Imber Akse House – Burlington’s LEED home

Product / Material : Stûv Fireplace Units

Operation : 2 years

Summary : Exceeds expectations

Seemingly, one of the most frivolous decisions we made was in adding wood burning fireplaces. In particular, fireplaces from Stûv, though well known for making arguably the most efficient and well made precision wood burning instruments, they were coming at a higher price tag in addition to the debate around burning wood. (see earlier post )

The decision came with a price – the units cost more than domestic and required beefed up flue specifications at install which also added to the overall price. At the time, we felt there was no debate – these fireplaces burned at significantly higher efficiency ratings than domestic fireplaces and also importantly, looked awesome.

After approximately 2 years and a few cords of hardwood what do we think?:

1. Performance – The units operate as advertised, burning beautifully and hot with a fantastic heat output with surprisingly little ash compared to the typical sealed wood burner at the cottage. Also, the glass stays remarkably clear especially if you burn really hot occasionally.

The mechanics are remarkable. Easy to operate and simply enjoyable to use; lifting the glass door or swinging open the door frame for cleaning is a pleasure. Clearly a remarkable piece of engineering designed for those who appreciate fine engineering and performance.

2. Enjoyment — Boiling it down to the basics, we simply love these fireplaces for their pure beauty and ease of use. One unadvertised highlight is that they light so well it becomes something you on a whim without effort. For looks — we can’t count how many times friends have pointed out that these units are the nicest fireplaces they ever seen, with easily the most picturesque fires within.

The result, we don’t remember the costs — we just continue to enjoy the decision to go no other way than Stûv.

http://www.stuvamerica.com/en/index.php

One update to this post — Service! Recently I noticed a decline in the performance of a seal where the glass door closes to become air tight. I emailed Stüv to order a complete set of seals and they were so excited that we loved our Stûv’s that they simply sent the set. Great people.

Stûv America inc.

4747, Bourg street
Montreal (Quebec) H4T 1H9
T : 514.396.9463
Toll Free : 1.866.487.7888
info@stuvamerica.com

Recently we surfaced our deck in the rear yard. We had been searching for an alternative to wood or composite for various reasons but mostly to build this deck only once, well, and have it last as long as possible. In our situation, most of our deck surface is covered by the roof overhang of the exterior room but the remaining exposed area takes the roof run-off in an intense drip area due to the lack of eaves troughs. So, essentially, a wood surface wood age and rot quickly in these conditions  — even cedar. Composite on the other hand is suspect in a sustainable sense due to their manufacturing practices, plastics and off-gasing.

We had been looking for a panel product that would fit the bill in either a paper or cement based material. There are many recycled paper wall surface panels on the market but none that we could source were structural; meaning meant to manage the load and wear and tear of foot traffic. For concrete, many companies produce a structural concrete panel however they all use these as underlayment in construction, and cover these with graphics of logos and specifications making them useless for a finished floor application.

Recently while speaking with a carpenter friend, he recommended a new product called Finex that’s manufactured in Canada — presumably in Quebec. Finex is a structural panel designed to go on both walls and floors and is produced for exactly our use — outdoor applications like decks! The great thing is the deck requires no exceptional preparation from the typical with exception of the 4lbs. per square foot weight tag it comes with. Lads, that means approx. 130lbs per 4′x8′ sheet of back splitting panel slugging.

I’ll save the details of the application specs but the short is that it cuts like a concrete panel and is screwed down to the wooden joists using stainless screws.

How did it turn out? Well, in some ways better than expected but that outcome was saved by the design considerations of trim, fascia and stonework. As for the product itself, it’s not for everyone. Our aesthetic was ideal for this product as out interior floors are concrete and so a inside outside flow was achieved well – almost a perfect match in colour to our surprise.

The downside was in the inconsistency of the surface appearance that occurred during the purchase, application and sealing of the material. I’m sure floor finishing experts will agree that the finish of the floor isn’t entirely credited to the flooring material, rather it’s the handling, finishing products and experience level of those applying it. After our carpenter friends did an exceptional job applying the sheets, the finishing meant me…

Though some of the material arrived cracked, we had enough to sort through it and chose the best. During application, the Finex recommends using a construction sealer/caulk between the panels to seal the specified 1/8th gap. They say be generous and allow the product to ooze out. Wow, this is not good.

