The Concrete Underground

[ConCretin]

Now about the willys update on the hamb....

Willys Willys Willys.........

So this is the post I've been dreading for a while. I'm sad to report that I let the Willys go........







When I reappeared from my long absence, I mentioned some tumultuous changes. Selling the Willys was one of the results of those changes.

I won't bore you with the details but the changes affected about every area of life; business, financial, family, marriage and health. Most of it wasn't positive at least in the beginning. I'm not whining - it's stuff we all face at one time or another. It's really how you respond that matters. You just gotta roll with the punches and grab hold of the opportunites that change can present. Things are good now and hopefully I'm a bit wiser for the experience.

So in the end, I decided that I probably wouldn't have the means to tackle the project anytime soon and if I am being honest with myself, I probably wouldn't have the interest in putting in the time required either. It seems my priorities are a little different these days.

So I sold it to a local guy who is already hard at work on it. I am at peace with the decision. I truly hope he enjoys it and look forward to seeing it. I've been a life long Willys fan and always will be so I guess I'll keep the name. With any luck I'll actually own one again some day. Hmmm, I wonder if that guy I sold it to is a little short of cash this month...........

 

[vwracer]

So glad to see you back on GJ. Sorry about the Willy's, I know the feeling as I had to sell a race car some years back for pretty much the same reasons. But life is good now, keep the ol chin up!

 

[Sham]

Just to add my voice to what has already been said : I'm very happy to see you back on GJ! I was affraid something bad would have happened to you, so I was pretty excited when I got the email notification!

Welcome back, best wishes for this new year!

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Loving the updates!

 

[rixtrix1]

Good to see you back and sharing pics. 55 in the shop looks great. Nice idea on the chase for utilities.

Sent from my SM-J320V using Tapatalk

 

[ODIS]

Many thanks to you for the updates.

 

[Terranova]

Man, as a gasser fan I feel for you having to part with the Willys. I came home from school one summe to find out that my dad traded the Anglia frame in the garage for some "stuff". So bummed.
There's always hope for one on down the line.

Hope everything is headed in the right direction.

 

[rbkool]

I'll add my voice to the cacophony of well wishes - I saw an email notification that there was a post in this thread, and I was hoping it was a "good" update. As I don't check that email often, the notification was a couple days old and I came to see four pages of updates and nice welcome back messages! This thread also brought me to GJ a bunch of years ago, and it's great to see you back. Glad to hear that everything is trending in the right direction, and wishing the best for you! (of course, can't wait to see more updates and pictures!)

 

[And416]

I remember when you dropped the car lift into the pit very early on in the build. Over the years I often wondered how it turned out. Looks great. I bet it was like finding buried treasure or opening a time capsule when you finally got around to hooking it up an using it.

 

[vette66bob]

Fantastic news, glad to see you back.

 

[ConCretin]

So if you are crazy enough to build a concrete house, be prepared to do a lot of planning and decision making well in advance. You can't just knock out a couple of 2x4's and start over. This goes from light switches to furniture layouts. In my case it also included installation of a gas fireplace. Let's recap.

Normally you'd install the fireplace from the inside and cover it with whatever finishes you are using. I decided it would be virtually impossible to form and place concrete in front of the fireplace so it would have to go in from the outside.

First off I needed to pick the make and model fireplace I wanted because i needed exact dimensions. I was a little paranoid so I bought it well in advance so they couldn't change something.

I also wanted to avoid looking at the fire thru a narrow 10" deep concrete tunnel so I couldn't just leave a hole and bolt the fireplace onto the back of the concrete wall. Nooo, that would have been WAY too easy. Instead I left a 3" hole in the concrete and bonded out the wall to allow the whole fireplace to slide into the wall.

This formwork pic from a while ago shows the 3" block-out in place and the larger one for the fireplace body to the left.



I also needed to make provisions for the concrete hearth and mantle and the pocket to recess the TV. Needless to say, it got a little complicated.



After I got it placed and stripped, this is what I was left with. The rods and nuts you see are to hold the heart and mantle tight to the wall. A little bit of home engineered post tensioning.



Jumping to the present, it was time to get the fireplace installed. First I need to fab up a stand to hold the fireplace up.



Naturally I had to make it look good for the 15 minutes it was visible to human eyes.



Then I had to get the beast in there. As the project went on and on I usually found myself working alone and was grateful for having equipment around. Here is the view thru the dirty forklift windshield.



I managed to get it off the forks and onto some blocking without killing myself.



I got the stand installed and the fireplace mounted. The double nuts on the anchor bolts gave me enough adjustment to align the snout of the fireplace with the hole in the concrete.



