DUG THE TRENCHES

Dug the trenches for most of the under ground stuff the day after Thanksgiving. Rented a Toro Dingo with the trencher attachment. Worked great just kind of cumbersome, can't maneuver in close quarters very well, and does not turn very good when trenching. The turning when trenching may have been more related to the slippery grass than anything. Does great in a straight line. The only trench not dug is the one just past the garage for the the phone & cable. I didn't want to get to close to the pond since the tracks were already spinning on the grass.(didn't want to get stuck). I did do some by hand where it curves around into the boiler and back by the shop where the water lines enter.  Anyhow there is the layout for the underground stuff, just need to get it all in the ground now.

INGROUND STUFF FOR THE SHOP

A lot will happen in the next two - three weeks. I will be doing the under ground infrastructure install for the shop. Along with that I'm having the propane tank moved to the back of the shop (150 ft). I'll be putting in the ground, 130 ft of hot water insulated pex lines from the wood boiler for the infloor heat, approximately 175 ft of gas line, 150 ft of both telephone and cable. I'll rent a trencher for half a day or so for all the trenching. Then the attention turns to hooking all that stuff up. I'll start first with the gas line for the heater in the shop so I can get some heat in there, then turn to the infloor heat. I'll need to build an area on the wall at the back of the shop to hold all the equipment & lines for the floor heat. It'll have a stainless steel manifold with three water circuits (8 water connections, a supply in & out, 2 lines for each circuit, with flow & temp gauges), a thermostatically controlled Taco pump, mixing valve, and associated wiring for all this. They're not exciting, (inground stuff never is) but here are some pics to see whats happening.

 Boiler on the right, trench will go all the way to the back corner of the shop. Just past the wood pile on the left is where the trench will split off for the cable & phone lines to enter the shop.

 Standing in front of the boiler, the trench will go up towards the house around the Oak tree to the right, near where the shovel handle is. This for the gas. Just out of sight to the left is where the propane tank is presently located.

 The stake at the bottom of the pic is where the trench will "T" into the long trench. This is cable and phone line

 At the bottom of the pic you can see the top of a stake. This again is for "T" into the long trench up to the house. On the side of the house are the boxes for phone and where the cable will be picked up.

 The side of the boiler is open, you can see the Taco pump & water lines that presently go into the house. Visible is the connections for the shop with valves. I'll have to dig by hand here, remove the lower side of the blue panel beneath the open door to get the water lines in. There is a little micro processor that runs a solenoid for the draft door on the front door of the boiler . Right now the draft door cycles open at 175 deg and closes at 185 deg. The max temp is adjustable, I may raise it up to 195 deg. The 10 deg swing is not adjustable so if I raise the max the lower temp automatically gets raised also. The yellow stuff is spayed foam insulation from the factory, the entire water tank is insulated. This holds approx 385 gallons of water. That alot of water to keep that hot. Underneath the black plastic is all hard wood we cut and split ourselves. It's all walnut from downed trees in a walnut grove located on a relatives farm. We're going to fire the boiler up on Thanksgiving day.

 This is the view from the corner of the shop. The bricks are where the propane tank is going to be located. I made sure they are level and parallel with the shop.

Drawing of the trench layout. All the utilities will be in the same trench for a short distance directly behind the garage.

BEFORE IT'S REALLY COLD

The next part of the shop-home improvement project will require some coordinating. We're going to move the propane tank to the back of the shop. It's in full view of the deck off the dining room right now, so it's going to be out of sight when done. There are several things going to happen when we do this. Along with the gas line being retrenched under ground, the insulated water lines from boiler to the shop for the infloor heat, phone lines and cable antenna are all going to be buried. we will need to work with the gas company since they will actually move the tank. I will need to rent a trencher to do all this and work with gas company schedule for timing. I also will need to order and have shipped the insulated water lines. It's going to be about 110 feet from the boiler to the shop for the water lines & another 60 feet for the gas line. The cable & phone lines will split off from the shared trench with their own and enter the shop 40 feet closer. Let's hope it doesn't get to cold to soon!

Just watched the F1 race, got some inspiration, now it's off to the shop and back to reality.

AIR MOVEMENT - AIR EXCHANGE

One of the decisions I made when building this shop is to have very good air movement. I'm going to install 4 ceiling fans with wall mounted adjustable speed knobs. These fans are 5ft in diameter so their larger. This means that they can be on a low speed and still move a fairly large amount of air. This means a couple of things; first - they'll be quite and still move alot of air, second - with low rpms means less power draw, cheaper to operate. The goal is always to make this building as inexpensive to operate as possible. (another reason we decided to heat the shop with wood since there is heat water tubes in the floor) Sometimes this means a larger upfront cost. You'll be seeing this when I install a  lot of LED lighting. LED fixtures are more expensive, but far cheaper to operate. Another air movement- air exchange idea I'm installing is a exhaust system with several vents located in the ceiling and also hookups for running vehicles in the shop. Again I'll have a speed adjustable exhaust fan. Each ceiling vent will be able to be closed off easily from the floor. By being selective, this also will leads to lesser operating costs. I'm a huge fan of air movement in a shop so one doesn't get overcome by fumes and such and just plane feels better. I'll post location of the fans over on FASTDAD'S facebook page.    https://www.facebook.com/Fastdad-132790816771142/

GOOD MORNING

It's going to be a great day to work on the shop!

Got the exhaust finished up. The hardest part was getting the stack straight vertically.  Several trips up and down the ladder for tools and modifing the stack bracket on the roof sofet. The rest was getting the placement of the heater correct.