The issue is that the Finex is surprisingly porous and so the rubberized caulking adheres so well to the surface that it’s nearly impossible to remove. After it cured, I tried blades to no resolve and resorted to sanding which helped. Once all the caulking looked as though it were removed, the surface was sealed using a waterborne water sealer to resist staining the porous concrete surface. At this point, and now whenever the surface is wet with rain, the places where the caulking was removed glows with a blotchy white stain.

All is not lost, I believe there is a further solution in either a re-sanding or potentially additional coats of sealer — or both likely.

Never the less, the end result was a cool and beautiful looking deck surface that is tough as nails, fireproof, waterproof, rot proof and will hopefully last a lifetime. I would recommend this product to anyone who is seeking the modern outdoor patio look that we achieved or is chasing a sustainable outcome as we were.

There were many more details in the application; tips and learnings that I could share if anyone is interested in the product.

Finex Concrete Panels — http://gofinex.com/english/welcome-Finex.html

When it comes to sustainability, talking the talk is one thing, walking the walk is another especially when you lump in altruistic challenges like locality to your material purchases.

When it came to bed mattresses however, the decision was easy. A few years ago we discovered Natura sleep company, a mattress manufacturer out of Cambridge Ontario, while looking for our children’s organic mattresses. We thought that sustainable or organic baby mattresses from Canada would be an impossible search however we were excited to find a high quality and easily accessible mattress line for children in our own backyard. (Incidentally – these are made with chemical free cottons, wools and either natural latex or synthetic latex. In all cases they are mite resistant and hypoallergenic. The company promotes using sustainable best practices in their materials and manufacturing processes. Link)

Years later, the mattresses had worn so well, holding up to all the rigor, and fluid exercise, that babies and toddlers can throw at a sleep surface. So when it came time to graduate the kids to youth beds, while also outfitting our guest room, we turned to no one else.

We happily ordered our mattresses online using Natura’s bed guide to point us to the right fit and balance of consciousness and cost. An attempt was made to purchase the Natura product through an area brick and mortar retailer but after too much time being dragged from one tired display to another to hear of their uncertain delivery timing, I gave up, turning to the direct internet route and had a pleasant experience shopping from my couch. Thankfully Natura also delivered.

The first thing we noticed when we took delivery of the mattresses was the increase in quality from the previous purchase. Wow, these are simply beautiful mattresses — weird because they are just mattresses. However the materials used, in our case sturdy organic cotton and wool, are combined and finished with such pleasing shades and handsome stitching. Seriously, I’m sure I’m not alone that mattresses are typically horrible shiny things that are scary to the touch. Not with with these Natura beauties, we felt sorry to have to cover them.

The kicker came when we had to sleep in the spare room or one of the kids beds during nights when the kids were continually waking, or I was snoring. To our surprise, they are more comfortable than our bed which was supposed to be a marvel of organic sleepy goodness — the Samina. Shhh, don’t tell them.

So, for the money, health and altruistic pull of local manufacturing and organic materials there is no better product in my opinion.

Natura Sleep / Bedding Company – http://www.naturaworld.com/

Now that we’ve moved in, did I say we’ve moved in, we’ve had a number of weeks to experience living in the house.

Like any honeymoon, the first couple of weeks weeks felt like a dreamy holiday away — lounging, pacing around, staring blissfully out the windows and admiring the details — getting to know each other away from reality.

Following this, we moved in for real and began to unpack, post honeymoon. Then the stark reality of the things remaining to do, the real unpacking and the beginning of maintenance slowly set in.

Now, weeks beyond that, we are starting to get to know the systems and get really familiar with each other, the house and us. Hence our first product review, the toilets.

Being a green home, we made every effort to find the best, most accessible and local products for the money and in the case of the toilets, we decided on the Kohler Water Sense — San Raphael™ Comfort Height® Pressure Lite® 1.0 gpf one piece elongated toilet with the Sloan FlushMate power flush!

Basically, this is a great toilet, doing everything it should and looking stylish while doing it. However, being one of those purchases you make blind, or at least not from experiencing it in the show room, I think there are some details worth discussing.

First, when they said power flush, we had no idea. This toilet uses the municipal water pressure to charge up an inner vessel within the tank with a combination of water and compressed air (Flushmate). Then, when you press the handle, a mini jet fighter engine blows one gallon of afterburner at the problem and down the drain, in a  similarly aggressive fashion as the toilet on plane on your honeymoon (If you are one of those people who are used to sitting on the toilet while you flush, I don’t recommend it).

