CLAM's Blue House Blog:Journal of CA's 1st New Construction Passive House (awaiting certification)

Finishing Details

2010-07-31T11:48:00.000-07:00

Hello again,
The Blue2 is down to a slow dribble of finishing details- it is complete enough to occupy. The new tenants had their baby but have not moved in yet. The house-building story will end when they spend their first night in Blue2. The landscaping is yet to be finished. Nancy Stein said the landscaping is always the last thing in line to be funded and so it is often squeezed out of the equation as most of the funding has been used up for the house. As you can see in pic #5, the stage is set but the plants and irrigation are yet to be purchased or planted. I suspect if CLAM does not dig up the money for landscaping- pic #5 will be a run-a-way bed of weeds and grass in a year- is this a solicitation for help?.......yes it is.
I suspect next Friday report will be the last.
It has been more than fun and enlightening.............Terry
BTW- How about we call it the Banana House? or Mellow Yellow or Old Yeller or........?

Van Van der Maten and Colleen King volunteered to paint the Banana House.

Mixing paint.

Four chips off the new block-the executive branch of Mellow Yellow.

View from the living room. House is "baby ready" for new tenants.

Landscaping by Jim Campe and Nancy Stein. There is a wireless solar light mounted on each wood post for the path lights. They are motion activated and turn off after one minute.They are low and face down so as not to light up the "night sky" or shine in peoples faces. Rich Redimix donated all of the base rock for the parking area as well as the big chunks of rocks for landscaping and Judy Roberson of PG&E personally made and donated the beautiful mosaic tiles you can see faintly at the beginning of the path.

Bedroom. All of the wood we used for interior trim was reclaimed from construction wood donated to us by local artist Anne Francis. The two closet doors were also salvaged doors from a job I did ten years ago. The upper door on left is for access and storage to mini-attic space. the ERV service door is on right.

Finishing Blue2

2010-07-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

Hi again,
Last Monday, July 12, one would never believe our goal was to finish on Friday. The place was torn up and busy all week but it all came together by Thursday at at 4:00. These reports are near an end. It has been a kind and wonderful past five months or so. Our team effort has been mind boggling and Blue2 is about to stand on its own. The next time I see Blue2 [after a week away] it will be occupied.
Thank You cannot express the depth of honor it has been for me birthing this new house into Point Reyes. I never knew I could have such joy going to work every day..........Terry

Dwayne Hope, on left, taking the first bite of the old driveway/parking area. Actually almost half the north side of the property was open to parking. With the new plan, half of that will be paths and garden area.

This is what retirement looks like to someone who is passionate about community service. Jim has been a sentinel of the finishing stages of Blue2.

Dwayne Hope tamping the newly defined parking area.

Barry Linder and Jorge clear-coated the cabinet door fronts.

The Finishing Committee.

Laying out the path to the back of the Blue House.

The final plumbing for hot water. Hot water production (washing/cleaning) consumes at least 15% of a typical household's energy use. We expect this system with the roof panels will supply around 90% of that demand. Space heating typically requires about 30-40% of energy use. This system should provide about 90% of the heat required for the house.

In typical (old school) building practices many claims are made as to the performance and results of a product or an assembly of products. But in the end there is no accurate accountability for the performance of the building. In Passive House methodology, there is an energy modeling done of all of the components of the house before it is built, they are then tracked for performance after they are built. Blue2 will be monitored as time goes by to see just how much and how it uses its energy. The goals for the Passive House in Europe are around a 80%-90% reduction in energy usage and so far they have been meeting and often exceeding that goal.

Marshall Livingston, myself, Nancy Stein, Sam Grant, Toni Littlejohn and Jim Campe were sucked into the vortex the grand finale of Blue2.

Bill Logan's last day.

Joel Langdon's last day.

Rudy and Dan's (of Sebastopol Heat and Cool) last day. They are fine tuning the air supply ducts of the HRV.

This is Tom Tiller, the Marin County Building Inspector signing off the final inspection of the Blue2. Yes it's over!!!! Tom has been a big fan of this project. You can tell by his smile he is happy to be the one to launch Blue2 into community service.

Bill Kelley on left, the head of the Marin County Building Department, came with Tom on Thursday. He is interested in our project and the goals of a super energy efficient house. He and James Bill had a deep and lengthy conversation on how to integrate the principles of a Passive House into the Marin County building codes. Toni Littlejohn, not seen on left, has been filming the entire building process, since dirt day one and will eventually edit a final film to be released in your local living rooms of West Marin and beyond.

Completion Celebrations

2010-07-12T09:17:00.001-07:00

Hello again,
This was another action packed week of details. The end of most projects seem to go in slow motion and the days turn into weeks.

The interior trim and door details and built-ins are finished. We got our new water meter three days ago and completed the hook up to both houses. Most of the solar thermal (solar hot water) is complete. Next week we will fill the tanks and let the sun take over and Blue2 will enter a 90% fossil fuel free hot water mode for the next 50 years. On Tuesday the 5th we had an Open House to celebrate the completion of Blue2, at least that was the plan a month ago, instead it was the near completion of Blue2. The event was so moving and cool that no one seemed to care we were not yet done. I am intending to go on holiday for a week starting next Friday, assuming it will be finished enough for me to leave, so the race to finish is still on. See you next Thursday.
Enjoy .... Terry

Here Rae Levine is giving her final blessings and praise to the ~100 people who came to celebrate Blue 2's completion. Two days later Rae left West Marin to her new home in Seattle. How sweet and perfect that her last act after leaving her position of executive director of CLAM was to celebrate the vision and wisdom of CLAM, it's board members- now and past, and the dozens of other dreamers and volunteers who birthed Blue2 into West Marin. Thank you, Rae, for your years of holding onto the vision. You were the Pied Piper and we followed your enthusiasm. Blue2 will always be one of yours. CLAM's new executive director, Sam Leguizamon Grant (not pictured), officiated the July 5 Celebration event.

