Design updates

Hey All,

Been a week since I've posted, so going to put up the latest design ideas and thoughts. So - in no particular order....

1) Have had a number of great chats with a guy that I happened to meet at the Fortis BC (energy) pavillion at the Home show about a month ago. He's a building inspector by trade, but has been studying building sciences and is a guru on wall assemblies and all sorts of other building related matters. He's also planning on building his own house in North Van in the coming year (and possibly a business related to this down the road), and so has been learning all about things like Passive House design and the like. I'm hoping that I can meet more people like him and that we can provide learning opportunities for one another as I go along this journey. So a big thanks to you Sean!

2) Had a chat with the architects on Friday (and even visited City Hall for the first time to get a sense of the permitting side of things). We're definitely getting closer to where this thing will end up and the latest (exterior) designs are noted below. Soon we should have a mocked up model and be set to apply to the City for various permits (aiming for December 15th). We've pushed the timelines about as hard as we can in order to try to get the building envelope closed in (insulated with some basic systems) by March 31st in order to apply for the federal government eco-energy rebate program. It's going to be a tough squeeze to make it all happen, so I'm doing my utmost to get things lined up at this point, including exploring initial quotes on windows, insulation, etc. I think I've sent out like 10 different quotes at this point, so we'll see what comes back, but the latest designs call for a considerable amount more of window space, so we're going to need to be very careful about window costs (they're pricey...especially good ones!).

Back of house with notes. Latest changes include a deck with double-doors from the master bedroom above.

Front of house with notes: latest changes include two story window, small ground level wall at front and a triple-window for the office upstairs.

So - that's a quick update for the time being. Will post a bunch more this week as there are a few other things that have happened that I need to update on.

More than you ever wanted to know about insulation

Sorry to all for the delay on postings...it's just going to be like that sometimes...but what I will say is that I will always return and post in the end!

So a brief update on a bunch of things and then some gory details on insulation. In general, things are with BCA right now as they update design documents and get things ready to go to permitting with the City of Vancouver. Accordingly, not much to report in terms of design (except for the fact that I've been fiddling around with a few internal, 3D programs ranging from Ikea's kitchen planner (which seems to constantly crash my computer as a warning) to a relatively nifty one I found the other day while poking around on YouTube called Homestyler. I've also been doing a ton of research into wall assemblies (wall design/composition in simple terms), insulation, and a little bit on foundations/draintile and excavations...oh, and soil remediation. I've had quotes for a bunch of demolition/hazmat removal (will get to hazmat stuff in another posting), as well as a few quotes for insulation thus far. That and I need to start thinking about plants and shifting vegetation if possible. And that's the general update of things.

More specifically: insulation. What kind to use?

Options and thoughts:
1) Fiberglass (loose fill/batt)
Basically fiberglass is spun chunks of glass...it's what we all grew up with.
Upside is that it's cheap, it is relatively heat resistant (doesn't melt until a few hundred degrees), and it offers pretty good "bang for your buck".
Downsides are that it's an irritant to the skin (etc), it's not super environmentally friendly all-around, and it doesn't offer large R values. It can also droop in the wall cavity and is totally ineffective if not properly installed.
Cost: To give you a sense of cost to R-value (effective "warming" value), Home Depot offers this: Owens-Corning EcoTouch R12 (3.5") for 2x4 studs (which equals an R of 3.42/in.) for about $64 for 150 sq.ft. ( = $0.42/R3.42/sq.ft.). To put this into perspective, to insulate the proposed full house to R20 walls, would roughly cost $850 + HST.

2) Cellulose (loose fill/wet spray)
Basically chopped up (recycled) newspaper plus a non-toxic mold/insect/rodent repellent/fire retardant (borate).
Upsides are that it's also cheap, and offers very good bang-for-your buck, and is environmentally friendly. Downsides are that it's less flame resistant, can also sag in the wall cavity and can create a fair bit of dust. Cost wise it's about the same as fiberglass , but takes up a little bit less space if done via wet-spray (so more R-value can go into the same space).
Cost: An R-value of about 3.5/inch is reasonable, with a rough cost of about $0.50/sq.ft. or, for R20 walls and an R60 attic in our place, about $2200 + HST.

