Energy Efficient Building Network

Placing Concrete In ICF Portion Of Garage Walls -- ANAND Enterprises Project RedW1J1102

2012-01-23T15:59:00.000-08:00

Let us Have The Few Pictures I Took Do The Talking

Placing Concrete In Garage Footings -- ANAND Enterprises Project RedW1J1102

2012-01-18T21:30:00.000-08:00

Placing Concrete In Basement Walls Pour 2 -- ANAND Enterprises Project RedW1J1102

2012-01-09T18:57:00.000-08:00

Placing Concrete In Basement Walls Pour 1 -- ANAND Enterprises Project RedW1J1102

2012-01-04T18:39:00.000-08:00

Preparing For The Garage Foundation -- With 3" and Under Stone Over Geofabric -- ANAND Enterprises Project RedW1J1102

2011-12-19T10:23:00.000-08:00

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The soil in the Garage area needed some help -- so we stripped off all the organic material from the top, laid geofabric on and then placed 12" - 18" bedding of nominally 3" and under stone. It was a nice cool morning to work in and for a change it was dry.

Here I share some pictures with you that I took -- the pictures are presented in the order in which they were taken:

Getting Ready To Pour Footings For House Walls New ICF Construction -- ANAND Enterprises Project RedW1J1102

2011-12-19T10:06:00.000-08:00

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This new energy efficient house with ICF walls is on a beautiful location with wooded area in the back. The water table in the area is pretty high so we have to make sure that the Insulating Concrete Form (ICF) walls are able to withstand the lateral pressure from the backfill. The footings are formed with Form-A-Drain and the footings will be wrapped with waterproofing membrane to ensure that the drainage slots in the Form-A-Drain surface do not get clogged.

It is a pretty wet day today -- the day of the pour ... the dewatering pump is running almost continuously. With the fine crew responsible for pouring the footings the situation is under control and is in good hands.

We had the Building Official come out and we had his approval. So without much further ado, let me share some pictures that I took at the site:

In the next post I will talk about prepping for the Garage footings.

Look Ma ... How It Looks Now With No Columns In The Basement And Other Progress Pictures -- ANAND Enterprises Project MJbu1J1101yae

2011-11-30T16:13:00.000-08:00

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Looking Good ... I am impressed with Mark Johnson Builders -- General Contractor's operations -- on the building drawings and Building Permit work I have worked mostly with Project Manager Jake Johnson and owner Mark Johnson -- I have also met the other Johnson, Zack who is also very active in the field, and I am sure the field team of Johnsons and subs and vendors is supported by Mrs Johson from behind the scenes. I work actively with Matt Lincoln of Lincoln Custom Builders, and Dave Dotson of Steel Beams Inc. who have worked on installing the steel in this building. Mark has a great team of subs and vendors including the guys who are responsible for great concrete work, and grading and excavation work, the well diggers, the guys doing the geo-thermal work, and electrical, and plumbing, and so on.

The garage concrete slab supported on skinny open-web steel joists and metal deck with the theater room underneath was a bit of a concern to one part of the owner team (I am not saying who wink, wink) -- but now that the concrete is all set and the work on partition walls is in progress, I think that concern has been pretty much alleviated.

The project is moving along at a pretty good clip with Mark's hands-on thorough involvement with the project -- today the well was being drilled, pond for geo-thermal was being dug, as the framing crew was getting everything prepped up for remaining roof trusses to be installed.

I was talking to Mark this afternoon and we are going to explore the feasibility of installing solar panels on the roof or as a stand alone ground mounted installation -- let us see how that goes. Oh oh enough talking from me -- now let us have the pictures ( I am presenting them in the same order I took them today) do the talking ...