Luckily it fit very nicely. In another fit of over engineering, I ran conduit so all the TV equipment could be located in a closet across the room for a nice clean look.



In case you were wondering.....No, I haven't got around to filling those tie holes.

So I still needed to figure out how to enclose the back of the fireplace so it isn't the first thing you see when you pull up to the house. More on that to follow.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Just unreal.

 

[Hugo L.]

So I still needed to figure out how to enclose the back of the fireplace so it isn't the first thing you see when you pull up to the house. More on that to follow.

A big US flag. A concrete one.

 

[Bob Heine]

Doug, it's good to hear you are recovering from some bad times and I completely understand the Willys decision. Sometimes our dreams make life better and sometimes they just add stress to an already stressful life. Please continue to share your amazing journey and for goodness sake, at least call someone before you do those death-defying jobs. A simple "If I don't call you back in X hours, I may have a problem and need some help."

 

[Homebody]

Sold my pride and joy in 16 also. Life goes on!
That fireplace is killer!!

 

[TexasT]

Sorry to hear the willys has "gone down the road" , but like you I think it is all about moving forward. And with that come some hard decisions some times. While they aren't making any more I'm sure when you decide there will be another to be had.

Keep up the good work on the house. It looks fabulous!

 

[Boosted1]

Fireplace looks great!

 

[Streetbu]

Wow, so excited you're back with updates! Life happens and sometimes we are forced to make hard decisions. While getting rid of the Willys must've been hard, keeping the house was wise! Still amazed by your build!

 

[BBChevro]

Sorry if I opened a can of worms by asking about the Willys, glad to hear that you've been able to move on from the bad stuff though.

The fireplace install is top notch.

 

[ConCretin]

Sorry if I opened a can of worms by asking about the Willys....

Please don’t give it another thought BBChevro. Absolutely fine you brought it up. It was inevitable.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Whoa, Doug is back. Glad to see you back, working on the house and making updates to this thread my friend. I hope life is getting good again.

 

[wdrumheller]

The revival of this thread and seeing your progress makes me really happy! It makes me want to post an update of my current situation with my barn and my farm. Thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to share your adventure with this community.

 

[wssix99]

It's great to have you posting again and glad to see that you are moving forward.

It's also great to see the thread back open and alive!

So I still needed to figure out how to enclose the back of the fireplace so it isn't the first thing you see when you pull up to the house. More on that to follow.

I know this is totally tacky for this application, but I just have to share... I found out this week that concrete wallpaper is a "thing." lol

If you are in a jam, maybe you can throw up some drywall and concrete wallpaper until you have the time to make a lightweight precast panel in the living room?

https://concretewall.no/

 

[Woogeroo]

Glad to see ya back, I've been wondering how the project turned out.

-W

 

[ConCretin]

Thank you all for the warm welcome-back and the kind words of encouragement. It means a lot to me. I didn't realize how much I missed you guys.

I just want to say I'm very happy to see this thread up and running again.

Thanks Jack. One of my first clicks was to check on the 12 Ga Garage. I'd like to take this opportunity to assure you that any similarities in the layout of our shops is purely coincidental. While I am resigned to the fact that I'll will never achieve your level of shop perfection, it's nice to have a goal.

Whoa, Doug is back. Glad to see you back, working on the house and making updates to this thread my friend. I hope life is getting good again.

Thanks Eric. One of the unplanned consequences of being back was all the time I spent catching up on other people's threads. Catching up on your's was time well spent. Glad to see you are still at it.

The revival of this thread and seeing your progress makes me really happy! It makes me want to post an update of my current situation with my barn and my farm.

No time like the present! Dig up those pics and get em up. You know this crowd would love them.

I know this is totally tacky for this application, but I just have to share... I found out this week that concrete wallpaper is a "thing." lol

If you are in a jam, maybe you can throw up some drywall and concrete wallpaper until you have the time to make a lightweight precast panel in the living room?

Hmm....Two thoughts come to mind;

The first is that I wish I'd known about this stuff a few years ago. I could have built the thing out of 2x4's and just wall papered over it. Except for you guys no-one would know the difference and I could have saved a LOT of money.

Secondly, You might actually be on to something. Stay tuned.

 

[ErVikingo]

So if you are crazy enough to build a concrete house, be prepared to do a lot of planning and decision making well in advance. You can't just knock out a couple of 2x4's and start over. This goes from light switches to furniture layouts.

I hear ya.... 86 tons of steel and I lost count of how many trucks we ended up using.

Installing a hose reel was fun last weekend. "oh no the dreaded metal shavings on the drill bit". (hit a rebar). If you have an idea of how to scan for them let me know.

On the positive side, Hurricane Irma came and went, granted we were not hit that hard; perhaps 110MPH gusts, we spent the time inside like nothing was going on.

