Above 1200 Sq/FT Swiss Garage / Workshop / House Build

[ford33]

Interesting build. I do like European electrical systems better than the USA design.

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Due to the Safety-inspector and his issues yesterday, i expected the Site would be shut down for several days. So i was quite a bit suprised to see work in full progress when i showed up today after work...
The scaffolding guys not only delivered the hardware but also let one guy work with our Contractor to set up the Scaffolding properly and fast.

So by afternoon the Rebar guys were able to go back to work at their normal high-speed pace. Since they are booked on other sites for the next days, their plan is to catch up the lost time and work until late today...

Oh and we got some more insulation delivered:

 

[Ronin22]

Progress is fast on this one, amazing!

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Well schedules are tight here and you have to be sure you get the most done before it's too cold to pour concrete

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Big update today:
We got more bricks delivered:


The 4'000 Liter Rainwater collection tank including the accessories (Filter, etc) for garden-watering arrived:


They started to prepare formwork for the lowest-level ceiling in the other areas...


While the rebar-guys went a bit crazy again


First (lowest area) concrete for part of the garage and in-laws living area should be poured on monday, so the electrician and plumbers showed up, to put all the freshwater-hoses, sewage-lines, electical hoses and fresh-air ventilation tube (for the Fireplace) into place, before the rebar guys will complete the second (upper) layer of rebar on monday. so they should be able to pour the higher levels of concrete on tuesday...


Just some hoses to the in-laws electrical cabinet Due to our house automation and bigger house, we will probably end up with 2-3 times the amount of hoses

 

[spoonsports86]

just took the last hour or so to look thru your thread.

dope lay out and great work coming long

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

just took the last hour or so to look thru your thread.

dope lay out and great work coming long

Thanks mate. Ah it seems like you're a honda guy too

 

[spoonsports86]

Thanks mate. Ah it seems like you're a honda guy too

yes sir honda and toyota for me

got a few toys at the moment but nothing as nice as your rear CTR ek hatch

 

[rixtrix1]

All I can say is "WOW!".

 

[Roundhouse]

Re: The Swiss "JDMJ" Garage / Workshop / House Build

Wow. .

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Nothing big today. but the first part of the concrete ceiling has been poured and the rebar-guys completed their work. And more formwork for the other areas has been completed. Guess over the next days it's more concrete pouring

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Well today a lot of concrete got poured (again)
The lowest level ceiling of the in-law's living area (which covers part of the garage):

The garage entrance and part of our garage:

Formwork on our Living area (which covers my workshop and storage space) has also continued:

This is our future workshop area from the inside. Funny how things start to feel "real" as soon as there is a ceiling on top of the walls

Now only this part needs to be covered with Formwork too, but this will take another few days. At first, a few small details have to be completed. Like some tiny walls between the different ceiling levels

 

[Motoman1100]

JDM it looks likes it'll be a beautiful place. I bet in such a small community your building is really the talk of the town! Thanks for the great pics.

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

JDM it looks likes it'll be a beautiful place. I bet in such a small community your building is really the talk of the town! Thanks for the great pics.

Thanks a lot. Yeah there are quite a few bypassers every day that like to stop for a chat

Funnily there are a handful other constructions going on in the village at the moment.
I Guess in a village where many old people used to live in old houses, now their kids (aka the next generation) are taking over town and rebuilding all those old houses

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

The sellout at our company continues. yesterday i got offered a set of industrial drawer cabinets


And an almost unused sandblasting cabinet:


While some parts are missing at the blasting cabinet, the price seems to be unbeatable. It's reserved for me now, so i will investigate a bit about the missing parts and then decide if i'll really buy it. Also it would need some light modifications to suit my needs because it was used for some special purposes here. But still i think it's a great deal. So i most probably will buy it. just need to figure out how i can haul this stuff home and where i can store it until the workshop is finnished

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Todays update consists of mainly - you guessed it - more concrete


Lot of small details have been done, like the small concrete walls between the different ceiling levels. Some old formwork has been removed and more new formwork added:




Future lift-area from the inside...


And it appears we had some animals testing the concrete quality - leaving some traces... Luckily only in an area which will be covered later...

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Another update consisting formwork The base Form plate for our living area has been (almost) completed, and also the surrounding frame work has started. Over the next days the kitchen guys, electricians and plumber will start to put their stuff on it, and before and after that, the Rebar-guys will have to go mad again.