3) Foam (soy-based/standard/cementitious)
Foam is the touted "wonder solution" of the insulation world. Not only does it (largely) form a vapour barrier, it has a relatively higher R-value to inch ration (around R4-6/inch) and can be sprayed into all sorts of spaces. While relatively expensive, it is the choice of many people (including Mike Holmes!) because of the fact that it seals in air while giving a high R-value, thus delivering a 2-in-1 value. Furthermore, there are a bunch of types of foam (see this for a more complete list): more "environmentally friendly" soy versions that are non toxic; standard (and toxic) Icynene foams that are made up of who-knows-what (can contain VOCs and produces poisonous gases when burned); and lastly cementitious foam (commonly called AirKrete) which is magnesium oxide and cermaic talc. Unlike a bunch of other foams, it doesn't do the crazy (expand in a nano second thing) but rather comes out like shaving cream and then hardens over 24 hours. Each one has its own pluses and minuses but in general...
Upsides: Vapour barrier, fits into many spaces, dense R-value for tight spaces (can get upwards of 24 into a 2x4 studded wall), mostly environmentally benign.
Downsides: Poisonous when it burns, though fire retardant it often has a low melting point (note: both of these are not true for cementitious foam - but it has the downside of being more fragile at lower densities), expensive, and not easily removed (therefore does not permit deconstruction). Some types of foam also produce nasty chemicals when created (e.g., CFCs, etc.)
Costs: Rough quotes for something like BASF Walltite Eco Foam are about $4/sq.ft. (R5, but includes a vapour barrier that makes the effective R value better overall). This means that quotes for R30 walls + R55 attic come out to about $11-12K + HST.

4) Rockwool (loose fill/batt/rigid)
Rockwool (which in Canada is sold under the brand Roxul) is a mineral wool composite basically made up of 75% recycled slag (steel) and 25% basalt. The products are heated to very high temperatures (1600 degrees C) and then spun into various forms.
Upsides: Decent R value (~R4/inch), extremely fire resistant, quite sound resistant, moisture/insect/vermin resistant, comes in various forms (some of which can be applied to the outside).
Downsides: Moderately expensive; not easily available; quite heavy; high initial carbon footprint (embedded energy). Furthermore, while not noted as carcinogenic, early forms were harmful and other forms used to be classed as dangerous. More recently, non-human-available forms have been downgraded in their danger, but are still known to be irritants (like fiberglass).
Costs: Costs vary for the different forms (batt vs. hard), but come out a bit more expensive than fiberglass for the batting ($0.60/inch at R4) and I've had a rough estimate of about $1.15/inch at R4 for the hard (IS form). Combined, these would give a wall assembly of R38 and an attic of R58 (via Comfortbatt) for a total of about $6,100 + HST.

5) Natural wool (Sheep/Cotton)
Of late there has been an increased push to generate more natural forms of insulation. Accordingly, more traditional fibers such as wool and cotton have started entering the game. Sheeps wool, long used to insulate...well...sheep (and people from New Zealand, Wales, etc.) has made a resurgence, as has recycled denim jeans (cotton).
Upsides: Good sound absorption and decent R-value (just less than 4/inch), very little embedded energy and contains a large percentage of recycled materials (>85%), not dangerous in the least and can be handed without any protection safely. All things said and done, it's probably the most environmentally friendly insulation form of those listed here.
Downsides: Not easily available (though it is sold in BC - Bonded Logic - by Twin Maple Marketing in Abbotsford), not as cheap as some other forms of insulation, could be susceptible to moisture/mold issues and not as fire retardant as most other materials (though it does indicate protection from all of those things). It's also heavier than some other forms of insulation.
Cost: Roughly $65 for 84 sq.ft. for 3.5" (R13) (or $0.76/sq.ft), which means about $4,500 if I were to put in R24 walls along with an additional $2,300 for an R65 attic space.