Funny story, I ended up storing some of my neighbor's cars in my garage. Even the car of one of the neighbors who opposed my build. Now a friend!

 

[NUTTSGT]

Thank you all for the warm welcome-back and the kind words of encouragement. It means a lot to me. I didn't realize how much I missed you guys.



Thanks Eric. One of the unplanned consequences of being back was all the time I spent catching up on other people's threads. Catching up on your's was time well spent. Glad to see you are still at it.

Doug, I believe you are a member that is well respected here at GJ. You have shared alot with the membership on your build and when questions are asked about the build, you have no issue trying to answer each and every one. If need be, you go out of your way to take pictures to answer those questions.

Not only do you explain about concrete in your build, you offer great concrete advice in other threads to many other members. I believe if you needed help for a pour and asked for help, you might get a caravan of GJ'ers pulling in your driveway wearing rubber boots, floats or trowels in hand.

 

[Brian R]

So this is the post I've been dreading for a while. I'm sad to report that I let the Willys go........







When I reappeared from my long absence, I mentioned some tumultuous changes. Selling the Willys was one of the results of those changes.

I won't bore you with the details but the changes affected about every area of life; business, financial, family, marriage and health. Most of it wasn't positive at least in the beginning. I'm not whining - it's stuff we all face at one time or another. It's really how you respond that matters. You just gotta roll with the punches and grab hold of the opportunites that change can present. Things are good now and hopefully I'm a bit wiser for the experience.

So in the end, I decided that I probably wouldn't have the means to tackle the project anytime soon and if I am being honest with myself, I probably wouldn't have the interest in putting in the time required either. It seems my priorities are a little different these days.

So I sold it to a local guy who is already hard at work on it. I am at peace with the decision. I truly hope he enjoys it and look forward to seeing it. I've been a life long Willys fan and always will be so I guess I'll keep the name. With any luck I'll actually own one again some day. Hmmm, I wonder if that guy I sold it to is a little short of cash this month...........

There is a Willys in these pictures? All I see is a pretty fine kayak and zodiak and 'believe me, my young friend, there is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.'

Or if you're lucky enough to have a place on the water, you're lucky enough.

Really great to see this thread continue. Love that fireplace installation.

Brian

 

[ConCretin]

If you have an idea of how to scan for them let me know.

On the positive side, Hurricane Irma came and went, granted we were not hit that hard; perhaps 110MPH gusts, we spent the time inside like nothing was going on.

Unfortunately, I haven't got a secret tip for finding rebar BEFORE you drill other than dropping big bucks for a scanner. The other option would be to have me drill the hole - that would tell you where the bar is cause I hit one every time. If I can't move the hole, I go through the bar with a rebar cutter or core drill.

Glad you weathered the storm but based on the epic structure of your build, I wouldn't expect anything less. Btw, I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting to see a few more pics of your project.

I believe if you needed help for a pour and asked for help, you might get a caravan of GJ'ers pulling in your driveway wearing rubber boots, floats or trowels in hand.

I bet you are right!

There is a Willys in these pictures? All I see is a pretty fine kayak and zodiak and 'believe me, my young friend, there is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.'

Or if you're lucky enough to have a place on the water, you're lucky enough.

I couldn't have said it any better, Brian. Despite a few minor setbacks, I am very fortunate indeed. I hope nothing I've said gives anyone the impression I'm feeling sorry for myself or that anyone else should either. Compared to what many people face every day, any problems I've had are trivial.

 

[wssix99]

Hmm....Two thoughts come to mind;

The first is that I wish I'd known about this stuff a few years ago. I could have built the thing out of 2x4's and just wall papered over it. Except for you guys no-one would know the difference and I could have saved a LOT of money.

Secondly, You might actually be on to something. Stay tuned.

lol No kidding. With our ICF house, we can't see any of the concrete and want to telegraph some of the house's DNA. So we might also use some of this stuff.

Another interesting option are these concrete prints. I have some large walls in the garage that might be a candidate for these: https://www.curbed.com/2018/1/5/16854730/brutalist-wallpaper-murals-concrete

 

[phillyzj]

Unfortunately, I haven't got a secret tip for finding rebar BEFORE you drill other than dropping big bucks for a scanner. The other option would be to have me drill the hole - that would tell you where the bar is cause I hit one every time. If I can't move the hole, I go through the bar with a rebar cutter or core drill.

Glad you weathered the storm but based on the epic structure of your build, I wouldn't expect anything less. Btw, I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting to see a few more pics of your project.