We got more rebar deilvered (this is only part of what came today):

So this is how it looks inside the future garage / Lift area with (almost) everything covered...

I really like how big everything feels and that the Lift-area somehow takes the center-stage (which was not really a part of the plan)

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Just WOW

 

[Ronin22]

This is gonna be epic!

 

[rixtrix1]

Just WOW

X2

Sent from my SM-J320V using Tapatalk

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Today we got the Outer Barrier (formwork) for our first (lowest) ceiling completed including the fence to make the safety inspector happy.

The ceiling Moisture collection insulation (grey area) got laid down in the future workshop / garage area and the rebar guys started to put in tons of steel again (not completed yet). The red and white boxes for water and electricity got put into place as well.
The yellow "box" is where the hole for the soon-to-be-built stairs will go

The rest of the week i expect the Kitchen guys, electricians and plumber to put in their hoses, wires and whatnot. as well as the Steam ventilation tube for the kitchen (we are going for a downdraft system, so it will be in the floor).
And the rebar guys have to complete the first and second layer of rebar. And we also expect some rain so i guess the ceiling won't be poured this week..

Plumber already brought some pre-fabbed pieces...

And the drain-pipe for the roof-water was installed:

Also the ground / earthing wire for the complete house...

I expect a lot of small work beeing done the next days, so will definitely show up on site to check it out. Today they wanted to install the clothes drop hole formwork on this level, despite the fact it needs to be one level higher
As we say here: Trust is good, Control is better

 

[larry4406]

This is an insane over the top construction project! I am glad I am not footing the bill!

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

This is an insane over the top construction project! I am glad I am not footing the bill!

Thank you, sir. Well - all in all, the complete project part that belongs to us with all the bells and whistles, is not much more expensive than the average small swiss concrete house with an attached double garage, due to all the lucky circumstances - so i'm really happy with that

 

[ConCretin]

I kinda knew what was coming with that structural slab but.......Wow! I'm not sure what i am more jealous of, the tower crane, the incredible concrete work or all the awesome stuff you are getting from work! The work is looking fantastic.

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

I kinda knew what was coming with that structural slab but.......Wow! I'm not sure what i am more jealous of, the tower crane, the incredible concrete work or all the awesome stuff you are getting from work! The work is looking fantastic.

Always feel honoured when you (the concrete master, with a lovely taste for modern architecture) like the project. Thank you

This is the view on our part of the house yesterday. as you can see a lot of wires, hoses and tubes have been installed for all the electricity, water, sewage, and air ventilation:

Since you seem to be interested in european plumbing and wiring, here's a closeup, of what will soon be invisible, once the concrete is poured around it. Blue hoses are electricity and automation, black small hoses are fresh water (hot and cold), black pipes are waste-water. The silver tube is for fresh air and the yellow box is for the heating tubes (the last two are only visible in the picture above)

And while the concrete guys had to wait for the plumber, electricians and rebar guys to get their work done, they started to set up the formwork for the first upper level walls at the in-laws living area.

Today i'm expecting the rebar guys to complete their work on the slab (second layer of rebar) so that concrete can be poured early next week. And me and my wife are heading to the annual local Fair to get a good deal on a washing machine and tumbler

 

[rixtrix1]

Great progress pics, Nils! Will the homes be dry ( enclosed ) before winter storms hit? Seems like a lot of concrete work to do before temps get too cold.

 

[1/2 Cup]

JDMjunkies.ch thank you for the update, great progress.

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Great progress pics, Nils! Will the homes be dry ( enclosed ) before winter storms hit? Seems like a lot of concrete work to do before temps get too cold.

That's the great question, because if it's too cold they cannot do concrete or brickwork anymore...
However on the upper levels there's a lot more brick than concrete, so they can work a lot faster. It is planned to put the roof on it early next year but that's not a big problem... it may just need a little construction time-out when winter hit's too hard

JDMjunkies.ch thank you for the update, great progress.

thank you sir

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

So today we had a meeting with the architect and while there anyway we had a closer look at the site. Insulation work has been started at the in-laws living area:

Some of the formwork has already been removed. Now you can actually see how those form-things look from the other side. Here's the water hoses:

and here are the electrical boxes from the other side. Of course the red cover will be removed and replaced with a nice, white piece when finnished:

On the outside, the formwork for the in-laws living and dining area has started. Quite impressive with these big wall formwork and the crazy big window they get

On our side the first level slab (ceiling for the workshop, garage, etc) should be poured on monday, so the iron guys completed the rebar work (upper layer of rebar) yesterday:

 

[Motoman1100]

Any idea how many total yards of concrete are going into the house? This is fun to watch, thanks for the pictures.

