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

[JDMjunkies.ch]

What brand pv panels are those?

Those are German made AxSun "Solrif" Panels. made especially for in-roof installation:
https://www.axsun.de/produkte/indach-laminate-mit-solrif

The installation system (metal parts, etc..) is by ZZV wancor, the same company that also made the clay tiles
https://zzwancor.ch/kompetenz/photovoltaik-indach-system

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

The plaster-guys have a tight schedule at the moment, so they even came to work on saturday to complete a few things. they covered the hardfoam insulation blocks above the windows:

And they had the concrete ceiling smoothened out with a tool called "the Giraffe"

We went checking out some outside-tiles yesterday and also some furniture, and we decided to do some tape-measurement today to see how it would look and feel when inside the rooms:

 

[rixtrix1]

This is really going to be a nice, durable home; such attention to detail!

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Today they cleaned the wall which i want to keep in visible concrete. I decided to keep my office in some raw "industrial" look. It's cheap and looks nice for a man-cave style office. have some great design-ideas here

Since some of the concrete walls in the in-laws area wasn't perfect and some moisture came through they now do a fix with Plastic injection. Don't ask me how it works. but i hope it solves the problem. It's not a big deal, but better have it fixed under warranty then later.

A big truckload (this only shows a quarter of all) of Glass-wool insulation was delivered:

And they allready started to insulate the roof in our part of the build:

And then the garage top at the in-laws house got completely covered with waterproof tar / bitumen mats. Our part of the build will be done over the next days..

 

[Ronin22]

Always nice to see updates on this thread. Things move fast, and with amazing quality.
Keen to see what the office/man cave will look like!

 

[rixtrix1]

This is such a neat thread since it's so much different that what usually happens here in the USA ( except for LLWILLYS concrete home!!!). You're going to have to post some really great car stuff when the home is completed!

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Always nice to see updates on this thread. Things move fast, and with amazing quality.
Keen to see what the office/man cave will look like!

yeah i'm curious too if my (what i think) brilliant ideas will work out to something nice and useful

This is such a neat thread since it's so much different that what usually happens here in the USA ( except for LLWILLYS concrete home!!!). You're going to have to post some really great car stuff when the home is completed!

Thanks for your kind words. Haha yeah, whenever i'm back into building cars instead of the house, i'll definitely keep you updated. But first i have to complete the house, then i have to move all my personal belongings and copious amount of car parts, then set up the workshop and everything and THEN it's time to work on my cars again But i try to keep my car projects alive by buying some parts every now and then, when time and budget allows

Recently just got a delivery from Japan with a lot of small bits and pieces for the Z-projects and some friends nice japanese classics (Kenmeri & Hakosuka):
https://www.jdmjunkies.ch/wordpress/2019-03-20/240z-friends-parts-shipment-from-japan/

Also have a little side project where im restoring one of worlds first aftermarket turbo Intake manifolds. The HKS L4 Blow-through Manifold. Just thought it's a nice piece of decorative (japanese) automotive history that will look awesome just hanging at my shop wall

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Just a short update of the last two days:
roof insulation is done:

The waterproof coating on the garage roof as well:

The garage got cleaned out a bit:

And they had fixed a lot of small holes and stuff, which where needed for the base construction of the walls and the also fixed some minor (just visual) imperfections in the concrete:

And we have a temporary heating system installed now, so the floor heating can slowly heat up the house and accelerate the drying process. Of course this will be replaced by the big heating system once that is installed.
Edit: For some reason i'm not able to rotate the picture. sorry about that. Tilt your head 90° to the left to get it right

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

So here's what happened over the past few days:
The glass-wool insulation in the roof has been covered with another layer of moisture-barrier foil:

The plaster-guys prepared the invisible in-ceiling courtain rail system. which will be covered in plaster soon. We really had to convince our architect to go this route, but i'm super happy we did, because so far - i love it :

The company that delivers some of the ceramic tiles and bathroom-supplies went out of business (not bankrupt, they just concentrate on other branches of the business). so they had to send some of the tiles and bathroom stuff a bit earlier then needed. but we got a good clearance-sale price instead

Stuff is now stored temporary at a safe place
Looking at the pictures i just realized that EVERYTHING in our future bathrooms will be made in italy. We just loved their modern design lines, i guess

And i spent my saturday afternoon building a (still-to-be-improved) ventilation pipe for the garage so that the hole won't be covered once they start to cover everything in soil again

Also worked a bit on the water-tank system but that's for another story (not much to see yet).

