Thanks for all the replies. This is a different kind of house in a different kind of place. To give you some more context, its going to be vertical construction across the street from a 19 track wide elevated rail yard. The first floor of the house is garage and workshop, the second floor is bedrooms, which are level with the track bed level, (so the train engineers can look in at my wife when she forgets to draw the shades) the third level looks over the rail yard to a spectacular view of the skyscrapers, and then we have a roof deck above that.
are these ties new or old, and are they soaked in preservative already? beware of the dust and health concerns.
I'm aware of the health concerns and will be wearing a lead respirator and body condom when working with this stuff. I'm 1/4 mile from a coal burning power plant (soon to be shut down), across the street from a former service station that had a leaking tank, and across the street from a rail road yard. My property is so contaminated with volitiles, lead, and mercury that it would probably be safer to breathe in the creosote dust vs. the dust from the land! (We'll be controlling dust with pavement or a special top soil/ground cover cap on the property.) Ahhh. City life. (One of my last apartments was in a building atop soil contaminated with radioactive thorium. But it had no effect on me me me me me me me.)
My first thought is to take a 2x6 or 2x8 and rip it at an angle to be temporarily attached to the tie as an alignment wedge, then run the tie through a large bandsaw or large tablesaw. You MIGHT get by with doing it on a 10" tablesaw blade if you do both sides, but proper alignment would be a pain.
Seems like it would work OK as a thermal break, but I don't know as much about fancy building methods like that.
Regular PT was on the table initially, but we went with the ties for aesthetic reasons to help blend the property in with the railroad. We'll also use them for planters - after sealing the creosote from coming in contact with the soil.
Honestly it seems like a lot of work for little reward. Plus I have worked with timbers with kreasote treated timbers and they are nasty and will literally burn your flesh off. I would place 2" foam between Icf and slab to create a better thermal break. I live about 60 miles east in Rockford and have never seen this done before.
If I wanted a full reward for my work, I never would have gotten married. the Honney-Do lists are a killer....
This is a "green" house and the re-use of the timbers will get our local greenies excited due to the re-use of the ties. I haven't seen this done before, either - so it is a bit of a chance. Honestly, once I get in to this little part of the project, we may fall back to plan B, which would be to use foam. We already have it under the slab, so it should hold up just fine as long as we cap it with a rubber or metal threshold.
Any chance of setting them on the base so they are on the correct angle and cementing them in. In other words they would be setting on an angle to start with.
I thought about that, but think pouring the concrete up to the angled timber (on the sides) would be odd, especially when I replace them in the future.
I am thinking if you plane off the creosote on any side you won't have the protection and the wood will rot.
I'm expecting the wood will rot and a replacement will be in my future. I'll be re-coating the ties and flashing them to drain off water to help prolong them. I think v 2.0 (when I have more money) may be composite rail road ties.
I addressed this issue on my shop by using a piece of 3" angle iron (3/8" thick) with one face up to carry the loads and the other face held onto the ramp slab with 3/4" rebar welded as anchors. I supported the "bridge" face at the building slab with pieces of angle held vertically with concrete anchors and a 1/8" gap, which allows some deflection before contact, but has an air gap otherwise. I used 3" foam and cut out for the supports. The rest of the slab has 3" foam for perimeter insulation. I left a 1/8" gap between the angle iron and the building slab, filled with silicone caulk.
I notice no deflection when cars or pickups pass over the angle iron. It may be stiff enough that it never touches the supports bolted to the main slab.
This is a great idea. I, and our subs, hadn't thought about this one.
OP - you really only need a thermal break the same thickness as the inside ICF foam sheet. It appears that this is 2-1/2" thick. You could extend the ramp pour over the outside insulation and the core of the foundation. You could then bridge the 2-1/2" gap with steel like I did, or something similar.
I don't need a very large thermal break. It only has to be an actual break. The rail road tie thing is 90% aesthetic for the context of the house and 10% functional.
You need a Prazi beam cutter dude. $147. And you can set your angle perfect.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000224SA/?tag=atomicindus08-20
And yes, they work. Use them in framing big beams/timbers/glu-lams etc
I want one. Even if I don't use it for this job. I want one!
Ok, this time I am going to be the jerk that asks you why instead of offering help.
That's OK. I fully realize that I'm the nut doing something unorthodox. If I survive the whole project, it will be a miracle.
Why do you want a wood slope in front of your doorway?
What is the purpose of this, and what are the advantages over concrete?
The only requirement is that we keep the heat from the radiant slab from translating outside to concrete. We're looking for something that will outperform the expansion joint, so I'd use a PT 2X board or foam if the timbers don't work out.
It seems to me that you will have wood logs sitting in a trench, which will fill with water and float them, or raise them when it freezes.
This is a big challenge and I'll have to flash underneath and have drainage outside to handle this water. I'll also be putting a sealer on top of the wood.
and they eat chain saw blades like you would not believe even if you miss the embedded metal bits... I cut the last one I needed to with a Sawzall with better results, at least for wear.