Along with the water savings listed, there should be a sones rating. Cool technology but really loud. The good thing is that it is only loud for a second, then while it charges for a few more seconds, it’s much quiter than a typical toilet. So the trade is even I guess. Now in most plushy homes, this may not be an issue, but in our hard surface and sparsely fixtured place, sound get’s around, and around.

The second comment on the toilet is it’s rather tall. You’ll notice it’s called Comfort Height but we’re not entirely sure why. Perhaps the name calls on the same sense of irony as “Pressure Lite”. I’m 5′-10-3/4″ and the toilet is uncomfortably high at times. My 5′-4″ house boss definitely finds herself with toes pointing to the floor and the kids don’t stand a chance. Apparently Kohler suggests that Comfort Height is the height of an average chair, making it easier to sit and stand up. Indeed, if I was dining on the toilet, ok, but for many a subtle squat position may make the experience more rewarding.

On the positive side, the toilet looks great and is as sustainable as they come. It’s of very high quality, made in the US and uses very little water compared to traditional flushers. It’s important to note that so far, the toilets are also doing fine in combination with our grey water reclamations system which is using recovered sink and shower water for use by the toilets.

A side note is the need for a change of habit. Like many, we have a tendency to use toilet tissue for noses and the toilet for the disposal of such. In the case of the Pressure Lite flushers, they blow the tissue to bits resulting in a pulp solution worthy of paper making that is difficult to flush in one go. So if you are at all itchy to have a completely clear bowl (just paper no solids) then you’ll need to change that habit. The toilet is not a garbage can kids.

However, despite the Kohler San Raphael’s little ironies, I’d have to say we’re getting along just fine.

Clover Valley Ironworks

Finding a company to custom fabricate and install stairs is surprisingly difficult. There are a lot of commodity stair manufacturers that service the production building markets as well as industrial suppliers, but if what you are looking for are architectural, high quality finished stairs to compliment your home and suit your needs, good luck.

We got lucky. We found Clover Valley Ironworks, a Burlington – Hamilton based manufacturer, while sourcing suppliers to fabricate custom metal work for signage and retail displays that we designed. Jon Luff of Clover Valley is a true multidisciplinary artist that can work in most materials and you name it in fabrication techniques.

His love however is stairs and certainly the art of the stair, in all its complexity of math and planning, suits him well. We provided Jon with a design on a napkin and together hashed out a plan that would work to suit our needs and style. Clover Valley is used to working from technical drawings as much as they are well versed in styles and designs to assist homeowners with magazine clippings. They also distribute a range of the very best imported prefabricated metal and wood modern stairs from Edelco, Ferone and Metal Concept if magazine predictability is what you need.

Clover Valley has a great portfolio online to see for yourself how versatile they are in all styles from modern stairs, like ours, to transitional retail fixtures and traditional iron fences and railings.

www.clovervalleyironworks.com

Most, if not all of the conversations we have about our home centres around the choice to go sustainable and inevitably the costs associated with this choice. How much extra does it cost to build sustainable or LEED?

Well, presuming those are both the same thing and I don’t believe they are entirely, you have to decide first on your philosophy around EXTRA cost. Oh no you say, here he goes. Wait. I’ll break the argument into multiple parts over a series of posts.

Part 1 – Quality vs. Sustainable

Really, this is a good question. I’ve known many people who’ve either had a custom home built for them or have purchased a new production home and have in all cases been at the helm of the selections of materials from the guts to the finishes. The burden of choice.

In all cases they had to come to terms with the level of perceived quality that they wished to balance — costs versus return of enjoyment. This can be apposing scales where you pay too little and there is product failure or you pay to much and there is buyer’s remorse. However, in most cases, they chose perceived quality and they paid. That said, and cynicism aside, was there a possibility that the products were actually of good quality? Of course. In any product is there a guarantee that it is of best quality? No. But chances are that the highest quality is also the most costly to produce and therefore the most costly in market. So if you combine perceived quality with price…

If anyone has been through the selections process, they’ll know that there is no shortage of choice out there. All choices come with differentiation; imported, efficient, trendy, inexpensive, beta, designer, sustainable etc. — all are attributes associated with the product or the buyer but not what defines its use. Sustainable is only an attribute in the end no matter how intrinsically important we may believe it is.

