Hi Tom
My name is Steven and I am from Ireland. I’m a metal fabricator, not qualified though, but I have worked for 3 years with steel. The first place I worked was with a company making helicopter simulators for 2 years. The second job I had was making different things but I never made a handrail for a wheelchair ramp.
I just wanted to get your advice on a hand rail for a ramp. I wanted to know how I should measure the angle of the slope for the ramp? And also would I need to cut the posts each the same length that go inside of the handle part and the lower rail that will be above the ramp itself? How would I measure the length of the square tube at the angle for the post because each end cut will be cut at an angle so it can be welded to the upright posts at the start of the ramp and at the top if the ramp. I’ll look forward to hearing from you soon.

Kind Regards
Steven

Steve from Ireland sent the above email full of questions concerning building a handicap ramp. I posted a short video of Tom giving a few tips on how to build a metal handrail for a sloped sidewalk or ramp. One thing to keep in mind is to contact a local building official to investigate any building codes that are required in your area. Another key is to make sure you start with a well poured ramp. Sometimes you have to deal with an existing concrete ramp, but if you are starting from ground zero, make sure the ramp is smooth and even to begin with. A good ramp will allow you to compute your metal handrail by rise and run method. You can actually take the measurement, duplicate the angle and draw out the handrail on your shop floor. If the ramp has a dip or two in it, use a strait two by four or a piece of square tube, lay it on the ramp, put an angle finder on it and find the exact angle. This gives you the angle of all the posts. All vertical metal posts should be level, or plumb. The top handrail can be made out of one piece of metal tube. The bottom bumper rails can be cut out to fit between the individual vertical metal posts. Additional guardrail should be added if local code dictates.

Thanks for the question Steve and best of luck with your project!

Tom helped a local contractor build a tornado safe room for a new construction project. The home owner wanted a concrete and steel “basement” located underneath his garage floor. The garage is a 40 X 50 foot structure. The homeowner poured part of a basement in the garage on one end. The idea was to have a concrete slab floor poured over the top of the hole to form a safe room. The steel and concrete floor will enable the homeowner to still utilize the entire garage floor for parking and storing vehicles. The safe room below can be used to store valuable items as well as serve as a place to go in the event of a tornado or other emergency.
As the foundation walls were formed, beam pockets with weld plates were added so that the steel beams would sit flush with the foundation and the bottom of the concrete slab. Steel beams were placed in the beam pockets across the opening of the newly formed basement. The opening was then covered with metal floor pan. The floor pan supports the concrete floor as well as add additional support to the garage floor. Floor pan is generally made out of galvanized steel. The tornado room ceiling will then be tied into the entire garage floor while the concrete flat work is completed. This allows the whole concrete floor the expand and contract over time.
The picture shows one heavier beam that sits perpendicular to the rest of the steel beams. This allows for an opening for a stairway down to the tornado room.
The smaller steel beams are W6 X 9 lbs per foot. The heavier beam is a W6 X 25 lbs per foot. There is a steel post near the end of the heavier beam. As building continues, additional re bar and concrete will be added.
The tornado safe room will be tied into the remaining structure and will be made entirely of concrete and steel. The picture at the bottom of the page is a view with galvanized floor pan covering the basement prior to concrete.
If you are interested in building a tornado safe room in your new construction, it is important to remember that it should be professionally engineered.

It has been almost seven years since Trade Tool Innovations has sent out it’s first concrete screed. The first screed went to Atlanta Georgia. The TTI Screedright Pro has been shipped all over the United States, Canada and the world.
The TTI Screedright Pro is a one man power concrete screed that utilizes a wooden 2″ X 4″ or a 2″ X 6″ as a screed bar. The small Subaru Robin four stroke engine vibrates the machine. The vibration helps settle the concrete as it is being poured out of a concrete truck.
In this video, Tom reviews a few helpful tips for those using the TTI Screedright Pro.
It is not necessary to use a full throttle when operating the concrete machine. The screed works best when 1/4 to 1/2 throttle is applied. The screed board should be kept perpendicular with the forms. This is best achieved by keeping the screed handle bar level. One common error is to dip the handle bar too low or raise it too high while operating the machine. Another common mistake is to try and go too fast while pulling the machine along the forms. Try and keep a slower, even pace as you operate the concrete tool over your flat work. If there is excess concrete left behind after you go over the concrete slab, this may be the problem. Try sanding down a little bit.
If you own one of our concrete screeds, feel free to post a comment, suggestion or your tip on this page. We’d love to hear how it is going with you! If you have a general question, feel free to post as well.