Daniel, on right, and Derick of Sebastopol Heat and Cool doing the final balancing of the ERV's fresh air and exhaust. Below them (sorry no face shot) is Aran Collier of Sun First who's crew did the solar thermal system. The first Passive House in California required a lot of fine tuning to synchronize all the systems. We had some of the best minds and skills in the Bay Area to bring it all together. They assembled out here at the Blue2 house not because it was lucrative (many donated time and materials), but because they wanted to be part of something that was cutting edge, smart and ultimately good for the planet. Blue2 could not have happen with out their belief, heartfelt contributions, and skills. Thank you all for your efforts and trust.

On Thursday after the workers went home we set up for the last tour. Here James Bill and I are fielding technical questions from the attendees. This crowd of 75 was from the green building, energy performance, professionals, sector. Our keynote guest speaker was Cathleen Fogel from the California Public Utility Commission, an energy efficiency planning analyst. She understands the potential of the Passive House for mitigating climate change.

It got pretty tight in the mechanical room trying to fit in all the hot water production stuff. The two large tanks linked together with copper piping are 80 gallon storage tanks. They have over 2" of foam insulation around each tank, so they will retain the hot water longer than a typical tank. We are expecting to get up to 90% of the hot water requirements from this system. It will also produce most of the space heating for the house. In the right corner is a conventional electric hot water heater that will go on when the houses tap water is lower than 120 degrees. For full explanation of solar thermal system, see description at end of post by James Bill.

Nancy Stein and Jim Campe are formulating a landscaping plan that will use native and drought resistance plants. This view it is about to be transformed with designated parking and plants and paths and lights.

Seldom Seem Lowell Moulton. (Up until this photograph, many people were not sure if he really existed.) This is the guy that did Blue 2's passive house energy modeling(PHPP). He is one of the the kingpins of this project.
He was in on hundreds of emails and spent hundreds of hours with a keyboard in some undisclosed location or at a conference in Dresden gathering PHPP technology. So far all he has required for payment was some Menghai Beencha Puer tea and possibly a backpacking trip in Point Reyes.
Thank you Lowell.........

BLUE2's INTEGRATED SOLAR THERMAL SPACE AND HOT WATER HEATING SYSTEM
By James Bill, Licensed Architect, LEED™ AP, CGBP
(see 4th photo of mechanical room for reference)

Most solar thermal systems are used to heat domestic hot water, and they use a closed plumbing loop filled with glycol. The glycol captures the heat in the solar panels and brings that heat down to heat the water in the solar storage tanks. But glycol breaks down when it gets hot. To keep the glycol from getting too hot, most closed loop systems use energy consuming methods to cool the glycol.

Instead of a typical system, we used a drain back water loop system. These are filled with water, not glycol. The water only flows through the panels when the sun is providing heat and the solar storage tanks can absorb more heat. So when the panels get sunshine, even if the sun is behind a thin layer of fog, and the solar storage tank water is colder than the solar panel temperature, a pump turns on, filling the pipes and panels with water that is circulated to the heat exchangers at the bottoms of the solar storage tanks, thus heating the water in those storage tanks. When the pump turns off, the water drains out of the panels into a small drain back tank.

We have two 80 gallon solar storage tanks. The number of gallons is determined by the amount of heat that needs to be stored for the periods of time there is little or no solar radiation. The solar storage tanks have heat exchange coils at the bottom and at the top. The bottom heat exchangers are hooked up to the solar panel loop, and provide the heat from those solar panels.

The heat exchanger at the top of tanks is for heating the air in the ducts, thus supplying space heating. The water at the top of the solar storage tanks is hotter than the water at the bottom, as hot water rises. There is a loop of water that goes through the top heat exchangers and up to a radiator located in the ventilation supply duct. When the thermostat calls for more space heat, and there is sufficient heat in the top of the solar storage tanks, then a pump will turn on and run water from the heat exchanger up though the radiator heat exchanger, delivering heat from the storage tank to the air in the duct. If there is a need for heat, and the top of the tank is less than 100 degrees, then an electric resistance heating element in the duct will turn on to add heat when there is no solar heat stored up. This duct element is the backup source of heat for the space heating.

Also at the top of the solar storage tanks, there are plumbing lines coming out that go to a small 20 gallon domestic hot water heater. It is small as it is just meant to top off the domestic hot water temperature to 120 degrees, not create vast amounts of hot water. As the occupants use hot water, it will pull water out of this hot water heater. The water that refills this water heater comes from the top of the solar storage tanks. If it is greater than 120 degrees, as it will be much of the year, the water heater element will not come on. If it is colder, the element will come on. But as the water coming in will always be somewhat hot, it will use less electricity than a regular water heater. The water that is removed from the solar storage tanks will be replaced at the bottom of those storage tanks from the cold water supply line.

As you can see in the photo, all of the plumbing seems to have been equally spaced between the two solar storage tanks. This is because the two storage tanks are plumbed parallel. This means that there are equal lengths of plumbing to each tank so that the pressures are equalized. Thus, each tank will get the same heat from the solar panels at the bottom, draw the same amount of water from each tank for the water heating tank, and will have the same draw for the duct heating loop.

