beausoleil

It's hard work to create a Passive House

One of the projects currently on Beausoleil’s drafting boards (i.e., on our computer screens) is a modest remodel of and addition to a typical 1950’s ranch house in San Carlos.  Besides creation of a master suite, a guest suite and a better relationship to the back yard, the owners desired to go well beyond normal practice in remodeling the building envelope. They wanted to approach, and possibly meet, the rigorous requirements of the Passive House Institute and reduce the building’s energy use by as much as 90%.

‘Passive House’ (Passiv Haus in German) is an idea that was formalized in recent years in Germany, though the basic concepts have been around at least since the 1973 energy crisis started people thinking about curbing energy use in buildings.  ‘Passive House’ is related to the broader concept of passive design in architecture, where the environmental comfort within buildings relies on local environmental forces, rather than utilizing complicated mechanical and electrical systems. In classic passive design, a building is designed to allow windows to admit solar heat in the winter, and to be shaded in the summer; occupants open windows for ventilation and cooling; heat is regulated through good insulation and air sealing; daily temperature cycling is smoothed by providing thermal mass within the building envelope. Space heating is minimized and people are expected to live with a bit of minor discomfort – putting on a sweater when the temperature swings a bit low, wearing shorts when its hot, getting up off the couch to adjust shades and windows – instead of cranking the thermostat.

The Passive House Institute standards require very heavy duty insulation (typically double to triple the insulation value most homes have), triple glazing on the windows, very tight air sealing, and (not so passive) ventilation using a heat recovery exchanger to retain the heat in air being exhausted. Very good detailing and supervision of construction is necessary to make these houses meet the standards, as it is very easy for air and heat to escape through a poorly conceived, or a poorly made, building shell. With excellent insulation and air control, most of the heat for the house can come from the building occupants and their electrical appliances. The need for air conditioning is eliminated.  With good natural lighting and photovoltaic panels on the roof generating power, very little energy input from outside is required.

Getting back to the project on our drafting board, the owners hired Allen Gilliland of OneSkyHomes, a Passive House Institute certified consultant and builder, to analyze the design of the house using the Passive House Planning Package and make recommendations. The PHPP is a software tool that comprehensively models the energy use of a building, including its skin, insulation, windows and doors, air sealing, ventilation, and mechanical systems.  Allen thought he had an easy task ahead of him, but it turns out that modifying an existing ranch house is a tougher challenge than designing a new house. 
The ranch house in question has typical 2x4 stud walls, and their thickness didn’t provide enough space even if high performance sprayed foam insulation was used.  Luckily, the owner wanted to remove the existing stucco wall finish and replace it, so amending the wall thickness was conceivable. 
Likewise the roof is framed with 2x4 rafters, and even though the attic provides a large space for insulation, the edges where the roof comes down to meet the walls are inconveniently slender. And, as it happened, the house’s roof had been replaced recently so the owners were naturally disinclined to rip the roofing off to add more insulation on top.

The other inconvenience is that the existing house is oriented to face east and west, just the opposite of ideal north-south orientation.  East and west glazing is hard to shade for summer cooling, and doesn’t face the warming sun of winter, so the project had a strike against it from the start. 

Triple glazing in our mild climate seemed silly to me (and to the window suppliers who laughed at the owner when he asked for triple glazed windows to be priced), but Allen explained that it wasn’t just energy control, it was comfort.  Triple glazing ensures that the interior surface of the glass stays within a comfortable temperature range – one doesn’t feel cold radiating out and therefore feels more comfortable.

Allen’s creative powers were challenged but he came up with several good alternative packages for balancing insulation value, cost, and constructablity.  We are looking at combinations of spray foam and densely packed cellulose insulation within framing spaces, extra layers of polystyrene foam on the outside of the shell, and taped plywood sheathing for air control. We are now awaiting pricing of these options before completing our construction drawings.  The owner is prepared for a certain amount of sticker shock (these improvements may not pay for themselves in a strictly economic sense for a long time), so we may end up with a very good but not certifiable Passive House design.

 

Architectural Magic II

   

 

The video that was attached to Beausoleil Architects latest blog, titled Architectural Magic, recently received the attention of over two and a half million viewers on YouTube. The ‘inside’ story can be seen in their new video, Architectural Magic II, which shows the garage doors from the inside.

Working off of the concept design from Robert Boles of Beausoleil, Rick Dentoni, of Automatic Gate Installations designed and fabricated the steel structural space frame which supports the original wood framed bay window facade and allows it to operate as a door.  He also designed and installed the control and safety systems that operate the door safely.  Rick’s controls coordinate the timing of the two sides of the door, which have to operate in succession in order to clear each other.

Since the door’s completion earlier this year, the owner, Corey McMills of McMills Construction reports a number of curious and, in some cases angry, passersby.  A few people have been upset about not being able to park in front of what looks like a bay window, and ask why there is a curb cut and a no parking sign. Quite a few slack jawed individuals have been noticed as the facade opens up and cars exit onto the road. Since the video went viral, there have even been a few tourists who stop on busy Oak Street to take their own photos in front of the famous façade!

