43. Installing pocket-door hardware.

The unusual design of our earth sheltered home had a flow problem that could only be solved by a pocket door. Now that the roof is on, it is time to install that... Plus a few other indoor jobs in February.
We ended up using pocket door hardware from Johnson Hardware. johnsonhardwar...
You can learn more about out project at www.homeintheearth.com
For up to date posts on our progress, you can like us on Facebook. / homeintheearth

[@Mrcaffinebean]

The more you finish the more gorgeous the home becomes. Those ceilings and ribs are incredible. That door hardware looks much better than the standard stuff. Good call on the upgrade.

[@tristanloteryman4023]

Thanks for yet another awesome update on an aming home. Much appreciated Simon!

[@kevinwilliams8662]

Enjoying watching your build.

[@jurelwow]

i would like to say thank for this including us in your home build inside and out. i have been with you since your dirt work so long ago. You and your wife are...Are inspiring.

[@UrsaMinor2010]

I love the way you think, man.

[@fintan3563]

The little block windows are cute ☺️☺️☺️. (PS - You should get a nice spread in Architectural Digest magazine when you are all finished! 🏆🏆🏆)

[@SaintTrinianz]

I am rarely ever jealous over anything but this is amazing, beautiful and alas, enviable

[@IIIwke]

Wow! I have watched 4 of your videos today and I’m hooked! I’m impressed by all of your work and attention to detail. Do you do Q&A’s?

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Not as some sort of live event (I'm not that big of a KZbinr ;)). But I do try to answer questions in the comment section.

[@phyrewillow6463]

Ooh, you can tell it’s gonna look amazing when it’s done!

[@guillaumepierre861]

Nice progress ! I especially love the pocket door, and how the wood and the concret structure blends in once stuccoed !

[@fabiancbarrio]

We are getting there!!!

[@toddincabo]

Yep, get ready for the magazines to come calling. Good call on the beefy hardware, definitely no place to skimp.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Yea, the idea of ripping that out again in 10 years because I bought a crappy track did not appeal to me ;)

[@samiam7]

You have a great mind for thinking ahead

[@OffGridOverLander]

Love your work! I gotta say though, you have a lot more patience to deal with a project that big! I’m still working on my RV after 2 years and it’s already testing my patience.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Its not something we can just walk away from. At this point, the only way out is through. I'm sure you'd press on too ;)

[@OffGridOverLander]

Oh I know that all too well! I’m figuring on another 2yrs if the current completion rate holds steady.

[@JosePereira-rl7tq]

Excellent work. Thanks.

[@1grandpappy684]

Love your videos!!!

[@darrenjones5885]

Pocket door! Now a home in the earth makes sense. Soon there will be a monorail and a huge illuminated globe of the Earth. A lair for a Bond villain!

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Actually, I was pretty sure that my radial vault design was completely unique in the world. I had never seen anything like it... Until one day I saw a very similar (but more austere) version as the villain's lair in Agent Cody Banks ;) (its a kids movie, so they went over the top on the bad guys lair).

[@geraldsmith7951]

Not trying to be negative but I was always taught to say something if you see something thats not right. So with that being said you really need to look at the install of the pocket door to the frame I dont think you have enough room to hang the door on one roller and slide it over to hang it on the other roller , just saying, not picking your work apart just trying to avoid a set back .

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Not sure if you made that comment before the end of the video. Yes, you are correct that I can't fit a door in the normal way because the concrete rib pocket will block it. At the end of the video, I show how I will do it thru the back side. There is definitely more than enough space (several extra inches). In fact, I can just put the door in and connect both rollers at the same time and then roll it thru the slot to close the door. When I finally get that done, I'll post a video. We just don't want to do it yet because the construction dust would just make it a mess.

[@RobertWiggers]

Simon! Nice to see you back. I would like to ask you something. Your intro shows a very big set of drawing of the house. And I know you are a architect. But when you make those drawings, you make them from the side, from the top, from the other side. Maybe front and back. And how do you, architect in general, keep track of all the changes in all the drawing? I mean, if you draw something in one set, it needs to meet up with the others, right?

[@kristinwerner5519]

I don’t think he is the architect. He is some sort of engineer.

[@RobertWiggers]

@@kristinwerner5519 No, he's a smart architect. At least, that's what I remember him telling in a lot of vids back.

[@Bill_N_ATX]

Robert, the beauty of modern computer aided design programs that everyone uses is that it keeps a 3D design in its brain and will change both the design, floor plans, elevations, and details all at once. It tries like hell to keep you from doing something stupid like putting two things in the same space. The software costs a small fortune, and some packages a large fortune, but it’s damn well worth it.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

I'm not actually an architect, but I am "the" architect for this design. A real architect would be too smart to make something so complicated ;) As for the drawings, I first made it in a computer so that changes were all done on a single 3D view which could be exploded into the slices that you see. However, when it came time for the plan review with the county, they wanted something 2D. We did have a few iterations after things hit 2D, but we just had to keep track of everything to make sure the changes were propagated. You can actually set things up to do it automatically, but, for my drawings, it was just done the old fashioned way.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