Progress Pictures Nov-10-2011 New House In Southestern Michigan Anand Enterprises Project MJbu1J1101

2011-11-10T13:59:00.000-08:00

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The installation of open web joists was held up for a few days ... but by the end of the day today the installation of the open web steel joists, open web steel joist girders and a few beams and columns mostly in the stairwell and within the pepipheral walls should be complete. As a bonus our installers are also going to install hat track sections for supporting the drywall ceiling in part of the basement ... Thanks to Dave, mark and his super efficient crew. This post continues from my last post on Progress Pictures Nov-04-2011 New House In Southestern Michigan Anand Enterprises Project MJbu1J1101

Progress Pictures Nov-04-2011 New House In Southestern Michigan Anand Enterprises Project MJbu1J1101

2011-11-04T18:28:00.000-07:00

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WOW ... things are moving at a pretty fast clip ... the builder is super efficient and the installation crew is very competent. In my Nov-03-2011 post I talked about Progress Pictures -- New House In Southestern Michigan Anand Enterprises Project MJbu1J1101. Today, the basement slab under the Garage area was poured, concrete over metal deck supported over open web steel joists was placed, steel columns, beams, open web steel joist girders, and some steel joists were installed this morning and early afternoon. In the late afternoon very efficient and competent crew installed the preassembled trusses with provision for skylights and gable wall over the pool area -- yes WOW is right. In the following I present some pictures that I took ... I present the pictures in the order they were taken.

Look for my next post on Progress Pictures Nov-10-2011 New House In Southestern Michigan Anand Enterprises Project MJbu1J1101

Progress Pictures -- New House Construction In Southeastern Michigan Anand Enterprises Project MJbu11101

2011-11-03T17:55:00.000-07:00

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As shown in my Oct-28-2011 post on Open Web Joists For First Floor Of A New Residence In Southeastern Michgan -- Anand Enterprises Project MJbu1J1101, open web joists have been installed on part of the First Floor and metal deck is in place for the concrete floor which would serve as the Garage over basement. The steel joists and open web joist girders, the wall columns and the columns and beams for the stairs enclosure have yet to be installed. Erection of wood trusses over the Garage area is in progress. I had taken a few pictures when I was at the site today ... so let me have the pictures do the talking ...

I will present some more pictures in my next post on Progress Pictures Nov-04-2011 New House In Southestern Michigan Anand Enterprises Project MJbu1J1101

Open Web Joists For First Floor Of A New Residence In Southeastern Michgan -- Anand Enterprises Project MJbu1J1101

2011-10-28T12:46:00.000-07:00

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The open web steel joists and joist girders were delivered to the site this morning. In the following I present some progress pictures that I took in the early afternoon. The pictures are presented in the order in which I took them -- the installation crew is doing a great job. So without much further ado -- here let me have the pictures tell the story ...

In my next post I will present progress pictures on Progress Pictures -- New House Construction In Southeastern Michigan Anand Enterprises Project MJbu11101

First Floor ICF Walls -- Energy Efficient House -- ANAND Enterprises Project EneE1KasM1

2011-10-20T20:11:00.000-07:00

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In Earlier posts, I had presented pictures of Energy Efficient House In SouthEastern Michigan With No Columns In Basement -- ANAND Enterprises Project EneE1KasM1 and Look Ma ... There Are No Columns In The Basement!

Placing Concrete In ICF Walls Of Energy Efficient House -- ANAND Enterprises Project RedW1J1101

2011-10-20T16:16:00.000-07:00

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Energy Efficient House In SouthEastern Michigan With No Columns In Basement -- ANAND Enterprises Project EneE1KasM1

2011-10-20T15:33:00.000-07:00

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Following up on my post Look Ma There Are No Columns In The Basement! I present here some pictures takem from within the basement showing column free wide open areas. Wow now the utilities and HVAC ducts can pass through the open web joists in one direction and through mostly open web joist girders running across in the other direction.

In the next post I will present some pictures of the super structure ICF walls.

Look Ma ... There Are No Columns In The Basement!

2011-09-27T16:58:00.000-07:00

construction noise ... so please turn down speaker volume

This energy efficient house in southeastern Michigan has ICF (Insulating Concrete Form) walls and open web steel joists for the floor system ... and a totally open column free basement and there will be no drops in the ceiling for HVAC ducts running under the beams because we used open web joist girders instead of conventional solid web beams ... WOW!

