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January 30, 2012

Passive House project

Posted by sritchie, 11:48 PM

Currently in the design phase on a passive house project to be built in Seattle. If you are not familiar with the concept, here’s the basics, excerpted from our passive house consultant’s website, and also edited by our architectural firm NK Architects:

Goal: Passivhaus! (also known as passive house) offers a well-proven, predictable, cost-effective way to reduce the heating demand of buildings by up to ninety per cent (90%!) and overall energy use by up to seventy per cent (70%).

How does it work? A Passive House building is a very well-insulated, virtually air-tight building that is primarily heated by passive solar gain and by internal gains from people, electrical equipment, etc. Energy losses are minimized. Any remaining heat demand is provided by an extremely small source. Avoidance of heat gain through shading and window orientation also helps to limit any cooling load, which is similarly minimized. An energy/heat recovery ventilator provides a constant, balanced fresh air supply. The result is an impressive system that not only saves up to 90% of space heating costs, but also provides uniquely terrific indoor air quality.

Passive house is now required by code in several countries in northern Europe.

Proposed Design in Madison Park: For this house to meet the strict energy standards, we need an additional 12” of insulation on the outside of the structural walls and a minimum of 26” insulation in the roof. The opportunity to eliminate the furnace in this home has significant community and occupant benefits to be sure.

Stay tuned as details emerge…

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January 30, 2012

Selecting the Best Toilet

Posted by sritchie, 10:56 PM

Whether you’re remodeling, building new or just replacing an older toilet, there are many factors to consider which I won’t go into but for one: Buy one that is a good flusher. How do you know before its too late? Fortunately, there’s an independent group that has gone to the trouble to test flush thousands of toilets and measure performance. 300 is the minimum score equivalent to federal requirements, but don’t stop there. Go at least 600+. Many models can be purchased at reasonable prices that score 800 or 1000 and more. The score represents ability to flush, so higher is better. You can also use this resource to find Water Sense and High Efficiency Toilets HET, dual flush, go low flow people! Also remember that ability to flush and water efficiency are not correlated, so you can score high on ability to flush and also be water efficient. Check it out: MaP Testing

Niagara has a 0.8 GPF model! How does it score, you ask? 800!

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January 30, 2012

Clearwater Commons

Posted by sritchie, 1:20 AM

Mid-Winter Update

Currently 4 homes are under construction at Clearwater Commons, a duplex and 2 single family homes. Recently, the Mini-B Passive House modular home was also delivered to the site, to serve as a guest house.

Last week, blown-in dense pack fiberglass insulation was installed.

On Friday, sheetrock was delivered to the duplex.

This construction milestone marks the end of systems and beginning of finish work.

The siding on the duplex is complete also as of now.

Some of the features installed to date include:

2″ poly iso rigid roof deck insulation, installed under the metal standing seam metal roof

Blown-in dense pack fiberglass insulation
1″ rigid foam insulation on all exterior walls, taped seams for air-tightness
HRV – Heat recovery ventilation systems
24″ OC advanced framing

The week of snow caused some delays for us, as there was a foot of snow at the Commons!

We are in the midst of getting the 2 single family homes ready for insulation and sheet rock. The larger single family unit (pictured above) is almost ready for Framing inspection in order to move to the finish phase.

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August 29, 2011

Platinum Alley

Posted by sritchie, 10:10 AM

New house being built now, right next door to the original Alley House, completion fall 2011. It’s an exceptional home, take a look:

LEED Platinum (3rd party very green certification)
Modular Prefab (built offsite in a factory, and delivered to the site 90% complete)
Super energy efficient, high-end windows, extra insulation, heat recovery, heat pump
Radiant heated bathroom floors
Hip urban design (David Foster Architects)
Healthy indoor air quality (filtered mechanical ventilation, HRV, low or no VOCs)
Pre-wired for PV, solar hot H20, Polk Audio system, data, coax…
1 car garage, that is fully conditioned and can be readily converted into office or ADU (extra living unit) legally in this zone
Rainscreen siding
Optional Green roof
Xeriscape landscaping to simplify your life, no grass to mow

In other words, it’s a forward thinking home for in-city urban living in a great area (2 blocks to Essential Bakery), with all the green and sustainable features you could want, delivering clean healthy indoor air and low utility bills.

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August 25, 2011

How not to do advanced framing

Posted by sritchie, 11:40 AM

I stopped by a construction site the other day and talked to the framers. I asked whether they were using advanced framing methods, since I could see 24 inch on center studs in the exterior walls. They said yes. I took a walk through the project to see the framing details, and here is one I just had to call out, to show you how NOT to do advanced framing. Advanced Framing, or OVE (Optimum Value Engineering) usually refers to a series of details that reduce the amount of wood in the framed structure. Less wood, used more thoughtfully, in the right places, allows for alot more insulation, and saves trees, and then saves the occupant utility money every month.

