Hoover Dam Tour

Hello everyone! It's been a while and I've got quite a backlog of posts.  Behind the scenes I've been taking quite a few photos, so without further adieu here are my photos from the tour of Hoover Dam (about a month ago).  Check it out!

Talk about a "hairpin turn"! This road leads to the old highway overtop of the Hoover Dam.

And here it is! One of the greatest Engineering marvels in the history of mankind.  Very cool!  The scale of the structure is impressive.

Yours truly! It was a very nice day, about 80 degrees.

This is my coworker and friend Sesh.

Another view of the dam.  This time you can see more of the lower area, where water exits the dam structure.  Also note the towers at the top, which are in fact the water intakes for the dam.

 Another photo of me.  Taken by Sesh.

My better side?  You be the judge.

This is very cool... these are post tension cables and are used on the hillside to improve the structural integrity of the rock.

 Old, meet New! This is the new bridge which bypasses the old highway overtop of the dam itself.

An interesting statue.  This depicts one of the workers suspended in an old-school rope harness.  This is how they worked on the rock face.  Often they'd carry heavy tools such as jackhammers, pry bars etc.

 There are a pair of these statues.  I like this style!

This is the old visitor's center.  The new tour is across the road, inside the dam itself.

Remember those water intake towers that I mentioned?  Here I am, up close and personal with two of them.

This  wrench weighs 105 lbs.  Wow...

An old photo depicting workers using wrenches like the one above on the old GE hydro-electric turbines.

Here we are on the tour, several hundred feet underground in solid bedrock.  This was very cool!

 This pipe carries the water from to the dam's power generating turbines.  You could drive two city buses side-by-side in it if one were so inclined.

The heart of the dam! These turbines generate an enormous amount of power.  The one closest to us is currently not operational as it is undergoing maintenance.

This smaller turbine provides power for the dam itself.  

That is a LOT of concrete.  Can you believe that it only took two years to pour?  These days the EPA study would take 10x that long itself.

The new bridge and gorge.  Magnificent!

Outside the tour center.  Lovely copper building.  

A gorgeous parking garage.  <--- Sure don't say that very often.   This one however, blends nicely into the landscape.

Catching Up! Subfloor Progress

Here is the partially completed floor.  Take a close look at the original, 101 year old plank floor.  These planks are old-growth wood, which is incredibly strong and has shown great rot and mold resistance.  These planks are 7/8" thick. The old subfloor rests on joists that are spaced 18" apart.  I put in >5000 new ring shank nails to tighten this down in order to prepare for the installation of the new subfloor.  I chose to use Advantech 23/32" OSB.  It has an increased moisture and water resistance.  This is important since the basement is a "fieldstone basement" and is a wet basement.  This means that the basement is not (and will never be), water-tight.

Here is another view.  Note my tool room.  This has steadily filled up as I've gotten further into the renovation project.  The halogen light is for when I work at night.  Also note my shop-vac.  I've filled and emptied this several hundred times in the past 6 months.

Each sheet of OSB / Advantech is glued and screwed down.   As well, it is "tongue and groove", meaning that the edges of the sheets fit together like Lego, increasing the rigidity of the final floor.

Liquid Nails!  This is the glue I'm using to hold down the flooring.   After this, I lay down the sheet, then use a laser and pen to mark screw holes along the joists.  This has to be exact, or else the screws will not have anything to bite into and the floor will exhibit play / movement and will likely develop squeaks.

Several sheets further along.  Starting to look much nicer!

Here is a close up.  OSB joints are offset, which improves rigidity.  Note the screws.  Each one is aligned by laser, then hand-marked.  Next I pre-drill each hole.  Then I switch to an "impact driver" and drive in 3" composite deck screws one-by-one.  This floor is not going anywhere!

Each sheet is cut to line up with the new 2x6 framing.  I'm done about 80% of the first floor now, and will try to finish it early this week.  This will lay the right foundation to install my Noritz combi-boiler and baseboard hydronic heaters.  With the recent New England snowstorm, some heat in this house would be very welcome.  I'll take photos tomorrow and post them to show how much snow we've gotten... it looks like a lot!