The solar system modelers predict the sun will provide almost 90% of the space heating and the domestic water heat. When there is not enough stored solar heat, we have two backups. The domestic water backup heat is supplied by the 20 gallon electric water heater, and the electric resistance element inside the supply air duct supplies the backup space heat. Because we have separated the space heating backup from the domestic hot water backup heating tank, and because we can use cooler temperature water for space heating than we need for domestic hot water, we can use the stored solar heat more efficiently.

There you have it, the integrated solar thermal space and domestic water heating system.

Ready for July 5 Open House to Celebrate 1st Passive House in CA

2010-07-04T08:32:00.000-07:00

Hi all,
This was another action packed week. Trim, electrical, plumbing, cabinets, roof patching, HRV finishing details and clean up of site. Sebastian sanded and ripped miles of the resawn lumber that Steve Potts milled up for us last week. My plan was to complete the grounds clean up and the interior this week but I missed the mark by a few days.
Hope to see you all on Monday, July 5 at the Open House, 11am - 2pm, and you can see for yourself..........Terry

Jorge and Bill glueing and clamping the mitered corner of a formica counter top.

Since last week we dug about forty feet of new trenches for water, electrical and waste lines.

Joel making the final connection of Blue 2s waste lines to the septic. Dennis Rodoni donated a 1.2 gallon low flush toilet with a dual flush mode- low volume for yellow and higher volume (1.2) for other stuff. We now have a working toilet.

This guy Ken from Nayak, New York responded to my free Craig's listing and took apart and hauled away the tea room/office/tool shed.

Monday teaser.

Components for space ship to be revealed on Monday.

The blue shroud seals up around the exhaust duct in the kitchen while the ERV is running. Here Rudy of Sebastopol Heat and Cool is reading the digital balometer which measures the CFM (cu ft minute) being sucked into the exhaust. Each of the six registers, 3 intake and 3 exhausts, are measured and then tuned so the the entire delivery and exhaust of air is balanced for each room. This room is set for around 25 CFM of exhaust. Most "old school" heating and cooling delivery systems are calculated by intuition or habit or something like what you did in the last house. Note the LED light above Rudy's head.

Rudy is using a Duct Blaster, a mini version of the Blower Door we used to test the house for air leakage. With all the ducts sealed off in the house, the fan at the bottom of the silver duct pressurizes all the ducts inside the house. Here Derek is reading the monometer which shows just how much the ducts are leaking inside the house. His first test number revealed too much leakage. He had to go around each joint and connection with a smoke pencil to find and seal the leaks and bring the maximum leakage down to 5% volume of air flow.

Roger Lippman donated his time and test equipment to set up a monitoring system for each electrical circuit of the house. This will enable precise calculation for each of fifteen different uses of electricity in the house. The data will then be downloaded onto a computer each month and posted on the Passive House website so other people can learn how one passive house uses electricity/energy.

The last dump run. Bob here looking at the pile of metal for recycle.

Final Test: 0.36 ACH, almost half the allowable maximum of 0.6 ACH!

2010-06-28T07:56:00.000-07:00

Hello again,
Another action packed week. We completed all the underground service. On Monday Van Van Van der Maten's crew masked off and spray painted the entire interior and on Tuesday and Wednesday Jim Campe, Barry Linder, Alden Adkins, Melanie Stone, Wendy Schwartz, Chris Greene, Susan Kelly and Sonya Anderson came in and finished what the sprayers did not complete. Cabinets were delivered late Thursday and begun to be installed on Friday.

Thursday Steve Potts brought in his portable mill and we re-sawed some of the recycled lumber donated to CLAM by Anna Francis. Potts milled up all the wood needed for the interior trim. Sun First came back and re-installed the solar hot water panels. Jorge finished the front siding and details and hung all the interior doors. Next week we should complete all the trim and counter top and the cabinet installation. There is not much to do after that. Perhaps another week of touch up, clean up and site work (final grading and delineation of parking and living outdoor space).
I am already getting work separation anxiety.
See you all next week............Terry

P.S. Reminder: Come see Blue2 and celebrate its completion on Monday, July 5, 11am-2pm. Details at www.clam-ptreyes.org.

I think Sonya believes in CLAM ... she also volunteered when we painted the front house.

"The barefoot painting Pixies" Susan Kelly and Chris Greene.

Jim Campe cutting a line. He organized all the painting efforts and
with his wife, Pam, selected the color scheme.

Steve Potts sending an old 2x8 through the mill to make 1x8s for the trim.

Jorge putting up the last piece of trim. Potts and the mill in background.

My first full day back at the job. I had to rest every few hours. It amazes me that any one would actually take direction from a guy laying on his back.

Kitchen to be.

George Nesbitt of Environmental Design/ Build is the Master blaster of
blower door technology and testing. As a third party tester he volunteered three hours of rigorous air leakage testing of the Blue Two house. His test and report is one of the final documents we will need to hand in for the Passive House certification- that is assuming we hit the mark.

Thumbs up to our final test number of 0.36 ACH - almost half the allowable maximum of 0.6 ACH. Our air leakage at negative 50 pascals was around 40 cfm.

This may look like aikido but it's Rae and Terry completing a high five
to celebrate the 0.36 ACH. Rae (who recently completed her term as CLAM executive director) spent Sunday here at the Blue2 sharing history being made on a house she believed could happen. Thank you, Rae, for helping us all make our dreams and aspirations come true.