The owners of this dream home have the freedom to arrange the basement in anyway they like, recreation room with pool table, or for that matter pool tables, a home theater, a music room ... oh ya wherever their interests lie. For one home owner we had designed an in-door basketball court in their basement ... now that is one large and of course tall basement -- well if you are wondering how can we do that? Well, you see we have a great team of achitects, builders, engineers, and professional trades people working in harmony as a team that do not take no for an answer ... ask them to design and build some thing, and guess what they will.

Energy efficient house, customized design, healthy, comfortable, beautiful long lasting does not have to cost much more than conventional construction because we work at the fundamental level and we shave off all the waste in material and labor so we can give our client their energy efficient, custom designed house that is healthy, comfortable, strong, long lasting, and ... at a very reasonable cost.

Well enough of my talking about the features of our energy efficient buildings, let me have the following pictures do the talking

construction noise ... so please turn down speaker volume

Googling With Googlers At Google's Global Top Contributors Summit 13-14 Sep 2011

2011-09-18T10:08:00.001-07:00

family and friends: Googling With Googlers At Google's Global Top Contributors Summit 13-14 Sep 2011: Googling With Googlers At Google's Global Top Contributors Summit 13-14 Sep 2011

Googling With Googlers At Google's Global Top Contributors Summit 13-14 Sep 2011

2011-09-18T10:08:00.000-07:00

family and friends: Googling With Googlers At Google's Global Top Contributors Summit 13-14 Sep 2011: Googling With Googlers At Google's Global Top Contributors Summit 13-14 Sep 2011

Jennifer And Jeff Owens Palatial House Under Construction In SouthEastern Michigan

2010-12-31T15:11:00.000-08:00

Jennifer and Jeff are building their house to be energy efficient, sustainable, safe, comfortable and long lasting. One of the key features as far as the structure of the house is concerned ... supported floors are going to be concrete over metal deck supported on Open Web Steel Joists -- the type of floor system used in commercial buildings. The concrete floors will incorporate radiant heat tubing in the deck.

We hear most of our clients, these days say ... hey this is my dream house we are building and we plan to live here the rest of our life. So the client want their house to be energy efficient, comfortable, strong, safe, and comfortable. We are helping many of our clients help implement the use of Open Web Steel Joists in the supported floors whether the floor is plywood deck or concrete. We have devised a supported floor structural system that provides for a floor that is strong as well as cost-effective.

Here I present a few pictures -- you will see my son Martin checking the structure out.

Brick Fireplace in Master Mason Jeff Owens Huge Garage

2010-12-31T14:12:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I last poste on this blog. So, now as the inspiration has hit, I am going to go back to some memorable events, and report on those.

My son Martin and I had the opportunity to see Master Mason Jeff Owen's Brick Fireplace when Martin and I went on a Field trip to see Jeff Owen's implementation of supported floors using Open Web Steel Joist in his new house now under construction ... we are helping more and more of our clients implement this type of supported floor system which is more robust and is also extremely cost-effective -- but we will talk more about that in a separate post on Jeff Owen's palatial house.

The Brick Fireplace is beautiful ... it is a work of art. It heats up the huge Garage which Jennifer and Jeff Owen use quite often to entertain the neighborhood with fres owen baked pizza and goodies. Jeff has a plan to incorporate a pizza oven in the beautiful Brick Fireplace as well.

Let me show you a couple of pictures that I took from inside Jennifer & Jeff Owen's Garage

Great Job by Master Mason Jeff Owens in building the Brick Fireplace ... and Great Job by Jennifer and Jeff in entertaining the kids in a safe warm, and cozy place ... Pizza AnyOne?

Happy New Year 2010

2010-01-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

Remembring Bob Martin -- Mr ICF of Michigan

2009-09-29T12:42:00.000-07:00

Bob Martin Passes Away Sep-29-2009
Founder of Reddi-Wall ICF Block and Steel Studs and Joists LLC passed away this morning around 3:00 AM. I got a call from Bob's brother Russ Martin this morning. Bob's contributions, and his enthusiasm will be missed by all ... his friends as well as his competitors. I am going to post here several pictures of Bob from my portfolio of projects. I had worked with Bob since 1996 on a variety of projects.