The long point I’m heading to is that one of the key features of a sustainable product is in its quality. Sure, measuring sustainability is a complex matrix that includes cost of manufacturing on the environment, human health, geographic location relative to build site, economic disparity and so on. But a big component is still quality in performance and longevity of use. So, if quality accounts for a large part of the cost of a product or material, how much of the cost of the material is locked up in the purely sustainable portion. As likely none as much as it may be all.

In all practicality, I’m guessing next to none. My guess and philosophy is that beyond quality, the cost impact on sustainable goods is being absorbed by the manufacturer and our economy for now, perhaps not purely altruistically but rather in a muddle of  R&D minus grants plus pollution controls less tax breaks plus worker safety and process reporting etc. minus cheap fuel and money. In the end, the most practical cost basis for pricing sustainable goods is cost of material in, plus, labour and overhead — the same as making any decent quality product in a domestic market.

So, to sum up, we believe that because our house is built of quality and long living products and materials first, with a focus on sustainable best practices as a decisive differentiator between a myriad of product choices, sustainability had little bearing on final cost. Choice and an open market based on competition regulates this naturally.

Leslie and I have been long time supporters of local — local organic food production, local manufacturing, local labour, local products – we live and work local. It isn’t always easy but typically, when you really look philisophically at the reason for any difficulty, it’s related to the desire for choice, perceived quality and price. I’m not about to yank the lid off this can of worms but local makes a lot of sense when you consider the cost of distance of goods travelled on the ecology, the erroding strength and depth of our economy, and our own health with regard to food. Regardless of good intent, many industries have found themselves reliant on distance for materials and manufacturing and this is an uncomfortable reality for them.

In any event, one industry that has thus far maintained a high level of local in its diet is home building. As a matter of cost, labour practicality and standards, the majority of a home is or can easily be quite local.

But, just how local does local have to be? For us consciously, we want to support our community first; hiring a Burlington builder with families in this town that use an extended team of local contractors was important. Materials are also often local too, at least in highlight, such as drywall from CGC Inc. of Oakville, lighting from Contrast, metal products from Bailey and KN Crowder, wood products from Goodfellow or Turkstra with local mills, concrete from local manufacturing and the list goes on. But as holes develop we begin expanding out from there so taking care of Canada makes sense to us. Canadian white cedar and other woods from Quebec, stone from local and northern Ontario quarries and so and so forth outward.

The issue is that to be sustainable, we need to encourage or support a local economy, design to consume conservatively and use restraint over the urge to pursue choice before common sense. Strangely though, to qualify for a category of LEEDs, the pinnacle of sustainable best practices, much of the materials we choose have to be sourced within a few hundred miles so as not to negatively effect the environment via a high carbon cost. The balance is tricky. It may be closer to source from a US firm in NY State than from a company in Ontario, and in fact, it is reported that sometimes less fuel is consumed in the transport of some foreign goods to our market by ship than via truck a province away. This adds complication to the decision for sure as it pulls us away from the Canadian community.

In the end though, with a little homework, a protractor and your concious you can make a good decision on what products and materials will best suit your sustainability philosophy – to be pramatic or dogmatic is up to you as long as the winner is a sustainable outcome that benefits the ecology and future generations.

Small irony in all this. We recently bid on a large interactive project for a leading Niagara home builder. In the end, we lost the job on cost, with the labour going to India. Apparently, much of the costing decisions home builders have to make these days is no different than other categories — downward cost pressure from consumers and their lack of awareness of the inherant benefit of supporting community is chasing even this last vestage of local, off shore.

I don’t know what it is about the counter top. When asked about our home over cocktail chatter the polite conversation starts with questions about sustainability and the green features; geo-thermal, greywater reclamation and rainwater collection, radiant heat – yawn. But then with a strange pause like they are about to ask a very personal question they query, “what are you doing for counter tops?”. Counter tops.

It’s like counter tops are the tip of the iceberg, the Apple symbol in your car window or the tatoo peaking out of your sleeve that says there is more than you know or this commitment runs deep. If you can manage to go green counter top you must be hardcore.

So here goes – we’re in deep.

Counters are a challenge for sure. I’ve found a few suppliers of material that fit the bill but getting them to respond or react is strangely difficult. So I may go with a good standard that, though not Canadian, they do qualify for some LEED points for the materials stability, longevity and presumed recyclability. It is called:

http://www.caesarstone.com/.

Though I’m not convinced that it is entirely green/sustainable as it is derived from quartz, it is at least very durable and beautiful which in itself should outlast most products in both application and aesthetics — something that is worth considering when thinking about any product or material.

