# Float house



## futz (Sep 17, 2009)

I'm doing a float home. First time doing one of these for me. Kinda different. I spent a half day laying out and then went away while they cut the ditches with a hot-wire cutter and did the steel. Then came back and roughed in the underslab to where you see here.

It's a bit difficult to get your pipes set precisely with the foam moving around.

The company doing the float is International Marine Flotation (IMF).











Liberty 380 pump. Looking toward the powder room & laundry. The carpet underlay wrapped around the pipe is to allow the pipe to be able to move a bit in the concrete "wall" if necessary.



















Looking toward the kitchen.






























The float in the background (in front of the office) is a small restaurant. It's just being formed up now. Almost all those PVC pipes are spacers for the rebar. They get pulled out as the concrete gets poured.










Close up of the sani discharge and water service ditch.




















Various other work in progress. They also have a bunch of floats being built on the barge in the background. That's the south arm of the Fraser River.










My old klunker work van.


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## Optimus Primer (May 20, 2009)

Interesting. I asked a dumb question then went back and reread it and saw what I was looking for.


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## Protech (Sep 22, 2008)

Never done anything like that. Pretty neat.


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## bartnc37 (Feb 24, 2009)

So where does the sewage go and the potable come from? Is it kind of an rv park set up or what?


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## futz (Sep 17, 2009)

bartnc37 said:


> So where does the sewage go and the potable come from? Is it kind of an rv park set up or what?


All the services are piped to one corner on the side where it chains up to the float (walkway). Services are run under the deck of that float to shore. I don't know details yet, but when I do the connections I'll take pictures and post here.


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## xyleman (Feb 2, 2011)

cool lookin job looks challenging and fun,thanks for the pics


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## Redwood (Sep 8, 2008)

What kind of shovel works best for digging in styrofoam? :laughing:

Cool Project! Thanks for the neat post! :thumbup:


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## futz (Sep 17, 2009)

Redwood said:


> What kind of shovel works best for digging in styrofoam? :laughing:
> 
> Cool Project! Thanks for the neat post! :thumbup:


Heh. :laughing: When you get there they hand you an electric BBQ lighter. Plug it in and start cutting anything that didn't get cut right on the original hot-wire ditch cut. They missed a few little things, but mostly did a pretty decent job.


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## Widdershins (Feb 5, 2011)

futz said:


> All the services are piped to one corner on the side where it chains up to the float (walkway). Services are run under the deck of that float to shore. I don't know details yet, but when I do the connections I'll take pictures and post here.


 I did a bunch of these in the 90's -- We always pumped the effluent up to the tanks on the dock with ductile PVC. The flexibility allowed the piping to move with the dwelling.


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## U666A (Dec 11, 2010)

You'll have to excuse my pure, unbridled ignorance...

But what the heck are you building?!?!?!


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## futz (Sep 17, 2009)

U666A said:


> You'll have to excuse my pure, unbridled ignorance...
> 
> But what the heck are you building?!?!?!


A house! :laughing: Three levels, two and a half baths.


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## Protech (Sep 22, 2008)

Seems like it would be easy to work with. Hot knife your way through it, lay everything where it needs to go, strap it down, pour foam back in.

DO NOT SPILL A CAN OF PRIMER


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## futz (Sep 17, 2009)

Protech said:


> DO NOT SPILL A CAN OF PRIMER


Strangely enough, PVC primer doesn't seem to affect the foam much. I splashed some by accident. But ABS glue definitely eats foam fast, so I had to be fairly careful about that. A splash here and there is no big deal, but dumping the pot would be bad.


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## shakeyglenn68 (Dec 29, 2010)

Maintenance free?? I'm sure someone will flush a pad at sometime in one. pretty cool stuff. Can dip a pole at anytime.


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## Protech (Sep 22, 2008)

Must not be XPS then.



futz said:


> Strangely enough, PVC primer doesn't seem to affect the foam much. I splashed some by accident. But ABS glue definitely eats foam fast, so I had to be fairly careful about that. A splash here and there is no big deal, but dumping the pot would be bad.


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## U666A (Dec 11, 2010)

Je ne comprende pas!


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## DIZ (Nov 17, 2010)

How does grading work when the homes bobbing around? I dont know a whole lot about float homes except every one I have been on is heavy on one side- usually the one im standing on.


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## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

Who inspects the work? A regular bldg. inspector or some maritime agency?


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## ironandfire (Oct 9, 2008)

Thats cool.


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## sNApple (Jan 19, 2010)

cool pics


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## futz (Sep 17, 2009)

DIZ said:


> How does grading work when the homes bobbing around? I dont know a whole lot about float homes except every one I have been on is heavy on one side- usually the one im standing on.


All you can do is grade it normally (1/4" per foot or better) assuming it's going to float level. If it doesn't then they'll have to ballast it to get it level. That's not my problem. This house will be in the Fraser River in Ladner, so bobbing will be fairly minimal. It will be up and down with the tides though - the Fraser is tidal at least as far up as Pitt River (EDIT: just Googled a bit - actually it's tidal all the way up to Mission) - should be interesting to see how it all works.



Tommy plumber said:


> Who inspects the work? A regular bldg. inspector or some maritime agency?


For the one I'm doing, since its final location will be in Delta, I get the local Delta inspector to do it. If it was being towed way up the coast to another municipality then I don't know how it's handled. I assume, in that case, that I'd either not bother with permits/inspections at all or still get the local inspector to do it, since it's being built in their jurisdiction.