Bob is in Blue Shirt ... this is a picture that I took on Angelicas's Assisted Living Project in Romeo Michigan

Here is a picture of Bob that I took at Rosie O' Grady's in Chesterfield Township Michigan

Bob is the handsome guy in the middle flanked by Omar Hamdan to his right and Paul DiGiorgio on his left on Radd Kouza's House Project on Kouza Lake Estate in Belleville Michigan

Visitation is on Sep-30-2005 from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM, Oct-01-2009 from 3:00 PM to 9:00 PM, and funeral service is on Oct-02-2009 at 11:00 AM at William Sullivan Funeral Home in Utica Michigan. For more information contact Gloria Martin, Bobby Martin, or Russ Martin.

And I will keep you posted via my blog and my website:
http://www.energyefficientbuild.com/

You may also want to look at my other blogs ...
http://www.yogi--anand.blogspot.com/
and
http://www.yogia-attackonmumbai.blogspot.com/

Labor Day 2009

2009-09-07T15:54:00.000-07:00

On this Labor Day Sep-07-2009 we celebrate and we recognize the contribution of labor so that we can live freely and with dignity.

As we face tough economic times today, let us ponder what can we do so we can continue to live in freedom without sacrificing our quality of life.
So, what are you going to do?

On our part we are commiting to work with our Network Partners to do more in our planning, design and construction of buildings to value labor, use energy wisely, and conserve our natural resources.

These are tough times -- with the econmy being down, the residential and commercial construction is in doledrums. Is it going to be easy? ... Not necessarily -- however, when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

And I will keep you posted on how it goes via posting on this blog as well as on my website:
http://www.energyefficientbuild.com/

You may also want to look at my other blogs ...
http://www.yogi--anand.blogspot.com/
and
http://www.yogia-attackonmumbai.blogspot.com/

Celebrating Indepence Day 2009

2009-07-04T11:35:00.000-07:00

Happy Independence Day!

Let this memorable day inspire us all to Celebrate that we live in freedom, be Grateful for all we have, be Thankful for all we can do, and be of Good Cheer.

I know times are tough for a lot of us these days.

However that also means there is plenty of opportunity for us to build more efficiently, to build with energy efficiency in mind, to build Green, to think of Sustainability, to do with local resouces, to think of Solar, to think of Wind Power, and above all to think of using our resources, Energy -- one of our most precious resources wisely.

If we use this opportuniy as I have stated then will free ourselves from the unnecessary dependence on foreign energy resources so that we can be self sufficient.

Yes, that will help us maintain our Independence -- Happy 4th Everyone!

Celebrating Memorial Day 2009

2009-05-25T15:55:00.001-07:00

Today on Memorial Day May-25-2009 we remember and honor those who gave their life fighting in wars so that we can live freely.

As we face tough economic times today, let us ponder what can we do so we can continue to live in freedom without sacrificing our quality of life. At Energy Efficient Building Network we are commiting to do more to use energy wisely and conserve our natural resources.

So, what are you going to do?

On our part we are commiting to work with our Network Partners on

Repair and Maintenance Projects
Rainwater Harvesting and Conservation Projects
Use of Solar Energy
Green and Sustainable projects
....
....

I know it is a major undertaking. Is it going to be easy? ... Not necessarily -- however, when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

And I will keep you posted on how it goes via posting on this blog as well as on my website:
http://www.energyefficientbuild.com/

You may also want to look at my other blogs ...
http://www.yogi--anand.blogspot.com/
and
http://www.yogia-attackonmumbai.blogspot.com/

Earth-Day-2009

2009-04-22T19:01:00.001-07:00

Our Mother Earth is ...

Beautiful
Forgiving
Generous
Precious

We need to be very careful about what we are doing ... what we are doing right, what we are doing wrong, and what we ought to be doing to right the ship as we journey on Mother Earth.

All of us planners, designers -- architects, engineers, builders, suppliers, as well as as consumers should take care that our buildings are ...

energy efficient
sustainable
green
in harmony with nature

It is Our Eath -- Our Mother Earth and on this special day ... Earth Day 2009 let us commit that it is not only on 22-April, but every day ought to be Earth Day.

So let us celebrate the Earth Day not only on this 22-Apr-2009 but every day starting with today!