Tom ordered floor anchor pots from Auto Body Tool Mart. Normally, an anchor pot is installed into an existing concrete floor. If that is the case, the concrete needs to be core drilled before installing the floor anchor pot. This article will describe how Tom poured floor anchor pots into the concrete slab he formed for his new building addition.
Tom began by welding rebar onto the anchor pot. Tom then placed the anchor pots so they were flush with the finished grade of the concrete floor. Wet concrete was poured around the anchor pots to secure them into the floor. Blue tape was used to cover the anchor pot. The tape served to protect the anchor pot as well as aid in finding the pots after the concrete floor was dry.
Anchor pots are used regularly for chaining cars to the floor to help do body work. They can also be used to help straighten axles.

The Millers continue to plug away at building their new energy efficient home themselves. Visit our last two posts here and here to catch up on the progress.

Greetings to All,
First, we want to wish everyone a superb Thanksgiving. We hope that you can all gather around with family and friends. We know that the English clan out in Eugene will have a house full, and know that the Gabriels down in Laramie will be cooking up a huge meal.

Daylight has become scarce, and our weeks have filled up with other activities. Katie is on the Middle School Swim Team, Dan is in Boy Scouts over in Powell, and this week Dan decided (after being encouraged by the coach), that he should start swimming as well. So both kids are swimming M-F. Katie keeps improving her times at the meets.

We have been trying ever so hard to finish up that pesky metal roof on the house. We are up to the skylights that we have cut into the roof. The flashing kit that came with the skylights requires that you perform delicate maneuvers with tin snips and other sharp objects while tethered to the roof with your life line. Kind of like trimming your toenails sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon.

In addition to the wind and weather not cooperating, yours truely took a pretty good fall from a ladder about ten days ago. I cowboyed things out for a few days until Peggy insisted that I go to the doctor. -A sprained left ankle, and a small radial fracture in my right elbow. So I have been slowed but not stopped. About the only thing that really hurts to do is pound with a hammer with my right arm.

We lost some sleep, planning strategy for placing the large front door unit (w / two side lights and a transom) and large bedroom exterior french door and transom unit. Both are large, heavy, expensive, and full of glass. So we rigged up a contraption to move these things so that they could be edged into place. We had success, no broken glass, no more broken bones. The house is now locked, and sealed from the elements. We have moved all the rough electrical and rough plumbing supplies into the house in anticipation of doing some of this work over Thanksgiving.

From the photos, you can see about where we are with the roof. We have also installed the porch rafters and completed the framing of all the second floor walls. Dan did a great job of securing the door units while riding on the front of the tractor forks. Less, you think that we are in violation of international child labor laws, I was close by walking alongside the tractor to secure the load.

So Happy Thanksgiving to All.

-Chip, Peg, Dan and Katie

-Our Holiday Break has just ended. We put some 9 days of work into the house and have accomplished a lot. The kids have been great between working hard and playing around with their Christmas gifts. Most of our days have ended in sheer exhaustion.

We have run several thousand feet of electrical wire in the house, and a lesser amount of low voltage Cat5, and speaker wire, installed some 50 can lights. A big accomplishment was the installation of all the R49 fiberglass insulation in the main body of the house ceiling (the great room vault, and over the second floor rooms). Chip and Dan donned hazmat suits for this task.

It is hope that all had a great holiday. We tried to get some Christmas cards in the mail. To those of you who missed one, we applologize for the lack luster replacement of an email greeting.

-Chip, Peg, Dan, Katie

Tom built this metal handrail for a stairway that leads to the basement of a new home. Stairways should have handrails and the handrails need to be strong and attached properly in all commercial and residential locations. In this article Tom will show you how to attach a metal handrail to a stone or concrete wall while still allowing for a nice look. When handrails need to be bolted to a stone or concrete wall, the best thing to use is a concrete anchor.
First, drill out a hole for the concrete anchor and then pound it into the wall. The anchor is tapered at the end so that a small metal collor allows it to catch into the concrete as it is set.
The rest of the bolt, or stud, ends up hanging out on the finished side of the handrail mount. Rather than simply grinding it off flat to the mount piece, Tom suggestion is to leave a nut on and grind off just enough of the bolt to attach a small acorn nut on the end.
It is easy to see in a side by side comparison that the handrail hung with a rounded acorn nut leaves a more polished look than the handrail hung from the stair wall with the bolts ground off flush to the handrail fasteners.

When traveling in the northern New Mexico area, one stop along the way that you won’t want to miss is the Visitors Center for Earthship homes. These structures are very interesting.
Earthships are buildings that are designed to be built with recycled materials. These structures take green living to it’s extreme. Each structure is basically old tires packed with earth and stacked on top of one another to form walls. The tires are surrounded by concrete or cement filler interspersed with old beverage cans and bottles. The bottles make a nice addition when light is allowed to flow through. One example we saw was an outside lamp post using what appeared to be the bottom of an old pickle jar.
The entire structure can then be coated with a mud or adobe mixture to give it a more polished look. Most Earthships are either fully or partially burned into the ground. The surrounding earth also acts as an insulation, keeping the building cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
Earthship builders place large windows on the south facing wall in order to capture solar light and heat.
Each Earthship is designed to house an entirely independent water system. The Earthship captures rain or snow, usually on the roof, and then the water is funneled through a silt screen. The screened water is then stored in a cistern for further use. The Earthship Visitors Center near Taos has an indoor tank. The builders had incorporated a small waterfall that created a nice sound in the adobe structure.