6) Polystyrene/Structural Insulated Panels (hard foam)
While technically this is really another form of "foam", it's a bit different for several reasons. While polystyrene panels can (and do) exist on their own, I was keen to look into SIPs (or Structural Insulated Panels). These are basically a giant, pre-assembled walls made up of a big chunk of polystyrene sandwiched between two MDF boards (combined with a few other odds and ends). The cool thing about SIPs is that they're precision cut off-site and then just brought in and assembled directly from a crane. Accordingly, there's little was and assembly time is super fast (no framing). They're often used as a manner of doing "pre-fab" and have shown useful especially for modern housing design (especially in remote areas).
Upsides: High R-values (40+ possible), fast to assemble, little waste
Downsides: No cheaper than other forms, must have plumb surfaces, some quality/performance issues have emerged as the technology improves.

So - with all of that, here's what I've concluded so far:
1) SIPs aren't very suitable for a renovation (non-plumb foundation = nightmare)
2) Fiberglass, while cheap, weirds me out.
3) Cellulose is an option for the attic, but settling eliminates it as an option for the walls.
4) Rock wool is an interesting option, but the batt stuff kind of weirds me out (like fiberglass). That said, I'm pretty keen on the hard form on the outside...so it's still in the running.
5) I like the fact that spray foam creates an air seal, but I'm hoping I can do this in other means and avoid using it. It's expensive, and I don't like the fact that it eliminates deconstruction options in the future.
6) I'm pretty down with using the denim batts in the attic if I can because it makes it safe for us to go up there in the future (plus allow us to access it for potential "deep storage").

In summary, at the moment I'm thinking I'll probably go for a double layer of the Roxul ComfortBoard IS (rigid rock wool) on the exterior (giving me R24), along with either ComfortBatt (R14) or Ultratouch Denim (R13) on the interior walls. For the attic, I'll probably either do wet spray cellulose (super cost effective, but makes the attic dusty) to R60 or more Ultratouch Denim (to around R60). This provides a bunch of advantages - including minimizing thermal bridging, allowing me to maximize internal space, having a very warm/fireproof/soundproof house, while keeping costs somewhat lower.

The fronts and backs of the house will still be a bit cool (too much glass!), but such is life...we're trading off some heat for sunlight and views...

A few websites:
http://insulation.sustainablesources.com/
www.roxul.com/residential/products
www.smartlivingdirect.com
www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/green-basics/spray-foam-insulation-open-and-closed-cell
sprayinsulationbc.com
www.stocorp.com

And last but not least before I sign off for the night (will need to come back and finish up a few of the cost details), congrats to Vancouver for keeping Gregor in for another few years...looking forward to seeing what happens re: Greenest City. Yay to bike lanes and chickens!

The first major hurdle...CLEARED!

So, Kris and I were back at BCA this evening, going over two modified options: one is a derivative of Option 2 (with the external stair) from way back, and the other is a derivative of Option 5. In both cases, we opted to add an extension on the back (170SF and 140SF respectively). We only had an hour to go through the options (I had another meeting this evening), and feeling pressured, we opted to get back to them later tonight.

In the end, we've come down on the derivative of Option 5 (once it's redrawn I'll post it for people). Basically it involves three zones from front to back. The first zone (front of the house, south end) is a threshold with a couple of stairs down to the kitchen, an internal staircase at the front of the house (with storage and mechanical under the stairs), as well as a closet. The middle zone has the kitchen and a full bathroom (with shower). Lastly, the end zone (kind of like the ring of that) is the dining/living space (now extended by an additional 8 feet at the back) with a full set of folding glass doors across the back (roughly 14-16') that opens to the backyard and a patio. The upstairs largely maintains the current layout, but has the option of putting in an upper level deck over the new extension which could be really nice later on. The whole thing takes the liveable space to around 1350SF plus another 150 of deck area.