Thank you for all the attention and great feedback! We hope it leads leads to more opportunities for creative architectural solutions that maintain the historical fabric and resources, while allowing buildings to be modernized to the needs of the present.

Architectural Magic

How do you turn a bay window into gold?  Simple, just make it disappear.

 

Corey and Ben McMills of McMills Construction had a problem.  Their investment property on Oak Street, near Ashbury and facing the Panhandle of Golden Gate Park, needed to have a garage built to enhance his tenant’s use of the building and maximize their rent.  Parking, as is true in much of San Francisco, is hard to find in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood and is almost more valuable than living space.  They turned to Beausoleil Architects for help.

The bottom floor of the building, a historic Victorian apartment house, had a hodgepodge of storage rooms, utility spaces and an ancient studio apartment shoehorned between a dozen wood posts.  The original brick foundations were underfoot.  The project structural engineer, Don David of Double D Engineering determined that as part of upgrading the seismic strength of the structure they could get rid of the columns and the partitions, build new concrete footings, and create a clean open garage space.  The problem, as Corey found out when he asked the planning department to review the project, was how to get a car in.

The front wall of the ground floor had a three sided bay window, with windows on each face, matching the bays on the levels above, and the city planning department had recently started enforcing its mandate to limit changes to the character of historic building’s front facades – including conversion of bay windows into garage doors. Their design guidelines require that fronts of buildings, front yards, fencing, and similar relics of historic design be left largely intact, and that changes must be made in accordance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation of Historic Buildings. Replacement of the bay window with a garage door, a common practice for many years, was no longer an option.

Corey, a mechanical engineer by education and a problem solver by nature, conceived the idea of converting the walls of the bay window into door panels that would fold into the garage space to allow cars to enter, and then fold back into place, keeping the historic appearance intact.  The planning department agreed that this concept was provisionally acceptable.  To help him realize this concept, Corey hired fellow problem solver Robert Boles of Beausoleil Architects to devise the details and keep the project in-line with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards.  One of the goals of the standards is to keep not only the historical appearance, but to keep the ‘historic fabric’ – the original wood and glass building materials – intact wherever possible.

Beausoleil carefully measured the elements of the existing façade and drew them up, then determined how the bay window sides could be split apart from the rest of the building with almost invisible seams.  They envisioned a steel framework that would be secured to the back of the walls before they were cut away from the structure – allowing the fabric of the building to remain virtually intact, studs, siding, windows all moving in concert. The front yard, which had a possibly original wrought iron fence, also had to be redesigned to incorporate a driveway and a percentage of planting areas in accordance with the zoning code. Beausoleil prepared a supplementary set of construction drawings to complement the structural set previously approved.

To make the doors work mechanically, there are two floor mounted hydraulic activators, which rotate the doors on pivot hinges. Further details, including control and security hardware, were worked out in the field by the installer, Rick Dentoni of Automatic Gate Installations.

The new garage will provide four parking spaces, while eliminating only ten feet of parking space on the street.  While not entirely pleasing to the city planners, who consider cars to be the spawn of the devil, the new parking will no doubt be very useful to the tenants, at least until we can devise our next trick – teleportation!

The project still needs a little finish carpentry and painting, but you can get the idea in the photos and video below.

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garage door closed                                             Garage door open

 

 

Demolition - the sad alternative to deconstruction

In stark contrast to the house deconstruction photos and blog posted earlier this month, this photo shows two nearby homes being demolished. 

Granted the materials will need to be recycled per the laws of the local municipality, but it seems so sad to see all that wonderful framing lumber shredded, when it could have been reused by artisans creating handmade furniture or people building new homes for the needy.  Was the price difference really analyzed, or was this route chosen just because it is the "normal" and expedient way to take down a house?  We don't know, but we encourage you to take the extra step to give John Morrow of the ReUse People a call to see if you too can't actually save money as well as reduce energy consumption through reuse by selecting deconstruction instead of demolition.

Sustainable Solutions: don’t demolish, deconstruct!

Construction has begun on a Beausoleil Architects designed residential remodel with a new second story in Los Altos, California.  The project will feature sustainable design in many aspects of the construction, but what is most interesting so far at this stage has been the deconstruction.

While most remodeling projects include materials to be taken out of a home; old cabinets, sinks, flooring, wood framing, etc. , and generally a portion of these items are recycled  (Los Altos is a prime example of an ecologically conscious municipality requiring 50% of materials to be recycled), many items still end up in landfill.  Deconstruction, on the other hand, involves the literal reversal of the construction process by carefully pulling the house into its’ component parts: fixtures, lumber, masonry, etc. for direct reuse.  It is not only ecological, but economical.

