The ICF contractor had a drone shoot their final pour, and I have photos.

We’re still waiting, and have been waiting around the full month of May, for this light gauge steel resolution. I think we finally, finally, got there today. This is the same steel that should have been installed in March. We’re still searching for an HVAC installer who can do multizoned ductless minisplit systems and geothermal heat pumps. If anyone knows anyone.

We’ve had some thefts up at the construction site recently, pretty major thefts, a tractor and a cement mixer and some smaller tools. I’m told the police may have some leads but I also want to help so I’m offering a $1000 dollar reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible. If you know who did it, and maybe you don’t like them so much, now is your chance to get a thousand bucks richer and teach them a lesson. If you’re worried it gets back to you I’ll happily keep you anonymous. If you know anyone who recently came home with a bright red new Mahindra tractor (Max 26XL) or an old grey cement mixer, some shovels and wheelbarrows and the like, get rewarded for doing the right thing. Of course, I’d appreciate any and all help in getting the word out on this as well for those who are local. Someone will know something. If you see someone trying to offload these things, please, don’t buy them, but if you can, see if you can snap the serial number or other pictures and send them to me. The thief may have also been stealing just to get new equipment for themselves.

That out of the way, here are the pictures.

The third floor was poured last Friday. We’ll see how soon the steel gets out here to finish it up, we had a two weekish ICF break in early march and they still cranked this out pretty quick.

Pictures below are taken right before the pour, some nice dawn shots. These are taken at a “sitting on the roof” sort of height.

The main rectangular section of the castle tops out at 3 floors. It still has a 60 inch battlement that will be built cantilevered out 18 inches from the wall, with corbels underneath (machicolations they’re called). So the walls, overall, get 60 inches higher than this, then they stop.

Except the towers of course. The larger, rear, towers get one whole additional story (12ish more feet), and then the same battlement on top, so call it 17 more feet. The front towers get another story as well and then a conical turret style roof (copper, yay!).

In all cases where we cantilever a battlement we’re framing it, and not making it out of concrete, because of weight. Cantilevering a stone clad framed wall is hard enough without adding in concrete. So the barbican crenelations you see below are the only actual concrete crenelations we’re making. The rest are all framed with stone cladding.

With some nice clear days finally, and stairs rather than sketchy ladders, I managed to go up and get some pictures of the 3rd floor views. A few new mountains have come into view though in this photos you probably can’t make that sort of detail. ICF is supposed to start back by the end of this upcoming week, pool shell any day now, I’ve been doing a lot of work in the garden already, and we’ve been working on doing the trusses in the great hall – which deserve their own post so I won’t post their pictures here.

The 2nd floor is now done, I am working this weekend and haven’t had a time yet to go and take good pictures of the views, but my builder sent me a lot of photos.

Today is February 20th. The 1st floor was finished on December 30th. 52 days. The first floor was 80 days, so this is an improvement, but I think we could have done better. The ICF went up really fast this time but the light gauge steel still took longer than it should have. We of course had some weather, but I don’t know if there has ever been 50 days of good weather in a row anywhere on Earth so I don’t think that is abnormal. The ICF was essentially done Feburary 3rd so it took 17 days for the steel and subfloor, when, under ideal circumstances, it should be about 8 days. Still, this is almost a full month faster than the 1st floor, a vast improvement.

The great hall is starting to take shape with our heavy wood trusses partially installed, I don’t have good pictures of those yet, but with finally a ceiling, and not just sky, on the great hall the ceiling height is evident, and it is very impressive. The space feels really good on the inside, exactly as I had hoped, or better. Portions of the first floor are going to feel like a hotel lobby, and that was my goal.

Theoretically the third floor should take less time still, there is less in it, every floor gets slightly less as we go up. For the third floor the barbican (the front entry protrusion, the militant cousin of a foyer) goes away completely, and that seemed like it was always 3 days of work right there. The walls overall get simpler, with less variance in window sizes, and there is less heavy steel, and the light steel is also more uniform. Then the fourth floor drops away very strongly with only the towers getting that. So the fourth floor should be very quick. However as of right now the ICF crew is off the project working elsewhere on some other project, and I do not know when they will be back. This is most certainly not a good thing, it delays our critical path, but I’m sure the owner of the other project feels the same when they’re working on mine and not theirs. If they were here and working I wouldn’t be surprised if we could have the third floor poured by the first/second week of March. Then if we had the steel portion down to 2 weeks by April 1st at the latest we could have a 3rd floor roof/4th floor subfloor on. Then, really, I think the fourth floor could be done in two weeks, then say two weeks to roof everything, maybe May 1st we could have a roof on the whole structure. But with this ICF delay I’m not sure.

The greenhouse base and breezeway are done (well, blocks are up, but not poured, ICF crew did this before they left). There was a slight delay there when the wrong blocks were delivered, but they spent that day building window bucks I think so weren’t idle. The breezeway, seen to the right, holds a bathroom for people using the pool, as well as it connects the kitchen to the greenhouse and the pool patio. It is very much going to be a bit like an indoor/outdoor room, though still fully insulated.

So far, 2nd floor is progressing much faster than the 1st floor. It took 80 days, 80 days!, to do the 1st floor. My builder things we can do the 2nd floor in 30 days, and so far we’re on schedule, the ICF is definitely going to be done in time (though this very recent cold weather (no school tomorrow for the kids) I hope doesn’t delay things), the question remains the steel. Theoretically the steel can all be done in a couple days, the big question is, will the steel be ready to go when the ICF is done, the light gauge steel gave us a 21 day or so delay on the 1st floor because it wasn’t ready on time.

Every floor is slightly less than the prior floor, but the third floor really drops down from the second floor because the barbican stops at 2 stories. So, if we’re able to execute this 2nd floor in 30 days, then I have no reason to believe we shouldn’t be able to do the third floor in 30 days, and the fourth floor and roof portions as well. Really the fourth floor, which is just the corner towers, should be done in less.

So putting on my prediction hat, at the current pace, we could have our roof around April 1st.

Here are some pictures of the 2nd floor walls, the ICF blocks are basically up and done, except the barbican. There is some fine tuning to be done before the concrete pour. One thing becoming evident is the height of the great room ceilings, 24 feet, and actually the ceiling above the central staircase will be 36 feet (actually possibly as much as 46 feet to the peak of the skylight). Then the rough openings for the 14 foot tall cathedral windows on the side of the great room are done. Some of these pictures are starting to show that scale.