Hello dear readers and welcome back to the Rural Studio Bathhouse Blog. We hope that you enjoyed a great holiday season and are settling into the new year well!
When we spoke last, we were busy preparing the first phase of the walkway structure for site installation. We finished the process of painting multiple coats on the supports and before a relaxing winter break, were able to install the main walkway supports on the building!
The first couple of walkway supports that are on the north sides of the existing pods were easy to lift in place onto the existing angles of the floor planes. Once they were roughly in place, we were able to line up the smaller support channels on the faces of the foundation walls. With everything lining up, we drilled into the concrete foundation walls and bolted these support channels in place. We then were able to bolt the large walkway channels to the smaller supports with angles that were pre-welded to the walkway supports. This set the first two walkway support channels in their proper place.
The process for the installation of the walkway support channels on the north sides of the toilet and shower pods went a little differently. These channels were designed to be bolted directly into the toilet and shower pod slabs. They were a bit longer and heavier, making them more unwieldy and nearly impossible to hold in place while being bolted to the slabs. To lift them up, we enlisted the help of our neighbor and friend, Shane. His crane made light work of moving the channels into place and holding them up as the team drilled the holes and then bolted them in place onto the pods.
More recently, we’ve had a lot more happening on site. With the beginning of the new year, one of our favorite weeks of the semester, “Neckdown,” came back around! Our big goal for Neckdown was to finish the earthwork on site. This included leveling the ground of the crawlspaces, installing the main water line, filling in several trenches, moving ground to install a vapor barrier on the outside of the CMU (concrete block) foundations, and recovering the foundations.
We had an excellent group of helpers each day and were able to get everything that we set out to do and more accomplished!
While a lot of the earthwork was going on, the team finished installing the main water line in the ground. This went so well that we decided to go ahead and run the rest of the pex in the crawlspaces to each stub-up location in the slab. With the waterlines in place, we were able to pressure test everything to make sure the connections were secure, and we passed all three tests the first time!
Next, we dug down to find the main Morrisette water line, which passes underneath the Toilet Pod. Once it was uncovered, we worked with Mason to tie into the line and tee up to the main shutoff valve for the bathhouse. Finally, we connected the main shutoff to the bathhouse distribution line with a backflow preventer between, which will prevent water from moving back into the main system when we have outages or other situations. The rough-in stage of plumbing is pretty much complete!
The team has recently finished the leveling of ground in the crawlspaces, specifically where we tied into the main water line and in the outdoor shower. We have also installed a vapor barrier in each crawlspace to protect from ground moisture and create a solid and clean ground surface in each space. All the pex is also being insulated and strapped in place onto the bottom of the floor slabs, and the termite shields have been put in place on top of all the curbs.
Moving forward, the team looks to continue the process of building modules and going to Birmingham to begin the metal fabrication for the walkway structure and the roof. In studio, we are having very detailed conversations about the interior of the building and making some decisions regarding materials and fixtures, as well as finalizing the structural design of the skylights above the showers and toilets.
We are super excited to be getting to this phase of the project and cannot wait to provide another update very soon!
Thank you so much for reading and following along through this journey with us.
– Rural Studio Bathhouse Team
Carla, Ambar, Ashley, and Logan