Floor Sealing and More ... Getting Close

2010-06-20T12:02:00.000-07:00

Hi all,
The sheetrock got it's last smoothing out on Wednesday and we began finishing the floors on Thursday, hoping to have it traffic-ready by next Monday when Van will come in and begin painting. Cabinets, doors and trim are to be installed end of next week. We are getting really close to the end. Hard to believe that these walls will be echoing the sound of a baby in a month or so. The simultaneous birth of this house and the birth of the new tenants' baby will bring CLAM's community vision to a new high.
Yay CLAM..........Terry
Editor's Note: And YAY that Terry is back after a hiking injury that kept him out of the action for a couple of weeks.

Bill and Sebastian prepping the floor for stain.

Stain applied and drying.

The umbilical cord between the Blue House and Blue2 will be covered in two feet of earth. Water, electrical and future photovoltaic(PV) lines from Blue2 to the Blue House house meters below.

Jorge is adorning the front porch ceiling. We used scrap 2x4s, cut them into 1x4s and are filling in the underside of the roof. This could easily be a future termite hotel but the 1x4s were soaked two times with boron as well as the underside of the entry roof to assure no infestation will ever happen.

Open House to Celebrate Completion of CLAM's Blue2 Passive House

2010-06-17T19:04:00.000-07:00

O p e n H o u s e
Come CELEBRATE! Blue2 is built!
It is the first certified Passive House in California,
uses 540 watts to heat itself on the coldest day,
creates permanently affordable housing,
provides superior health and comfort,
and addresses climate change!

Monday July 5th 2010, 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Words of Celebration begin at 11:30 a.m.

Please park next door at West Marin School
This is a home. No random visits outside the Open House date.

For event information call CLAM at 415.663.1005 or email info@clam-ptreyes.org

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT
CLAM: www.clam-ptreyes.org,
Passive House: www.passivehouse.us and www.passivehouseca.org

Copious Details

2010-06-03T19:56:00.000-07:00

Hello again,
After a mild flurry of miscellaneous framing details, the electrician, plumber and HVAC took over the interior space till Friday noon at which point we hosted the last "See the Machine" tour. Now it's a waiting game for a final inspection before we sheetrock the rest of the walls.
Enjoy it all.........Terry

Below is the ducting for the HRV (heat recovery ventilator) system. The large diameter duct (blue tape supply) brings outside air into the HRV box, not seen at left. There it steals the heated air from the exiting warm air and feeds it back into three fresh air supplies- one duct in the bedroom, one in the bath and one in the living room. Because our house is so air tight, it needs a way to get make up air when the windows are closed during heating cycles. The HRV does just that but has the extra advantage of recovering 80% + of the heat going out.

Architects James Bill and Jim Campe are seen here, designing, authorizing and signing a work change order drawn on some scrap paper.

Tea time- A vintage 1999 Bi Lou from the Yunnan.

The two horizontal copper pipes complete a loop to the bath sink and tub/shower. On the other end of this loop is a small pump under the kitchen sink that promises to deliver hot water to any fixture, wasting only a half cup of cold water down the drain. The pump can be turned on manually or by motion or set with a timer. The looping pipes were oversized to reduce water flow resistance and thereby making the pump work less and last longer.

There are copious details like this in all the systems of the house that were researched and debated and kicked around for weeks and or months to find the best and most efficient scenario. Saving a few quarts of water may not mean much today but it is likely to be obvious in a few decades. We are coming out of a building age of complacency. We believe this house is setting a standard for not only what could be done but what should be done in our buildings.

While these standards are new here in the US, they are becoming standard building practices in Europe. Communities in Austria have adopted the Passive House as the building standard and it is the building code in Frankfurt Germany. The relatively low cost of fuel in the US has not inspired builders and architects to design or build with fuel reductions in much in the same way that cheap gas never demanded our car manufactures to increase miles per gallon.

The Iron Lung Arrives

2010-05-23T09:30:00.000-07:00

Hello again,
This week we finished all the interior- secondary framing and most of the rough in wiring, plumbing and mechanical system as well as the soar thermal panels on the roof. There were two carpenters and three solar installers working outside plus six subcontractors inside that small space. I had to make sure they all synchronized their jobs and tools and not bump elbows or fight for ladder space. We were on a deadline to finish this week and start sheetrock next monday. We did not make it. One of the great lessons you have to take in as a contractor is to let go of failed goals and expectations. We worked a half day on friday to make ready for the twelve o'clock tour of "See the Machine" We had two tours on Friday and two on Saturday.
See you next week...........Terry

Arrival of.......... "The Black Box". AKA-The Iron Lung. AKA-HRV - heat recovery ventilator.

Guys and trucks on Thursday. The next day the place was cleaned up pretty and ready for the tour.

This is a fan coil-heat exchanger. The two red lines circulate hot water through a radiator exactly like the one in your car. The hot water is generated at the solar panels on the roof or in the hot water heater in the house or both. This fan coil box is set into the fresh air supply duct of the HRV and the cooler outside air is heated as it passes over the radiator. The heated air continues on to three heat/ fresh air ducts in the house. This is the primary heating system!! This replaces the need for wood stoves, furnaces, wall heaters or any other kind of heating device.

And.........up to 90% of the hot water required to heat the house will be captured from the sun. This is one of the key elements of a passive house. A passive house is called a passive house because it does not have an "active" heating system such as a furnace or a boiler. In the end, the passive house winds up with a drastically lower heating demand and a heating system with a few moving parts. Here the only moving parts are the 100 watts or so needed to run the fan for the HRV and the pump for the hot water circulation. But in a passive house even those 100 watts will recycle as heat back into the system. For that 10-15% of the time when the solar panels do not make and store enough hot water, the hot water heater elements will kick on to make hot water.

We used this furred out wall to run most of our electrical and plumbing lines. Behind the new framing is our precious air sealed, insulated sheetrock wall. This new kitchen wall and utility room at left and all the other new interior walls will get sheetrock after the wiring and plumbing is completed.