@@Bill_N_ATX The secret to affordable software is an email address that ends in .edu. When I designed this house, I was working on my MBA, so I had a WPI.edu email address and was able to get all the software I could ever want for free. Normally, tools like Revit would cost many tens of thousands of dollars per year. In fact, it is such a good deal that if I ever had to do it again, I would sign up for a cheap course at a community college somewhere just to get the email address. ;)

[@LS-lm1po]

Would you consider building with aircrete

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

I tried it a bunch, many many samples. Some batches would just fail for no apparent reason. I ended up deciding it was not reliable enough for poured in place concrete and switched to EPS-Crete. That was very reliable and easy to work with. Eventually, I'll publish my videos on my misadventures with aircrete. But if you watch other videos (like aircrete harry who has commented on my videos several times) you will occasionally see one of his forms just fail. He focuses on the ones that worked, which is OK if you are making bricks and can throw away the bad ones, but if you are pouring in place, you can't afford collapse.

[@Conn653]

I'm not trying to be a downer here but you're going to have problems with the electrical outlets. You've installed them with the ground 'up' instead of ground 'down'. Ground 'down' is the standard for wall outlets. My existing house(built in 1972) has the outlets installed ground 'up' and 90% of fixture plugs are built ground 'down'. I've had to install a couple of 'flexible' outlets. The individual outlet will rotate to accommodate ground 'down' plugs. Save yourself a lot of headaches and re-install your outlets by flipping them 180 degrees so the ground is down.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

In our area, that is the recommended/standard orientation by the inspectors. Building code says either way (or sideways) is fine, but the actual outlet manufactures usually recommend ground prong up. The picture is right on the side of the package. The idea is that if you dropped something on the plug and it came partially out of the wall, the exposed prong that something might fall against should be the ground prong. The hot and neutral are protected better under the plug if they are lower. That said, almost all my plugs have no preferred orientation. They are just perpendicular out of the outlet. I can think of one extension cord that is designed to be more flush and I agree that one is a bit funny with the upside down plugs. I suppose, if I had a lamp or something that I was keeping in a specific spot, I could flip that outlet back again.

[@SandyWalsh]

I wonder if the long term heating and cooling savings will ever counter the carbon cost of all that concrete?

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Sure, here is a basic economic way of working it out. The cash cost of concrete covers the expense of all the fuel used to mine it, crush it, kiln it, transport it, mix it, transport it again, plus the cost of the people who work, profit margins, etc. I get all that for 100$ per cubic yard. There are no government subsidies helping out and it is still relatively cheap. Those dollars pay for the carbon footprint just as surely as your own heating and cooling bills pay for the fuel you use. Actually, there is much more concrete in the footing of a single wind turbine than in my house. How much per month do you pay for heating and cooling? Last winter, I had no heating system and it was fine (not quite comfortable because it wasn't really closed in yet). This past summer, I paid zero for cooling and the house stayed at 65 degrees the whole season. Lots of people pay $100 or more a month for heating and cooling. They are paying for their carbon foot print just as surely as I am with the concrete. A few years from now, I will still be getting heating and cooling savings and my carbon debt will be paid off. So lets say it is something like 1 yard of concrete offset per month. How long will the house last? It should last a heck of a lot more months than I have yards of concrete.

[@SandyWalsh]

@@SimonHomeintheEarth Thanks for a considered response ... appreciate it. Your comment about a wind turbine footing was on point. I think the dollar cost of concrete vs the carbon cost is out of whack currently. It should be much higher considering the energy cost to produce, but it's mostly done in other countries where the rules are less strict. But that said, given the current situation your math works. Hopefully countries will unify on the real cost. Again, thanks for the reply. Great project and thanks for documenting the process. Keep up the great work!

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

@@SandyWalsh If you wanted to compare the "carbon cost" with something else, such as wood framing, I would agree. I could say that the wood costs are more about owning the land and the Carbon is new and may actually spend more time sequestered in a house than it would have in the forest. There are too many differences to know where the money goes and what fraction is for CO2 emitting parts of the process. But for concrete vs heating or cooling, the vast majority of the cost of both is fossil fuel costs, so I think the basic economic analysis works as a relative measure. You can say that the "true cost" of dumping CO2 is greater than any dollar value, but then I would say that the same "true cost" applies for your heating and cooling costs, so exchanging a short term increase for long term savings seems like a good idea. Actually, I didn't even get into discussing that concrete is completely un-subsidized, so you are really paying for all that fuel, and at commercial rates. Home energy (heating and cooling and more) is heavily subsidized. In my area (and probably across most of the modern world) Commercial and industrial customers pay about triple the cost per kW so that the utilities can charge residential users much less than the actual cost of their energy. Similarly for natural gas, etc. If anything, that is the side that is hiding the true CO2 cost, relatively speaking.

[@mmac4047]

Since the concrete keeps absorbing co2 for many years the carbon cost would be reduced. See more details in the bio dome in az. Next is the significance of fire reduction potential, and energy savings due to temperature banking. I have not seen if you have a drain tile system to keep exterior of building on the dry. Where I’m at in oregon, waterproofing failures have been the failure of similar structures. They don’t have a drainage plan.