In my last post, I listed a number of upcoming tasks. We're taking two steps forward, one backwards, and, thankfully, making progress. The radiant heat system arrived late last week, ready for installation this week. On Friday, the 50 sheets of 3" extruded foam insulation came, so I spent all yesterday installing the foam board on the outside of the foundation. I was armed with dozens of tubes of liquid nails and my caulk gun. I organized the work site and got about 8 foam boards installed, and then "the rains came."
Since I'm not the wicked witch of the west, I needn't worry about melting, so I worked away, getting all of the foam boards installed. I was worried, though, that the rain would affect the liquid nails' ability to cure. So I used leftover cuts of wood from the first floor installation to hold most of the board to the house. I didn't have enough leftover wood for all of the sheets of foam board, so once the boards seemed firmly affixed, I moved the boards to hold the next set of sheets I installed. I left the lot about 9 hours after I started the project, exhausted, covered with mud from head to toe, and soaked to the bone.
It rained through the night. After church this morning, I drove by the lot to see how the liquid nails held up. Mother nature won the battle, at least with the five boards on the west side of the house, which were no longer affixed to the foundation. Not surprisingly, those were the only five boards I did not wedge the wood up against, since there wasn't a good way to do that on the west side. Fortunately, all of the other boards still were affixed to the house, albeit not to firmly. The liquid nails simply couldn't cure with the steady rain for more the 28 hours.
I waited until the rain slowed significantly and then headed back to the lot this evening to fix the problem. While I was there, Helen and Jeff from across the street, two of the nicest people we've ever met, stopped by to say hi. All of our neighbors have been extremely kind and their visits while we're on-site are always very welcomed. It's such a great neighborhood and we can't wait for the house to be complete so we can be there full-time. That reminds me, yesterday Chris from directly across the street came by to visit in the rain and offered me some tips on sump pumps - a very timely discussion because of the rain, and since we'll be buying those pumps this week.
Back to today - after Helen, Jeff and I chatted for a bit, I put more liquid nails on the five western boards, and I propped the boards up with some wood. The wood only needs to hold the boards up through the back-fill which is scheduled for tomorrow morning. Then the earth will hold the foam boards to the wall forever and the liquid nails become a moot point. I'm hoping that none of the other boards will fall down this evening, but, if they do, I hope that our contractor, Aaron, will be able to put them back in place Monday morning before Bartley back-fills.
