Fokus Builders - A finished house, September 3, 2010

Instead of looking at the energy efficiency requirements of the non-rigorous building code and then adding "extras" to make this house green, we just made the house green and figured out how to afford it by saving money with a smaller, simply shaped home. Everyone can save money on a new house if they keep it small and simple. The foundation costs less, the framing costs less, the siding costs less, the roofing costs less... you get the idea. Then, spend saved money on "green," like:

Better insulation. We will use ozone-friendly spray foam for excellent thermal performance and excellent sealing of the building envelope.

Better framing. We used advanced framing techniques to get unnecessary wood out of the walls that displace insulation.

Heat recovery ventilation. This house will tightly control its ventilation requirements, by not leaving ventilation (and lost energy) to a haphazard, leaky building envelope.

Better windows. The latest technology gives us better windows for a better price. Check out Serious Windows.

Better foundation. Insulated concrete forms clearly excel.

Passive solar. Free heat is free! Just remember to orient those building materials correctly.

Responsibly harvested and reclaimed lumber. Bad Goat forestry products and reclaimed lumber from Home Resource and Heritage Timber.

SUPPORTING PHOTOS

Fokus Builders - homeWORD's 2010 Sustainability Tour, June 11, 2010

Fokus Builders is proud to feature this home on homeWORD's 2010 Sustainability Tour

Come check out this house from noon to five on Saturday, June 12 and see for yourself many of the items you may have read about in our blog. See you there!

Blower door test, 0.7 Air Changes per Hour (ACH)

Fokus Builders - Validation: Blower door test 0.7 ACH (Air Changes per Hour), May 7, 2010

The nice thing about carefully building a house is, if you know what you're doing, you can get all of the details dialed.

So, with the spray-foam insulation applied, it was time to finally face the music. How dialed is this house? How tight is this carefully designed and constructed home.

Our doors are not yet installed, so when the blower door test equipment arrived, I hastily stapled a plastic sheet over the rough opening for the rear door as the test equipment was installed in the front door's rough opening.

During the test, with the house depressurized by the fan, we began searching the home for air leaks with a smoking candle. If the smoke rises calmly, no leaks. If the smoke shoots into the room, note the hole and repair it after the test. We found two leaks: one in the bathroom fan and one where the water pipe comes into the basement. Yes, even nine feet down a whole lot of air can be sucked through the dirt and into the house.

Now, six air changes per hour or more is an average, leaky house where the curtains tend to blow around. Energy Star requires only 2.5 air changes per hour or less. One air change per hour is considered excellent. This house, with a few discovered leaks left unplugged and plastic merely stapled over one of the two doors, we achieved 0.7 air changes per hour. That's as tight as it gets and it will only get better when the holes are plugged, the doors installed, the drywall hung. High five to Fokus Builders! We've essentially achieved the Passive House standard for tightness.

If you have a house built, you owe it to yourself to have an independent blower door test performed on your home before the drywall goes up. If no care to seal the building envelope has been taken, you'll know and you'll be able to do at least a few things to fix the leaks.

This house demonstrates the strength of spray foam insulation:

Seals the building envelope (Along with many other important considerations, like structural gaskets.)
Eliminates the need for a vapor barrier, very importantly, allowing the wall to dry both to the inside and outside without trapped moisture.
Gives very high R-values per inch. (Important if you don't want to have thick, space-hogging walls.)
Ozone friendly with modern blowing agents.
Has high embodied energy that will be trivial next to the amount of saved energy over the lifetime of the house due to excellent sealing and insulation.

For top-notch, experienced spray foam insulation, we highly recommend Truco Systems, Inc. from Victor, MT.