Sun First setting the mounting brackets for the solar thermal panels. Sun First donated all their labor and materials and sold us the panels at cost.

Hot water production.

Because we did all the insulation after sheetrock we needed a certified Thermographer to inspect the insulation behind the sheetrock. We did so by creating a twenty degree temp difference between inside and out. Andy Wahl of AC Home Performance Inc. came in with his ten thousand dollar camera and documented each and every wall cavity. Infrared cameras read surface temps. A 20 degree indoor/ outdoor difference dramatize outside cold air migrating in through the wall, floor and roof assembly and the camera will read the infiltration of cold air.

This is Andy Wahl's report: "On 5/21/2010 at 8 AM I did the Infrared Thermography on the second CLAM house. I would like to commend 'Mr. Insulation' for such an excellent installation of the insulation for CLAM Blue 2. This is the first QII I’ve ever passed on the first site visit. The outside temperature was 50.8 degrees and the inside temperature was 70.3 degrees. 211 pictures were taken inside, nearly every square foot of the walls and ceilings were photographed. This did not include several outside pictures on the North side or the ones of construction crew.

The level of insulation installation quality far exceeds any of the thousands of pictures I’ve taken. There were no signs of any missing insulation anywhere.

My thanks to Terry and his crew for making the thermal envelope possible to insulate and to Charles for his diligence of getting it install correctly (the first time). If all jobs were like this I’d be out of work.:) I would also like to thank those who allowed Cara and I to be part of this historic event."

Editor's note: CLAM thanks Andy and Cara for providing this service for Blue2 pro bono. Their contribution, along with many other donations of time, money, materials, and expertise is making this project possible. See list in right column.

Here we are looking at the viewfinder of the infrared camera. This camera is what is known as picture on picture. The center colored frame shows the temperature in degrees (65.2) in a pinpointed area (the star). The outer black and white frame shows the rest of the room as a reference. The colored scale on the right shows temps in degrees and color- 71.2 being the hottest surface in this frame. The light blue area between floor and window is an insulated wall cavity which is VERY uniform. The dark blue streak at the floor is the cold coming through the bottom plate of the wall assembly. The red (hot spots) are where the sun has already heated the window sill and frame.

James Bill on left and Peter Waring explaining the HRV system on tour number one.

Tour number four- Andy Blake and James Bill (hidden) explaining mechanical system.

The passive house interior shell has now reached its final air seal.

2010-05-15T11:13:00.000-07:00

Hello again,
It was another action packed week. The first shell of sheetrock was finished as well as all the insulation and we finished most of the interior framing and I did a final blower door test today on the current shell. Next week we begin the second round of rough in plumbing, electrical, sprinkler, solar and the mechanical HRV system.

We now have the "See the Machine" Tour scheduled for Friday, May 21, 12:00 and 4:00pm, and Saturday, May 22, 10:00am and 12:00pm. See the integrated solar and heat recovery ventilator (HRV) mechanical system. The solar hot water system supplies 80% or more of the space and water heating requirements.

Space is limited. To register, please sign up at http://CLAM.eventbee.com/event?eid=722734342. CLAM is requesting a $10 donation to the project, and no one will be turned away (for scholarship contact CLAM at 415.663.1005, info@clam-ptreyes.org).
Enjoy ... Terry

Here Charles is blowing in cellulose behind the sheetrock. Ordinarily, the sheetrock is applied over the insulation whatever it may be, but we wanted to pack the stuff into closed cavities. The challenge was to get a consistent tightly packed fill. It had to be done by "feel" and later by calculating the volume of the cavities by the pounds of bags used as well as drilling random sample test holes and "feel" the density by touch. In the end Charles estimated he blew over 4lbs per cubic foot which exceeds the required 3.5lbs per cf.
The wood blocks are to prevent blow outs and or bulging of the sheet rock, the rag is to slow down the backflow of cellulose into the room. Another worry was that if the blow in got too dense, it would blow out or bulge the sheet rock. The rock hangers put in extra screws to ward that off and we had no blowouts and very little bulging.

Messy business. the holes get plugged.

After the sheet rock was taped we are able to begin the interior walls. The passive house interior shell has now reached it's final air seal. As long as we don't puncture the air seal, all the remaining assemblies and walls can be built wild and crazy without concern for air sealing.We keep our 24" on center layouts to conserve lumber. All the future water and electrical lines have been stubbed and sealed into this shell where they will be picked up again to complete interior requirements.

Jorge standing where the washing machine will go. Bill and Sebastian are back in the bathroom.

Plywood section is a structural shear wall,not yet finished at
right. All the other walls will get sheetrock only.

End of day. here I am setting up the blower door for a test of the final shell. We got a 24 CFM air leakage. 24 CFMs @ 50 pascals, translates to a 0.21 ACH (air changes per hour) which is almost three times lower than 0.6 ACH- the passive house allowable air leakage. Moving right along toward Passive House certification!

Now we are back to old fashioned leaky electrical wiring and boxes. Now the heat and cool has no where to go except the next room.

Air Sealing Details

2010-05-11T07:58:00.000-07:00

Hi again,
Last week was another action packed week. The sheetrock hanging was finished today (friday) and 3/4 of the exterior siding was completed. For me it was an intense focus on the final air sealing details and finishing the boron spraying of all the interior walls and rafters before sheerock. Next week we plan to finish the siding, finish all the blow in cellulose and fire tape all the new sheetrock and finally do our blower door test for the completed interior shell.
Enjoy .... Terry

Any good morning starts out with tea. Here, Charles and I are sitting on bales of cellulose to be blown into roof and wall cavities.

