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A truck from CAD brought crushed recycled glass to be used as fill instead of pea gravel under the slab.  The glass had a faint aroma of beer, giving you an indication of what some of the bottles had been used for. The glass was delivered via a conveyor belt that the driver controlled with a remote control device.  As a matter of fact he drove the whole truck remotely which makes his rig the best RC vehicle I have ever seen!  If the construction industry is looking for new sources of income, let people pay to have 5 minutes of operating the truck! I know I would love to have a chance to drive it!

The utilities are in and todays’ work was to cover them up and make a smooth layer to place the foam on.    The weather looks good for the next few days so Dan has called for the concrete to come Monday morning.

The plastic will go down once the sand is tamped and then the foam will go in.   In the meantime, Stu, a friend of Dan’s, stopped by and joked about being mentioned in the blog.  I can’t promise fame & fortune Stu, but there might be notoriety if you are lucky!

Some of the foam that will go under the foundation is on site.  Dan was able to find some extra foam that a roofer was getting rid of that he can use under the slab.  He pointed out that all of the foam has a density rating stamped on it and he made sure to check that it would work for this project and reject the pieces that were too soft.   Coming soon is a detailed article about the foam, where it came from, how come there is more than one density, and how it works to make this project a Passive House.

Thermal imaging (used under GFDL)

Passive House design takes into consideration the 3 ways that heat travels – Convection (via a gas or fluid), Conduction (via direct contact of molecules), or Radiation (temperature equalization of surfaces via radiant energy).   In this thermal image of 2 buildings, the red and yellow areas show the least thermal resistance, the green and blue areas show more thermal resistance.  It is easy to see that the building on the left is losing more heat through the walls and windows than the Passive House building on the right. In this article we will focus on heat loss through conduction via thermal bridges, what that is, and what can be done to control it.

My favorite construction management instructor would be quick to correct me if I said anything about pouring concrete.  Today on Dan’s project they placed concrete and tonight I will pour scotch just to make sure I understand the lesson correctly. <grin> I did offer to be Dan’s worst laborer ever and after a very careful second or two of consideration he wisely declined my offer.  As the activity picked up on the jobsite I retreated to my mobile job shack (aka the back of my minivan) where I could observe the hustle and bustle but not get in the way of the muscle.