Greenovision

Everyday Architecture: For the rest of us

2011-04-20T09:56:00.170-07:00

When I was in architecture school back in the early 2000's, I found myself falling into the trap of 'glory design' or 'reinventing the wheel.' While working on my thesis, I discovered that I was missing a crucial piece of the picture, which is that most of the built-world is devoid of 'good' design. Luckily, I found a book called Architecture of the Everyday, written by Steven Harris and Deborah Berke.

This book opened my eyes to a less glamor-oriented type of design, but more importantly, a typology of design for the common dweller. In Everyday Architecture, design revolves around function, form, and beauty, but with less emphasis on stylization and more on regional or local tradition (vernacular). The concern on is less on newness and more through the recycling of the old as well as a reduced budget rather than a maximum budget. Simplicity is a solution set over technological overpowering of issues like heating, ventilation, and aesthetics.

There are many reasons why architecture has been hijacked by glossy, over-stylized, expensive design practices which are not even environmentally sound. The profession in itself tends towards elitism due to an all-consuming focus towards 'white collar' professionalism, first starting during education, then continuing into internship and professional careers. Architecture has become a very expensive career. Most that follow its conveyor belt to 'stardom' not only need to make it pay off their education, but also have aspirations toward higher monetary rewards.

One of my neighbors exercises their creativity.

So how do we return creative, thoughtful, efficient, and affordable design to the average dweller? To start, it is important to not want what others have and instead, concentrate on what our own desires and goals are for our habitation. This sounds rather simplistic, but is very difficult for many to do in a time period where everywhere we look there is a push towards someone else's vision of what is important, cool, or beautiful. Let's take back our own vision and begin to create a uniqueness specific to ourselves, our family, and our needs.

Simplification of the home's necessities is one of the best ways to allow other creativity to come through. The home need not consume every dollar of the paycheck. Many of the greatest design ideas can come from our own ingenuity if we allow time to expand on our ideas, then do the appropriate research into such ideas. As Martin Heidegger put it, 'to dwell is to actually create or take part of the making of our homes.' It is sad to say, but the average homeowner is restricted in this day and age to their yard. Most 'home improvement' consists of mowing the lawn, killing weeds, or maybe growing a garden. It was not that long ago that most home owners actually built their home with the help of an experienced carpenter. Unfortunately, the modern housing industry has become a maze of technical and codified complexities, which cause most homeowners to feel unqualified to actually make or 'dwell' in their own home.

Many systems like heating, cooling, and ventilation have been hijacked by technological complexity. How many times I have asked a client what kind of heating system they have and where it is located and "they don't know". This is an example of the ridiculousness of this time period. We must return to 'knowing,' which will empower us to take back our homes. I have shown on my site much about organizing the home plan to maximize solar gain, to minimize overheating, and to promote cooling. These are rather simple systems that we can all understand and use to drive and support our homes' energy needs. What I am getting at is "Knowledge is Power'" once we strive to understand a system, then we can make it out own. Modern home design,however, often involves electronic gadgetry to make up for our own lack of understanding (and laziness).

I am not going to suggest that every aspect of home construction is DIY, but some are. Builders are often the worst in staying stuck in a building method or typology. It takes time to learn building systems and it takes know-how to actually build. With that, many builders stay with what they know and have built/contracted before. It is easy for a contractor to continue to use the same building systems because they know how to bid the project and how to specify which materials and subcontractors. This can keep them stuck in certain building typologies. It takes a certain type of builder, as with the client, who actually wants to learn new systems of heating and building. An open-minded client will find more potential with an open-minded builder. In other words, its is important for a client to look for designers and builders not for their websites' pretty pictures, but the content and hopefully some good looking design. Also, understand that not all builders are receptive to DIY or sweat equity.

A client's ability to help with the construction of their home is a difficult one to assess. Certainly the more a client knows about the design and construction method of their home, the better. However, building is a skill and it takes time to learn and practice, as well as physical fitness. Mistakes will be made along the way for anyone new to building, which can be costly and dangerous. The last thing a builder wants is for their client to fall off a ladder or run their hand through a saw-blade. Along this line, a contractor's insurance often will not want to know that a client is working on site. However This is real dwelling.

Home Remodels: Prepare for Rising Energy Costs

2011-02-28T14:48:00.613-07:00

A complete gut job will result in a more beautiful and efficient home...Eventually!

If you're considering embarking on a home remodel, think "energy savings" as a strategy. Energy efficiency perhaps isn't the most interesting aspect of a home remodel, but it is a crucial issue.

Let me make an analogy to a car: Many car owners want to do the fun maintenance to their car, like installing a new set of shiny tire rims or a new stereo system. But most often, their money would be better spent on having their timing belt changed and a new water pump put in. These seemingly mundane maintenances are what keep your car on the road; without their proper function, you have no transportation.

When maintaining your home, think "function first, aesthetics second." That is certainly not to say that some interesting architectural changes can't happen in the remodel; some functional changes are connected with aesthetics and energy efficiency. Real-estate appraisal is gradually moving towards valuing homes in energy efficiency. This sort of home-valuing is a bit behind the times, but is slowly moving towards estimating a home's worth not just by square-footage and number of bathrooms.

Most all scholars and analysts agree that we are now past Peak Oil and that fuel prices will exponentially rise. As we continue to turn past the apex of Peak Oil and start running into the next phases of oil depletion, many of the energy sources that we rely on now, like electricity and natural gas, will become more expensive. The current system of harvesting and refinement of energy sources relies on cheap oil. Everything from the manufacturing of new oil wells and electrical plants, the transportation of energy, and the installation of a heating system into the home all rely on oil. This point made, lets look at your home. How we can tighten down on home fuel consumption and save you money?

Seal up cracks in barnboard

When remodeling with a focus on energy-efficiency, first look for leaks. Air infiltration is one of the primary areas of concern when trying to achieve tighter efficiency in the home. Windows, doors, venting, and crawl spaces, are the easier areas that should be targeted. A cold, windy day is a good time to look for air leaks. Simply put your hand up to doors and windows- if you feel a draft, you have found a problem.

When looking for replacements to your old doors, choose quality, modern exterior doors that come with triple locks (locks on the top, middle, and bottom of door). These locks make a huge improvement on getting the door gaskets to seal completely. Old wooden doors are tall and not very thick; it is common that this type of door will bow end to end along the locking side. The only way to take the bow out of the door is to pull on top, middle, and bottom, allowing the door to fully seat against the gaskets. If you have an old, architecturally elegant door that you just can't part with, installing a storm door over the old door will help create an air space and should reduce air infiltration.

A modern, double-hung window installed to meet historic district regulation may be expensive, but will be a huge energy improvement in the long run.

New thermal pane 6x6-
a custom-built historic model

Replacing old windows or installing them in new locations can result in both energy and aesthetic improvement. Properly positioned windows allow natural light into the home and can help ventilate the home without the use of electric fans or air conditioning, saving you money. Windows also can allow for solar gain to occur- a source of free heat. Replacing old windows can result in huge energy savings. Old, single pane windows have very little insulative value, whereas modern glazings create resistance to air temperature change by having an airspace between panes and light filters. Most old windows have no insulation around their perimeters, allowing for air leakage. Modern windows typically have better seals and gaskets, are foamed into their hole, and are installed to be water-tight.

Framing in new windows

Replacing windows can offer a perfect time to rearrange how your home looks. You do not need plug the same window holes with the same window types. A fresh new look can be achieved with new strategies as to passive solar gain, ventilation and window typology (casement, awning, double hung, sliding). A rearranged window remodel plan can result in new views to the outside.

Adding insulation to your home is another way to improve energy-efficiency. In old homes, installing insulation can be tricky; each old home has its own set of battles in retrofitting new insulation. Roofs must be insulated properly as heat rises and will exit here, however, old homes typically have little to no roof insulation. Before the development of modern insulation, old buildings were designed to have an uninsulated attic that created an airspace between lower living spaces and the outside cold. The attic was not meant as a living space- it was too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. Historically, the attic was used as storage space, however, many attics today used as bedrooms.

Retrofit insulated attic

In many old attics, there is often not enough head room for lowering ceilings and add the appropriate thickness of fiberglass batten insulation and required vent space. Vent space is critical because it prevents damaging condensation from occurring, which can destroy interior materials. In Bozeman, Montana, the modern energy codes require vaulted ceilings to meet R-38 and flat or truss ceilings to meet R-50. For these reasons, uninsulated attics are usually retrofitted with modern rigid insulation or sprayed foam, the latter of which has better performance, but is more costly. (Read a past blog entry about insulation here.)

Old roof off

New third floor and properly insulated roof

Bye-bye dark, cold attic

Old attic became a new 3rd floor

In some cases, it is better to completely remove the existing, uninsulated roof and reconfigure it to create a usable space. By remodeling the attic into an additional floor, you can achieve interesting, high-up views as well as appropriate insulation and venting. I remodeled a home on Walnut Street in Portland, Maine (see write up here) where the existing attic and roof were completely removed. A new shed roof and floor system were built, creating a beautiful and spacious third floor. What had been a dismal, cold attic with no views became a penthouse with decks on each end and amazing views of Back Bay.

Insulating walls is another important home energy improvement. There are many ways of insulating walls, which are usually determined by the home's existing wall type, such as 2"x4" or 2"x6". When assessing a home's remodeling and insulation needs, I ask the questions like, "Is your exterior siding in need of replacement?" "Do you want new interior wall surfaces (drywall, plaster) because the old walls are rotted out or falling down?" There are different strategies depending on your home's condition. Assuming that the exterior walls are already insulated, one strategy to increase your wall insulation performance is to add furring strips and rigid foam to the interior walls. This works well with 70's style homes that were framed with 2x4's and insulated with R-13 fiberglass batten insulation.

'K' braces ... blown in cellulose nightmare

Very old homes have no insulation inside the wall cavities or have blown-in cellulose insulation. Blown-in cellulose was typically installed by drilling 2" holes into the exterior siding, then pumping the feathery, down-like material into holes at the top of each stud bay. Usually one can find evidence of this if there are bunged holes in the siding. Filling an old wall with cellulose only gives a R-value of about 13, which is not sufficient insulation. As condensation forms inside the stud space, the cellulose becomes damp, decreasing its insulatative value. Also note the image here, 'K' braces in the corners... blown in cellulose will not fill these voids. Only from the inside can one get to these places to insulate properly.

An old home's insulation level can usually be estimated by the plaster and lathe condition, which was the interior wall surfacing before modern insulation and drywall. If the lath nails are rotted out (see this blog) and the interior plaster, usually new windows, plumbing and electrical infrastructure are also needed. The interior plaster and lathe should be removed, then new studs should be furred out to meet the modern 2x6 wall. I remodeled a home on Gray Street in Portland, Maine where the walls are remodeled as such (read about that here). This is a expensive solution, but is really the best solution because all problems can be fixed at the same time. It makes no sense financially to remodel a home over and over again.

Insulating crawl spaces and basements can offer energy savings. Most old buildings have uninsulated basements; the idea was that used heating system kept the underside of the floor system warm. Some argue and uninsulated basement spaces are acceptable because the earth's temperature at that depth is warmish and that open walls and flooring makes the plumbing more accessible. However, this thought process was from the days of cheap oil. The earth is a giant heat sink with endless mass. By not insulation your basement or crawlspace, your are essentially attempting heat not only your home, but also the earth. To promote energy savings in your home, the floor system above the basement and should be insulated. If hot water plumbing is hanging down into this space, it also should be insulated.