Silly question, but have you tried a metal stud finder? It is that what you mean by a big buck scanner? This one is $80 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bosch-D...gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CLyg3PLkztgCFaS9swod7BQPIg

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[Mr. Welsh]

I've seen some cheap "detectors" but in commercial/industrial settings you would use ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to locate rebar.

They make small scanners specifically for this purpose, such as this one: https://www.geophysical.com/products/structurescan-mini-xt

Unfortunately they aren't cheap and they aren't common in local rental shops, either.

 

[ConCretin]

Silly question, but have you tried a metal stud finder? It is that what you mean by a big buck scanner? This one is $80

I've seen some cheap "detectors" but in commercial/industrial settings you would use ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to locate rebar.

Unfortunately they aren't cheap and they aren't common in local rental shops, either.

To be honest phiilyzj, I wasn't aware of the unit you refer to and have no idea how it works. I'm more familiar with the type mentioned by Mr. Welsh but I bet the less expensive version would work fine for most of us. I may give one a try the next time the need arises. Thanks!

Btw, I'll have another update shortly. Believe it or not I am still placing concrete.

 

[Stellaontap]

Wow, what a build. Your house is incredible.

I studied concrete technology in Alpena MI in the 80’s and my instructor always said....” you don’t pour concrete, you place it”. The fireplace looks great, did you use self consolidating concrete for it?

Btw....glad you are back too.

Eric

 

[ConCretin]

After I got the fireplace set, I needed to think about the concrete patio slab. I started out by running conduit from one of the basement tunnels to the future grill area for propane, water and power. Then I installed expansion material. The pitches are tricky out there and the foam is great for showing the finishers where grade is.



Even though the sub grade is protected from water and well drained, I don't want the soils under the slab to freeze and heave so I installed rigid insulation. The adjacent walls already have insulation on them.



I plan on covering the patio slab with the same limestone I used inside so I installed a 15 mil vapor barrier so moisture from below won't interfere with bond. Overkill? Who me??



If you are going to do it, you might as well do it right. You can see the taped seams and edges so the vapor barrier membrane is complete. You'll also see the start of my over-engineered reinforcing scheme.

Since my limestone will run from the patio slab out over the wall, I don't want any movement that could crack the stone. Sooo, #4's drilled and epoxied at 9" o.c. at the perimeter and 18" o.c. throughout the slab. Yup. that oughta do it!



Anybody remember when we placed the wall on the left way back when? I mentioned at the time that the plan was to add a concrete seat on top.



Well now was as good a time as any so I formed it right up.



I took advantage of a little step in the wall to support some plywood braces. You can also see a little trench drain I installed to pick up rain water. The patio pitches away from the house about 3/16" per foot.



The slab and drain also pitch about the 3/16" per foot down the length of the patio towards a little planter on the end so if the drain plugs (or freezes) up the water will still have a place to go.



After the formwork was done,I drilled and epoxied some bars into the wall and ran some longitudinal bars.



You might also remember the little curved retaining wall we placed in front of the garage.



After I placed this wall, we started using a new cap detail. I always wanted to go back and add this cap to the curved wall. If you recall, all the walls will eventually get a stone veneer up to the cap



While we were placing concrete, I figured it would be a good chance to add the cap. So I formed it up and installed some bars to keep it in place.



We were finally ready to place some concrete.



As I mentioned grades and pitches were tricky. I needed pitch where I'd get rain but wanted the concrete flat in the areas under roof.



Also got the cap placed



When we were all done, the concrete got a nice moist cure under some curing fabric.



Once I got it all stripped, I had my seat wall. I put some pitch on the top so I wouldn't have standing water.



I wanted the outside of the seat to mimic the cap on the retaining walls.



The cap on the wall came out pretty good and finally matches the other walls



Every time I think I'm done placing concrete I come up with more ideas. I'm beginning to think I may have a problem. In any case, there is more concrete to come down the road.

 

[Thedoc14]

Hi Ll so glad your back and have been able to keep going. I remember back in 2012 I nearly called in but didn’t make it.
Don’t worry my garage is still a dirt floor hole under my house. Life does get in the way, but that is life.

I now have even more reason to keep my eye on GJ������������

 

[jimmie jam]

This is excellent construction ****! I also do "over kill" but I sleep better....no one else really cares.

 

[gte718p]

As usual the attention to detail in awesome.

 

[OHSCrifle]

Btw, I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting to see a few more pics of your project.

No doubt. A few years of begging over here:

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=183125&page=6

 

[mineallmine]

Took me a REALLY long time to get through your thread as I just recently found it and all I can say is WOW!! Your place looks amazing. I know the feeling of how life events change priorities. Just keep putting one step in front of the other and before you know it you'll finally be done...or think of more ideas to add...ask how I know that one