Road and Drive

With the rainy season coming up we decided to go ahead and put in the drive and improve the road to our land.  We filled in the trench for the power/water/phone lines, and graded the road and drive.  Then 4" of road fill was added to give us all weather access. This will come in handy soon.  In a couple of weeks, we are going to have some extra traffic.  With the adobe walls going up it is time to put in our fireplace.  The Southwest Solar Adobe School is scheduling a "How to build your Rumford Fireplace"  class with our home as the class room.  Jim Buckley, Mr. Rumford Fireplace himself, is flying in from Seattle to conduct the class.  Jim is going to build our fireplace while he instructs the class and Joe Tibbets, Director of Southwest Solar Adobe, and I will be Jim's helpers.  This will be a lot of fun and we will get a great Rumford fireplace built by the Master.

Radiant Heating

Matt's team (MR Concrete) is working on the sub-floor, leveling, adding dirt here, removing dirt there, preparing to install the sub-floor insulation.  The insulation, 1" of underground rated (R-5) foam board, goes under about 8 inches of thermal mass that includes 4 1/2 inches of dirt,  1 1/2 inches of sand, the 2" brick floor.  The thermal mass in the floor will work nicely with the adobe walls, storing heat in the winter and cool in the summer to smooth out the seasonal day/night thermal cycle.  The radiant tubing runs through the sand, and the sand is topped off with the brick floor.  All-in-all we will have a nice quiet and cozy back-up heating system for our passive solar design in the winter and can circulate cool water during the summer.  Here the radiant tubing, installed by Plumbing Express, is ready for the sand covering.

Wow!  I leave town for a few days and Matt (M.R. Concrete) and his crew go to work and finish the foundation (rubble trench w/grade beam).  It is not the kind of foundation you see very often but has distinct advantages over the conventional foundation.  The grade beam uses about 1/3 the cement of the conventional footing/stem wall approach.  It rests on a compacted base of crushed rock permitting better drainage and eliminates up-lift from the shrinking and expanding of soil.  More commonly used on rammed earth homes, it makes a nice footing for adobe as well.  Did I mention that it also costs less?!

Matt lives and builds in Santa Fe County and has a long history of quality and dependability.  If you want the area's best concrete firm to work on your project call: Matt Rischer, M.R. Concrete, 505-286-1070.

Rough-in Plumbing

     Now that the adobes are made and stacked, we can begin the real building.  Dan, from Plumbing Express, is up first.  Since the rubble trench footing can't be disturbed once it is in, the underground work has to be done first.  Somehow Dan figured out where all the pipes, drains, etc., are supposed to go (including the supply lines for under-floor radiant heating) before the foundation or floors are in.  That's just one reason why he is the best.  See that little blue label on one of the pipes?  That is our signed inspection ticket.  All is approved and ready for the next step.

     Now that Dan has finished with his magic and the inspector has approved it, Matt, M.R. Concrete, came in to dig the trenches, compact the rubble (crushed rock) and pour the grade beam or foundation.  Check back later for a report on the foundation work.
     If you are in the Santa Fe County area and would like the best plumbing contractor working on your project you can phone Dan Creager, Plumbing Express, 505-286-3637, or email him at: plumbexp@yahoo.com