Foamed-over brick foundation

Insulating the basement foundation with either rigid foam or blown foam is important to prevent external ground temperature from bleeding inwards. Keeping this space as warm as possible makes sense, but not by heating it with expensive fuel; allow the insulation to store what heat there is. If your basement has old single pane windows, you can cover them during the winter months with rigid foam board and caulk any obvious drafty cracks.

The warmth and beauty of stained concrete radiant

In homes with a decent southern exposure, it is possible to add a radiant floor to increase mass of the building and to promote passive solar heating. This can promote huge savings in heating costs. It is important that a designer with experience in passive-solar design develop the system are floor plan and layout to the south, as well as associated windows on that exposure. It is possible in certain situations to add an external addition on the south side of the building that has a slab on grade with radiant tubing. In some homes, where ceilings are taller than 8 feet, it is possible to install a 1.5" slab with tubing over the existing sub-floor. This must be evaluated by a designer or builder to ensure that the floor system is sturdy enough and that it doesn't cause elevation problems in between rooms, door heights and swings, etc.

If you are considering remodeling your home or are interested in home energy improvements, please contact Greenovision with any questions you may have. We have a lot of experience in many different areas of home remodeling and we would love to help you out.

Greenovision Awnings: Create a Welcoming Entryway with Natural Light

2011-02-27T17:02:00.158-07:00

Fresnel prismatic effect of polycarbonate Greenovision Awning

It is important that a home's entryways have roofs above the doorways, protecting the doors against weather. Snow, rain, sleet, hail and extensive UV radiation all have damaging effects on a home. Entryway roofs protect the threshold into the home from damaging moisture and creates a safe, snow and ice-free entry and exit. Most homes have 'hard roofs' over their entryways. By 'hard roof,' I am referring to a non-transparent, typical layered roof system, such as sub sheathing over rafters, flashing, tar-paper, then asphalt or metal roofing. These type roofing materials are expensive due to the labor of multiple applications of materials and in the end, create a dark and rather gloomy experience of entering into a home. Welcoming guests into the home is much more comfortable when the visitor and host can see one another well. Being able to see well breaks down feelings of uncertainty and makes for a more cheerful, less awkward welcoming.

In order to create a more friendly and welcoming entry, it is beneficial to increase natural light levels. However, it is still important to break down UV light and to protect the threshold and doorway from the elements. I have found that by designing and building awnings made with polycarbonate panels (greenhouse glazing), I can create a well-lit entry with the benefits of protection from weather and sunlight. The type of polycarbonate I use has a UV filter; it protects and preserves finished wood, increasing the lifespan of doors and other exterior materials.

In snow country, polycarbonate roofs, if given a minimum slope of 3/12, will usually slick off snow as soon as it falls. If snow does collect, it slides off the awning when the temperature is above freezing. Having a snow-free roof keeps the light transmittance up and the snow load down. Reduced snow loading allows the roof to be constructed with fewer rafters, giving a simple, modern, less-cluttered appearance.

What if your entryway is too bright? Polycarbonate roof panels are an excellent sunlight filter. There are different filter ratios designed into polycarbonate, which can be used to reduce sunlight levels. Polycarbonate has some interesting qualities that can also be used to create various visual effects. The panels are made of square cells that when lit, give off prismatic effects that broadcast over its surfaces. At night, lights can be aimed at the awning, causing the polycarbonate to look like a luminare. This effect makes a home's entryway stand out and come alive at night when guests are arriving.

Polycarbonate panels are sold in four-foot widths and can be cut at any length. No mid-span rafters are needed if the panels are fastened around the perimeter correctly. I usually custom-build the frames with welded metal for longevity. The metal frame will last through multiple polycarbonate re-roofs, but the polycarbonate panels will need to be replaced, as does all roofing. Polycarbonate is given a typical 10 yr warranty, but in my experience, it lasts much longer. Most of the time, I use a 16 mm triple celled panel, which has very good strength to weight ratio. Polycarbonate is flexible, unlike glass, which enables it to take hits from falling objects like hail, branches, and ice falling from roofs above.

Polycarbonate awnings can also be placed over large windows to protect them from Montana's fierce hail storms. In Spring 2010, Bozeman, Montana was hit by a hailstorm that shot golf-ball sized hail. Most all Bozeman homeowners needed to replace at least one broken window. A polycarbonate awning placed over a window prevents this hail damage. A polycarbonate awning is also helpful during Montana's hot summer. Although polycarbonate allows light to penetrate to the window, it breaks down heat and strong sunlight rays. This helps the home stay interior stay both cooler and naturally-lit.

The shadow line is of a filtered light, not completely dark

The proper design of each polycarbonate awning is crucial. Every home has its own unique architectural style, color schemes, layout issues, and structural details. It is important that each awning be designed to take these variables into account so that the results are aesthetic, efficient, strong, and add to the entryway a sense of welcoming.

I really enjoy building these unique polycarbonate awnings and have built them in many different sizes, shapes, and colors. A Greenovision Awning can be a beautiful and functional improvement to your home. Please check out the awnings section of the Greenovision website for more examples of previously built awnings.

A Small Home That Grows When You Do

2011-02-04T13:22:00.050-07:00

The following images are Greenovision computer generated models

Why build a small home? There are many reasons. In my past blog, I discussed the construction cost reasons; see that blog here. Just keep in mind that the "American Dream" of owning a home should not indenture you for life to a bank.

Plan to build small with the option growing as your needs and budget grows. Plan to save materials before the home is built. Plan on using quality recycled materials by designing them into the home and saving them before construction begins. Building an affordable, functional, and beautiful home is all dependent on design.

The home I am designing for myself employs these principles. The "tiny home movement" is valid in that it teaches people to live simpler and in smaller spaces with less clutter, however, it does have its short comings. I have friends that started with tiny homes (10' x 9') and it worked for a while, but guess what? When it came time to have someone over there was no room to 'entertain' them. These homes were just too small and were not designed to be added on to. So, they had to start over and build something larger.

This is where I am heading with my small home design- how to build small to get on a site affordably, but how to plan for addition of space as funds and more spaces are needed. The top rendering shows Volume 1 as the main volume, which is two stories. The other volumes can be added on later. This does take some planing so that wiring and conduits won't have to be rerouted. Also, with good planing and design, windows come out and an interior door goes into its hole making passage to the new addition. Another area of concern is where the new roof meets the old wall. This can be built into the exterior wall with flashing and ledger so that when it is time to add on, no siding has to be removed. Some siding looks rather nice as an interior wall, such as a vertical cedar board v-match or ship-lap.

open interior space of living area

Loft bedroom and desk

I have come up with several key ingredients to a small home design. One is, don't make it too small. Create a main space that gives ample room for a kitchen, a place to eat, and a place to entertain, meaning some nice seating with pleasant outdoor views. Such seating can as act as a place to sleep if a guest stays over if the couch is a 'fold out'. Give room for stairs that meet modern codes ( 7.75 inches of rise to 10" of tread usually). Have a loft above or a second story where you will sleep and can have a desk and closet space. Having a second story saves on roofing, insulation, and foundation.

By making this main volume tall, the home is prepared for lower, smaller additions to be easily added on later. Such additions can be another bedroom on the first floor, a mudroom with increased storage, and laundry and counter top space for gardening projects or household tasks that you don't want to be doing on the kitchen counter. Also, a main bathroom could be added to another side of the building at a later date or at the beginning. Which volumes you choose to begin with all depends on your initial start-up budget. Remember: building too small will make it harder down the road for adding on.

Don't forget that with good design, built-in shelving and storage can use space that once seemed unusable (under the stairs, etc). Efficient storage space is important in a small home. Many small homes never a plan for enough storage. This simply doesn't work and the residents often end up storing their stuff outside in the weather, cluttering up their site.

My home shown here starts out with a main volume that is 16' X 24' with a second story, or 768 square ft. The additional spaces are a bedroom at 12' X 13'-6" (162 sq ft), a mudroom at 8' X 10' (80 sq ft), and a bathroom at 8'-6" x 11' (94.6 sq ft) for a total of 337 sq ft more. All of the volumes together gives the plan a total 1105 sq ft. This is a very comfortable-sized home for a couple or small family.

The design of my home will change a bit when I find a specific building site. This home is designed for passive solar gain; there is a concrete slab floor to the south. Depending on the site, the concrete can either be slab on grade or a slab over a typical joisted floor system. I will configure some of the building to have a full basement for utility and washer/dryer if the site is conducive to this.

Cheaper land often has ledges, which makes a basement expensive. In this case, there will have to be an additional volume built for utility and laundry. Some of the foundation can be on piers, some can be crawlspace foundation, but those issues depend on the site.

I have posted this project under a new section on my website, www.Greenovision.com, that is dedicated to small homes. Check it out here. To see a similar small home that I designed and built in Maine, check out Liberty House.

The computer images and drawings shown on this blog were created by Mark Pelletier and are property of Greenovision, LLC. Beware of the copright monster!

Passive Solar Part II - Reduce your home heating costs

2011-01-22T09:35:00.022-07:00

If you are looking to build a new energy-efficient home or would like to see your existing home benefit from some much-needed energy improvements, it is important to work with an architectural designer who is experienced in passive solar design. I have designed and built many homes and remodels that see great savings in heating costs due to simple, yet skillfully implemented, passive solar strategies. The photo to the left is the living room of Liberty House, a small (why small see this link), sustainable, energy-efficient home that I both designed and built. The photo illustrates passive solar concepts in a nutshell: sunlight pours through a large South-facing window array, landing on a dark concrete floor where the solar heat is stored.

Although, passive solar design is simple in methodology, a designer who is experienced in passive solar strategies will ensure that your home's solar potentials are utilized most effectively. The key principles of passive solar design are as follows:
1. Building site properties must be evaluated and exploited.
2. The home must be designed so that it captures the solar radiation.
3. The home has a floor plan that is fairly open in order to promote convective air cycles.
4. Building materials must increase in mass for heat storage. i.e. masonry, concrete, stone, thick tiles.
5. Mass is in correct location in regards to solar aspect.
6. Windows or apertures are at right heights and face due South.
7. Building overhangs to the south are deep enough to shield the sun from the interior during the summer months to prevent overheating.
8. An aggressive strategy of cross ventilation through windows is designed into the building.
9. Windows are glazed with the correct type of glass. This type will change depending on its aspect i.e. facing North, East, South, West.

Every building site has its potentials and weaknesses in regards to utilizing the sun's energy. Sites that are sunny and fairly free of tall coniferous trees, especially to the southern aspect, have great passive solar potential. During the Summer, deciduous trees on the south side of the home help screen the sun in the summer to reduce excessive solar gain. During the colder months, deciduous trees drop their leaves, allowing the lower angled suns rays into the home.

