Tag: net zero

We are helping to realize a sculptor’s design of the Honeycomb House.  The project is designed to meet Passive House Standards, be Net Zero Ready and will be completely FOAM-FREE. It is a pleasure and a challenge to be part of this creative venture with Michael Hindle of Passive to Positive and Daniel Gantebein, sculptor!
We are thrilled that this project is now under construction.  The owner is serving as general contractor and has overseen the successful initial pour of the basement wall!

As well as the install of our foam-free foundation using perlite under the slab.

The StegoWrap vapor barrier was used and the slab was poured.

Given that this was our foundation plan, I’d say so far, so good!

 

Upon hanging the TJI insulation cavity, the vapor open Weather Resistant Barrier (WRB) was installed and all seams were taped.  Given the pressure of the cellulose that will be blown-in behind this WRB, we decided to use Solitex Mento 1000 and taped with our favorite Tescon Vana tape.

The next layer is the ventilation cavity / rainscreen / furring strips.  We decided on horizontal with vertical furring strips to keep the cellulose bulge in check and maintain an acceptable ventilation cavity as well as provide a more substantial nailing surface for our engineered wood siding.

We have built our structural 2×6 wall, installed and taped the plywood air barrier, and have created all of the window boxes.  It is now time to attach the 11 7/8″ vertical TJIs to our wall.  This TJI cavity will be filled with cellulose and serve as our main insulation layer in our Climate Zone 5 project location.  The TJIs are non-bearing and their vertical installation is addressed by Weyerhaeuser TrusJoist TB-821-2014 (comes up on a google search).

Per the advisement of our structural engineer, in the areas where the TJI is not resting on the concrete foundation wall (with a bit of mineral wool sandwiched between), but is instead ‘floating’ we used a light 40 series joist hanger at the base of each TJI.  He also called for blocking top, bottom and mid-height.

 

And suddenly…it’s a house.  The trusses arrived and were set at 24″ on center on top of our 24″ on center 2×6 structural wall on top of our 24″ on center MSR 2×10 floor framing on top of our basement wall.  Walking through the skeleton to see the clean, aligned bones was really exciting.  Our framers did a fabulous job with advanced framing and aligning all the structure.  It sounds simple and straightforward, but I’ve walked in many that seem junked up with unnecessary studs and multiple upon multiple jacks and kings.

The blue line along the top plate is Tescon Vana magic tape sealing the corner edge of our plywood air barrier. Each spliced top plate is taped as well.
Next comes the roof sheathing, finalizing the plywood air barrier and taping all the seams.

Michael and I share many loves.  One of them happens to be the love of moss and fern.  Though our house will be as low impact as we can possibly make it, we are still making an impact on the land.  Where the house goes, moss and fern will not.  So we spent all day one Sunday transplanting moss, fern and some raspberries to areas outside the L.O.D.  I’ve heard that moss does not transplant, but I’m hoping that because we were adding moss to where moss already existed it will survive.  We also ended up roping off a few patches of old stumps, moss and patches of local ecology in hopes that they will make it through the construction.  Our tree trimming and pruning guy said he can’t control to that degree where a tree falls.  We will keep our fingers crossed.  In addition to the moss and fern, there are many, many trees that need to come down for the house, the septic field, safety and solar exposure.  Though we love trees as well, I’m not as heartbroken about taking them down. We had to hire an emergency tree removal in Atlanta, to remove some trees that were close to falling on our house.  They are all poplars, which are abundant in Maryland and sprouting all over the place on our site.  Also, we are totally thrilled that the majority of wood will be used on and within the house. (more on that later!)