 

[Fix Until Broke]

..........The plaster-guys prepared the invisible in-ceiling courtain rail system. which will be covered in plaster soon. We really had to convince our architect to go this route, but i'm super happy we did, because so far - i love it ..........

This has been fascinating to observe - thanks for taking the time to share all the details with us, it's really appreciated!

Could you share some details about this curtain system you speak of?

 

[Will S.]

Here ya go!

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

This has been fascinating to observe - thanks for taking the time to share all the details with us, it's really appreciated!

Could you share some details about this curtain system you speak of?

Thanks for all the kind words. I'm happy to share all the details with you
The courtain-rail system is by swiss manufacturer Hamotec:
https://www.hamotec-ag.ch/Vorhangschienen-Systeme-fuer-die-Unterputzmontage.htm

Depending on how many parallel rails you want and how heavy your courtains (or whatever you want to hang there) will be, you can choose different types of rails (from single to multiple heavy duty). You just mount them directly under the concrete ceiling and then blast the plaster on them. They come with a pre-installed tape, so once the plaster-work is done you just reomve the tape and all you see is a small slot in the ceiling for where the courtains can be hung up. it's also available in a range of colours to fit your interieur and make them almost invisible.

 

[sponaugle]

Thanks for all the kind words. I'm happy to share all the details with you


Depending on how many parallel rails you want and how heavy your courtains (or whatever you want to hang there) will be, you can choose different types of rails (from single to multiple heavy duty). You just mount them directly under the concrete ceiling and then blast the plaster on them. They come with a pre-installed tape, so once the plaster-work is done you just reomve the tape and all you see is a small slot in the ceiling for where the courtains can be hung up. it's also available in a range of colours to fit your interieur and make them almost invisible.

That is a novel way to hide the track. I saw a show home here in the states with something similar but in drywall, but it stuck out of the ceiling a lot more since it only had the 5/8s drywall thickness space to work in. Neat!

Jeff

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

That is a novel way to hide the track. I saw a show home here in the states with something similar but in drywall, but it stuck out of the ceiling a lot more since it only had the 5/8s drywall thickness space to work in. Neat!
Jeff

Thanks. yeah, there are different systems available. some can be installed directly into the concrete forms before concrete pouring, others go on the concrete, but inside the plaster (as ours). there are dry-wall systems too. What older houses used to have, was just a piece of woodboard above the windows, where the tracks were mounted on. So plenty of options available.
We thought this is the most "stealth" possiblity and also quite cheap compared to others, so we went this route.

 

[Hostyle]

Nice system for the curtains! Never seen it before.

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Since there was quite some interrest in the courtain track system, i thought i share an update with you. Here is how it looks with the base plaster covering the mounting system and only the tracks visible:

There will be another layer of visually more appealing plaster on top of it and then it will be painted white, so the tracks will end up almost invisible at the end:

Otherwise not much to show you. they worked out a ton of small details but nothing worth showing. mainly small fixes and repairs. The only thing worth mentioning is - who would have guessed - another layer in the top ceiling. A layer of wooden bars below the moisture barrier foil, which will also be used to nail the ceiling panelling below:

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Time for another update:
Tha plaster guys brought out their smaller sized plaster-blender/pump this time

And had the first of three layers of gypsum splashed at the concrete ceiling:

The electrician was busy installing the wiring in the roof:

And the shutter-guys delivered the pre-fabbed shutter-boxes that will go into the outside hard-foam insulation, before the shutters well be installed invisible inside. I really like this modern style of installing them "inside the wall"

Lots of small details here and there done, but not much more to show you...

 

[Hostyle]

Good to see you're installing the shutters invisibly. I've seen a lot of quite nice houses ruined by ugly shutters boxes on the facia.

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Good to see you're installing the shutters invisibly. I've seen a lot of quite nice houses ruined by ugly shutters boxes on the facia.

indeed, the surrounding houses have terrible shutter boxes visible, and they have all chosen a different colour for each house. so it's quite colourful in this area. but that's how you did things in the 90ies i guess

Just got an update from the in-laws: The landmark of the small village is currently beeing disassembled. The tower crane is history and we finally have some additional storage space in front of the in-laws house part.

I guess this means over the next few days electricity will be moved from the external site-supply cabinet to the "real" in-house cabinet, which means a lot of other things in the domino-reaction can continue, now since this is done. excellent.

 

[Hostyle]

Great news! Good to see that the end is now in sight, or at least the road to it.