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## Widdershins (Feb 5, 2011)

futz said:


> All you can do is grade it normally (1/4" per foot or better) assuming it's going to float level. If it doesn't then they'll have to ballast it to get it level. It's not my problem. This house will be in the Fraser River in Ladner, so bobbing will be fairly minimal.
> 
> 
> For the one I'm doing, since its final location will be in Delta, I get the local Delta inspector to do it. If it was being towed way up the coast to another municipality then I don't know how it's handled. I assume, in that case, that I'd either not bother with permits/inspections at all or still get the local inspector to do it, since it's being built in their jurisdiction.


I'm really curious to see how you pipe the waste discharge to the holding tanks on the dock.

Please remember to take a camera with you that day.

Thanks.


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## futz (Sep 17, 2009)

Widdershins said:


> I'm really curious to see how you pipe the waste discharge to the holding tanks on the dock.


Me too. I asked about it and they just kind of shrug it off and say you just couple up to the existing services (like it's real simple - I guess it probably is :blink. I think it's going to a place like you see in the first pic on this page, or something very similar, and the services are already all in place. Just sign zee papers, chain up and couple up your services?



> Please remember to take a camera with you that day.


I definitely will.


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## SlickRick (Sep 3, 2009)

If you get PO'ed at the neighbors, the house can be towed or pushed to another location?

What is the max. sq ft. for one of these?


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## futz (Sep 17, 2009)

SlickRick said:


> If you get PO'ed at the neighbors, the house can be towed or pushed to another location?


Yup. That's pretty much the way it works. A bit like a tornado magnet - you don't want to move them too often, but it can be done.



> What is the max. sq ft. for one of these?


I don't know, but on this page there's a pic of a restaurant & general store. Further down there's a theatre/display center they did. Fairly good size buildings, though not huge. I would guess it depends somewhat on local conditions, like how rough the water gets and how windy it gets in the area. The float has to stay rigid or your building will fall apart. Beyond a certain size you might have to add too much weight to maintain rigidity and it wouldn't float, at least with the concrete/steel/foam construction methods they're using? If they have to switch to steel then they're building ships instead of floats, I guess. Email them and ask. Or I'll ask when I'm back roughing in the above-slab in a few weeks.


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## 1703 (Jul 21, 2009)

Widdershins said:


> I'm really curious to see how you pipe the waste discharge to the holding tanks on the dock.
> 
> Please remember to take a camera with you that day.
> 
> Thanks.


I did some piping changes on some floating restrooms years ago. This was a building, maybe 40' square on its own pilings with the water and pumped waste coming from the floating dock beside it.

The problem was the waste outlet was piped out the side of the cast concrete and into the floating dock, then hooked up via hose. This left about 2" on the top and bottom of the sewer between the pipe and the steel frame of the dock. When the water got rough, the dock would bounce and bust the sewer. The pumps would then push sewage into the river.

We changed the location of the discharge and had some 4" hoses with cam locks made. IIRC, they were around 8' long. They got connected and anchored at each end with plenty of slack for movement.

Worked well I thought.


Cool stuff, Futz. Definitely a break from the everyday routine.


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## Airgap (Dec 18, 2008)

^^^^^I keep picturing Randy Quaid in "Christmas Vacation" dumping his RV sewer into that storm drain outside of Clark's house.....


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## 1703 (Jul 21, 2009)

Airgap said:


> ^^^^^I keep picturing Randy Quaid in "Christmas Vacation" dumping his RV sewer into that storm drain outside of Clark's house.....


That's funny!


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## U666A (Dec 11, 2010)

Airgap said:


> ^^^^^I keep picturing Randy Quaid in "Christmas Vacation" dumping his RV sewer into that storm drain outside of Clark's house.....


"Sh!tters full!"


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## Txmasterplumber (Oct 2, 2010)

My question is....... why water??? rent cheaper? running out of dry land?
Very cool though!


oh yeah, what engine? Merc 200?


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## futz (Sep 17, 2009)

Txmasterplumber said:


> My question is....... why water??? rent cheaper? running out of dry land?


Beautiful location, scenery and view. That area of the river, downstream of all the industry, is really very nice. The whole front of this thing - all three floors - is glass. So living room/kitchen on "ground" floor, I think bedroom on second floor and the master bedroom on top floor is all glass. It has a steel moment frame on that side to give it the shear strength to make that work.

Land around here is stupid expensive too, so I guess leasing a spot on the river is competitive.



> oh yeah, what engine? Merc 200?


Heh :laughing: Whatever's in the tug boat they use to tow it I guess.


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## futz (Sep 17, 2009)

I tried like hell to blow it off to another company but they didn't want it, so I'm doing the gasfitting on this thing as well. Bleh. I'd just as soon never see gasfitting again, but whattya gonna do? Just put in an underground line from meter to pier edge the other day. From there it's piped in black iron with rubber flexes at top and bottom of the ramp and a longer one from float to house.




Widdershins said:


> I did a bunch of these in the 90's -- We always pumped the effluent up to the tanks on the dock with ductile PVC. The flexibility allowed the piping to move with the dwelling.


I looked at the site and a few of the neighboring houses. There's city sewer to pump to, so no problem there. They're all piped in regular sched 40 PVC with flex PVC from house to float and at top and bottom of ramp.


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## DesertOkie (Jul 15, 2011)

great thread


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