Other materials I sourced were of a recycled pulp/wood/paper that is fused together with other compounds to make a hard surface and are touted as Green by a number of resources. However they have been difficult to deal with and are also American:

http://www.paperstoneproducts.com/
http://www.kliptech.com/ecotop.html
These guys took forever to reply but say there will be a Toronto supplier up and running January to solve the communication gap. If they get their supply chain together, I’ll likely use this product.

The competitive product is:
http://www.richlite.com/countertop/

http://www.thehealthiesthome.com/products/kitchen_bathroom/cabinets_countertops.php
This Canadian company sells the above counter tops which may prove fruitful to call. I don’t remember if I followed this lead.

Icestone (http://www.icestone.biz/) and others sound great as they use recycled glass – an unfortunately abundant resource. I don’t know about you but I think the recycled glass is too busy – even ugly really. I wished they’d just crush it longer. We ruled this out too. I think the most eco counter may be the Paperstone / Kliptech.

A decent materials resource that is way too intoxicating is:

http://www.ecolect.net/

Say goodbye to 2 hours.

We were recently asked by a visitor to the site what has been the greatest challenge in the experience of the sustainable home build to date. Though there have been a few challenges that have caused delays, these things were typical so not top of mind as difficult.

What has been a lot of effort has been sourcing for a few reasons that simply shouldn’t be.

1. Communication
Ironically, finding suitable suppliers of sustainable goods and services is tricky when you have a criteria of sustainability. This criteria seems like it should have minimal effect on products; locally produced or sourced, energy efficient, eco-conscious, excellent quality, affordable and available but it is limiting by cutting down on the selection pool on suppliers.

Now the difficulty isn’t with locating the goods themselves. In fact, there are countless helpful resources for materials and suppliers, be it online or in print, that point you in the right direction toward piles of info to absorb and decisions to make in order to narrow the menu. However, once you’ve chosen the product or service, the hard part starts.

Getting the suppliers to react, to reply to emails, to quote or return phone calls, is often tiring. Basically, the service of sustainable goods and construction materials in general isn’t where it should be in our region.

Perhaps it’s a case of a good run in a busy economy, or because of shortages in availability, or because of limited technical ability behind technical online faces or pure lackadaisical attitudes but whatever the reason, this symptom of a greater problem makes the task of finding the right fits for our home the most time consuming task.

In the end, many suppliers of sustainable products are just too hard to deal with. No, not more than other suppliers but when you consider that their products can cost more and may have more limited availability, adding hard to deal with in the mix doesn’t make convincing the average altruistic but tentative consumer or builder that much easier.

2. Knowledge
The next experience from some suppliers once located is equally confusing but more easily explained. That is that some of the suppliers we’ve dealt with simply don’t fully understand what they are supplying or have an arms length understanding of sustainability and where their products fit into the criteria of the category. For them, it can be just another product in a supply chain and without personal or corporate sustainable beliefs and practices, it is just another product.

Furthermore  and almost more importantly, there is a general lack of relationship between the products they supply and other products that will cohabitate with theirs in the sustainable home. Essentially, their is a subtle lack of graciousness to acknowledge their roommates and to lead you in the right direction toward others. There is a general lack of time available to educate the consumer or builder as to the benefits of sustainability beyond the product, and certainly little time to share in the knowledge base of what other products may be available either in a competitive set or otherwise.

If sustainability is to be as successful as we need it to be in the short time we have to reach goals for our ecology, this frontier has to participate beyond selling a product. The pressure against them is a building industry that is hesitant to change and is looking for every reason to stick with status quo and worry about change and new suppliers the next time. And you can’t blame them, it isn’t easy to change sometimes.

In the end, we’ve managed to locate most everything we needed to suit our design and along the way we’ve dealt with many suppliers who stood out as being communicative, helpful and resourceful. Along with Branthaven, our builder, it’s these partners that have made the overall build successful — providing quality products and services and a positive learning experience while also creating an atmosphere of  sustainable community.

Some of these partner suppliers that come to mind so far:

+ Stüv Fireplaces – 80+% efficient wood stoves
+ Schreiber Roofing – TPO Roof system
+ Pella Windows – Energy Star FSC Windows and Doors
+ Jarvis Insulation – Closed Cell Foam Insulation
+ ALD – Energy efficient lighting calculations and design specifications

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.