Building SIPsmart: Considering Concrete and Solar Hot Water

Reader Contribution by Michael Morley
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Michael Morley will post regular updates about his progress building a unique green home with structural insulated panels (SIPs). For an introduction to this project, read Building Smart with SIPS.

There are several images that accompany this post. The photograph is of the completed building pad marked out for the trench footings. This was one of a series of 150 pictures produced by a Bushnell Trail Cam that can take time lapse pictures on a programmed interval. I set this camera up to take two pictures every eight minutes if there was motion to trigger the camera at the site. This worked great and during construction we will have a record of the installation of all materials. These stills will be assembled into a video, which we hope to share with you readers. The other image is a Sketch-up rendering of what the completed ARCX building will look like

The building site at 13th and New Jersey Street has more of a slope across the lot then it appears. We had geotechnical engineer, Dean Grob, monitor our work as we brought in engineer to fill to raise the site to a level pad. Mack Grant brought in his equipment and spread eight truckloads of crushed, recycled concrete as our base material. The topsoil and vegetation that Mack removed was then spread around the perimeter to contain the fill and provide a rough grade for the finished building. I spent several hours laying out and marking the building perimeter for the trench footings that will be going in soon. We’ll be using a 16-inch-wide by 36-inch-deep footing with 2 inches of rigid insulation installed before the pour around the exterior of the footings.

It looks like we have a dry week coming up, and we hope to have Burlinggame Concrete Company trench and pour footings this week. After that I will go in with a helper and build the wood forms for the concrete slab.

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