Windows

Posted on March 15, 2016 by eljenks

Most people have never seen windows like these. European style, tipple pain, argon gas filled, no thermal bridging, R-8 for the opening windows. German Passive House certified. KlearWall windows, the North American branch of Munster Joinery and are made in Ireland. Here is a thermal image of the windows performance. Out side air temp 15 and inside temp 65.

How they work: First the handle, when down the window is locked. Then, when at 90 degrees the top tilts in for ventilation. Lets air in but keeps the rain out. Also secure enough to leave open while your gone.

In the up position the window swings in. Wide open. The Europeans say they only do this for cleaning. A friend in a passive house says the same thing. He says the tilt opening is more than enough ventilation.

Note the latching mechanism. The windows latch in 4 different location to ensure an air tight seal.

Finishing up the Exterior

Posted on March 15, 2016 by eljenks

The siding is about done, they just finished up the porch columns, and the porch roof. On Saturday the painters started the exterior trim. First getting the dormer windows done so the roofers can finish the porch roof. They got a coat of paint on the columns and big family room windows. It rained Sunday and today so no more painting till tomorrow, or the next day.

Blower Door Test

Posted on March 9, 2016 by eljenks

Once the closed cell foam was applied the house should be tight, so we could do a blower door test.

The front door is blocked and a fan in installed. The fan sucks the air out of the house to a difference the house pressure at negative 50 Pascal. Pascal is a measure of pressure. A typical existing home might leak at the rate of 15 air changes per hour at 50 pascal. Our test It came out 780 CFM at 50 Pascal or 1.0 ACH50. That’s 1 air change an hour at a negative 50 Pascal. That’s tight, but……I was hopping to get it lower, a 0.5.

To achieve a Passive House rating 0.7 ACH50 is the target. I’m not shooting for a Passive House certificate but I’d like to get to a 0.5 ACH50. But most Passive Houses are box on box construction. My house is far from a box on box. In going over the house it was easy to see how all the roof lines make it extra hard to seal the house as if it were a box on box.

Finding leaks is more art than science. The fan is reversed, pressuring the house. We then look at likely places for leaks hold a smoke wand in the area looking at how the smoke behaves. We found some small ones but no big holes. We are going to do some research and give it another try before the cellulous is installed.

Moving inside

Posted on March 9, 2016 by eljenks

With the weather improving and the siding going on we could let the trades start. HVAC, plumber and electrician. And once they completed their rough-in work, finally we could let the installer spray the close cell foam. See the attached photos

Porch Pillars & Columns

Posted on March 9, 2016 by eljenks

Once it warmed some more and the siding installation was underway the mason could start work on the masonry pillars. First chimney blocks were mounted on the porch deck, filled with concrete, and caped. The columns are put in place and the roof is strapped to a rod imbedded into the pillar.

Again, not every thing lines up like the drawings. The beam on the porch roof wasn’t center on the columns and need building up. See photos.

And almost done.

Siding time

Posted on March 9, 2016 by eljenks

With the porch deck poured we could start the siding and get it looking like a finished house. But again the cold weather got to us, so cold the siding was brittle and would brake. The siders had to take a brake and come back after the cold snap moved on.

Ledger Board

Posted on March 9, 2016 by eljenks

Building a custom house isn’t for the faint of heard. All looks good on paper until you put the pieces together. Then you need a plan B or C.

We went to attach the deck ledger board and walla, it couldn’t be done. See photo.

Note that the floor joist are parallel to where the deck will be attached. But that end has a point. Because of the point and the parallel joists we couldn’t reach behind the joists to bolt the ledger board. Also, getting the insulation in would have been a big problem.

Solution: sister the third joist and install perpendicular joists. See photo.

The Ledger Board all bolted up.

Into Second gear

Posted on February 4, 2016 by eljenks

Yesterday they poured the porch decks, very nice work. Rob’s guys are finishing up the doors and some framing errors we found. Designing all the details for a custom one off house the has such insulation requirements isn’t easy, nor having framers follow the drawings. On the second floor a couple walls didn’t get doubled. And when we looks at attaching the ledger board we saw we couldn’t and we wouldn’t have been able to get the right amount of insulation because of the placement of TJI under the pointed end of the family room. I’ll take some photos tomorrow.

Most High Performance; Passive House; and Net-Zero house are two story rectangular in design. The second story the same size as the first, this makes lots of things easier. Our is not, thus some implantation challenges.

Yesterday and today the parking lot was full: plumber, Heat and ventilation guys, Rob’s guys. Everything is moving forward quickly now.

I’ve told the guys that nothing goes in the outside wall. Only things that are absolutely necessary and can’t go in an inside wall. The integrity of the “insulation envelope” is top priority. The plumber had some pipes that had to go in the inside wall. The HVAC guys put some of their pipes there too, but I had to get them to move them to inside walls.

Yesterday Photos:

Back in First gear

Posted on January 29, 2016 by eljenks

The cold and snow allowed the guy to finish the windows and doors all alone. Just waiting a extra deep threshold for the front door.

After getting plowed out Sunday evening and hiring two day labors to dig out paths to the house on Tuesday, way to much snow for the Gator. The concrete guys could prep the porches for the pour. The forecast says there is a burst of warm weather coming, three days next week, so we should be able to get the porch decks poured.

. Porch is now ready for the pour. Township inspection on Monday and pour on Tuesday.

Bad News

Posted on January 21, 2016 by eljenks

Bad news. The guys are installing the doors, but once they are done we will be idling. The next step is to pour the concrete porches, but because of the cold snap we can’t. The finished concrete has to have an over night temperature above 32 degrees to cur, and in the 10 day forecast there are none. We need the porch floors in to set the height of the siding. So the siding is on hold and the close cell foam doesn’t like the low temperatures either. Better to just wait for the January thaw.