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Any idea how many total yards of concrete are going into the house? This is fun to watch, thanks for the pictures.

Yeah on page 6 of this thread i once calculated this:
460,5 m3 concrete of various grades, which is approx 602 cubic-yards

Which is only for our half of the house. the in-laws house is approx. the same amount so it would be around 1000 to 1200 cubic yards for the whole build.

mind all the upper levels will be built with brick-walls mainly and much less concrete useage there.

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

So today we got another 50m3 of concrete delivered with several trucks and the slab for our home and garage ceiling finally got completely poured and closed (except the stairs):




After that, they continued the formwork for the in-laws house outer wall. As you can see there is some kind of Funnel on the top where they will pour the concrete, once the Rebar is in and the formwork closed. I was told they will use a special "liquid" concrete, so that it will flow nicely into the formwork. I'm curious if we get some air bubbles at the end

 

[Motoman1100]

Yeah on page 6 of this thread i once calculated this:
460,5 m3 concrete of various grades, which is approx 602 cubic-yards

Which is only for our half of the house. the in-laws house is approx. the same amount so it would be around 1000 to 1200 cubic yards for the whole build.

mind all the upper levels will be built with brick-walls mainly and much less concrete useage there.

Sorry man, I'm too enamored with all the pics to read everything. Ha.

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Sorry man, I'm too enamored with all the pics to read everything. Ha.

No worries, i'm here to help

 

[Ronin22]

I may have missed something. But you keep mentioning your in-laws's house/part of the house.
Are you guys gonna live together, is the house split in two, is it two houses attached? Sorry for the dumb question, but I'm kind of lost!

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

I may have missed something. But you keep mentioning your in-laws's house/part of the house.
Are you guys gonna live together, is the house split in two, is it two houses attached? Sorry for the dumb question, but I'm kind of lost!

I know the thread is quite long yet (and it hasn't even really started ), but if you go back to pages 1-3 you see some plans and rendering of the final building(s).

This was our initial idea: Two completely detached houses on top of a shared basement/garage:

However due to the old area-development regulations the "detached" houses were no option. then we found the brilliant solution to "attach" the two houses by adding small sheds in between that connect everything (see bottom left)

Over the next weeks we should be able to see the two houses rise on top of the shared (and now almost completed) basement / garage...

 

[Ronin22]

Oh, I clearly missed it then! Sorry! I read the whole thread in one go, anxiety got the best of me, lol.

That's just beatiful AND clever. Thanx for answering!

 

[Hugo L.]

How the hell does your electrician know which wire goes from which circuit breaker to whcih outlet?!

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Oh, I clearly missed it then! Sorry! I read the whole thread in one go, anxiety got the best of me, lol.
That's just beatiful AND clever. Thanx for answering!

No worries, i like to help whenever i can. Thanks for the kind words

How the hell does your electrician know which wire goes from which circuit breaker to whcih outlet?!

Well, there's a thing called a wiring Diagram (see below). each outlet and each switch has a unique number. before they pull in the wires into the hoses they pull in a thread with labels on it, so you know what to connect inside the red junction boxes and in the cabinet.
Then there is an extra wiring diagram for the cabinet internally. Since we have an automated home and solar power, which also controls heating, cooling and warm water (and optionally charging of a mybe future electric car), we don't use a classic setup, but a digital controlled bus-system where each switch, actuator, motor, etc has an electronic adress.
So each output is just linked to a digital output number (for the power lines with additional power relays of course). The cabinet will be quite large as you can guess. But im an electronic engineer so i wanted to make the best out of it...
Will hopefully be able and show you soon.

 

[Growlertdi]

sitting here just in awe at how houses are built there. when you are used to seeing stick framing and drywall, the monolithic poured walls that are being shown here and at GeorgeKs thread are quite interesting to follow along with.

looking forward to more updates.