half to whole day to load up trailer and deliver all materials at height in house. Used trailer to stand on. 2 bath tubs, railing, garage finish at top. Loading up lumber, posts, sheet, etc. Included cleaning site, sweeping out rain water, folding up and drying fallen housewrap, removing excess materials from built time, sweeping, cleaning tubs that got dirty in transport, organizing the foam insulation, haying for mud, moving trailer in. Still need to mow down more area at FeF for better trailer movement. Took from 2 PM to 10:40 PM to load trailer from FeF (16 sheets, all lumber railing, front garage modules, 2 shower tubs [309]).

Budgeting

• $85k was budgeted for labor. $40k was spent due to severe understaffing, major omission being professional builders. Early termination by 2 days due to harsh conditions.

Framing

• 48 minutes to do front top garage module (for triple strap tiedown). Using already cut members. Most of the lumber was available, did not need to cut any.
• 1 hr 7 minutes to do 3 modules, front garage top, simple. Blocking and bottom/top was already cut, I had to cut verticals. Adding cutting would add 5 minutes to time per module? See pictures. Simple modules have 9 members.
• 50 minutes demo for one full simple 9' module build, including detailed quality control with unruly wood - during workshop.

Foundation

• Total foundation time: 69 hrs. SLightly better than 500 sf - which would take 93 hours is scaled to this size.
  • Revisited total: 9.5+5+27+27.5=69 hr total from breaking ground for 1104 sf. 25% faster. ok.
• Concrete summary calc from December- 27 prep, 15 pour prep (8 am till 1 with 3) + 6 hr pour (3 people 2 hrs until scree) + 5 hr floating in extremely slow drying time. Total concrete time = 53 hr. This was 1104 sf compared to 500 sf last time at 42 hours, so scaling is favorable: 1.7 times faster than the 500 sf.
• Wed Dec 7 - 14 hrs (Savannah work, not Maysville foundation) Casey and Aidan on Bobcats from noon to 6, Aidan till 8 PM. I set up the site for 3 hours, talked to neighbors, packed up portopotty.
• Pour - 27.5 hr
  • Tue Dec 6 - 19.5 hr till finish of pour with 3 people from 8 to 2:30 PM. Got gravel level, did poly, rebar, chairs, mudsill anchors recessed - then I until 8 PM floating and power trowel. Aidan was there outside of 2 hours cleaning up. Packing up trailer to travel to Savannah until 9 PM. Total work - 5 hrs power trowel, and 3 other (Aidan) + 2 hr packing. Total of 27.5 hr total concrete-related (not includes packing for Savannah).
• Forming - 27 h
  • Mon Dec 5, 2022 - 12 hrs to plumbing, gravel spread. Insulation on forms. + 3 for Brent on plumbing etc.
  • Sun Dec 4, 2022 -12 hrs to forms largely done, minus entry to garage. Main excavation day?
• House Layout: 5 hr
  • Friday Dec 2, 2022 - Laser level and evening high spots - about 25 minutes? Meter reading - . All together today - 5 hrs including selecting final location, calculating diagonals, figuring out foundation detail, starting micro excavator work. Bulk of time - deciding on proper location of house.
• Grading - 9.5 hrs:
  • Thu Dec 1 -Smoothing - 1044.4 - 1045.5 - 1.1 hrs.
  • Dig time - 1042.1-1044.4 - 2.3 hrs. Finishing of bulk digging.
  • Dig time - 4.1 on Sunday. Bulk of the diggin. Key is to get into mindless flow, which is possible with ample soil, and is definitely easier if the soil is not rock hard like clay. 1038.0-1042.1
  • Scrape time for grass for 70x50 area - 2 hrs. Start hour meter = 1036.0

Links

• SH4