Project LLCER Building

The Electrician Comes and Goes - The electrician comes when no one else is in sight. I only know he was here because he leaves tracks. Tracks in the floor, tracks in the walls and pipes sticking up from the dirt. The photo on the right portrays the electrician’s work. What had been a perfectly good, solid piece of foam now has a fracture and a patch. On beyond the foam, a mostly buried pipe is seen. The buried pipe runs from the electrical panel towards the back of the building.   Adjacent to the main panel is a series of pipes. These run through the dirt to various places in the building. I don’t know where all they run, but I hope the electrician remembers. I asked Bob some time ago about wiring in a building with foam walls. I know with stud walls, the wiring is roughed in before the drywall is attached. Since the drywall will be attached directly on top of the foam blocks, and there was no provision for wiring in the concrete filling of the blocks, how does the building get wir...

Big Blue Ducts -  The ducts being buried under the sanctuary floor were delivered and spread out in the trenches. Not surprisingly, the product name is The Blue Duct. This is an amazing product. It is impervious to moisture, mold, mildew, air leaks and radon. It will not rust, rot, ravel, run or fray at the edges. It has an insulation value of R-10 so it keeps the warm air warm and the cool air cool as it flows silently beneath our feet in the sanctuary. The product can be direct buried and does not require a bed of pea rock nor does it require drain tile under the ducting. And it will not crush, corrode, leak or turn sour in hot weather. According  to the company website, " The BlueDuct is the only proven, direct-burial underground duct system made from ultra-durable, advanced HDPE (high-density polyethylene)."   In other words, plastic foam. So now we have foam walls, foam sealant around the windows, foam sheets underlying the concrete floor, foam ducts under the floor ...

The Plumber - The activity at the church was intense the last couple of weeks, all the digging, piping, and floor smoothing going on. Looking back on my photos, I find a few pictures of interest that did not get published. So today I am cleaning up some leftovers from this active stretch. When Don was laying out the drain line plan, he studied the print then walked around with a shovel and a tape measure. After determining the correct locations, he dragged the shovel through the dirt leaving the layout plan in the dirt. Greg followed with the trackhoe, leaving a trench in his wake. I have already written about the writing, pictures and hieroglyphs on the walls and for the plumber it is lines in the sand. Wherever Don roamed with his shovel, the trenches soon followed. More Giant White Board Markings - OK, Greg, what is with this snake and the epitaph? This is the partial burial site of  a tube through which the water main from the well into the building will be run. The tu...

A Full Moon on a Crisp, Clear Evening -  It snowed Tuesday morning then cleared up and turned cold in the afternoon. By evening, all the clouds had gone and left a brilliant full, or nearly full, moon. There are even a few stars visible in the picture. A serene and welcoming sight. Meanwhile, inside the building, Greg started digging trenches in the sanctuary. The main trench work is for the ducts that will carry warm and cool air from the furnaces and air conditioners into the the sanctuary. Now that we have some real winter weather, with a good imagination you can look in the trenches and feel the heat coming from the soon-to-be heat ducts. Some of dirt from the trenches was needed in the kitchen area to bring the floor  up to the required level. While I was on site that transport was being done with wheel barrows. Soon after I left the small loader showed up and moved the dirt much more expeditiously. With all the petroleum powered equipment in use, it is important to monit...