Every penetration/ puncture in the envelope was sealed on both sides of each layer. Every hole was made slightly larger than the pipe to allow the flexible caulk to fill the gap, thus not relying on a tight wood- to- pipe seal that could open over time with expansion and contraction. The penetrations were also sealed on the exterior side of plywood where it meets the exterior foam and again where the foam meets the siding. so each pipe here gets sealed four times from interior to exterior. Here we see a plywood shroud around three punctures so the sheetrock can be set in a bed of caulk around the penetrations. Every puncture had at least a 1" wood backing/ bed for the sheetrock to seal onto.

The sheetrockers at first did not get the importance of air sealing the key connections. I had to watch every sheet going up until I was confident they understood every contact point had to be perfect and all their caulk lines had to continous and fat enough to fill the gap. Here Louis is calking the plywood shrouds and edges of the framing at floor and end of sheets.

As drawn by architect- yes that is an exterior roof jack on the inside of the room. The sheetmetal is caulked and sealed against the plywood- the rubber flange is the air seal.

This is a standard plastic switch box. I wanted to see if I could make it airtight with a flange in front in which to seal the sheetrock, mimicking the special ones we bought (below). The wire holes in the back of the box are packed with duct sealer putty.

Air tight electrical box blobbed with caulk and ready for sheetrock. These airtight electrical boxes are made in Minnesota where the cold weather demands higher standards for air sealing. Here you can see the wide flange in which to apply caulk to seal the sheetrock. Note: the run of caulk at bottom plate ready for sheetrock-that missing spot in the caulking was corrected).

The cellulose insulation will be blown in after the sheetrock is in place.

Squish out is what I like to see. Here you can see a good caulking seal between the sheetrock and 2x6 sill of the window.

1 1/2" holes were drilled in every rafter bay at end blocking.

Charles then blew in insulation into each cavity from the outside at 3.5 lbs per cubic feet- AKA dense pack. Each hole will be plugged and sealed. We decided to insulate all the walls this way rather than blow in wet cellulose into open cavities or blow in dry cellulose behind netting before sheetrock. Wet pumped cellulose would require a long period of drying time before sheetrock could be done and we did not want to wait or run dehumidifiers for a week to dry out the cellulose.

A Passive House, Pink Side Out

2010-05-02T09:42:00.000-07:00

Hi all,
This week we completed the second roof foam insulation and plywood skin. Also finished the exterior pink foam to mitigate our thermal bridging of the wall assembly. We completed the roof shingles and gutters as well as the front entry framing and roof. On the inside we punched our last hole in the exterior plywood/ air seal and stubbed out for all the second wall connections. There were twelve holes in total including water and waste lines, sprinkler, communications, HRV (Heating Recovery Ventilator), solar, PV (photovoltaics) and electrical. For me it was counter intuitive to drill holes in an E ring assembly. The sound of each hole being drilled or cut set my nervous system on fire.

On Monday I will finish sealing all the new holes and retest with the blower door to see just how well we sealed up the holes.
Enjoy ... Terry

Pink side out- roof started.

Corner trim and first Hardi Plank siding started. Outlet hole is not in air seal assembly but intentionally infront storage area to prevent puncture in air seal assembly.

Dryer vent raceway. Here we used a 4" ABS pipe and fixed it tight and rigid
to the framing. Normally one uses a soft and somewhat flexible steel or aluminum exit pipe which would be very hard to seal up at each puncture. Movement of the soft through wall pipe would or could break loose at the seal and leak air as time goes by. Here the intention is to supply a permanent solid conduit for the dryer vent. This vent will also get a plywood shroud around it for air sealing the sheetrock against.

Finishing pink side out.

If foam was fun it might look like this.

Note how the pink foam sidewall meets the polyiso roof foam overhang so thermal bridging is not broken at corners except for those pesky rafters.

Boron ahead of foam.

Sun First, who are donating their time to CLAM, are installing the support feet for the solar thermal (hot water) panels. Each foot gets a roof jack covering with a leg poking out to support the panels.

Here James Bill at left, Andy Blake a solar project manager/consultant (pro-bono) and Dan Smith of Sebastopol Heat and Cool are finishing up a three hour on site meeting to figure out where and how to install the HRV system with the solar thermal and all the other hardware associated with the mechanical system of the house. There were probably a few hundred emails, debates, discussions, meetings and drawings before this meeting to reach a final design. A standard HVAC system might take two to four hours to reach design. But we have never done it quite this way before, putting the HRV and solar thermal together. It's like building the first car or the first airplane. These are the pioneers of the first passive house in California.

Second Roof

2010-04-25T09:10:00.000-07:00

Hi all,
Second roof took the best part of the week. The first roof and wall assembly gave us a continuous air seal and insulation cavity without the punctures that rafters produce in the envelope.

Three reasons for putting on a second roof framing and foam:
1- Second roof is added to achieve a higher overall R value,
2- It eliminates the roof's cavities from reaching dew point and condensation within the cavities,
3- It achieves our 2 foot over hangs.

We stayed home Tuesday waiting for a rain that never happened. Next week we begin exterior treatment and hopefully get our composition roof shingles finished.
See you next week.........Terry

The plywood and all the framing members were sprayed down with a 10% solution of boron. Damp and dry wood termites leave their nest colonies and fly off every year to recolonize. They hit a building at all levels in mass looking for holes and cracks to crawl into and start a new family in wood fiber and darkness. First defense for a structure is no holes or cracks in the assembly. Second defense is to soak down all the wood with a boron base application. Boron is not a neurotoxin, like most insecticides, and does not directly affect the nervous systems of termites and wood boring beetles or humans or pets. Boron is an enzyme inhibitor. When termites bore into the wood they are forced to eat the boron as well. Boron messes with all the body functions of the critters including their digestive system and they sadly wither away with a host of problems.

