Leveque Brothers came through once again, on time and ready to go. This time they came in pairs. After our contractor poured the walls we were ready to go with the basement pour. One truck’s load was a little wet so the pumper delivery operator mixed the two trucks concrete for better texture.

The pumper operator that Jason had arranged (nice guy, wish I could remember his name!) is owner/operator of Zenner. He’s from Norwood, based in Lakefield or Peterborough and is very professional. Veronica (our resident photographer) snapped a photo of him without consent - to give you the phone number if you need a good operator.

Back to the Log Home Build…

Within an hour Jason Hoover of ICF Building Solutions had poured into and filled the Logix blocks of our home with the help of an able concrete pumper operator. Although Jason almost always works with this company, the rapport between Jason’s team and the operator was top notch. It appeared all that was required was a simple nod or a point to an opposite side of the house to move onto the next step during the wall pouring process.

We arrived late and without enough knowledge but were saved by our ICF contractor Jason Hoover.

Although we began with good intentions and attempted to do the work ourselves, it wasn’t long before Jason noticed that we needed help and jumped in. The photo above is of our efforts as first off concrete pouring and finishing.

Jason and his able bodied team hopped into the foundation and helped us pour and smooth the basement floor for our log home.

Below is a quick shot of Jason giving us quick lessons on how to use the concrete smoother tool with the ridiculously long handle…

Here’s another of Jason working the corner of the basement floor…

Pixie the wonder dog was there. Getting under everyone’s feet and trying to partake in the festivities of pouring concrete. (We almost lost her twice!)

This was a crazy and productive day! If you’ve never ordered concrete trucks in the past you’ll need to know first off that you do not keep these trucks waiting. Concrete companies are on a tight schedule, many will charge you for their driver’s time on the site, and (I think) concrete has a lifespan of how long it can stay viable in the drum.

ICF Contractor and Team - Professionals Beyond Measure

Jason Hoover and his team were on the site, ready and waiting for the concrete deliveries as well as the pumper truck a full hour before scheduled. Again, this is a measure of an excellent contractor. We’ve seen nothing less than perfection coming from the team even though we’ve only used them for our basement ICF Logix blocks installation. I can’t recommend Jason enough, nor the people he chooses to work on his team.

As for us, the home owners, we were seriously late. We had set our calendars to be up and out of the house by 7 am, yet we didn’t hit the town of Bancroft until 8 am and still had supplies to pick up! We saw our truck (the one we were responsible for as it held the concrete for our basement floor), leaving town and heading for Boulter as we entered town. Needless to say this caused an incredible amount of stress to all three of us.

We had to pick up trowels, ABS pipe (for something which I cannot remember as I write this), one of those long handled smoother/finishers, return a movie, and run other errands. During this time Ben Kyle (one of Jason’s workers) was frantically trying to call us from the site which has ‘iffy’ cell reception.

Don’t tell the OPP, but we headed out of town and sped along the highway holding the truck to 140+ km/h for approximately 30 miles. Thankfully there were not many other vehicles en route.

We arrived on site just as Jason’s team were finishing off the styrofoam/concrete walls that would hold our log home for many generations. Missing the wall pour was unfortunate as we wanted to video tape the process for you - but fortunate enough as we didn’t hold up the concrete drivers or the pumper truck one minute more than necessary.

I had no idea what my day would entail. On the way to the site Eric informed me that I would be raking concrete and judging high/low spots as the pumper released the concrete into our basement area. Discovering later that this meant I would be up to my ankles in concrete, I was relieved to glance into the back seat to see my fun rubber boots forgotten from the last day we dug at the property. Eric, on the other hand, had forgotten his boots in our rush out the door…

Start Pouring the Basement!

Before we knew the task upon us, we were being called to take over the pumper hose. Eric turned to Jason for some fast, last minute tips on concrete floors as we entered the area. This was about the same moment that Eric sliced through his pinky finger with a new Xact-o knife as he set up level and 2×4 for first pass smoothing of concrete.

I’ll tell you more about first blood spilled on our log home building site, later. For now you should know that Eric simply wrapped black electrical tape around the 2 inch gash that exposed the finger bone below - and we got to work! Yes, that’s Eric and I working below on laying out the concrete.

While all this was going on, Jason and his team decided that we could use a few extra hands. They jumped right in, sneakers and all, to help us get the basement done.