Hills and mountains can either be an attribute or a hindrance to passive solar energy gains. An ideal situation is one where there is a hill to the west or east, but definitely not a mountain to the south. As this diagram shows, the sun angle in North America changes in its trajectory and angle through out the year. In the summer, the sun rises more to the Northeast and sets more to the Northwest. During mid day, the sun is directly overhead. In the winter, the sun moves to the South. It is due East as it rises in the morning and due West as it sets. Also, the sun angle is lower in the sky at noon, which allows maximum sun penetration into the home. A hill to the West is not necessarily bad, because the focus is to harvest heat mid-day during the winter. A hill will help keep the lower angle afternoon suns rays from penetrating into the home and reduces overheating and solar glare. This is also true for coniferous trees to the West. The same situation applies to hills and trees to the East, although it is not quite as important. In the morning, the temperature in and out of the home is a bit lower, so more sunlight not only helps to wake the inhabitant, but also helps to heat the home.

When designing a passive solar home, the main goal is to maximize solar gain to the south. The floor plan or layout is very important in achieving this. Ideally, your main open space is on the south side of the building. Having the living room, dinning room, and kitchen as a combination open space not only gives a spacious feeling, but also creates an ideal situation for direct solar gain. In these spaces it is common and sensible to have hard floor surfaces for easy cleaning. More importantly, these hard surfaces become the heat mass that capture and store sunlight from the south. Usually, more open living spaces allow for enough solar gain to occur and with a good layout, furniture can be kept clear of these surfaces. Note: Darker floors will increase gain, lighter colors reflect the radiation, which is not desirable for solar gain.

Making direct radiant gain work is dependent on the flooring mass. It is important that window heights are close the floor, so that the sunlight falls directly on it, without being blocked by soft-scape obstructions like sofas and chairs. Tables are okay because the sun usually will filter around the table legs. It is important to avoid floor rugs in this area. A minimum of 1.5" of concrete slab thickness as the flooring works very well because it holds sufficient heat. The slab can also have radiant hydronic heating coils, or "Pex," laid into it. It can be applied over typical 3/4" plywood subfloor as long as the joists span meet the increased load rating. On some South-facing floors, it is possible to pour slab on grade if the elevation of the building works out correctly. This can be poured up to 8" thick, although this is considered almost wasting material. The slab must be insulated to the ground with hard insulation or the floor will wick cold in and heat out. Proper insulation below such radiant gain surfaces is a must. Again, heating hydronics in a slab makes sense because relying solely on the sun's energy can be difficult when the sun doesn't shine for extended periods of time. Through combining passive solar heating and hydronic slab heating, there is much to be gained. Hydronic coils bring heat back into the system, which flows throughout the floors of the home, helping to reduce the need to frequently run the boiler. If relying on mass alone, it must be thicker. I know folks who live in Northern climates that rely on an insulated 6" concrete slab with southern glazing and just a wood stove. They live very comfortably through the coldest months. The concrete slab stores solar heat so well, they often don't have to light their wood stove for days.

How the mass works to your advantage has to do with its ability to store the heat and then emit it throughout the night-time hours. If concrete is not a desired interior floor, it can have masonry tiles or stone laid over it. Even a typical plywood sub-floor with 1/2" of durarock then overlaid with tile is better than no mass at all. This is common in remodels of homes for achieving more radiant gain.

As said before, it is preferable to have the windows close to the mass floor as this gets the sun's radiation to land directly on the slab closest to the glazing. It is advantageous to use specially-designed glazing on the South side of the home. Double layer thermal pane glazing with a low emissivity coating are the norm for passive solar gain (L-e 173). Note: The higher the Low E number, the less solar heat gain you will get, but it will have better U-value, or insulative properties. Higher series such a 300 and up Low E is preferable on the aspects of the building where one wants to reduce heat gain, increase insulative properties, and reduce ultraviolet radiation destruction of furniture and soft materials.

Cross-ventilation in a passive solar home is very important. Height differences of walls across the room promote cooling and air convection. I found that by having awning windows low to the floor on the South-side and a high awning windows on the highest walls, helps to promote a air draft that encourages air flow and convective cycles. The advantages here are very important because in the summer it encourages passive cooling or evaporative cooling. This is free air conditioning. Air pressure differences due to hot and cold differences in the building allow heat to escape through the awning windows. Air inlets create an upflow that encourages evaporation of moisture on our skin and gives the sense of cooling. Rather than spend a bunch of money on air conditioning, spend the money operable windows and a home designer with experience in convective design. You will save you money in energy costs!

In a nut shell, a home does not need to employ expensive and energy-consuming mechanical systems in order to heat and cool. The heat gained from a passive solar strategy will reduce yearly heating costs. By hiring a skilled designer to properly configure glazing, ventilation strategies, window layouts, and appropriate flooring mass, it IS possible to achieve a net zero home heating system. At Greenovision, we are passionate about passive solar design and other energy-efficiency systems and have a lot of experience implementing these strategies into new and remodeled homes. Please come to Greenovision for see how how passive solar design can save you money. See reasons to get off the corporate energy grid on my blog Part 1 of Why Passive solar?.

Why Passive and Active Solar Design? - Part 1

2011-01-17T08:52:00.020-07:00

Homes over the last 70 years have been built to rely on the grid system. Big Utility companies or corporations have had a bonanza with making home builders think this way in order to gain a monopoly on energy sales. However in order to move into an energy independence mode we need to rethink this antiquated system. The grid system has many disadvantages today.
The image above is of a liquid solar array on my neighbors home, Adrien Tanguay, who installed this system, he works in this field.

Grid system energy has relied on several factors and lies. Factor and lie #1, cheap energy. Cheap energy is a lie because there is no such thing or "you don't get something for nothing". Energy in America has been cheap while it was new in the finding. Coal, natural gas, oil when first tapped were cheap because the extraction was easy, at the surface, and there was lots of it. Today we have misused these sources of energy by overly relying on them and to the point where not only have we hit the down slope on oil well reserves but we have also destroyed huge tracts of land in order to mine and extract these resource. Of course big utility corporations have enjoyed their boom years and have hijacked the way most view energy.

Lie #2 is that energy inexpensiveness has not cost something. We have entered a time period of "Global warming" no matter what the corporations would like the general populace to think. Fossil fuel burning has led to the destruction of our atmosphere and in a very short 200 some odd years. At this time we must slow the singular reliance on these non renewable energy sources. Grid system methodologies hide facts about the dirtiness of their production. Because we cant see the massive energy plants we don't see the dirt, but our environment does and its sending us some clear messages at this time.

Lie #3 : Grid transmission of power is cheaper than making it locally. Grid transmission is only cheap because of mass numbers of customers, that is what makes it cheap as well as our good old federal government subsidizing such power for many years through breaks to the utility companies. These breaks are coming to the end with the E.P.A starting to send clear signs that stripping coal and new off shore oil wells will not be tolerated. So the resources will become more expensive and utilities will charge more in the future. Cheap electricity has relied on coal. Coal will become more expensive, and the burning of it to generate energy will become more expensive as the EPA cracks down further on emissions standards of carbon dioxide from these plants.

Lie #4: Local power production is unsightly, and noisy. Windmills, solar collectors, and wood burning yes have impacts but so has the grid system. Miles and miles of overhead power lines litter the roads, even woods, fields, and blight the landscape as a whole. At this point most of us just ignore it and don't see it because who really wants to acknowledge it. I guess we have gotten used to it in the very brief time since its introduction a century ago. But what we do recognize are things that are new.... and wind mills and solar collectors are relatively new... so we see them, but I would argue this is just for awhile... once homes employ their own generation systems they will not be so alien to us. Have you ever heard anyone say "wow those power towers are lovely"?

Lie #5: Local power production is more expensive. Well it is and it isn't. Much of the expense has to do with local resource availability. Heating by wood stove makes sense in areas that renewable wood sources are plentiful. Wind produces electricity makes sense where there is wind. Solar electric power and passive solar heating make sense where there is ample sun. There are combination of energy gathering systems where the region has a little bit of both. There are other energy sources as well locally available that we do not use due to our dumbed down monolithic grid system energy reliance. The expense often comes in hiring experts to assess the needs of a home in power and which systems make sense in the making of it there on site. The apparati that make the energy usable on-site are initially expensive due to installation and material but the life cycle cost brings this down over time. If our government would subsidize this type of local energy production rather than the corporate energy I would say it would in the end "pan out".

Grid transmission of energy is fairly inefficient when you look at the losses of energy over the lengths of the power lines or 6.5% in 2007. The infrastructure is also expensive in cost, material, and unsightliness. With increased needs throughout the USA electric transmission can be unreliable found in the form of Black outs. Oil, natural gas all require shipping which is dependent on cheap oil which as we must realize will run out.

Pluses on localized energy production and utilization are that it uses locally available natural and renewable energy resources. It promotes and creates local jobs involved in home energy assessment, installation, manufacturing, harvesting of wood, and design. Using local energy keeps home inhabitants connected to their energy consumption which often promotes energy saving. When home occupants have to think directly about their energy usage they tend to me more frugal whereas with grid type energy and petro/gas utility purchase power it is more abstract by being reduced to dollars. A simple example of this is wood heating, home owners that heat with wood have a pretty good idea of how much wood they need to cut, stack and split in order to make it through the winter and they typically are good at rationing the usage of it. See my blog on radiant heat wood stove retrofit. Oh by the way some might argue that wood burning is dirty... modern wood burning boilers have come along way and do meet EPA standards see this article.
It is easier to make small energy systems less impactive because they dont require train loads of coal. Some might argue that each one of the energy producing systems need to be manufactured. This is true but with simplicity there is less infrastructure, my belief is that it balances out over shipping and grid transport. Also in this same vain your home already has furnaces, meters, wiring, etc its just that its not set up to utilize energy found nearby.

My next blog will deal with passive solar and implementation in the home. See write up here

Wood stove heat exchanger , pretty hot

2011-01-15T17:19:00.017-07:00

Just wanted to report some news about my Brothers shop that I designed and built called Werkhaus... see the project here
Yep my brother has finally finished off the heating system with the help of Norm Walters, a radiant heating tech, its kind of exciting because its the final product of a giant experiment started about 4 years ago. To give the overall picture of the scheme of the heating system please see this pic first, oh and this one too they diagrammatically says a lot about the general idea we had years ago.
Originally we started with radiant heat tubing in the concrete slab, and phil used a wood stove up till this fall to heat the building using the fan systems to move heat around the building. This really was lacking though because Phil has to work on cars while on a dolly on the slab...really kind of cold down at that level. So he knew that getting the slab up and running as the heat source would be the ultimate solution.

Phil is on a budget so a typical on the wall, on demand propane condensing boiler was out of the question, at least for now. Originally Phil and I came up with an idea...What if the wood stove came with a heat exchange manifold? Would this do the trick and provide enough heat to run the slab? Well the answer is yes, but it isnt quite that simple. Norm Walters filled Phil in on the possible scenario that might make it all work. What it comes down to is you need a tank to store the heat, and this tank it was decided needed to be well insulated and preferably do some heating too. So a couple of years ago Phil purchased this unit
Then he had Norm hook up his wood stove which came with a very simple heat exchange coil by using a typical manifold and pump system like this.... Well to make along story short... he got this hooked up to the slab with a typical manifold system and ran it straight off the wood stove but guess what? It just wasnt enough of a heat coil on the stove to make it work or run warm enough. So he resorted to running off the electric hot water heater , and guess what... his electric bill went nuts. So Norm found a copper coil from some old refrigerator unit and installed it on the top of Phils wood stove to increase the heat capturing capability of the stove and water tank. I am making this sound all quite simple but in reality... it took some fiddling and some pumps, and guages, and sensors, thermostats, and electric meters to make it all work, along with some rather confusing diagrams...I cant figure it out too much but what I do know is that Phil is quite happy with the fact that he is running his concrete slab with the wood stove and looks to save some electricity this winter... he sounds kind of excited about it and I would have to say that makes me happy... With some work it is possible to make these systems happen, and it does help to have a radiant heat techy on hand like Norm.