From the cistern the water would be used for washing and bathing. That water would then be used as gray water to fill toilet tanks and water indoor gardens.

Each Earthship home is built with independent sustainability in mind.  Power is harnessed through solar and/or wind collection.  Energy enters the Earthship into a bank of battaries at twelve volts.  The battery bank feeds an inverter that in turn produces one hundred fifteen volts and sixty hertz that is used to power the appliances in the Earthship.  Earthships usually have special refrigerators called “Thermal Mass Refrigerator”.  Thermal Mass Refrigerators are designed utilizing a type of alcohol as insulation and can therefore hold temperature better. Earthship power systems are capable of sustaining all kinds of modern conviences. Earthships are built to incorporate a central mechanical room to house renewable energy equipment.

Earthships are springing up in various areas of the country and world.  Watch for one in your neighborhood.

Tom looks at an electrical control panel in an Earthship Home.

These series of articles will include pictures and email from Chip and Peg. They are embarking on building a new home for their family in northern Wyoming. They will do much of the work themselves with an eye on incorporating sustainable construction. They are building a home, shop and green house. Attached are photos of our our latest project. Monday we poured 42 yards of concrete into Logix Insulated Concrete Forms. Had four concrete trucks lined up along with an aged pumper truck. Luck was with us on the Garage – Greenhouse and House pours – no blowouts, no great “hurry up events”, just a hot day and lots of aerobics circulating around the construction site. First read – the Logix blocks are a fantastic product. Easy to use, and make a strong insulated wall. We are most impressed! -Stay tuned for the next round of “The Miller Family Construction Academy Health Club”.

Layers and layers! The sub grade plumbing – drain – waste – vent pipes (PVC) are in, countless hours of wrist breaking action with the dreaded “Wacker (wacko) Packer” have compacted the soil along the ICF stemwalls (from Canada), a layer of 6 mil plastic on both buildings is in along with 2″ of foam board insulation. Many 4′ x 8′ steel remesh mats lashed together, along with rebar from C H I N A. Some 2000 lineal feet of 3/4″ Pex radiant tubing (from Switzerland) layed down and fastened with over 2000 zip ties (from Austria). Jeez – ya think that we could at least start making some of this stuff here again! We zip tied to a loudly played Science Friday, A Prairie Home Companion, Car Talk, BBC World News, and numerous other Wyoming Public Radio Shows. We remind the kids frequently that this is brain food. (The Libertarian neighbor believes that we are certified, collective, workaholic, family nut cases.) (He is still not quite sure what to make of us and the large piles of dirt we have created.) The concrete flat work guy shows up this week for the finished floor over it all (will eventually be stained – acid etched concrete). We have the lumber package for both buildings arriving later in the week.

Hello All, We are looking down the barrel at 3 weeks to returning to our day jobs.  Boy will that be easy!  Attached are photos of progress to date.  We have both concrete slabs in courtesy of James Shulz construction.  He did a silky smooth finish on the concrete on both buildings.  Trust us – the slabs are major slippery when wet.  This guy is a concrete artist!  Tomorrow he shows up to cut and bevel the house slab.  We will later acid etch stain and grout the cuts to look like marble flooring. Tomorrow the building package shows up for the house.  It has taken us about 6 days to frame and sheath the shop – greenhouse – garage.  We anticipate about the same on the house.  Both buildings will then be awaiting the delivery of the roof trusses.  The greenhouse – shop is about done as far as the framing goes. Wow!  What an interesting summer for the weather – cooler than normal.  The landscape out on the Southfork is ever changing with the rapid changes in the weather, the light and clouds blowing through.  When the wind picks up you learn to quickly put down any sheet materials, less you become a Davinci flying experiment.  We are ever entertained.  The only other place we have seen such dramatic play in color and light has been the Grand Canyon. Cheers! Chip, Peggy, Dan, Katie,

-Greenhouse – Garage – Shop is ready for trusses. Trusses have been delivered for the building, awaiting the crane truck and crew. The garage and master bedroom area of the house right down to the north kitchen wall is framed. We continue to make progress daily. The house slab has been pattern cut with a concrete saw. James Shulz just has to finish chamfering the cut pattern. We have less than two weeks – then back to our day jobs.

