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!

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.

what's new building in ithaca

There's plenty I'd like to write about these days as we've been petty busy but frankly, i just don't have the time-
So instead I'll post a few pictures with captions and hope to get back at the keyboard for some more in depth writing soon.

SIPS-
one of the advantages of building homes with SIPS is that if your client can't decide on a window placement or wishes to add a window after framing has been completed it can be a pretty simple job as shown here. Just crank up the chainsaw and let 'er rip..

And voila- your window opening is made, just frame it out with 2x6s, and install the window. Note the 5 & 1 half inches of continuous foam -in white- that is the center of a typical eps SIP -
Tile work
Recently Kerrie has been working on some tile flooring projects in older homes that feature uneven and sloped floors-

She's had fun creatively leveling these more challenging surfaces and has come up with some lovely finishes-

This is a tile floor she did in Ithaca this fall for our friend Hilby- (note the Mexican Talevera accent tile Hilby picked out)




Building a new house in Danby
This week as we turned the addition we have been working on in Ithaca over to the home owner for interior painting, we began (in the snow) construction on a new energy efficient home out at the White Hawk eco-village, a new co housing community that is growing in Danby New york. Unlike the two other homes completed there, this home will not be constructed of SIPs, but rather with traditional stick framing. However we will be paying strict attention to minimizing thermal bridging as well as providing excellent air sealing as we go Let's hope the snow doesn't get too heavy before we get the roof on!

Bob and Denise's addition

Our current building project

is a home addition that will double the living space for a family living in a lovely cottage style home on the edge of Ithaca. Unique to this project are the ten foot SIP walls, a cathedral ceiling and a 28 x 12 foot loft space for overflow guest sleeping and much needed storage. As well, the new space has a radiantly heated concrete slab floor- (to be stained) and ample windows for enjoying the woodsy surroundings. The exterior will be finished with locally milled, pine board and bat siding to match the existing home.

Home owner Denise Thomas writes:
When our son was three months old we discovered that he had been born with Cerebral Palsy and would require extensive therapuetic services in our home. Up until then our home had been small (750 sq ft) but adequate for my husband and I. Now with a new son and therapists coming and going, we needed more space, and quick! After receiving several bids for an addition to our home, we chose Creative Constructions. Not only was their bid reasonable, but my husband and I genuinely liked the team. Rob and Rod were both very professional and yet laid back and friendly.
They were also willing to let my husband, who was a professional contactor, do as much or as little of the work as he wished. So far we are very pleased with the addition. Rod took our simple design and made it exactly what we wanted. The
team has used quality materials always with an eye to towards energy efficiency, which is fantastic.

Even when we have changed our minds or added

something new, the team's answer is always" we can do that!" We can hardly wait for it to be complete and to spread out into the newspace. Our son Byron is quite mobile now so we know he will love it too.

Check back for an update as the project gets completed!

rob

shades of green

There's a lot of buzz these days about being green, and for the most part that's a good thing. But defining what's green and what's not is a pretty subjective task. With all the noise and claims of Eco friendliness out there, it can get difficult to see the trees for the forest.

When it comes to "green building" in progressive Ithaca, there are many shades to choose from. Living roofs, straw bale walls, local lumber, low VOC paints and finishes, residential solar and wind installations, and more. As I look around me at what other folks in the green building business are doing to reduce their impact on the environment, I can't help but wonder if we ourselves are doing enough?

This is the question that lead to this post... My first thought is, hmm well, maybe not, after all we've never created an earthen floor for a customer and we frequently use materials produced from far away.... But with further consideration I think, well, it depends on who we are building for. Not every customer is willing to make the aesthetic leap to rough cut siding with no paint, regardless of the benefits. It's true, what clients are willing to spend their hard earned dollars on is as big a factor as any in what green materials and methods we are able to utilize on a given project. And then I think, ...hang on a second there buddy, maybe we're doing just fine, and perhaps our part on the Ithaca green building pallet is just as important as all the others.

So, what is it that we are actually doing, you ask?

Well our unique shade of green building comes from knowing how to design, and build lower Eco-footprint, highly energy efficient, affordable homes. Homes that require less material and energy to create up front, and therefore less energy and money to operate or maintain over the long haul. Point in fact, we recently we were involved in the construction of an Energy Star rated 3 bedroom, 2 bath home with around 1,200 sq' of interior living space. That's less than half the size of the average new home built in the Northeast these days. This particular design, dubbed "Habitat" by it's designer, Ithaca resident Rod Lambert, is all about getting more home out of less resources. Utilizing proven design elements such as window placement that optimizes winter solar gain while reducing summer heat build up, exterior walls built of SIP panels, as well as a floating slab with radiant heat are just some of the ways we get the green effect going.

The family that moved into this house we recently worked on, told me that the Energy Star assessment team came by recently. Apparently during the process of checking out the house's energy saving characteristics, the technician who did the "blower door test" (the test that checks for air infiltration) said that she had never had a house rate so well . That made me smile.

It's true that sometimes I feel a little guilty that we are not doing more obviously green projects like building living roofs and such (though we have in the past!), but then I remember what we are doing for the cause, and I feel pretty good about our part. After all there are many shades of green that make up the forest and each one is integral to the whole.

rob

Laura and Steve's White Hawk house

In winter 2007-2008, Creative Constructions framed one of the first houses to go up at White Hawk Ecovillage.

The back of the house with many windows faces the sunny south to optimize solar energy.

SIP's were used in the construction of this house.

Rob and his tools.

Inside walls go up.

The Woinoski's recently wrote this...

....Just had to mention how much we LOVE our home! Almost everyone we know has already turned their heat
on, but we (even through the COLD last night) haven't had to! This morning when
we woke up it was 28 outside and 62 in here! It's amazing how well the house
retains the heat it gains during the day! Yesterday we actually had to open the
windows to cool it down b/c it got over 70! Very exciting :)

We are going to see how long we can comfortably go without heat. For us this means we will wear sweaters and pants and socks and if we're still cold, then it's not comfortable and the heat comes on.

Also, we should mention that we got our first electric bill - they estimated our use for Sept (no real meter reading) at THREE TIMES what they actually found we used when they came out to read the meter! 3x!!! Our average usage is 7kwh per day, and we haven't been trying to conserve - but we might soon and see what happens :)

So, just wanted to put this out there. We LOVE how energy efficient this house is, it's saving us money - big time!!! Many thanks to Rod for designing such a great home, to Rob, Rod, and Kerrie for assuring tight construction, to Beauty for the vision of White Hawk, and everyone else for helping make this happen!