Here is a window sill with WAY TOO MUCH wood in it. This will be a cold spot, and will leak energy for this owner, maybe even host condensation. I will try to take thermal images this winter to show my point graphically. But structurally speaking, only 1 stud is needed here, not six!

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July 19, 2011

Modular Prefab in Madison Valley

Posted by sritchie, 2:35 PM

Cascade Built is excited to announce that our newest project, Alley House 2, will be a modern modular pre-fab home fabricated by Method Homes and Designed by David Foster Architects. This 3bd/2ba home is targeting LEED Platinum and features radiant floors, high-performance windows & insulation and non-toxic finishes. Located next door to the original Alley House, this new Cascade Built home is designed with livability in mind, enabling people to live where they work and play. We caught up with Method’s mastermind, Brian Abramson to get the skinny on going prefab:

From a buyer’s perspective, what are the main advantages of going modular versus traditional building?
The benefits of modular are fixed costs, shortened build time, minimized disturbance to the site, the fact that the home does not have any exposure to the elements while being built and the precision that is achieved while building in a controlled environment.

What are some of the sustainable features included in Method’s prefab homes?
The most sustainable feature and point of differentiation from site building is that we dramatically minimize the waste that is generated. By building in one place we’re able to reuse scraps and throw very little away. Our production facility only has a small residential size roll-out trashcan for actual waste and that is all that is not recycled. In addition to minimizing waste our focus is on indoor air quality, efficiency, and using durable and sustainable materials. To this end we use no products with formaldehyde, and only low VOC adhesives and stains, we use a minimum of blown in insulation rather than batts, and we seek out materials that last.

Explain the production and installation process of a Method home.
Generally site work and factory production happen concurrently, after 2 months the pieces of the home are trucked to the site and installed in one day with a crane. It takes 1 week –2 months to finish a home onsite depending on the number of pieces and complexity so the total build time can vary from 2-4 months

Here’s a time lapse video of one of Method’s homes being installed by crane in Quilcene, WA:

If you’re interested in learning more about the Alley House 2 pre-sale, get in touch !

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June 6, 2011

“Green Building Challenges” – How to Select the Right Materials

Posted by sritchie, 10:11 PM

“Green Building Challenges” – How to Select the Right Materials

We had the pleasure of contributing to this article on Buildipedia.com, Challenges of Building Green: Material Selection and highlighted a few key points below.

Don’t get hung up on the term ‘green’

A ‘green’ home is a home that is built well, takes advantage of existing materials in new ways, and emphasizes longevity – for the home itself and its occupants. For example, you can choose to use advanced framing and extra insulation when building your home and greatly reduce your heating costs. No ‘green’ needed. A smart builder will consider these options across the board when planning a new home or building development site.

Here’s another example to keep you thinking in the right direction – for a south facing house, we might select windows with a higher solar heat gain coefficient to allow passive heating or use strategically placed awnings that fully let in the winter sun while blocking the summer sun.

Let it be and become

Choosing to build a sustainable home or building doesn’t have to require extra budget or time – it just requires a shift in mindset that decides this is the way it is going to be done. We’re going to build our future homes now. It’s our model at Cascade Built – we only build homes that use less energy, emphasize durability, and provide occupants with a healthy, comfortable space to be.

Think beyond today

We are conditioned to be so in the moment that we don’t look forward even one year anymore. When you’re considering a new home or developing a building – the lowest price should not win because it only considers the now and not the next 5, 10, 50 years. We got a piece of great advice from a doctor once – you can ‘pay now, or pay later’.

Check back later this month for a checklist on ‘Are you ready to build a green home?’

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April 12, 2011

eMonitor

Posted by sritchie, 4:30 AM

The eMonitor 2 makes me want to get one, and I’ll need a new iPhone to monitor my home energy profile from afar. As we’ve mentioned before this energy monitor is the Cadillac, measuring each circuit in your home individually to show the detail needed to understand what makes up your energy use. Monitors your solar production too. And a cool app.

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April 5, 2011

LEED Platinum pre-sale

Posted by sritchie, 10:57 PM

Just starting construction on a modern green home in Madison Valley.

We’re targeting LEED Platinum, which is very green and advantageous to the homeowner not to mention the environment. A pre-sale could provide you the opportunity to customize finishes to your taste.

Green Features