 

[littlebean]

this has been really interesting to follow, looking forward to more updates!
love the idea of hidden tracks and shutter boxes

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

OK, Progress was a bit slower than expected, due to various circumstances, so i don't have much interesting to show. nevertheless, there are some things. Most important one- the tower crane is gone:

The masons started to put up the planks in our upper level ceiling:

Spent my afternoon today fixing the connections for the water collection tank (it's a bit tricky with the whole thing, but i sorted it out now:

This weekend we have to decide on the outside colour:

We got our outdoor-entrance coconut-fibre carpet with an in-floor frame. We have that kind of system at our current house and i absolutely love it. The frame will be mounted like the floor-tiles on the outside so it's stuck and flush end the carpet will never move. however i'ts easy to replace the fibres themselves whenever you need to:

And some indoor wallmount lamps for the upper hallway showed up. really like the modern design and the light-shape they create:

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Love the inlay carpet idea.

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Love the inlay carpet idea.

It's available with a lot of options, different mat types and also for non-solid (gravel, soil, etc..) underground:

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Update time! over the last days we got a motherload of material delivered again. This time Plaster-material:

And hard-foam outside insulation (different types used, depending on where it goes):

Outside insulation work has started too:

Here you can see how the "invisible" shutter boxes look when insitalled into the insulation hard foam panels:

I spent my evening working on an access pipe from the technical compartment to the water tank, where the sensor cables will go (to measure the water level) but also the suction pipe that goes from the tank to the pump. I will add further water protection once the foam is dry enough to cut it and work further on it:

Oh and we got more lamps delivered today, this time the outside LED wall mount lamps and one for the access path:

With easter holidays and so on i don't expect big progress over the rest and next week, but i hope after that we have a little boost.. we'll see

 

[Ronin22]

Stunning as always!

 

[jalbrecht55]

That’s a lot of foam! How is it secured to the exterior?

Can you explain the shutter boxes... is there an exterior shutter that parks up inside the box? If yes what’s the shutter look like? (I’m picturing a rolled up system that looks like a mini commercial garage door?) Google is failing me on this one!

In the US all I’m familiar with are the traditional shutters that hinge out from the windows and the decorative kind that mount on the exterior next to the windows and don’t do anything at all.

If your shutters are functional, when would you typically use them?

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

That’s a lot of foam! How is it secured to the exterior?

Can you explain the shutter boxes... is there an exterior shutter that parks up inside the box? If yes what’s the shutter look like? (I’m picturing a rolled up system that looks like a mini commercial garage door?) Google is failing me on this one!

In the US all I’m familiar with are the traditional shutters that hinge out from the windows and the decorative kind that mount on the exterior next to the windows and don’t do anything at all.

If your shutters are functional, when would you typically use them?

The foam is secured with a special installation glue for this specific application.

Exactly. It's a normal exterior shutter box that you just put inside that foam pocket.
There are different types of shutters but the standard type here is something like the one pictured below. A Tiltable type with small guide rails on the side. Available in any size, colour and shape.
This is also what we go for. allthough not 100% sure what we will get. still waiting for the final offer from the shading guys...

 

[Growlertdi]

Aah,,

you call them shutters, we call those blinds or mini blinds in the states.

 

[Fix Until Broke]

Those appear to be exterior "blinds" though instead of interior like we typically use.

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Yeah sorry my english is not so perfect, especially with those very specific details. I would say shutters or exterior blinds or something like that. I'll keep you updated, when they get installed. and connected to the automation system.

 

[jalbrecht55]

Your English is great, but some of these concepts are new to me. I’ve never seen anything like that here in the US. Most people I know just have interior blinds or curtains or both. But then again I grew up in Alaska and spent my life in the northwest so what do I know...

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Your English is great, but some of these concepts are new to me. I’ve never seen anything like that here in the US. Most people I know just have interior blinds or curtains or both. But then again I grew up in Alaska and spent my life in the northwest so what do I know...

It's kind of funny how different houses are depending on the location.
I would say about 99% if the houses here use these kind of outside shutters here since the 80ies.

Most houses here have a good isolation but no A/C system, so during the hot summer you use these shutters to keep the heat out. In our case they're even fully automatically adjusted to the angle and intensity of the sunlight.

 

[smschriefer]

Your home is really coming along and I'm sure you are ready for it to be done. I loved those shutters when I lived in Germany. Mine didn't adjust and were always closed. I worked overnight and those made my bedroom pitch black and also blocked sound. I've always wished we had those here in the US.

