Scherer home progresses

Summer is in full swing, and lately I'm just too busy to post much. Even so, here are few pictures of the new home we're building for/with Dan and Lisa Scherer out near Trumansburg.

Dan in the basement with the first floor frame above him.

nailing down the sub floor

GO Lisa!

"SIP wall panels going up

pictures windows on the south side of the house

second floor going up -so far all work completed on solar power, notice PV panel trailer in foreground.

then there was the rain...and more rain...

but things have been getting done, although somtimes you need a rope and pulley to make it all work especially with 180 pound 38 foot trusses-yikes.

and sometimes you just need a break in the shade to think it over.

next week the red steel roofing!

nice folks to work with --Dan and Lisa!

every picture tells a story or (how not to detail a building's exterior)

Sometimes a simple construction detail - done well- can save you a huge headache later on. Proper flashing and use of building paper such as Tyvek or good old fashion tar paper, with taped seams are essential to avoid the kind of water caused damage I got into yesterday.
This client, in a 12 year old co-housing development with 30 similar units called me after he noticed a small problem. Two short pieces of cedar siding located at the top of and between 2 large south facing windows had fallen off the house at the exact spot where an arbor had been attached. (see photo) Upon closer inspection it was noticed that the reason the 7" long pieces had gone missing was that the sheathing and framing behind them was well...gone!
I agreed to do the repair and after getting my tools, i peeled back the neighboring siding boards to get a closer look inside the wall. I was careful not to remove more of the expensive cedar siding than necessary, but each piece I took off revealed more and worse damage. At about 4 feet below the leak there was hardly any lumber left in the wall. I was shocked to see the extent of the rot- both in how far it had traveled and how much wood had been destroyed. I'd seen this in 100 year old houses a few times, but never in a newer home. The problem on this relatively young building was caused by poor exterior detailing especially where the arbor mounting block penetrated the siding and was attached to the house. The carpenter who put this all together obviously needed a solid and flat surface to mount his arbor to, but he had not taken the necessary measures to prevent rain water that drips from an overhead roof and splashes on the arbor and around the arbor mounting block, from getting behind the cedar siding, against the osb and wrecking havoc. For 12 years the water that made its way behind the siding was able to soak into the OSB sheathing that had not received it's required layer of Tyvec or equivalent building paper. To make matters worse. Once behind the siding the water was able to move down the framing to the bottom plate where instead of running out of the wall it was caught by a section of plastic that came up 5 inches from the sill plate and ran 24 ' along the front of the house! This plastic appeared to have been added as a bottom plate moisture/air seal of some sort but was in fact working much better as a holding pond for the unwanted rain water. There's more...this plastic membrane encouraged the water to move horizontally and in both directions along the bottom of the wall where it also sat soaking day after day year after year into the OSB sheathing, the cellulose insulation and the 2x6 framing material. Talk about your perfect storm of poor weather detailing! Fortunately the inside of the house was protected by a well installed plastic vapor barrier so the interior drywall was unaffected. Also, the majority of the roof and floor load above this point was being successfully transferred away from this "post" by a huge 24" band joist running to the sides of the house. I imagine if this was not the case, this rot issue would have also become a serious sagging and cracking issue long ago.
As I tore out the damage yesterday, the occasional passing neighbor noticing the extent of the damage, stopped, gawked and gasped, and then wondered out loud whether their house (which had the same arbor and siding) might have the same ugly issue lurking behind it's lovely cedar siding.. My answer to them? "...we'll have a look and let you know." And I'll let you know too!
The moral(s) of the story? Don't skimp on the building paper, the seam tape, the flashing, and the caulk- and when in doubt double up, oh and, gutters aren't a bad idea either--
A picture's worth a thousand words--

White Hawk house #3

For the past several months, Rob, Rod, and Kerrie have been building the third house at White Hawk ecovillage in Danby.  They braved working out in the winter weather framing, roofing, putting in windows, and doing the electric work.  With spring finally here the team is currently completing the siding and porch while the home owner does the interior trim and finish himself.  It won't be long before there is another family living at White Hawk. 

stick framing vs SIPs in White Hawk

Well, we're up to our wintertime building tricks again, putting together a new home in the fledging intentional community known as White Hawk.  Located in Danby New York, just 10 minutes south of Ithaca, White Hawk is an "ecovillage" that has been in the hearts and minds of many dedicated folks for several years but has now officially become a place where nice folks live.  And yes, there is an amazing hawk or two -all white- that soar over the land!
 It's a very big decision to choose to build a home, and an even bigger one to do that in a upstart intentional community.  None the less, several families have recently made the leap and we're enjoying the pleasure of building some of these beautifuly simple, energy efficient, custom homes for them.

  The approximately 1,000 sq. ft. house we are currently working on is for the Italiano-Boerst family.  As you can see from the photos it is fully framed with windows and roofing in place-  We completed the rough electric work this week in temperatures that felt as if  we were at the south pole.  Next week we will be insulating both the walls and ceiling with  blown cellulous.  Typically we Creative Constructions only need blow cellulous into the ceiling area -because we generally construct walls with SIPs or (structually Insulated pannels).  We love the R-value performance and ease of construction of SIPS.  However, in the case of this buildng the family just didn't like the idea of using a material whose main ingredient is eps foam-- 5 and 1/2" of cozy foam to be exact.  Derived from petroleum, the eps foam in SIPs does turn some folks off as being not a green enough choice. That's cool, but to be fair, "greeness" should be measured in more than one dimention and if the reason you dismiss SIPs is becasue it is in-part made from oil, there is more to consider.  Infact the long view looks much greener!  SIPS are recommened by most green building resources as a good choice for walls and ceilings because when one looks at the energy saving performance acheived year after year with SIPs compared to more traditional 2x6 stick framing ..SIPs shine-- Simply stated, the superior insulation performance SIPs provides cuts energy use, i.e. the amount of natural gas needed for heating- and that is green.  Additionaly, the osb panels used in SIPS are made from small diameter, fast growing, often farm grown trees- like aspen, this reduces the need for dimentional lumber in a new home, lumber that must be cut from larger, slower growing trees.  Finally the labor savings acheived with SIPs means less work/labor needed to build the house --which we consider a green merit in and of itself

On the other hand...The home we are building this month utilizes a smart unique stick framing/blown insulation strategy that maximize the R-value performance of the walls very nicely with out any petroleum based products --just more labor and more wood.

 Here is how we are doing it.  The walls are first framed using 2x6s, 16" on center,  then they are strapped horizontally 2' on center on the outside using approx.  2-1/2" lumber (2x6s ripped legnthwise).

 To this grid, we then attatch our OSB sheathing, add house wrap, do careful air sealing of all joints, seams, and perimeters using expanding foam GreatStuff  from a hand held gun and finally install the siding, which in this case is locally milled board and bat hemlock. 

The horizontal strapping step addresses the issue of "thermal bridging", an issue from which SIPS are mostly exempt.  Thermal bridging, is a term that desrcibes the action of heat or cold transfering/moving through a solid object and is a significant cause of heat loss in the winter in residential construction.  By adding the narrow horizontal strapping on the outside of the framing, thermal bridging is reduced to only the small locations where each horizonal strap crosses each 1 & 1/2 " wide vertical stud.   The added benefit of this framing technique is a thicker than typical wall (7" in this case) that can hold more insulation producing an R-value around 26.  It's all more laborious than building walls with SIP panels which provide structure, insulation, and sheathing all in one, but is a good choice if for what ever reason you nix the SIPs.