Termites prefer to start their inward journey through end grain so we double soaked the rafter tails with boron before the facia was applied.

Second roof applied over our first air seal roof. Now we have two foot rafter overhangs. This layer does not need to be air sealed. The 2x4 "sleepers" were attached with a nail gun from the underside of the plywood. They are set in between the 2x8 rafters below to minimize the thermal bridging between the two roof assemblies.

3 1/2" polyisocyanurate (rigid foam) set in between 2x4 sleepers.

Sleepers and foam ready for plywood.

Air sealing the exterior shell

2010-04-18T09:47:00.000-07:00

Hello again,
Another good week. We finished air sealing the exterior shell, tested it for air leaks, installed the windows and got on half the second roof on and covered it for a pending rain. On Friday and Saturday more than 140 people, CLAM members and building professionals from all over the Bay Area, came out for the "See the Guts" Tour to see how the Passive House is put together from the ground up, focusing on the air sealing of the exterior shell.
See you next week..............Terry

Our first blower door test with no windows cut in revealed our "D" ring was too big and we got fluctuating read outs. For those who do not know what that means: a "D" ring is used in super air tight tests. I called up the manufacturer of the blower door company and they said "Holy ~*^- ! you guys are in "E" ring territory, we don't see that very often."

Here Bill is putting tape over our D ring in an attempt to make it smaller so we might get the LOW flash to stop going off. It worked and we got .11 and .12 CFM readings (not accurate but revealing). Again, for those who do not know what that means: you could not find a hole big enough to let a fly egg pass through.

After the first blower door test we cut out the plywood sidewall in preparation of the windows. We used Serious Windows with an R- value of 7 and equally as important, Serious windows are very air tight. here Jorge, Sebastian and Bill are tilting the window into a wet bed of caulk.

I did a second blower door test after all the windows were installed to see how much they leaked.The new test numbers showed a negligible difference, verifying air tight windows and installation. Note: I blue tape sealed the blower door shroud all around the jamb and tightened a bungee cord around the fan shroud to assure no leakage in the assembly. I also ordered the E ring for the next test.

Ready for next roof. Shell exterior air sealing is done.

Next roof- this time with two foot overhangs.

3 1/2" polyisocyanurate (rigid foam) in between the 2x4 sleepers/ overhangs.

James Bill of ZIA (zero impact architecture)and the Passive House architect for Blue2, explaining the coolness of the Passive House on the "See the Guts" Tour.

Charles of Mr Insulation showing a demonstration/sample wall section of insulation at the tour. We screwed up two sheets of ply, drilled three 1 1/2" holes and Charles blew in dense pack cellulose behind the plywood. We then pulled the ply off to reveal these packed cavities. We will be using cellulose for all the interior insulation.

Framing

2010-04-13T20:14:00.000-07:00

Hello all,
Framing is a beautiful thing to look at. It is orderly, soft and when open to the sky it has wispy overtones of suppleness with hints of fortitude.
This week was about framing. It is an upbeat activity that ends the week on a good note.
Thank you all...........Terry

Notice no rafter tails sticking out. This eliminates punctures in the air seal and insulation of the roof and wall assembly. Confusing? Imagine a two by four going through your bedroom wall and resting on a planter box outside. It would be hard to seal around it so it did not leak air. Imagine the combined air leakage with forty of these punctures in the wall. A roof rafter does just that except it happens up high and is incorporated with the roof so it looks good and we have come to accept- it as normal. We will be adding the rafters later on top of the first roof. Pics to follow.
Also notice the made up foam header at left with metal plate was made out of our form boards as well as the high up end blocking between the rafters. The foam in all the headers was from a project I did a few years ago- sometimes it pays to save stuff. Also notice each roof rafter lands on a wall stud, thus eliminating the need for a double top plate.

Cut, foam and nail.

All the edges and openings of the framing were foamed to receive the sheets of plywood.

A sheet of ply being tilted into foam bed.

We got tired of turkey sandwiches and Snickers so Adriana, Jorge's wife, on left, made us tomales and salad with fresh mangoes. Jorge with family, Toni (videographer) and Bill in center, Sebastian in red and Felix who joined us for the day and myself.

Note-no headers on end/rake wall. If I had built this house a year ago there would have been.

Slab & Start Framing

2010-04-04T12:43:00.000-07:00

Hi again,
Between rain and County inspection it was a three day work week. We formed the steel on Monday, stopped work for inspection on Tuesday, poured on Wednesday and began framing on Thursday. Got in a few hours on Friday before big rain.
Enjoy.........Terry

House slab rebar in foreground, entry slab behind.

Foam sealing around waste line punctures through 13" foam bed.

Concrete will fill up to top of verticle 2" foam.

First concrete being pumped from truck into same corner as above pic.

Half way- guys with rubber boots walk in 6" wet concrete to smooth out concrete.
After slab is finished, wood mudsills are set on top of a bed of roofing tar- this is the first step in air sealing the framing to the concrete slab.

Thursday morning. Earlier in the week, I had decided to not start framing until next Monday. I was hoping to get more information about the OVE framing from Katy, the engineer. I was hoping it would rain so we would not have to start. I was looking for any reason not to start. Truth is I was scared to start. All my training, classes, preparing, endless emails and meetings were over and now I had to actually begin to build the first new passive house in California. The burden was enormous and I was nervous and intimidated. I just needed a little more time.