If you’re not one of our personal friends you won’t know this, so be sure to understand that Jason is our contractor for ICF walls only. When we arrived at the site today, his job was done. Yet Jason and his staff lent a hand freely and without promise of compensation of any sort. They did this after already putting in a 5 hour day (including traveling time to the site) of glaring sun, scorching heat, and thick mosquitos. Each of them gave over and above the call of duty, without even being asked!

Where else does this happen?

Where else will you find such kind and conscientious builders?

It is true that I have a special fondness (in a mother/son manner) for one of Jason’s workers, and that Eric and Jason had attended the same high school (way back when), but neither of these are reason enough to explain how these three men so easily and quickly gave of their time, expertise, and strength.

Loving Your Contractors

I’m certain that a large part is the way we’ve treated this team right from the start of the operation - all too often not the norm. Many contractors and home builders have told me horror stories - where the home owner has treated the workers without respect - often to rudeness.

Treat your team - even if they’re only on your property or job for 1 day - with maximum respect and kindness. You’ll be minimally rewarded with conscientious workmanship - and maybe even a little extra!

At any rate I’ve spent more of this post talking about our ICF (Logix blocks) contractor than about the work we performed this day. See my next post for photos and information on pouring the floor of our new log home.

Oh yes, one little photo to end this post with — a not so little dog. Below you’ll see Kizzie, short for Kizmet, our 8 year old Great Dane. She’s a part of the build and was certainly an attraction for the concrete drivers and team on Tuesday.

“No rest for the wicked” they say, so Eric and I head into the log home build site again on Sunday for more basement prep work.

Today we’re finishing off laying the styrofoam, laying the 6″ square reinforcing wire, and burying the plumbing.

Sometime on Monday the Pex tube will be delivered that will provide in floor heating into our log home. Not knowing when it will arrive - and with the concrete trucks coming on Tuesday morning, we know we must be fully prepared and ready to install the semi-flexible tubing the moment it arrives.

It proves to be another scorching hot day, with blinding visual conditions worsened by a nearly white floor as well as the stark, bright white Logix walls. By this time, Ben Kyle has already been in and placed the last row of Logix blocks and ICF Building Solutions is well prepared for pour day.

We, however, have much work to do still.

For dinner on Sunday evening we popped over to Richard Musclow’s house and Eric had a chance to get direction and information from Richard (the area’s best heating guy - see Musclow Heating located in Bancroft, Ontario) on the best way to lay the Pex tubing for maximum comfort within our finished home.

Richard talked with us for some time about how we would be ‘living’ in our home and armed with that knowledge he laid out a plan for our work on Monday.

The Pex in-floor tubing would be closer together along the frost wall as well as under my office desk. We also discussed the possibilities that this type of heating affords us in the future - should we want infloor heating on the upper floors or decide to expand in the future.

We’ve got less than a full day to lay the tubing for our radiant heating system. Just the two of us - with a lot of great advice and a little experience.

Heading Into the Log Home Building Site

With two boxes of tubing, a secondary roll of 6×6 reinforcing wire, crimping tools, tube cutters, bags of zip ties, and two manifolds in the back of my truck I headed into the property prepared to work.

Jason Hoover of ICF Building Solutions was already on-site with his team, running the last bits of rebar through the Logix block and ensuring that everything was in place and ready to go. He also cut out my office window and our walls became a ‘home’ from this one small act.

Laying the In-Floor Radiant Heating Tubes

Keeping the tubing 1 foot apart on each pass at the frost wall, and 2 feet apart for the remaining space, Eric and I worked together in 90 degree heat for quite a few hours. As he laid the tubing, I zip tied it to the reinforcing wire - then walked behind and snipped off the long ends of the zip ties.

We had decided not to heat the floor directly below the foyer - providing a ‘cold room’ of sorts that we would be using in the future as a pantry.

In the photo below you’ll see a small section of my soon-to-be office window, as well as a sample corner of the pex pipe (in floor tubing).

Both the reinforcing wire and the pex are laid directly over the 3′ deep footings for our load bearing supports and wall - shown in the photo below.

All tubes meet in the middle (more or less) along the load bearing center wall. These open tubes will be attached to two sets of manifolds - each with their own temperature controls (photos later).

We also roughed in bathroom for the basement as shown in the photo below. To the left of this is our floor drain (not shown in the photo).

Here’s a quick shot taken from outside the house as we finish up for the day. This is the view looking in the window. Notice the height of the basement walls (Eric, although hunched over, stands at 6′ 5″). Also notice the storm clouds about ready to explode on us in the next few minutes.