Chip. Peggy, Dan, Katie
(The Crew From The Diamond Basin Construction Health Club)

“Work Hard – Never Grown Old – Just Keep Moving”

-Attached a photo of the just completed West wall of the great room.  We did it today.  The ceiling will vault to 19′ on the inside with T & G Aspen.  The upper (3rd tier) of windows will be finished and cut in when the gable truss is set.  Sheep and Jim mountains are framed by the windows.  Lots of wind to the West so the wall will have enhanced 100 mph, “thickened glass”, Energy Star rated, 30% kick back on cost (thanks Barak O.)  We have a big time thermostatically controlled air recirculation system to move the air about in winter and summer months.

-We just keep moving, summers are short.

-Cheers – the Diamond Basin Construction Health Club.

We move to part time this week, as we start our “day jobs” again. The house interior walls are framed up. We have installed the second floor decking. At this point we are starting to get excited. The great room is shaping up. We now have visions of the vast open space being created. James Shulz shows up this week to do the concrete front porch complete with stamped in grizzly tracks (will make a great tale for the grand kids). We will hopefully have him set the garage / greenhouse and house trusses in a week or so. Chip & Peggy, Dan & Kate We are back to the day jobs. Have James Schulz Construction hanging the trusses and sheathing the roof. Photos attached. The weather has been most cooperative so far. Next windows and exterior doors. Brrrrrrrrr……..cold and snow have slowed however not stopped us. Coldest Oct. on record to date. Wed. Chip heads up to the Park with his GPS – GIS – Engineering Surveying class to map out West Thumb Geyser Basin. There will be some good snow up there. We have a semi protected roof cover on the house, and on the greenhouse – shop building. The blue stuff in the photos is an all weather titanium roof paper product. The standing seam, Energy Star rated metal roofing has been ordered for the two buildings. This past weekend Peg and I stood under eaves dripping with snow melt in a foot of mud, hanging the windows and placing the doors in the greenhouse – garage. -This after a howitzer loaded with H1N1 bombed our house over the last two weeks. We have all recovered and are all the better because of the experience. Today our four panel solar hot water system arrived. The truck driver could not locate our address with his GPS so I gave him directions when he stopped in at school. -Good to know that we are still Google incognito for a bit longer. WE have pieces of the solar assisted radiant floor system arriving daily. Soon we will have to sort through and make sense of the boxes of Taco valves, manifolds, electronic controls, valve actuators etc. Our house windows and exterior doors will at long last be delivered on Thursday. Last Friday, Chip drove down to Manderson with the trailer and picked up 9 hefty Spruce timbers to be used to build the front porch on the house. We have also been placing six large sections of channel iron on the West wall of the house as bracing against the potential 150 mph micro bursts that mother nature can send. These are being lag bolted onto the wall to stiffen it. (Thank you Tom for getting us set up with the metal!) -You can bet that wind power will be in our future. This next weekend we will be setting house windows and getting the place dried in. If we get that mystical “indian summer” soon, we will be up on the roof hanging metal. For now, we are just stuck in mud, however continue to be entertained by the ever changing seasons of Carter Mountain and the upper Southfork.

The weather has improved recently. Today our standing seam metal roof arrives – the project for the weekend. Last weekend we started construction on the Timber Frame Front Porch. We used some sweat and the full capacity of the Kubota to hoist into place several green 8 x 12 x 16′ Spruce Timbers. As you can see from the photos, we still have to do the peak beam. -This will have to wait until we rent a squirt boom to place the upper windows.

With winter knocking at our door…………the windows will be next. The kids saw a Grizzley munching on a Buffalo in the Park yesterday.

View of leak in concrete foundation.

Tom received this letter from Daron and MaryAnn of Idaho. Sound familiar to anyone?

Tom,

Daron and I have a new segment for “Tips by Tom”. We found water in our
basement a few days ago. We found out it was coming in around were the
sewer line exits the house. Luckily there is a cut out in the closet
where the leak was for the sewer cleanout, so it was easy to see. We dug
down outside to see if we could see why it was leaking. I took some
pictures and attached them so you could see what we found. There is
concrete on the top of the pipe to seal it where it goes into the house
but underneath the pipe there is no such concrete. We need to know how
to seal the bottom area so it will quit leaking. The contractor who
built the house said to contact the sewer people, the sewer people said
they don’t fix it to call a plumber, the plumber did not want to come fix
it but told us to buy a 5 gallon tub of “water plug patch” for $65.00
which they said to use a putty knife to fill the area around the pipe,
let it dry, and apply it again, and repeat 4 or 5 times. The supply
store said to use roofing tar, another said to use concrete crack filler,
someone at Daron’s work said to use Bentonite and tar. It is a really
tight area to work in and you can not actually see under the pipe, you
can only feel along the pipe. What is your suggestion?

MaryAnn