See if you can figure it all out from the the pictures I provided. I understand the concepts but and not really on top of the electrical and plumbing part.

Why small homes?

2011-01-07T12:58:00.074-07:00

Why build a small(er) home? In America, historically there has been plenty of space to work with, which has set up the paradigm that 'big is better'. Currently, the norm in selling homes is by advertising floor plan square-footage and numbers of bathrooms/bedrooms. This is a vague way of describing a home and lacks many truths about what actually makes a home appealing , healthy, and affordable. With land values escalating, building materials and labor costs increasing, and energy costs on the rise, big houses become a burden. Small homes are the future of home construction. Affordability, coziness, and sustainability are achievable in small homes.

Small should not bring thoughts of cramped, compartmentalized, stuffy places. Small in floor plan can feel large spatially if properly designed and laid out. Some attributes that make a home intimate to the inhabitant are:

1. The design layout and how the inhabitant uses the spaces.

2. How volume influences perception of spatial scale, either cozy or grand.

3. Crafted details of the home and how they influence how the inhabitant feels.

4. Window orientation has a significant influence on how we feel within the home, but unfortunately, natural lighting and views are often left out of the picture in home design.

Plan of 1400 s.f. passive solar 'Liberty House'

When a home is reduced in scale, it becomes manageable. Infrastructure scale/sizing, material consumption and associated waste reduction, natural lighting or day-lighting transmittance, heat transfer, building lot size and town setback requirements, roof water shed or run-off, and energy demand are easier to analyze in a small home.

Infrastructure scale pertains to utilities like heating, electrical, plumbing, and communication networks. It may seem obvious, but the escalation in building scale increases the lineal footage of communication cables, waterlines, sewer, venting, electrical lines, roof gutters, and even walkways. Every one of these infrastructures, when reduced in scale, simplify design and construction in time, cost, and technology. What this means is a trade off: less infrastructure, more budget for the aspects of the home that make it client specific, comfortable, and beautiful.

The scale of the home directly relates to the lineal footage of construction materials that are both hidden and exposed. More wall length and floor area equals more roof area. A large home can lead to a runaway budget. Every single exterior surface needs to be insulated and the interior covered with finish materials. In many larger homes, building materials are cheapened in order to bring the budget into check. Instead of being built with beautiful and durable materials, large homes are constructed with cheap, generic, and short-lived materials.

The interior of a large home often suffers due to budget. Generic usage of cheap materials like drywall or paper based window, door, and baseboard trim are what the inhabitant lives with. Certainly, the flooring/carpeting will not be of any longevity either in order to cover the many square feet needed. For example, Pergo may look like wood, but it is just a very thin veneer of wood over paper, which when wet will expand and fall apart. Most of these cheap interior products not only look fake with fake wood grains and textures, but are also unhealthy. Most of these products are filled with glues and toxic resins. They usually are not meant to be left in their natural state and must be painted in order to look good.

One of the largest expenses in home construction is labor. Cheap materials require initial labor to install. Sadly, due to their short life cycle, more labor is required down the road in order to tear them out and reinstall once they fail. This is where a huge compromise is made with most modern, large-scaled homes. Cheap materials are wasteful not only because they fall apart and must be replaced, but also because they are mostly non recyclable. "Built to last" is the way to save money in the long run; this requires using quality materials and construction methods. Reducing a home's size makes a "built to last" home possible to build without taking out huge loans. Quality materials look better and can be crafted rather than 'installed' to give a home unique and lasting qualities. Certain materials carry not only visual impact, but allow the home to function more efficiently. For example, designing a stained concrete floor into a home not only adds to the durability of the floor, but offers mass for a passive solar heating strategy. Stained concrete floors are attractive and do not require additional flooring, reducing the total materials needed.

Rufus the cat loves radiant heating

Smaller homes, compared to large homes, share natural light better across the building, especially if the main living spaces are kept open. In large homes, natural lightly is usually cut up or blocked by walls and compartmentalized rooms. A lack of natural lightly and views of the outdoors causes rooms to feel gloomy and requiring more electric lighting and associated infrastructure.

Daylight and views present everywhere in this computer simulation

Views and daylighting

A smaller home footprint reduces spans of rafters and joists, eliminating the need for midpoint bearing walls. With fewer walls, window views and natural light are shared across the building, reducing electric lighting energy. Living in small home with well-placed windows allows the inhabitant to feel more connected to the outdoor environment. Window views can be arranged to connect the inhabitant with trees, sky, and wildlife. Window views provide the home with 'natural decoration.' Natural light also tends to kill mold and mildew, due to its ultraviolet wavelength.

Passive venting or across room airflow= cooling

Having fewer walls also encourages airflow throughout the home. Air movement, or convective cycles, keep the building fresh and not as stagnant, creating a healthier environment for the inhabitant. Air convection set up by heat and cold promotes an even heat exchange throughout the building without the need of fans or air-conditioning apparatuses. During the hot summer months, windows around the home can be opened to create a pressure difference across the building. This pressure difference is due to heat differences between the sunny sides and shady sides of the building. The pressure differences set up a small airflow and encourages evaporative cooling.

Large homes require more windows and doors, which are one of the more costly materials in home construction. Because of this increased cost, builders often install 'economy' windows and doors that are made from cheaper, less environmentally-sustainable materials (such as vinyl with inferior gasket systems). Because a small home intrinsically has fewer windows than a large home, quality, energy-efficient windows can be purchased and designed into the building. Although more expensive up front, quality windows and doors ultimately save on home energy expenses.

When choosing to build a small home, plan to build small with the option growing as your needs and budget grow. Plan to save materials before the home is built. Plan on using quality recycled materials by designing them into the home and saving them before construction begins. Building an affordable, functional, and beautiful home is all dependent on design.

As one can see, there is truth to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's expression "Less is More". In this time period with rising materials and labor costs and energy becoming more expensive, small homes make more sense than large, cheaply-built, inefficient homes.

Metal Roofs: The Sustainable Roofing Choice

2011-01-06T14:09:00.008-07:00

In a previous blog post, I discussed the many cons of asphalt shingles. Now I will discuss a better alternative to asphalt shingle roofs: Metal Roofs. Now I know some will say that metal roofing has high embodied energy and is not on the sustainable list, but I have to disagree because it last or out lasts probably 3 of 4 even more asphalt shingle reroofs, this is a serious consideration. Greenovision believes strongly in metal roofs as they last very well, sometimes up to 100 years. The thickness of metal is important- thinner sheeting will dent if large hail hits, which as the climate change is suggesting, will occur more frequently. 24 gauge is heavy; 26 a bit thinner, but both will work fine.

I like standing seamed panels that are 18" or less; they will not leak if detailed correctly. A panel larger than 18" will oil-can when it heats and cools. Expansion is an important consideration, but more metal roof companies are well aware of this and it is mostly a problem in very large roofs. This image shows additional panel structure or striation to help avoid oil canning.

Depending on where you live and the type of home you have, but may have Historic Preservation rules. Historic Societies sometimes make a big deal about metal roofing not matching the existing vernacular, which in many very old homes is often slate. Slate roofing is excellent, but very expensive. Unfortunately, Historic Societies consider asphalt a reasonable simulation in look, but they never consider its longevity. If you must go this route a simulation slate from Eco Star is a 50 yr product that is made fro 80% recycled materials consisting of old tires and plastic. From the look of it on my neighbors home it has handled hail very well and looks better than asphalt , it does look like slate. I have never used the product but I think I would it I had to. Below is a picture of it on my neighbors home Adrien Tanguay.

When considering using a metal roof, it is important where the snow will fall once shed from the roof. Metal roofs eliminate snow as soon as there is a melt and when it slides off, it usually does so in one giant avalanche. Below is an example of snow shed from a metal roof onto an awning and then from that. It can really pile up.

There are snow guards that can be installed to the roof that hold the snow so that it doesn't fall on a walkway or door way all at once. These work well in that they allow the snow to melt on the roof in areas of concern. There are different styles of snow guards. Gutters often need to be installed in these places. If your home has problems with ice damning, metal roofing will help solve problem because ice cannot cling to metal as it does with asphalt shingles.

Metal roofing comes in a wide variety of pleasant colors to match details of your exterior. Most metal is a galvanized steel aluminum alloy, which resists rusting. The color coatings need to be quality. Anyone that gets on the roof should be careful to not scratch it as metal is very slippery and is not as attractive when scratched.

Metal roofs cost more up front than asphalt shingle roofing, but because metal last much longer than asphalt shingles, the home owner ultimately sees huge maintenance savings. Also because metal lasts longer, it is a much more sustainable and environmentally-friendly alternative to asphalt.

Here is a company that shows some images of metal roofing and application. If you have any questions about my experience with metal roofs, please feel free to contact me.

Asphalt shingles: What's wrong with them?

2011-01-04T08:37:00.005-07:00

Asphalt shingles: the unsustainable roofing choice. Studies show that climate change will cause stronger and more frequent hail storms and other weather patterns. With hail the size of golf balls, asphalt shingles don't stand a chance. The numbers of homes in Bozeman, MT that have been re-roofed since the devastating Spring 2010 hail storm is a message to local builders and homeowners that this product is not a cost-effective roofing material.

Asphalt shingles are unresistant to hail and dramatic temperature changes. They only last an average of 15 years. When old, nonfunctional shingles are removed from a home, they usually are not recycled and end up in landfill. "The amount of asphalt shingles that goes into landfills on an annual basis is approximately 7-10 million tons." If asphalt shingles are recycled, the recycling product often is not safe nor environmentally-friendly For example, one recycling company sold tons of mulched asphalt shingles for landscaping. "In 2004, the DEQ determined that the mulch contains toxins such as arsenic arsenic and polyaromatic hydrocarbons in concentrations higher than those considered safe for soils at residential and commercial settings. The agency directed Darold Smith, owner of the Springfield manufacturing site, to stop selling the mulch to homeowners and nonindustrial firms" Read more about that here: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/The-Dirty-Truth-About-Asphalt-Shingle-Roofs/670123#ixzz13NkvJouD

Many builders that advertise their company as "Green" frequently install asphalt shingles. I find this to be highly contradictory. The health aspect of asphalt and fiberglass shingles is also questionable. People who install shingles are at serious health risks. "Fiberglass shingles have a base layer of glass fiber reinforcing mat. The mat is made from wet, random-laid fiberglass bonded with urea-formaldehyde resin. Fiberglass reinforcement was devised as the replacement for asbestos paper reinforcement of roofing shingles." By tearing, cutting, breathing, and handling shingles, workers are exposed to carcinogens. Asphalt itself is a dirty industry based on petroleum and its associated distillates. The off-gassing of such additives occurs when heated. According to the warranty on the shingle packages, the shingles must not be laid in the cold, meaning that they should be installed when its warm. That's when the shingle heats up and starts to off-gas. Many shingles are now made with a mild algicide and/or fungicide. Usually this is a copper compound, but may be a more complex chemical.The health effects and stats can be found here.