The external stair option did have a lot going for it - it gave us probably an additional 150SF of liveable space (while only being an additional 105SF in actual building), it created a interesting set of perspectives, and it moved the downstairs bathroom to a more private location. Nevertheless, we both decided to go against the recommendations of the architects and opted against the external stair option in the end for a series of reasons:
1) It cost more (at least $15K more)
2) You would have to walk through the entire house to get the stairs and go up
3) It made both of the living spaces at the back of the house (on both levels), whereas on the plan we've opted for one is at the back, and the other at the front.
4) It put the master bedroom at the sunny (south) end of the house (vs. the office/guest bedroom)
...and most importantly...
5) It diminished the expansive view/walkout nature of the back which both Kris and I were set on.

So, with a layout in place, we're on to the next steps of detailing the plan and getting a structural engineer into the mix (whoo hoo).

In other research, I'm coming back to the use of Structural Insulated Panels (or SIPs for short). These are basically "pre-built" walls that are two sheets of plywood with Styrofoam in the middle (crudely put). Why use SIPs? Well, they've got a bunch of pluses:
- They're precision cut and so there's minimal waste generated
- They're created off site, so there's no mess on site
- There's no framing so they go up super-fast relative to normal framing (days vs. weeks)
- They can squeeze in pretty high R-values (insulation to non-building geeks) so I can get about R-36 from a 10" wall. Conversely, while I can get about R-30 if I used 2*6 studs with spray foam, the cost is higher, and I would need to go to about 8" (non-traditional) anyhow to get upwards of R-36.
I've been reading about them in a number of the green building books I've been pouring over, and they seem to be the way to go if you can swing it...so we'll see (I've got two calls tomorrow to find out more on them), but I'm hopeful.

Aside from that, also have a meeting with another guy who's building a passive house on Thursday, so that should be useful for me as well. Seems like Vancouver is emerging as a mini-hub for passive house design, which is cool.

That's all for tonight!

Options, options, options

So, on Friday, we met up with Bruce and Ian at Salt Tasting Room (which is a great little wine/artisinal cheese place in Gastown). Over some beer, cheese, cured meats and relishes we chatted about options 4 and 5 (which was similar to a blend of Option 1 - galley kitchen, and Option 4). 

A shot of Salt - designed by Busby, Perkins + Will

 After Ian took off on a date and Bruce headed out to see his wife, Kris and I headed home and mulled over things. In fact we mulled the whole weekend. Conclusion: we're going to hybridize a bunch of ideas and generally do the following:

- Go for the layout of Option 1 + Option 4 (see older posts) with 10' ceilings on the ground floor
- Put on a 6-8 foot addition on the back (ground level only - which will leave the option of an upper level deck for later)
- Maintain most of the upstairs as is (with a few little shifts - including adding a 'laundry closet' and a walk-in closet)

I'll post the layout and images of it all once we've got the updated versions from BCA. In the meantime, I'll post a bit more on the hazmat report - which I've got back and had some initial quotes on (more this coming week). I'll also try to post a few things this week on design inspirations. 

Design schematics - Round 2

On Tuesday, Kris and I met once again with Bruce and Ian over at the new digs. In our stinky, dark, and dilapidated living room, we went over the new round of designs which had been developed off of the feedback from round one. Here are the new versions - let us know what you think of them....

Our general preference was 4.3, though we still had a bunch of points of feedback....

So - on Friday we're slated to have another round of things with an additional version that has a galley like kitchen (like Option 1 above) combined with most of the feel of 4.3. We'll see how that goes and take it from there. In the meantime, I'm trying to nail down some numbers on the Hazmat info, which I'll post this weekend.

Preliminary designs and edits

So as you're probably gathering from the array of posts, there's been a lot happening over the past few weeks while I've had radio silence on my blog. Perhaps most significantly have been the first couple of rounds of designs from Bruce Carscadden Architects (BCA). After giving some input to both Ian and Bruce (rough primary instructions were: minimize cost, maximize light/storage/space, have an indoor/outdoor seamless transition, and keep the feel modern yet natural), they generated three initial layouts (or schematic design).

So....

...What do you think? I'll fill you in on our thoughts soon...

Toronto Design Scene: who knew?

