Blood, Sweat, and Tears

So, I'm back from South Carolina and taking over the blog again. Travis' posts were definitely entertaining, so I apologize that you now have to go back to my dull posts :) The blog title is slightly overstated as there was no tears, but there was a little blood and a lot of sweat. Travis cut his arm (just a little bit) on the wire. We worked a little over 4 hours in the intense heat to lay the remaining radiant tubing. I was so tired and hot that I didn't take any pictures after we finished, so you'll have to use your imagination. Just imagine the pictures from yesterday...with radiant tubing covering the whole basement floor. We layed over 700 feet of the 1/2" tubing today and ran the 3/4" header tubing to the two manifolds. The header is the main water source that provides the water to each of the loops.

We ended up spacing the wire about a foot apart instead of the originally planned 9 inches since the tubing wasn't real flexible. So, instead of having 4 zone manifolds (each controlled by it's own thermostat), we decreased it to 3 zones, one of which is the garage. We still have the radiant heat in the garage to do, but they will have to backfill that area first.

This weekend, we will finish connecting the tubes to the copper manifolds that we made the other day. Then we will do a pressure test to make sure there are no leaks. I've got my fingers crossed that my soldering skills held up and we don't have any leaks. They are set to pour the flatwork on Monday, and I'm guessing that they will also be pouring the walls for the remainder of the house that day too. The framers are starting the middle to end of next week, so that will be really exciting. We'll keep you updated as to the pressure test, and I will try to get out there to take some pictures so that you don't have to imagine anymore!