"WARNING: The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has concluded that fumes of heated asphalt are a potentialoccupational carcinogen. Do not burn asphalt roofing products."

How long do asphalt shingles really last? The shingle companies claim that asphalt shingles will last 25 years, however, they also explain that this warranty is under ideal application, location, temperature, and installation practice.Studies show that shingles do not last as long as the roofing manufacturers claim. "According to the insurance industry, an asphalt roof that is over 17 years old has zero value in the event that there is a loss. The insurance industry has also stated that there is no reliable testing that has been done on these products. " Asphalt shingles usually last longer in cooler climates than warmer ones. Thermal shock, when the ambient temperature changes dramatically within a very short period of time, is damaging to the shingles. Read more about longevity here: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/The-Dirty-Truth-About-Asphalt-Shingle-Roofs/670123#ixzz13NoL97QF

Frequently re-roofing your home ultimately causes your roof to leak. When nailing down asphalt shingles, the roof boards or under sheathing are perforated with a nail nail every 8 -12 inches. Rather than protecting your roofs, installs asphalt shingles just adds more holes. When your shingles fail and the roof is leaking, it is very difficult to patch the roof. Usually, a leaky, overly perforated roof must undergo a complete re-roof, which is an expensive project.

So, what is good roofing? Read my follow-up post that discusses Metal Roofs: the sustainable alternative.

Latest Polycarb Panel-Sided Movable Garden

2010-06-28T09:27:00.007-07:00

Some images of latest Movable Garden design using lexan as avtransparent side wall material.
More grow boxes here and here.

New Awning completed

2010-06-24T08:27:00.004-07:00

Just wanted to release a few pics of my newest awning.

More Here

Movable garden Blog is up!

2010-06-13T07:53:00.006-07:00

Our new blog for Movable gardens is up! Take a look- you could be growing veggies on your apartment deck!

Greenovision Movable Gardens

2010-05-26T06:19:00.010-07:00

Emily and Mark's Movable Gardens.

Hi all. Emily and I are proud to introduce you to our newly designed and built Movable Gardens. They are built with our love and care and can be built in almost any size as long as we can lift it! Unlike other plant boxes, ours can be moved by pushing on large inflatable wheels... Yippee!
Our boxes also come with a Polycarbonate lid (greenhouse plastic) that and keeps your newly sprouted seedlings cozy at night by retaining heat and keeping the frost off. During a sunny day ,one must open the lid or else the plants will be "cooked". A Movable Garden works very well in the spring because it gets the soil temperature up and gets your seeds to germinate.

Emily and I would love to build one for you, so just give us a call to get your order in.

3' X 3' model

Taking orders for Awnings

2010-05-10T14:33:00.004-07:00

Hi all. Just wanted to get the word out that I am ordering up polycarbonate panels for this summer of awning construction. I hope you will give me a call and get me out to talk about your awning needs. Check out my awnings here. Call me at 207-749-6065 (my cell number). I am located in Bozeman, Montana.

Desk and Bookshelves for my folks

2009-11-22T09:29:00.008-07:00

Well Just finished this beautiful desk for my Folks. It was the last detail to their new home that I designed and built several years back. You can see other parts of this home by following this link.
http://www.greenovision.com/folks.htm

Windows!

2009-10-09T12:37:00.004-07:00

October, we find ourselves hustling to get things closed in. The windows are going in and it feels good…finally the place is shaping up. And it’s a good thing too. This week the weather has started to head in the direction where you know the days are becoming numbered for good outdoor working conditions. Soon the drywall will start to go up and 67 Grey street will start to seem livable again. Its been a long strange trip!

October already!

2009-10-03T08:26:00.004-07:00

Well some new photos…. Built the new deck and staircase to the second floor. Emily and Carlos have pains-takenly almost finished the Tongue and groove ceilings. Jon has been working hard in all directions physical and mental pondering financial difficulties, and scrap’n the old siding off... hang on Jon!

Some of the Northstar woodworking custom made windows have been delivered by Scott Reeves himself. We are slowly putting them in… its not like slamming in new windows into a new house… this is fussy stuff. There is a lot of prep work in order to get the new windows into the old holes, seems like it takes every tool we have to get it done too.

When we started in on the front of the building there have been staging issues… how do we get way up there to put that top window in? And when we finally got staged ‘way up there’ we realized there was no sense to just put in the window so this opened up a can of worms. Remove old siding, scrape old paint, paint trim… etc. In any case some of the work has revealed good news like the high gable wall is sided with a beautiful shiplap fir … and that the siding is maybe save-able with the right paint and putty.

It’s gradually getting colder here in Portland and we are working faster and harder to get ‘her/him’ closed in before the cold howling winds of Canada come.

Also to note … Emily and I have unfortunately become commuters for the month of October… driving down everyday from Harpswell area for the days work… I have to commute and it makes me feel stupid. It’s a whole 2 hours of our day to make the drives and pretty much has ended our ability to have an hour run or bike each day… oh well this isn’t for ever we tell ourselves, and it is a beautiful place to wake up.

To anyone interested out there… we don’t mind folks stopping by to see us… its lonely on this kind of job, isolating , and mind numbing hours… so drop by and rip a piece of old green siding off… we would love it!

Latest . manifolds..concrete, ceilings, and cellar insulation

2009-09-23T04:56:00.009-07:00

And for those wondering about the pics of me and the guys sitting around from last blog entry... no we don't just sit around all day drinking beer. That's an after work duty. Next 67 Grey st. Blog Here

a new crew equals new energy

2009-09-20T16:41:00.008-07:00

Well a new crew came to help...blacky the cat, Carlos from Manhattan, and Tucker too. These photos are a testimony of much work, not all fun, but hell its a job that is finally cleaning up. I love to bore people with images of insulation...about as boring as installing it...just ask Emily and Carlos they love to insulate...its insulting.

ripped into the back of the beast

2009-07-21T17:39:00.010-07:00

Well today was the day that we would find out what was under the floor, and yes hopefully not a beating heart. The lads were on hand, Silas, Parker. Emily assisting in all areas of demolition removal, and screaming when the bees attacked from under the floor. And Jon managing and assessing all grim findings... which there were a number of. The never-ending hearth of bricks that eventually led to a harvest of field stone. The chimney of solid dirt, and mystery cylinders. And the normal pipes of all sizes, wires galore, and dirt, insulation dust (itchy stuff) and dirt, more dirt, oh nails old rusty nails, and dirt. We cut up the floor, pried it up, threw it out, and what did we find, a hole of dirt, strange framing method, and dirt. So what we do now we will see. I am going to sleep on it myself, one should never mix a day of demolition with design thoughts, the two need to be separated by at least one nights rest. Next blog on 67 GreySt

On Old Plaster, can I save it ?

2009-07-09T02:38:00.010-07:00

Here is a really exciting topic! Old buildings and old plaster. Everyone wants to save the plaster because it is so damn much work to remove it. Is this a wise choice? Well, there are number of things to be taken into account about old plaster. For one, old buildings (when I say old I am talking 100 plus years) didn't have insulation for many many years, this is a problem to the plaster. The plaster in a building in New England with no insulation is doomed. Over years and years moisture builds up in the wall cavities due to the extreme temperature difference between the indoors and outdoors. This causes the condensation point to occur inside the cavity... what this means is the lath nails rust away over time. A lath nail is a very small diameter cut nail with no corrosion resistance, it is the weak point. Once the nail rusts through the lath is essentially detached from the wall studs. What happens next is that the movement of the building (these old building do move, foundation issues, and improper loading cause deflection and uplift) flexes the plaster wall. Over time cracks begin to show, from this point on the plaster is doomed. After years of movement the lath nails are rusted through and the lath is essentially detached from the studs. The only thing holding it there is the hooking action of the plaster. When the Plaster is troweled onto the gaped lath it smears through the gaps and blobs to the inside of the wall cavity creating a hook which once hardened holds the plaster in place, kind of like Velcro. The lath itself is rough sawn so it assists in grabbing the plaster too. Once the lathe is detached and the heaving and settling of the building work on it the 'hooks' of plaster shear off (partly due to the moisture inside the wall cavity causing the plaster to become soft and punky); once this occurs the plaster begins to fall off the walls. Well I know some Mr fix it will say that you can use a washer headed screw to hold this ailing plaster on, its a short term fix. Especially when it comes to ceilings, gravity works on the plaster and literally the ceiling falls in, and I mean large chunks of heavy plaster, a real headache. So what most Mr fix it types do next is to patch the bad spots with drywall, or they drywall over the plaster to cover it and to hold it on. All of this type of remedying the ailing plaster is even more of a blight to the 'old building'....it is adding more dead weight to the structure, and most of these structures were under built in load bearing design. The floors were often over spanned or the distance the joists run from wall to wall or beam was too far for the depth of the joist. Most old buildings used square joists because the economy of milling beams is such that you can get more squares out of a round log than taller boards. Taller is better in joists and beams when you talk floor deflection as long as there is blocking to hold the joists upright. Getting a bit off the subject here, back to the plaster, so more dead weight is added and now the building is groaning under the weight. This is very bad for the structures beams and joists. Because the old builders didn't have metal joist hangers like we use today, they notched the beams and joists together as a form of joinery, sometimes a mortise and tenon connection, they thought this was superior workmanship but as we can see in old buildings it was a mistake to notch. The notches reduce the total effective height of the joist or beam and under years of loading splits will occur in the timber beam at the notches. So the modern re-modeler that is too lazy to make a mess and clean it up that plaster removal causes adds more layers of remodel weight to a structure already ailing in load carrying capacity. This is so chronic in old homes that it is not unusual to peal 6 or 7 layers of wood paneling, drywall, more paneling, wall paper, then plaster and lathe. In the end no builder is willing to take down the layers to the start because its just hell. It is time consuming, it is dirty, it is dangerous, and it is expensive. And after days of work the wood frame is revealed...only to show sagging beams, cracked joists at notched ends, settled and sagged floors, etc... Also once you peal all this off and clean up the mess you will usually have to bring everything up to modern code. And if not mandated to do this by municipal building codes the builder will usually suggest a complete modernization because it is so much work to do this plaster removal you should bite the bullet and really fix the building . This will include a full redo of the wiring, insulating meaning furring the walls out to accommodate reasonable priced insulation, and creating a consistent stud layout that will accommodate drywall (16" or 24" on center stud spacing).

So in a nutshell if you want to buy a building with old plaster that shows cracking, you might want to reconsider ...this is a very expensive proposition. And if you do buy such a building and think a quick cover up with a skim coat of plaster is going to do the trick, well it wont last, the building will most likely be energy inefficient in that it still misses proper insulation, and worse a chunk of ceiling plaster might fall on your head as you freeze to death in your bed on a cold blustery winter night.

How about new construction? Why not spend your money where it can go towards building what you really want rather than demolition and reconstruction of what most likely is at the end of it's life cycle anyway.

A work in progress

2009-07-07T04:19:00.005-07:00

Hi all, just merrily working away here, wanted to throw a few images up of our furring and insulation job....I know extremely interesting....not!