A special travel-edition of my blog from the past few days in TO. Who knew that my home of nigh-ten years is all grown up? When I left Toronto a little over three years ago, it definitely had some solid roots in the design scene: institutions like OCAD have ensured that. But with the building boom of the past decade, it would seem like things have shifted into the mainstream. From the completion of the Liebskind-inspired ROM and the Gehry-driven AGO to Mississauga's (I know...MISSISSAUGA!?!) "Marilyn Munrow Towers" I've been impressed with the world-class architectural additions of late. But perhaps even more impressive is the emergence of the interior and industrial design scene throughout the city.

For the past few years, there's been a publication called Design Lines - almost like a free, quarterly, Toronto-specific design mag that also doubles as a great reference guide for shopping in the city. They identify various design-hubs in the city (Queen E/W, King E/W, the Junction, Ave-Dav, Caledonia) and provide brief reviews, hours, etc. Gotta admit to being jealous that Van doesn't have an equivalent (the Make it Local publication isn't quite the same - though still good).

So - highlights/fave stores:
1) Mjolk (pronounced Mi-yelk, and meaning...go figure..."Milk" in Swedish) - it's a Scandinavian-inspired higher-end design shop. The interior falls somewhere between a gallery, a sauna (without the heat - its got a lot of wood), and a gift shop, and the products range from furniture to kitchen utensils and jewelry. Saw an awesome set of tongs and a very cool built-in drain rack.


Choice items: 

Scissors/kitchen tool

Sori Yanagi Perforated tongs

Hand hammered Yukihira Pot

2) Made - a Canadian-design store that has more interior furnishings (lights, chairs, credenzas - aka ground-level cabinets with legs, etc.) Some very cool stuff and the owners were lovely. In particular - have a look in their catalogue at the credenza by Heidi Earnshaw, the live-edge side tables by Deanne Lehtinen, the lamps by Propellor Design, and the pendant lamp by Rob Southcott.

3) Stylegarage - another Canadian company that's sort of like a high-end version of Nood (or a higher-high end version of Ikea). Great design: clean, simple, modern, natural, and sustainable...that's what I'm all about!



Lots of neat stuff, but we thought we might be able to steal the concrete table idea...





And again....was going to post more here, but decided that more frequent was better than more comprehensive! So, that's it for now.

The up days and down days

The past week has been a mixed bag entirely on the house front. I had the initial energy audit/assessment last week ($168, due to a $150 subsidy from the gov't) which I used Energywise Solutions. In a nutshell it was probably one of the best dollars spent thus far. He did a pretty quick tour of the place, took some basic measurements, looked at materials (windows, walls, insulation, etc.) and then did a blower test (seal the house, suck out the air and then see how long it takes to balance - which tells you how much air is leaking in). It took about an hour in all, and he then sent me a report later that night. The good news: I'm eligible for many thousands of dollars in subsidies. The bad news: to receive them, I have to have the building envelope in place by March 31st, which is going to be VERY tight according to our timelines.

Over the weekend, Kris and I went to the Vancouver Home Show which was interesting, but not mind blowing. Did get a bunch of options for everything from heat recovery ventilator systems, to sheds, to countertops, toilets, and so forth. Here are some of the ones we're thinking of:

1) Modern Shed: Shed, gear storage, guest room, office...all in a very cool shell. Not sure what size we'd do (probably below the non-permit size of 107 sq.ft) - or even if we can do it - but it's definitely appealing!

Example of a a "Modern Shed" shed. Hey baby - nice clerestory windows...

2) Eco by Consentino: pretty awesome countertop surface - green, durable, looks great...but a bit pricey. We'll see if we can swing it in the end....

White Diamond is our choice of colours

3) Dual Flush Siphonic Water Toilet / Fresca Dorado Elongated Toilet: We're desperately in search of a pimpin' dual-flush toilet that doesn't have nasty areas to clean. Here are our faves thus far...


4) Lighting: I quite like the Le Klint lamps (stylish and affordable), but there are lots of options on that front. My other lighting of choice includes this Nuevo Asparagus lamp and the classic Poulsen lamp

Le Klint

Nuevo Asparagus

And the classic Poulsen Artichoke (don't ask me why they want to name them after vegetables)

I could go on, but I'm several weeks behind in posting, so that will do for now...