I also wish we had European windows. I really miss the multiple ways you could open them. I'd have the top tilted in even on rainy days and never feared water getting in my house. Do your new windows function the same way?

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Your home is really coming along and I'm sure you are ready for it to be done. I loved those shutters when I lived in Germany. Mine didn't adjust and were always closed. I worked overnight and those made my bedroom pitch black and also blocked sound. I've always wished we had those here in the US.

I also wish we had European windows. I really miss the multiple ways you could open them. I'd have the top tilted in even on rainy days and never feared water getting in my house. Do your new windows function the same way?

Indeed, it's so nice to have the windows tilted on the top especially on a hot, but rainy summer day, gives you a fresh breeze in the house...

Yeah most of the windows in our house (where it makes sense) can be tilted. I asked our window-maker and he told me it's the standard they offer and if you want to have them open one-way only, you probably safe 10 bucks a window, so it's not really worth saving when you consider the overall project-costs... We also decided to go for special strong and intrusion-proof window locks and hinges, but i think it's worth the little extra costs. burglars usually don't come through the front door

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Just had my (almost) daily visit to the site today to check what happend over the past two days:
The guys brought a big and a small excavator to the site:

So they were able to dig for the mains supply and the cable network cables:

And had it connected to the mains supply cabinet:

After that they were more or less able to fill it with nice gravel for the garage entrance. Still just a temporary solution:

On the outside, more hard foam insulaiton got installed. approx 2/3ds of our houses insulation is completed now:

The electricians were busy too and started to install the electrical switching cabinet with the complete logic and all the I/O's for our house automation system. I'm happy i don't have to do the wiring

First in-ceiling spot lamps got installed too:

And got the first parts (electrical water-walves and a box to house them) of my order for the automated garden watering system. which will also be controlled by the automation system:

On friday the mains supply will be connected to the house, from what i heard. currently everything is stelly a temporary setup

 

[Ronin22]

The electricians were busy too and started to install the electrical switching cabinet with the complete logic and all the I/O's for our house automation system. I'm happy i don't have to do the wiring

Sweet Jesus!

 

[Finallygotit]

Sweet Jesus!

Much better that the phrase I had floating in my head.

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Time for the big weekend update You may have realized by now that i like automation? It's my daily life as well, so i try to do the most of it and have everything as much automated as possible in the house, so i can care my weekends wrenching on cars instead of spending it watering the garden and mowing the lawn. That's when i came up with the brilliant idea of have our complete different garden areas taken care of fully automated. Including fertilizer distribution, watering and mowing. It will be integrated in our house automation system as well But until yesterday, planning was still a bit vague. But finally i laid out the plans and started to order parts. First i got my soil moisture and temperature sensor to have the watering parameters controlled:

Then i assembled my watering valve-box with three valves, but will probably add an other box, while at it. better have too much than realize later i should have done more..

While at that topic, i just spent two hours preparing the piping for the tank water level sensor cable and for the Pump hose. but cannot finnish it yet because of the scaffolding:

The good news is, the roof water piping, overflow pipes and filters from the tank got connected:

And since we have some raindrops these day, it means we actually have the first time free water in the tank. It should rain more over the next day so i'm curious how fast it fills

And while talking about (s)milestones - finally i was able to drive into my garage for the first time. It was a bad idea nevertheless, because it was so narrow with all the stuff stored in there atm, so it was quite tricky to get back out there, hahaha...

On the outside, more insulation work was done:

And we got the outside window benches, or whatever you call them:

And made a test-assembly for the cat-flap so that insulating guys can adjust everything nicely to it:

BTW: this is how the electronic cabinet looks now. Much better, huh?

 

[sponaugle]

It's kind of funny how different houses are depending on the location.
I would say about 99% if the houses here use these kind of outside shutters here since the 80ies.

Most houses here have a good isolation but no A/C system, so during the hot summer you use these shutters to keep the heat out. In our case they're even fully automatically adjusted to the angle and intensity of the sunlight.

Fantastic progress. It is really cool to follow along on your project while doing a house myself. My wife knows all about your house as I refer to it as the 'awesome swiss house!'. It is surprising how much localization there is in modern construction. Here in the pacific nw you would probably not see many external blind systems due to the significant lack of sunshine, and the persistence availability of moss!

BTW: this is how the electronic cabinet looks now. Much better, huh?

European DIN based cabinets are so interesting compared to the standard american cabinet design. The use of small bus bars to link subcircuits,and the variety of breaker designs is cool. What size is the total cabinet and house capacity (volts and amps)?

Jeff