And a word of advice for all of you out there looking to buy a ancient decrepit historic building...please if you do....don't call me I am up to the elbows in filth and soot. Emily puts it that the building takes a crap every night, and it sure seems like it. Every day there is a new coating of filth on the floor after having cleaned it the afternoon before. I think of it as puke myself, the building is rather bilious. So if you like dirt, filth, decay, rot, mold, gross smells, buy one of these historic warships... a building like this is all about spending a whole bunch of cash just to remedy it, and pay for dumpster removal...oh by the way we are on dumpster 6 or 7...losing track now... and the house keeps puking it up.

Oh and another word of warning...dont be like the past 'craftsmen' and keep adding layers to a problematic interior...remove and rebuild otherwise the frame gets so loaded up with weight that it contorts the structure....these old buildings were not designed structurally, and they were really not designed to hold up 3 to 4 times of remodel layers. I guess 'craft' over the years in this building was about who could buy a 10 lb bag of nails and pound 'em home every day. Nailing is a small part of construction and remodeling...Sometimes folks ask me are you recycling materials from the building? Well believe you me I would if there was a damn thing worth saving ...this building consists of mostly puke covering a skeleton that has been oh so stressed.

Again dont call me on this sort of building. Life is just too short for historisism.

Turn around Point, move ahead six spaces

2009-06-21T07:57:00.022-07:00

67 Gray street has reached the apex of its trajectory. No longer is it rocketing into the dumpster bin by bin, but now its soaring to new levels of energy efficiency after 170 years of chilling and overheating it's victims within.

One hundred and seventy years "this old house" held itself up even after careless and incompetent men had removed main bearing columns, cut away floor joists, and notched joists without thought or hesitation. The post and beam structure itself has its own set of issues that over time can be seen as workings of gravity against wood, mortise and tenon, and live loading.

This old house is seeing a top down approach, the third floor, then the 2nd floor, then the first...etc. At this point we have remedied structural issues like over spanned rafters, lack of structural ties, off center loading of beams and columns. Further... we have insulated the roof up to a R-38, we have remedied head height problems in door heights and ceiling heights. The electrical contractor is in the process of rewiring the whole place. The plumber is re-plumbing the building to modern codes (meaning no metal pipes, but a lot of them due to venting all fixtures!).

Perhaps one of the biggest turnarounds is that the windows have been decided upon...yes! Michael Morrill has decided to hire Northstar woodworking to build them. A little bit of background, Steven Morrill, Jon and Michael's brother is a co-partner of Northstar, so its keeping the work and money 'in the family'. The Historic folks we hope will be happy about this too. Its keeping the window manufacturing in the area and if that is not Historically important than what is?

Like with all things that really matter in this world there must be patience, diligence, hardships, trials, and then more patience....In the end you build something that is worthy, better then previous, and hopefully with new vision as to how it could be better for us all then previous iterations had proven not.

Although we are not near done by any stretch, we are closer. And that's just going to have to be the new motto for those of us who work on 'This old ____'n House' . You cant turn 170 years of History around in a day, reiterate...a month....or two, or three...

In the meantime Emily, Jon, and Mark all wait for some new help ...and they are coming (Silas, and friend) this week brought by Mike....Yeay! Bring the boys we have plenty of work...and no shortage of dust to vacuum. Next blog Here

Back to the bench at Tenants Harbor

2009-06-16T17:34:00.012-07:00

A change of pace today (thank god!). Jon, Steven, and I took the shop van up to Tenants Harbor to finish the bench that I started last fall, and left ‘This old f_ckin' house' behind. We met at 7:15 at the Ohno café, then loaded up and hit the road. We made short work of getting to the lumber that was planed up by a guy named Duey up in Liberty Maine. Duey kind of looks like Mr Clean. He’s a big bald guy but friendly enough. He commented on how nice it was to work with a different species of tree. He usually works with white cedar which he says he can’t even smell anymore, our boards he planed were Hemlock. We loaded up our boards and Jon wrote old Duey a check and we were off…

Off over hill and Dale, Over Appleton ridge, through Union, then on down a number of winding narrow roads, finally to Rockland to pick up some screws. By 11 we finally are at the Morrill camp at Tenants Harbor.

We unloaded the supplies, and started right in knowing we would have to get a move on it to get it all done that day. Jon was the board evaluation man; he sighted the boards, picked “the good edge”, and then laid them out for scribing. I was the saw guy and ripped the boards to taper. Steven helped plane the edges, layout boards, screwed boards down and took a bunch of photos. In the end the whole things went as smooth as silk and we finished I think earlier than we all thought it would take.

The product came out very nice, and we all were satisfied with how it came out. We had a few celebrational beers and then hit the road back to Portland. Oh yeah you can see some renderings and older building shot of this project at http://www.greenovision.com/benches.htm
and past blog entry at Greenovision: Tenants Harbor bench progress

Historic Windows... let's argue

2009-06-05T06:07:00.021-07:00

Portland Maine: the land of Historic buildings and Historic ideologies.

Today's battle with the Historic preservation committee is over compliance with their maddening window replacement policy. As most of the country tightens down and gets tought on energy lost and inefficiencies in housing, Portland, Maine's Historic preservation folks throw a monkey wrench at the designer and builder by mandating in-efficiency and gentrification. Let me explain.

67 Gray street, a 170 year old two story New Englander that is located in a historic district that according to the liaison for the committee, is a historic working class neighborhood. This building, as said in past post, has seen so little maintenance over the years that it still has its original windows and has never been insulated. 14 windows- all double hung with 6x6 pane sashes, all most likely the originals. They too have never been maintained and are truly ugly, dangerous, and inefficient air ducts to the inside. Guillotines is the name that the notable architect Frank Lloyd Wright gave double hung windows, due to their uncanny way of just about taking your arm off while trying to open the storm windows. He never put a double hung window in one of his homes.

When Jon and I met with Deb the first time we were quickly told that we would have to save the existing window configuration because, as she hands us a 1925 picture of the building it shows 6x6 pane sashes. Now first of all I have a problem with this logic.... this photo was taken only 84 years ago rather than 170... what happened prior to 1925 no one knows.... so the history is incomplete but we must follow this photo. Jon and I noted while looking at the photo that this house looked still quite new at the time, no asphalt siding yet. And with this Jon mentioned to Deb that he was looking to make this building a viable home again meaning bringing it up to standards of the 2000s, new heating, new insulation, tear down the gross asphalt siding, and rebuild the front steps as they were in the photo. And with that said you would think that the Historic folks would be happy that this building fell in the right hands. One would think that they would make certain exceptions to their rules due to the massive financial and physically laborious undertaking that Jon has taken on in well intention. For example couldn't they be double hungs that are the same size minus the fake grills of the modern day double thermal pane double hung.

The answer is no....no...no...there are no exceptions to the rules when it comes to changing the appearance of the windows. According to Debbie these 6x6 muntin sashes are historically important as they represent the 'working class' of the time....was it 1925 that she spoke or 86 years prior to that? We could not conclude due to incomplete photographic evidence. At this point of the discussion Jon and I were awakened to Historicisms abstractness, it's interest in minutia, and lack of understanding as to what a window represents as a technology. Debbie with a smile suggested that we save the existing windows, that they come apart into pieces that can be replaced, fixed, re-puttied, painted. She noted that we could take place at a 'fix your window day'. Now I began to get a bit impatient with her at this point I know when a window is rotted right through and un-fixable...and these sacred artifacts were just that. So I mentioned this to her and she kind of glazed over. She said that there where a half dozen window companies that 'they have approved windows from' and that if we were to replace these windows frame and all which she did not prefer that they would have to be made from wood, that they would have to have grills on the outside and the inside and preferably true divided lites...no vinyl windows allowed!' and that concluded our first visit. Jon and I went off to see what was up in the world of window representatives.

Well what we found out very quickly on talking to other contractors, window representatives, and historic home owners is that these True divided lites or TDL are 'EXPENSIVE!' Every window salesman we talked to when they heard we were remodeling in a Historic district said "get ready to pay twice as much". These window folks mostly were instantly sympathetic, and looked at us with sorrow. From here Jon and I knew this part of the budget was going to go through the roof and that the window budget was going far away from 'working class ' and you know this because the window models approved are in the category 'architectural' or that they are called things like, Platinum line, or gold line, or premium, or 'expensive' in a nut shell. Quickly we began questioning the system...'preserving historic working class' by mandating the most expensive windows. Hum? How does this work? Is it that the Historic folks would rather you keep leaky old originals in?Or is it that they only want wealthy folks to have new windows? Or is it that windows come before people, warmth, sanity. Some how ideologies preside over the rational realities of our post peak oil time.

Having done this research we went back in to see Debs thinking maybe we could some how show her we had done our homework. On the second meeting we met her in the hall and she began dialogue there...and almost instantly there was arguing and we were quickly ushered into the catacombs of the Historic department. Jon was as he said the good guy, patient, quiet, listening. Me ... I was the bad guy, loud, challenging, disgusted, and in general not in such as nice of a mood as previously. The way the historic folks work on you is to quickly establish a mood of "we know more about historic windows than you". They do this by finding your academically incorrect vocabulary usage. For example I used the word mullion to describe the grills....Deb corrected, "muntins", mullions are the verticals divisions in a transom window". In any case I don't care what you call them, they're fake. There is no reason to have them in a modern technological window, they're there just to simulate the old 6x6 sash, they are not structural, they hold no use other than to appease historic committees and cost a lot. On saying this to Debbie she quickly put up the bureaucratic wall, "Sir, I am not here to debate it with you, you will have to take this up with the committee." The committee meets once a month, and with the windows once ordered another month for them to come...I begin envisioning installing these things in the driving November rains.

I try several more times to explain technology of windows to her, that the reason 6x6 sashes were made had to do with glass making. In the age this building was built the ability to make glass bigger than 1' x1' was not readily available and if it was these panes were expensive. This can be seen when walking the neighborhoods on the Western Prom, the wealthy old homes often had picture windows (a large piece of glass) with designed muntins around the perimeter. These windows had internal ballasts or weights to allow the operator to open the window just the right amount. These were the 'Architectural' window of the time and expensive. Now if you walk into a "working class" neighborhood you will see either double hung windows with one muntin in the middle....this has to do with the age of the window. These windows were the later technology to the 6x6, glass companies were able to produce larger glass (Who wouldn't want more light in, or to see better out? Evidently not historicists). Or you will see windows like 67 Gray street. 67 Gray street was old enough that the cheap "contractor model" of the time were the 6x6 configuration in double hung sashes, and the frame and sill were built on site. These windows for the time were the cheapest, no ballasts, no frills, and a junky lock system that almost always is broken or jambed. These windows operated with notches that held the window up...dangerous if you ask me, guillotine is right!

Back to arguing with Deb. When we argued that by asking us to install expensive simulations of a "cheap contractor model window of the time" was in a sense "gentrifying this "working class neighborhood" and in essence wiping out historic importance of having working class neighborhood in a city or town. Is this not the real discussion as far a historic importance of maintaining such neighborhoods, and Not the simulation of old, out of date technologies?

To argue further Jon asked Debbie why Aluminum storm windows are acceptable when they are a technology not of that time, and that they are on the outside and what you really see? To me this is the core of the Hypocrisies. The Historic folks allow storm windows that are modern, they replicate nothing, they look like a cover up and that is what they are. The storm window is important because it actually creates some sort of seal to prevent air infiltration, for the old double hungs really have no seal. If they want to mandate such minutia as the 6x6 muntin sash why don't they mandate that old homes must have the historically accurate "shutters" of the time?

