Imber Akse House – Burlington’s LEED home

Late in the summer we were about to pull the trigger on a significant part of our home that was to be completed by a relatively new supplier to the building market — DaroTopp. They had a new product that perfectly suited our needs and price point. We were told by them that the product we needed was used extensively in Europe but had not been done in our area so seeing it in place wasn’t possible – so presumably there were no references from builders or home owners.

A week prior to the deadline to our decision, we received an email through our website from Lorie Boucher of Ottawa who is also building a sustainable home with very similar features and had engaged this supplier. She offered a big warning in a very professional manner by explaining in detail what had transpired for her and a second owner in Kingston Ontario to unsatisfactory results – as they put it – disastrous and costly. They pointed out at that time that their homes were yet completed and so they were hoping the supplier would rectify.

With stories in hand I approached Daro in one of our meetings and asked their perspective. The supplier’s retort was that they had not installed the product and that the installers were to blame in both cases. While I listened to this defense, I recalled that Lorie had said that the president of the company did the install himself…

So lesson 1 and 2. One, look for and check references and two, confront any negative references to see how the supplier handles it.

In the end the supplier failed to repair the substandard jobs and as a result the home owners are unhappy with the product and will have to find means to redo or rectify on their own at their own costs.

As a result of this experience we are glad to have moved on to another supplier. Now, one more thing that comes out of this – the power of the web to connect and protect consumers from the false claims, poor workmanship and less than quality products that seem to be prolific in the building industry. By being vocal and looking out for each other, we can create an environment where it is next to impossible to sell consumers down the river.

We’re now currently in the later part of the build of our home that is aiming for LEED Platinum in the Canadian LEED for Home Pilot Program. As designer and eventual home owner I’ve played a large role in sourcing qualified sustainable materials and technologies for the home and have made an effort to compare costs with legacy materials and services along the way.

Though the top of mind costs do appear to be significantly higher from the invoice – 10% to 25% for LEED qualified materials and technologies, my observation and experience is that in general these solutions are also significantly better – quality + performance + longevity — and I believe this is worth weighing.

What has kept the costs per LEED point down however has been the design. Instead of looking at sustainability as something we can buy our way through using LEED as a structure, designers should first review the power of good, simple and logical thinking as a first go to solution. To the credit of the LEED program in recognizing this, many points can be gained by utilizing intelligent design solutions in the home in lieu of tech to reduce everything from excess materials dependency, energy waste, material redundancy and material waste – all equating to less costs at end of build and over time.

With this in mind I feel the cost of build for LEED is and can be lower than often quoted. If anyone is considering a LEED build, I believe it’s worth the extra costs for LEED certification because if you are building for a sustainable goal independent of LEED, the $2+K for process is essentially the only additional cost, and for some, possibly well worth the label that defines the result.

As part of being enrolled in the LEED Home Canada Pilot, our builder and perhaps us, home owners, will be asked to comment on the sustainable build process as well as the practicality of LEED in Canada. In general, most of the comments are straight forward but there is one big thing which I believe the industry has overlooked, or, overlooks on purpose.

The issue is that when building a sustainable home, rather than conventional, the sustainable model is upside down in the order and cost of the build process. Really, it is. I don’t mean that you put the roof on before the walls but I do mean that all materials and systems have been stepped up in quality and complexity, require more attention and a particular order of completion that is somewhat different than typical.

Take heating for example – and I’m over simplifying for sake of argument. In a typical house the order is the foundation followed followed by walls, sub floors, roof deck, electrical, insulation, roof shingles, drywall starts, venting and ducts, drywall finishing and painting, flooring and lastly don’t forget to pick up a furnace on your way home honey. Done.

Now take a sustainable home – like in our case a high performance one. The first thing is to plan the heating, followed by foundation, followed by heating dig/drill, followed by walls and sub floors, finished roof system (no temporary), install heating GSHP units and HRVs, ducts, electrical, insulation, radiant floor system embedded in concrete finished floor, drywall and finishing and paint.

Subtle difference I know and in some cases this can be adjusted but the big thing is it’s different and the weight of the costs are in those few items that got loaded up front. So big deal – what’s the problem. Well the problem is:

1. Trades are used to the traditional order of things so a floor that goes in early get’s damaged – so you have to cover the floor with costly plywood coverings – wasteful too

2. Banks are used to the traditional order for their financing draws on a point system so a cost weighted toward the beginning leaves everyone scrambling to pay for the heavy upfront outlay before the bank catches up on the paperwork

3. Many systems are attached to each other determining installation order, or require trades working in isolation without overlap in the home so adjusting the order is complex or impossible – ie. insulation is a vapour until expanded so nobody but the installer is in the house – means more time, or radiant floor that will be embedded in cement requires testing during install to the subfloor and prior to concrete pour therefore the whole Geothermal (GSHP) system must be operational – not thrown down there at the last minute after the house is done when you find one on sale

In the end the outcome is a highly efficient home that looks like all the rest – it’s in the order of build and restrictions of install that can cost more due to timing and damage from trades not used to working with the new sequence.

Now that the stone work has completed outside and in, and beautifully I might add, the quicker bulk work can commence. Insulation has zipped along and is now mostly complete with only a few hours of touch-up to do. Following this is the task of carefully applying a 6mil poly vapour barrier on all walls. The vapour barrier keeps water vapour and dust from passing back and forth between the outside, the inside of the wall and the interior air volume of the home. In order for this to work, the poly has to be applied carefully to avoid tears and gaps – taping all seams.

Following this, the drywall is scheduled to commence next week and will require approximately a months work before we can get to the next big ticket items; radiant floor and poured concrete with topping. Info to come.

