Second floor prep part 1: Lite Deck completed

Another beautiful fall day here, about two years after we purchased the property.  The second floor Lite Deck looks like it's completely installed but there's still a lot of prep work before the second floor pour can happen.

Here's the odd area over the garage where the master bedroom closet will be.  In a normal construction, I would be worried about having living space above a garage, because you would have to make sure the floor is well insulated since it's shared with an unconditioned space.  For this construction, I'm not so worried. First, although the garage is unconditioned, it's all ICF.  As long as the garage doors and slab are insulated, it won't get too cold in there.  Second, since the floor is Lite Deck, it's well insulated by nature and air tight.  

You can see the beam that replaced the wood header.  There wasn't a beam pocket there last time, so they must have cut it out.  This will carry the load of the master closet.  The shape of the floor doesn't yet match the blueprint.  Since the garage is at an angle to the house, the actual closet only has a corner coming into this space.  It will be interesting to see how this develops.  Two things will have to happen.  1, They'll have to cut away the floor before pouring to form the room footprint.  2. They'll have to build ICF exterior wall on this floating floor, that will have to support the weight of the roof.  I don't know if there are plans to put a post in here, but I think it might be necessary.  The thickness of the beam might be large enough to support the span.

Here's where the closet beam ties into the garage wall, and the interesting way they did it.  The beam leading to the left is the header for the large garage door.   Since the span of the door is longer than a two-layer ICF wall can safely span, a steel header was required.  The steel beam going to the right is the closet support.  Close up of the tie in below.

You can see they welded an angle iron to the garage door header, and also placed an angle on end under the brace.  The angle-on-end piece sits on the beam.  I'm not sure if the angle-on-end is an integral part of the support, but it seems like it will be strong enough.

Here's a shot of the rotunda looking back at the great room, from the front door.  It's a lot darker than it has been in the past because all the LiteDeck is in!  You can see the start of the outer stairway wall on the left.  The LiteDeck that isn't installed on the left of the rotunda is where the stairwell leading up will be cut out from.  The steel in this area will also be cut out after the floor is poured, to create an open stairwell to the inside rotunda.  There are some temporary supports up in the back ground, but more will have to be put in place before the pour can happen.

Here's the dining room and mudroom from the front door.  More temporary supports will be needed in this area before the pour.  We were sitting in the rotunda and kind of missing the open sky.  I guess we'll just have to wait until we can stand on the second floor.  The back porch isn't poured, and I think it will need to be so posts can be installed to support the master balcony.  I was told a pour was supposed to happen last Friday, but maybe it was delayed.  

Here's to the left of the front door, the study and guest room.  The outer stairwell wall will continue around a bit and constitute some of the guest room bathroom wall.  Blueprint shows that the curve will be removed from the bathroom and study, so we'll have some dead space in the walls to run conduit and utilities.

Standing in the great room looking towards the front door. Some of the temporary support is up.  The great room will remain open until the trusses are in place.  Even though the ceilings are 9', putting the LiteDeck up makes the place feel smaller.  I don't think I'll shake that feeling until stuff starts to go in.  I was standing in our current kitchen with a measuring tape, trying to get a feel of how the cabinets will feel, and how much space will be available around the island.  When I lay it out in a preexisting room, the new place feels huge!  When I'm standing in the new place, it doesn't feel that big.

Standing in the guest room looking all the way to the kitchen window.Some day, all these long views will be obscured.  There will be some open feel to the house, but definitely not an "open concept" design.  I think with 5,000 sq. ft, we'll have enough space to not have to worry about creating the illusion of space.

Standing in the mudroom, looking at the study.  We're planning on pushing the laundry room wall into the master closet a bit so concrete beam pocket placement is critical here since we'll need to pull water and drainage through here.  The idea is to line up walls so we can have clean ceilings on the second floor.  We'll have the laundry room and master bathroom back to back.  I'm hoping we can get the drain down through the butlers pantry wall.  How it runs in the basement is another story.

And here's what it looks like from above.  LiteDeck only.  What remains is final shaping, top hats, which will bring the thickness of the foam to the beam height, and all rebar.  They'll have to also install the outer ICF walls to act as a form.  I don't think they'll paint these beams before the pour.  They'll be entrapped in concrete anyways so I think that will be okay.  Can't wait to walk on this.

Another shot of the rotunda.  The stairwell down is under the plywood and it's creating the illusion that the wall doesn't have a continuous curve.  The wall will continue past the post, up to where the next post is.  The post you see in the center of the frame is actually at the top of the stairs and will be hidden in a wall, but it forms one side of the doorway leading down.

Rotunda looking at the front door. The basement stairs will be just to the right of the post on the right of the frame.  The curved wall will terminate to the right of that.  All the Litedeck between the curved wall and the steel will be removed and formed for the stairwell up.

Here's how the turret supports and turret floor look right now.  I think more floor needs to be added and of course the roundness needs to be cut.  Again, if this wasn't a LiteDeck installation, I would be worried about the temperature of this room.  As it is, there are seven windows in the turret so it won't be as well insulated as the rest of the house.  Having the floor be inherently insulated and air tight is nice.  Also, since the floor sits on the beam here, we have the opportunity to spray foam the space between the deck ceiling and the turret floor.  It probably won't be necessary, but it might be nice.

So as I said before, tasks left for prep before second floor pour:

• "Top hats"
• Rebar
• Exterior wall
• Final floor shaping
• Rear porch pour and posts
• Master balcony construction
• Inspection

Seems like a lot to get done and I'm hoping that it will be completed in 1.5 - 2 weeks.  That would kind of put us on track to be buttoned up by the second week of December, but it will really be cutting it close.  They'll need some cure time, 1.5 weeks to set up second floor walls, and an unknown amount of time for the roof trusses.  The more I think about it, the less I'm confident on the December deadline.