So with all the cash that Jon will have to dump into the new heating system, modern plumbing, new electrical system, new insulation, demolition and rebuild of failing plaster and lathe, etc, etc he now is burdened with installing windows that cost 2x what a reasonable double hung with no muntins would cost....seems unfair, unjust, and to me stupid.

Monday morning, and Debbie sends her "second" man out to survey the situation. I was not at this meeting and thankfully. From what Jon said, this guy sees everything old as "precious". Evidently he said that Jon would need to replace first, second, and third story windows with "wood" windows. He gave Jon the address of a home that was being retrofit with such a window or "trimline" as he called it. So we go and take a look. What do we find? We find what looks like a aluminum clad window, they look alright but they were not "wood". The Historical folks like to argue and greenly so that wood is a renewable resource, and that it makes for easily maintenance. Well A. they are not wood.(they were fooled by the window company) B. wood windows are not easy to maintain...these aluminum clad windows strive to be maintenance free. C. if they were wood, most wood windows today are made from sap wood or quick growth lumber, not old growth. If you want a window made out of old growth, which is rather non sustainable, you would have to pay an arm and a leg for it. In any case these windows he sent us to look at are expensive and not representative of "working class". Hell if you want to get down to it a working class window of today would be a vinyl window....egads!

On maintenance..if a regular maintenance schedule is followed these old windows last much longer than a modern vinyl window. Lets take a look at 67 Gray street, sure doesn't look like anyone painted the second and third story windows for decades. Why? Too hard to reach, too much of a pain to remove the sashes, etc,etc. On could argue too ...what sort of working class homeowner wants to come home after a 40+ hour week to scrape paint, putty, and paint a window on the second floor off a ladder? I don't know of such a person who wouldn't gripe and groan. Lets face it maintenance is for the wealthy...they pay someone to do the job, hell they wouldn't have a clue at how to take apart this so called maintainable technology unless they're friends with a Historisists.

So in the end what's going to happen? We still do not know. Time tics along and we need affordable solutions not ideologies to fix "This old House"! Next blog on this home here

'Grizzly Discoveries' a reality show

2009-05-21T05:05:00.013-07:00

Well a couple weeks into the project and we have come up with a new reality show. Either ‘This old house’ or ‘Grizzly Discoveries’. Jon and I joke about it pretty much every day…what grizzly discovery awaits for us today? The first grizzly discovery occurred when we talked with the liaison for the Historic preservation board. She said that we would have to save the front two chimneys, and replace windows with comparable looking 6 X 6 pane double-hungs.

First of all the chimneys are what I call ‘done’. They are bent over; precariously leaning over the house and for how long will they stay this way? I guess they have been precariously leaning for some time. So rebuilding them will have to wait…budget will hopefully make it through modernization of utilities, heating, electric, insulation, plumbing, and windows alone might blow the budget.

Now the windows, what a situation, the existing windows are the originals, 170 years old, and no amount of putty and paint is going to get them to go any longer. The Historical folks believe that these old windows are just great and that the preference for them would be that we just suffered with these decaying portholes of yore. But reality is they are an energy sieve. On researching new windows with external mullions and similar sill profiles lead to a very expensive window. Of course the Historic folks want it their way, but I would argue that ‘their way’ is rather contrived…Let me explain…the reason mullions exist is not just an aesthetic discussion, that they look nice this way, but more that it was the technology of the time. The 6 X 6 configuration has a lot to do with the availability of glass at the time…thicker glass, more expense, and thinner glass cheaper…so the mullions reduce the size of each pane so that the pane can be thin and cheap. These windows were what I would call the ‘contractors model’ of the time…they were never great, well made windows…they were cheap…so now we have to replace them with expensive, fake mullioned replicas of technology inefficient and obsolete. The simulation ‘old’ windows are not to be clad with vinyl even though every surface in Portland Maine is covered with it. They must have fake mullions that make cleaning difficult. They must be twice as expensive as a decent more honest double hung window with no mullions.

Grizzly discovery of the day….on removing plaster around one window in the front corner of the building leads us to find no insulation anywhere and ‘K’ bracing in the corners. This means that there would be very little good in pumping the wall cavity full of insulation…the cellulose would never make it into all the voids, the K brace is in the way. So this we began the long, dusty grimy process of plaster and lathe removal…Two, three, four days later and three dumpsters…we are still removing the stuff. In the end though we will have insulated walls with the proper thickness to make insulation affordable (insulation cost has a lot to do with thickness…to get R value it takes space or it takes expensively thin ‘space age’ insulation). In the end the walls will have new windows in them, and the heaters wont have to run full tilt throwing ridiculous amounts of energy into ‘This old House’.

Grizzly discovery of the day….the forced air heating system was installed by a guy the wore a #2 hard hat and a size XXL jump suit. He took out main support columns in order to run his inefficient ductwork…found this Grizzly discovery while examining the slumping floor system. Remedy. …remove crappy heating system and replace columns. Actually the place had not one but two heating systems…Force air ran the first floor, and a boiler ran the second floor…both oil burning monsters…efficiency was not in the vocabulary of heating men of this time.

Today we will drain the water from the system in the basement, get the sawzall out and remove miles of copper pipe…none of it insulated which we are glad of …could be worse …it could have been insulated with asbestos. More later….See next blog Here

Portland, bums and old buildings

2009-05-14T05:28:00.009-07:00

Well back to Portland Maine, arrived with the warmth, or brought it with us. Great to be re-united with old friends. Jon Morrill has a project for me. A 170 year old house in the historic district of Portland. Its a real fixer-upper if ever I spied one. Yikes! Take a look, this building has seen so little maintenance over the years other than some quick masking tape and nailed up asphalt shingles.

Our strategy here is to get this building insulated, it has none. A new heating system, it has two heating systems now that are ancient. It needs new windows, electrical system, plumbing...you name it this building needs it...especially some TLC. Yesterday we met with the liaison for the Historic preservation board, she was glad this building finally fell in the hands of someone who cares. Its going to be a long summer of dust here but Jon's Nephews hopefully will pan out as help, so far so good, I have already showed them how to rip down old plaster and lathe quickly...cant say painlessly, part of the ceiling fell on my head as I tried in vain to save an old plaster ceiling lamp ornament.

This is not exactly a dream job, but its my best friend and he really needs a hand. So far I have measured and drafted up the building. More to come later. Next 67 Grey Street blog Here

Tenants Harbor bench progress

2008-11-08T09:49:00.006-07:00

A view of the new bench stanchions in place...finally ... just need the wood planks for completion...next spring.... to see that progress Greenovision: Back to the bench at Tenants Harbor
or go back to first write up Greenovision: Building a bench alongside the Seals of Tenants Harbor

Building a bench alongside the Seals of Tenants Harbor

2008-10-27T14:32:00.004-07:00

Its been a cool project to work alongside the wildlife of the coast. The Loons in their winter plumage eating crabs. The Osprey screeching eerily on the other shore. The tide flowing by always telling the time.

Emily has been "holding the other end of the tape", she is a real camper, never complains. The crib stone has been good rock with the proper machining characteristics, ie. takes a hammerdrill bit well, and can actually be chiseled some. I have had Mark from Marks Metal fabrication shop help me on this project, he has had some very good advice and we have got along great. Today he came out and 'tack' tig welded the stantions to the mounting plates... then I took the whole wooden jig apart that had held all braced in place for the welding opertation. After that I unbolted the stainless steel post from the crib. Emily and I cleaned up the site...took a last gaze out at the bay, the islands, the ocean, and packed the car with the pieces.... back to Marks shop where he will weld gusset plates to further brace the post and mounting plates. So its a process, not fast, not slow, but accurate. To see more on the bench Greenovision: Tenants Harbor bench progress

Up North in a Clay hole

2008-09-14T04:31:00.005-07:00

Well, not all design build work is interesting and joyful. Emily and I just spent a week up in Lakeville, Maine rebuilding the foundation under her camp. Several things to note about this experience are: Mainers up there are big. Everyone is big and they drive big trucks. I would say that going on a diet in these parts is eating one rather than two big macs. The folks are friendly, but if you don't go muddin' with a atv on the weekends, you might come up short on things to talk about with these folks...oh wait...the rain this summer and the prolonged mosquitoes were a few conversations I did manage with a local or two.
So, Emily and I spent the week jacking up the building, having the excavator dig us some new 5' deep footing tube holes, and mixing our own concrete. Emily got to go to Lincoln Maine Rental and rent the mixer and a sump pump. She found it very interesting. I guess they even sell dynamite there. I got to muck around in the holes and have dirt collapse on me while pick axing clay; it was great fun.
On occasion I would see that the wind was blowing across the lake and would have to give the windsurfer some crash action....
Then back to messing with the heaved up building. One thing is if you live in northern Maine, don't think that you can dig your foundation with a shovel....the rocks are too big, the clay to thick, and the frost line too deep. This is what the original builder had done; he cheaped out and didn't spent the money on a proper excavation job. In the end, he had sono ("sonah") tubes that were only 18" to 2' deep, some sitting on the boulder that the shovel found in the way. In the end, the boulders heave up in the winter, wrack the building, break windows, and make a mess for unlucky builders like myself and Emily.
In the end: job completed, new foundation that wont sag or heave, some new pain and stain, a gutter, some new drainage....and an aching back, a bunch of welts from September mosquitoes?! But, on our last day we were rewarded to one of Mainers' favorite pastimes: drinking cheap beer starting at 9 am. and burning old brush piles with the very few neighbors that there are there....yippy....then we got to get the hell out of there. Back to the 'civilized' world of Camden, Maine....its "so perfect here" said Emily with her nose in the air.

Prefab=globalization....not good

2008-04-11T00:18:00.001-07:00

Everywhere I look, every single design website/magazine , all of them are pushing prefabricated homes.....why? Why do we continue to outsource everything...even our own homes. Why do we insist on factory made even when we know what it all means...china.china.china...increased transportation of objects, the devaluation and demise of local craftsman,local material use, and and the associated lack of appropriateness to site, region, local weather and spirit.
What is wrong with local, homemade, in our back yard? Is it that local equals boring? It doesn't have to be.
In this time prefabrication of whole homes not just the windows is the wrong direction for our planet. We need to put the reins on. The more we give up on our local resource base, talent, and know-how the more we admit that we are lost, that we can't even create the world we want to live in with our own hands, with help from our friends family and community. Its these close ties that need to be nurtured; not devalued.
When we chose to order from catalogues we are admitting that our local resources are inadequate or are exhausted. The more often we give up on providing for ourselves the more needy we become.

and here it comes, globalized architecture

2008-03-24T10:25:00.005-07:00

Maine falls victim to believing that globalization of building codes is a good thing. The following link shows a general acceptance that simplifying the building codes of Maine's varying regions to a monolithic 'one code fits all' system .
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=177484&ac=PHnws

Going Green...what does it mean?