Let’s get complicated for a minute. Insulation. What’s complicated about insulation – throw some in the walls and ceilings to meet code, seal it up and you’re good to go right. Wait. Firstly, insulation may be one of the most important components or systems in the home but unfortunately it is behind the walls so you don’t get to stare at it when the house is done, nor do you get to see how it was done…

There are lots of useful website resources to explain insulation types and applications but there are some important concepts that are sadly missed or difficult to locate. Starting with the current and legacy system of insulation in the market – typical pink fiberglass batt and the R-Value.

Idea 1 – R value
Current code in our area requires at least R20 walls and R40 ceilings that will be exposed to the exterior. Traditionally insulation was measured with an R value – the result of a test where a sealed box without studs is lined with insulation and tested to see how long it takes for the temperature inside to change to a warmer or colder exterior temperature. Simple.

The problems with this system as it relates to the use of insulation are many but here are a few main that make the test useless when gauging insulation performance in a practical context; the box doesn’t account for air movement caused by wind or air pressure differences between in and out, introduction of lesser R-value materials like wall studs, leaks or openings in the box envelope to the exterior such as around windows and doors or the biggy, insulation settling over time. It just looks at insulation in a perfect and isolated context.

Idea 2 – Application
Like many materials, the issues with performance can come down to the details of installation and use. That doesn’t apologize for the material in this case however because in reality – this material is designed to fail because it’s a terribly outdated system. During install, the format standards associated with the product have it fit into the gap between studs as we all know – and this fit is relatively snug, enough to support the material most times but the flexibility of the material and lightness means it doesn’t really hand on and is to some degree supporting itself like a post using whatever tensile strength it has. The ends are cut by the installer and are sometime short or long – they are working fast. In the end the batts go in nearly even and almost the right length but there are gaps, lots and lots of gaps. Remember your R Value was 20 in a perfect sealed box – what do you think you have now.

Next remember that the insulation is trapped between studs that are approximately 2” thick and depending on construction method, 6” deep and extend all the way to touch the uninsulated external wall’s interior surface. This means that these studs will be making a conductive connection to the outside world. Studs when measured for R value are said to be approximately R 4 though I’ve seen estimates as high as R 7. None the less, when you add up the amount of studs per square foot, as well as account for all the gaps – between studs and around windows and doors – you end up on average with R 10. What? R 10? Yep.

Idea 3 – Settling and performance
So the vapour barrier goes on and next the drywall and you move in. Over the next few years, the insulation settles. You may have done a reno or two in your life and have seen this big gap at the ceiling when you ripped the drywall off the walls. Yes, a big 12” gap where the insulation sagged from it’s own weight and shrank to reduce the coverage in the wall by as much as 1/8th on an 8’ wall. But does this mean this reduces the performance of the insulation by 1/8th? No, a 1/2” hole in a 10” balloon doesn’t reduce it’s effectiveness proportionately – it fails badly and lets all the air out. And this is what happens to your house – the balloon lets out all the heat from where heat rises – to the ceiling where the walls intersect the ceiling.

Idea 4 – Health
Why is this always last – why does health not have an ROI? Well for us it does and this is why. Once fiberglass insulation starts sagging and air starts passing through the envelope in both directions due to warm air trying to get out or external air being sucked in to replace air whipping out your ceiling or out your hood fan – dirt, dust and organics move through the insulation in both directions – trapping these organic particles not to mention pulling free glass particles into your breathing air. Eventually tears and gaps in your semi permeable vapour barrier (clear poly) allow moisture to enter and get trapped, condensing in cooler areas and when mixed with your dust and organics, creates mold and lots of it. Next, you breath the mold spores which leads to one of the largest interior air quality issues of homes today.

So, not so simple after all. And worth considering. There is a great solution and that’s blown foam. Now nothing is without disadvantages but that’s for another post. Concentrating on only the advantages – blown closed cell foam solves all those issues. In brief the R Value is measured the same but in reality it can be measured using a performance value as a percentage of R. to illustrate, pink insulation has a performance of 40% – it sagged, installed poorly, was porous, had gaps and arrived at less than half of the rated R value. Blown foam is rigid and stays inert for the life of the home while also sticking to and filling all gaps, expanding into any place a vapour of the insulation can get to before expanding. The subsequent finished performance is 95+%, for good. What this means is that if you believe R 20 is an acceptable value to achieve an R 10 in practicality – than in foam the equivalent R 20 depth of insulation will have and R 40 practical relative performance rating. It’s twice as good.

Following that, the foam is a vapour barrier once hardened if not scraped so once a 6mil poly is applied on top, there is very little moisture passing in either direction. Also, since the foam makes a mostly air tight seal, little to no air moves reducing the chance of organics contacting your drywall and creating mold situations – foam cannot support mold growth.

Other benefits are the high acoustical insulative properties that make a home simply the quietest on the block improving your enjoyment and sleep – oh, and did I mention you’ll save a lot of energy. The no VOC after curing, inertness of the material and high energy rating also make it qualify for LEED points.

For our home we chose to go with closed cell blown expanding foam – R 28 in the walls and R 40 in the ceilings. The application is now almost complete and we’re ready for careful vapour barrier application and drywall next week.

Supplier – Jarvis Insulation
The Jarvis team has operated in our area for a couple of generations and has a solid reputation for all types of applications in commercial and residential. Though they would be primarily using traditional insulation, Dave Jarvis has studied insulation methods and materials extensively and tries hard to convince customers that blown foam is where it’s at for all the reasons above. He admits that the price is a barrier of entry for a lot of people but that more and more are making the informed switch. While evaluating contracts from various suppliers, we heard more than a few times that Jarvis was the most knowledgeable and qualified to blow foam in our high performance house and would provide the best guidance and value. This has indeed been our experience.