Over tea and toast, I found my folly. I reviewed some PDFs on OVE and decided to cast my fear aside and just go for it. I dressed as if I were a soldier going off to battle. By the time I arrived at the job I was jubilant and cheering on the guys. “We are going to build a house today!”

Tilting up the first 2x6 wall section. The finished concrete slab is covered up with tarp and plywood scraps from another job. That green painting on tool shed/ office was a gift from Wild Carrots to 'Artisitify' the site.

This is a header for the living room wall window. It is composed of 2 1/2" of foam sandwiched between two 2x6s. It breaks tradition from "old school" headers in that it offers a thermal break in the wall assembly. A traditional 6"x6" solid wood header would have an R- value of approx R- 5.5 whereas this header has an R value of approx R-18. Our current building slogan is "less wood, more insulation".

South wall almost complete. Rain on finished concrete slab.

Happy Easter.......Terry

Week of March 22: Foundation Insulation

2010-03-27T09:13:00.000-07:00

Hello again,
This week was a series of stops and starts. All is good, spirits are high and we are all happy to come to work every day. Yay for CLAM...........Terry

Drains for roof downspouts. They run around foundation and down hill to the far south end of the property near the school where they terminate in a rock drain trench. Under this drain is the drain for the ground water which connects to the same.

We used the dirt we dug out of the footprint to backfill around the foundation.

This foam board is designed to stand up to the heavy loads concrete slabs deliver. Pricey stuff but this insulation will be silently saving energy and reducing carbon production for perhaps a hundred years or more.

Setting ABS waste lines that run through rock bed under the concrete slab.
Here Joel Langdon is glueing up waste line for kitchen sink. There are two lines in the foreground. The fatter one on right is the toilet waste; the other is a gray water line that will pick up the tub/shower and bath sink. For now they will join together outside the foundation and empty into to septic. This makes the house "gray water ready" which means that later when the County comes out with a comprehensive gray water plan, we will be able to separate all the household water for landscaping, leaving only the toilet water to continue into the septic.
The living space wall that separates the bedroom from the living room will stand above the concrete wall that is crossing the rock pit. The brown piece of wood is approx where the hallway continues into the bedroom and bath.

Sebastian tamping down the surface of the leveled rock pit.

First layer of foam board laid over plastic which is laid over the rock. White pipe sticking up is receiver for roof gutter downspout.

Second layer of 3" foam board on top of 4".The top layer of foam was set on top a wet bed of foam along every seam of foam underneath.

Top sheets of foam were wet sealed with a foam gun along every blue foam seam and along the concrete wall connection.

Plastic then covers the completed double foam layer giving us a 7" foam bed upon which the concrete slab, which is also the finished floor, will rest.

End of day-rebar/steel, laid out on top of plastic for Monday's work.

2010-03-22T08:55:00.000-07:00

March 19
We poured the perimeter footing and stem wall yesterday and began stripping the forms today. It never ceases to amaze me- you spend a week making the mold, suspend steel bars in it, fill it with a liquid, next day pull off the mold and you have a monolithic cultured stone box onto which a house will stand for a century or more.
Too much fun........terry
Editor's note: Narrator is Terry Nordbye, West Marin contractor for over 30 years, who is newly fired up about reducing our carbon footprint in buildings with passive house renovation and construction.
Tuesday, March 16th- begin outside of forms

Friday, March 19th- foundation poured, forms partially taken off.

The house surrounded by the outside boards of the foundation boards with a ready pile of steel. The boards on the saw horses used for the forms will later be used for the roof rafters. The rest of the form boards we used were from the foundation of the Blue House.

Typically one uses Portland cement as the hardening agent in mixed concrete. Portland cement, derived mostly from heating limestone in a kiln is mined all over the U.S., Canada and Mexico. We used a 30% fly ash content to replace Portland cement in our cement mixture. The fly ash is a waste product from coal generated electricity plants. Turns out our fly ash comes from a coal fired generation plant in South Dakota, it is then trained down to a distribution plant in the bay area where it is then trucked to point reyes. Is fly ash more green than Portland cement? Depends on where the Portland cement was mined and manufactured and how it was delivered. Keep in mind the fly ash is waste where the Portland cement has to be made.

North east corner of foundation after forms are stripped off. Concrete will be back filled to just above line in concrete- 8" above finished grade. Bolts sticking up will attach to key wood members to anchor the house framing onto the concrete footing. Rock pile will be graded out flat as a bed for the next step- foam insulation for the slab.

Setting up for the Foundation

2010-03-08T17:08:00.000-08:00

Here's Blue2 laid out for the foundation. From this vantage point it looks bigger than the Blue House, but it's a 750 square-ft. second unit. The recycled wood stakes in use here were trim from the cabin that used to stand here. The stakes outline the face of the new concrete foundation.

We used the old form boards from the Blue House to form the Blue2 and again here is some of the old house trim used for form stakes.

Most of the inside form boards are set. John Hope in CAT piling up the extracted dirt around outside perimeter of foundation. Later this dirt will be graded back against the new raised foundation wall. The 30 ft building site dropped off 20" from the planned front door on right to the bottom corner of the wood forms on left. The top of the form boards will be the height of the finished floor. Jorge is standing in what will be the bathroom.

Welcome to CLAM's Blue House Blog!

2010-03-02T08:46:00.000-08:00

On February 20, we broke ground on "Blue2", the 750-foot second unit being built behind the "Blue House". Blue2 is designed to be the first new construction certified "Passive House" in California as well as the first in the state built for affordable housing. This blog will chronicle the construction of Blue2.