2008-03-11T06:39:00.002-07:00

In this time period we are all inundated with the catch phrase 'Going Green'. The AIA and LEED take the approach that it is a consumable for the select elite with robust bank accounts. Sadly, this meaningful approach and thought process to sustainable, ecologically sensitive living is mostly unattainable to the middle class which contributes to much of the built world. With "48% of total US energy consumption that can be attributed to the building sector, most of which – 40% of total consumption – can be attributed just to building operations. That's heating, lighting, cooling, and hot water. There are others – running pumps and things like that. But 40% of total US energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed just to building operations." Ed Mazria See more about carbon neutral
Is it that 'Green design' itself is unfordable to most? How can Green, 'eco' friendly design and building reach the vast majority of those in need of housing? What are parameters that designers might follow to make 'green' affordable.
Throughout the modernization period of later industrial times we have turned to mechanical systems to control the heating and cooling of our homes. Architects and builders use technology as a crutch now ...much of this added infrastructure of a home is not only expensive but are examples of often poor utilization of material and energy resources. Air conditioning is a example of this.

Building codes are all good right?

2008-03-06T06:30:00.005-07:00

Portland Maine, a town trying to be a city, has recently adopted the International Residential Code. The IRC is a rather globalist style code system that breaks down the country into different zones, it is really quite generalized when you consider it tries to handle the whole country. It is an engineers sublime in a sense, everything is turned into a number, a force, a zone. It is a system that insures the dumbing down of architecture, the loss of regional common sense and it creates a need for revision and amendment according to local town environments and needs. However, once again Maine is sheepishly following the times and allowing this sort of modernist coded agenda eclipse local knowledge and practicality.
In the long run this IRC system is flawed much like the globalized NAFTA economy.
Who is going to implement it? Who is going to check up on the contractors and insure that they are complying....Portland has so few residential building code enforcement officials, they are going to be hard pressed to make it to many of the job sites. Would it not be better to spend the time and money on programs that assist builders to making correct decisions rather than hiring more "police officers".

The modern code system creates such redundancies that it is very difficult to be creative or to be able to afford much more than a codified box. Between modernization of electrical systems, insulation, heating systems, radon venting, fire suppression systems etc. the home owner, designer and builder is left with a spent budget. In other words there is no budget for creative and inspirational design. This explains the modern-day boringness found in most homes. In order for your remodeled or new home to meet modern codes for insulative values it must be able to re-enter the earths atmosphere without burning up. A remodeled home goes from a R value of 5 to R-48 in roof systems. Of course in this day of a looming energy crises we need to tighten up the building but to what point is it overly tightened?

Those praising the IRC are architects, builders, and code enforcement personnel who argue that it simplifies the system. Those professionals argue that by adopting one code system in all towns it reduces the examination of the varieties of code systems that are in place i.e. BOCA, IBC, IRC, and a long list of other building code acronyms. This is a myth....there will always need to be amendment by each town and there will be the latest year code book, IRC 2004, IRC 2008, etc., etc.. As an example lets look at Radon gas....In the IRC Maine is lumped into a high risk radon zone....this means all new construction has to include radon venting systems below grade. If you know anything about radon gas it precipitates from ledge rock, it rises up through the ground and can become trapped under your basement concrete slab, then seep in and cause the occupants cancer ....that is if you build over ledge....what if you build where there is no ledge immediately below? According to the IRC your builder will have to install radon gas venting systems because it dumbs down critical thinking. Even more what if your designer is smart and keeps everyone above ground, or there is no basement dwelling, which is really the best sense, the building still has to have this radon venting....these redundancies are expensive, and unnecessary.

My point is yes there need to be codes as guidelines but lets not dumb down the issue. There is no replacement for local knowledge. Codes are meant to be guidelines not the end all decision. The IRC is just another code, it will not solve all of our building dilemmas ....thoughtful designers, and builders with local understanding will...there is no replacement.

Green Buildings?

2008-02-09T06:08:00.002-07:00

...... Architects are
idea people.
We have concepts and
make designs that embody or implement them. We present them as clearly and openly as possible, and can only hope that others will find them useful to their ends, and build them. LEBBEUS WOODS

Green buildings ...do they exist or are we playing with words and trends again? It seems since William McDonough & Michael Braungart book Cradle to Cradle hit the book shelves there has been a wide range of mis-information about "green building". I am not saying that McDonoughs book was off the track....actually it is dead on, what I am saying is that it started a trend of marketing the idea of "green building". Today one can look on the web and find a bizillion sites claiming to be green builders, architects, designers....it is a catchword now for expensive construction.
To give an example of the dilemas that Green construction faces one only need to look as far as their own bathroom. The bathroom is a perfect example of a green place that only gets greener and greener without non green products. Mold and mildew are the enemies builders face as a consequences of climate on buildings. If you need varification that all mold is not always our friend see
http://www.inspect-ny.com/mold/moldsymptoms.htm
or: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legionellosis

Legionnaires' disease Philadelphia, 1976

The first recognized outbreak occurred on July 27, 1976 at the Bellevue Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where members of the American Legion, a United States military veterans association, had gathered for the American Bicentennial. Within two days of the event’s start, veterans began falling ill with a then-unidentified pneumonia. Numbers differ, but perhaps as many as 221 people were given medical treatment and 34 deaths occurred. At the time, the U.S. was debating the risk of a possible swine fluvaccinationCenters for Disease Control and Prevention mounted an unprecedented investigation and by September, the focus had shifted from outside causes, such as a disease carrier, to the hotel environment itself. In January 1977, the Legionellosis bacterium was finally identified and isolated, and found to be breeding in the cooling tower of the hotel’s air conditioning system, which then spread it through the entire building. This finding prompted new regulations worldwide for climate control systems.

In the climate of East Coastal Maine where I live there is a serious war we wage with Mold because of moisture associated with condensation. Much like the bathroom example our homes and buildings are similar, they fill with moisture. The hidden moisture that causes so many mold and mildew problems occurs in the walls and roof systems of our buildings. This is because of the temperature difference that occurs between the outside and the inside of the home. The outside in the winter is cold, the inside is warm, and vice versa in the summer. This temperature difference causes condensation much like the steam filling the bathroom during a shower. So how does a builder handle the difference in temperature....insulation.... the more the better in order to keep the condensation zone towards the outside of the building. The best way I have found to stop mold growth in the wall cavity is to use a blown closed cell foam , is this an example of a green product?
http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/ask/poly a link to find out about PolyUrethane foams like Corbond pretty much gives you the idea...its not too green....but it really works in keeping the moisture out because it is closed cell foam meaning like a plastic bag it keeps moisture out. The added flame retardents are at issue as well and cause horribly caustic vapors when burned. So there you have it try to stop mold and you are up against a fence. How to do this without toxic materials has been an issue that the building world has struggled with.

I am not suggesting that it is impossible to build without toxins, what I am suggesting is that to build with longevity and human health in mind becomes very difficult. The toxins that off-gas during the curing or burning of foams and urethane sealants, VS mold, rot, mildew.....
As a builder and designer I struggle with these issues....and I can tell you in order to make a non toxic home we might have to go back to deer skin teepees. Longevity is to defy rot....to defy rot is to be toxic or expensive; a paradox of sorts.
I strive to make healthy buildings, I strive to make them affordable and lasting. I strive to not be a hypocrite and a liar.....

Sustainable design?

2008-02-07T19:05:00.002-07:00

Just some musing this morning about sustainability....there are some fads out there right now in the design world, one is called prefabrication. The other is affordable design and build. Dwell magazine is filled with these two notions. I have thought about these notions over the years of building and designing of homes. I would like to just note some of my findings and thoughts.
The building and architectural professions have often viewed prefabrication as a way to bring innovative design to any location and in theory with economy. Most notably Ikea has exploited this notion and with huge results world wide.

"The IKEA Concept is based on offering a wide range of well designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them. Rather than selling expensive home furnishings that only a few can buy, the IKEA Concept makes it possible to serve the many by providing low-priced products that contribute to helping more people live a better life at home.

The IKEA Concept guides the way IKEA products are designed, manufactured, transported, sold and assembled. All of these factors contribute to transforming the IKEA Concept into a reality." -IKEA Catalogue

Ikea has instilled this idea of design for the masses ( a modernist notion); however, one must look further than the glossy images in Ikea's catalogs. One must cut through the veneer of an Ikea cabinet to begin to understand the full implication of their core material and I am not just talking about toxic, cheap, glue based particle board. The idea of affordable prefabrication is based on industrial method or factory work. I must propose a few questions as to factory work to get to the heart of the issue.
What are the implications of factory work in the modern day? What does factory work do to local economies, and do the products made in these factories fulfill sustainable standard. Lets keep with Ikea as an example to answer these questions. Ikea is able to create an affordable cabinet through using factory mass produced production method. The product is constructed not where we live but elsewhere. We never meet those who assemble these cabinets or see how they live. We never see what they use for materials, what the composite of the cabinet is made of or where any of materials come from. It probably just as well because it is not pretty process, nor are these products really happily made. China ,as we know, is primarily where most mass produced products come from. If the product does not directly come from China some part of it does like say the door hinges or the knobs or the glue. By fabricating cabinets elsewhere, the product may initially be cheaper , but they must still be transported, and transportation requires fuel. As we know, the burning of fossil fuel contributes to global warming.
The issue that the consumer is not addressing is what happens in our home town when we buy "cheap " products from afar. Every time we buy an Ikea cabinet we are saying no to a local cabinetmaker. Every-time we say no to a local crafts-person we debase local craft and we insure that local craft dies off. Not only do we chose to lose this local craft, we are also saying no to local materials that would make this cabinet. In Maine we have woods, we have mills, and we have lumber yards, but not for long if we keep purchasing objects from afar. Our local economies depend on us to continue purchasing. When we harvest and use local materials, we are aware of two things: we see the woods being cut down and we see what the oblject is made of. In other words, we are 'in touch' with our resources or the diminishing of them. The problem with prefabrication is that we lose touch with the resources being consumed and the production of them.
When we use local resources we are in check with consumption, we are in check with over consumption, we are buying local or keeping our valuable economies alive, our local skill base alive. Furthermore, often these materials blend in to the surroundings, they are less likely to be alien to 'place' and often make sense environmentally. As an example when I built a home in Liberty Maine I had choices all along the way as to choosing local materials or materials from away.
For the beams I could have chosen para-lams which are essentially beams made out of glue and wood chip, or I could chose locally harvested and milled Hemlock. Through out the process of choosing I had to look at a variety of parameters....Strength, availability, cost, and sustainability. What I found is that Para-lam, because it is a corporally made material, has the ups and downs . Its ups are that it is engineered....or that it is rated and is consistent. It is easy for an engineer a structure or to plug numbers of loads values and get a final figure to know if the building will stand. The down side is that it is not local, the product has to be transported, and the company has a lot of overhead because of environmental standards it has to uphold....i.e. glues,glues, glues,...OSHA ,OSHA,OSHA (occupational safety and health administration), ceo's also need to make buck too. This made this product expensive! And do I want building filled with more glue? So back to the local hemlock, I found a mill close by, and the owner would delivered the beams himself, plus it was two thirds the cost compared to the para-lam. In the end I used the Para-lam sparingly where I knew main carrying beams needed to be consistent (dimensionally,straight, without knots) and used the hemlock everywhere else. It is this sort of decision making that a designer/builder must embark on. There are products that are technological ones like thermal control units, windows, insulation which most likely are not made in ones home town and these must be ordered but there are also products that are local should be used if possible.

I think I will continue at another time with the affordable design build topic....I need to take a break
Oh yeah check out. a 20 minute video about choices .... consumer and factory http://www.storyofstuff.com/

and compare this to
http://franchisor.ikea.com/showContent.asp?swfId=concept0