In this particular case, the existing house, built in 1953 was due for some major upgrades.  The plumbing, electrical and heating systems needed replacing; there were single pane windows and little or no insulation in the walls and roof.  The floor plan was cut up with a lot of small rooms, and did not suit the needs of a modern family with children.  A few years ago, the home would have been simply demolished to its’ foundations and over 35 tons of material would have been added to the landfill.  The owner opted to look into deconstruction as an alternative and found that it made sense from a financial perspective as well.

Working with the General Contractor, Gerry Jensen of Millenium Enterprises., we obtained quotes for both options, demolition and deconstruction. The deconstruction process obviously takes longer as materials need to be carefully removed, sorted and documented.  The beauty of deconstruction though is that instead of simply paying to have unwanted materials removed, the owner obtains a tax credit for donating them for charitable purposes.  Working with the Reuse People in Oakland, who are incredibly experienced with the process, the first step involves a preliminary inventory and dollar value provided by an independent appraiser. The cost of this appraisal is borne by the Owner upfront, but their fee is also tax deductible.  In the case of this project, the cost for demolition was bid at $12,000; the cost of deconstruction at $17,000 with the additional cost of the appraisal at $3,000.  The final appraised value of the goods donated was $83,678.  Assuming a tax bracket of 30%, this will leave the owner with a donation credit of $25,103!  According to John Morrow of the ReUse People, this amount can be carried over for up to four years, which in most cases ensures a full deduction.  Deconstruction does indeed pay off!

So what does the deconstruction process look like?  Once the appraisal is done and the contract signed, the deconstruction contractor, Marcan Enterprise in our case, came to take away all the cabinetry, appliances, interior doors, plumbing and lighting fixtures.  I was really impressed with how neatly they had all the material sorted and organized on site.

   

The contractor then had to come in and do some abatement of hazardous materials that were found in old tile and sheetrock, for example.  Once the potentially hazardous materials were removed, it took approximately 1-1/2 weeks for Marcan to take apart the home, brick by brick, stud by stud.  Over 5800 lineal feet of wood framing alone was salvaged!

The only materials not salvaged were old asphalt roofing shingles, lumber under 6 feet in length (recycled instead), a small amount old rigid insulation, and single pane aluminum windows (no longer allowed for energy reasons).  Single pane wood casement and double hung windows are salvaged.

So what is done with all these donated materials?  Well, in Oakland at the ReUse People’s retail outlet at 9235 San Leandro Boulevard, anyone from the public is welcome to come by and purchase materials at an incredibly discounted price. (Check their website for additional operations and retail locations in southern California, Denver, Kansas City, Sacramento, and New Britain Connecticut.)  Who are their typical customers?  According to John Morrow, there are several categories:

• People who cannot afford to buy new
• People with income properties
• People looking to be especially environmentally conscious and reduce their carbon footprint
• People looking for authentic period pieces for their remodels
• Artists, including furniture makers, whose purchase of old lumber accounts for 25% of The ReUse People’s sales

 

When my husband and I remodeled our own 1920’s bungalow in the Westwood Park neighborhood of San Francisco some years ago, we purchased salvaged interior paneled doors, scrap marble slabs. A single pane wood window for our garage, and period glass doorknobs.  We saved a lot of money, but we also purchased items that were in keeping with the original design and craftsmanship of the home, so that the addition felt as though it had always belonged.

 

We encourage you to consider deconstruction for your remodeling project.  It is suitable for any scale project, from a small kitchen or bathroom remodel, to a large addition or tear down.  It is the right thing to do, both for the planet, and for your pocketbook!

 

A Beach House Restoration – did the Victorians drink margaritas?

Construction has started on a Beausoleil Architects designed project to rehabilitate an historic ocean side bungalow in Capitola. The property, newly purchased by a Los Altos family for weekend getaways, overlooks picturesque downtown Capitola and Monterey Bay from the bluff known as Depot Hill. The existing house, a Victorian built in the 1890’s, has long been a local landmark but had fallen on hard times, including a major fire which caused the roof to be rebuilt.

 

The purchasers’ recognized the property’s worth, including the fact that its situation will never allow its view of the ocean and the town to be blocked, and it’s large yard, crying out for landscaping, a hammock and a pitcher of margaritas. As it turns out, the family’s business is commercial landscaping, so the owner envisions a happy few years doing as a hobby what his firm does professionally. The house’s generous living spaces, three bedrooms and two bathrooms, plus the option of adding a loft in the attic, would accommodate their family as well as numerous friends for summer parties.

The house’s exterior has suffered a bit over the years but is generally very close to its original form.  As such, and as part of the Depot Hill Historic District, significant changes to its exterior have to be done in accordance with the Secretary of the Interiors Standards for Historic Renovation, a set of Federal guidelines that govern work on historic properties.  Beausoleil Architects carefully documented the existing construction, and then worked closely with the local planning department to assess the owner’s plans for a new deck, rehabilitation of the windows and restoration of the original front steps.  With the help of the Capitola Historical Museum the owner was able to track down historic photos of the house, including one showing the local gang of kids sitting on the front steps, circa 1925. As it turned out, the proposed changes were considered appropriate and minor and the project sailed through the review process.

 

The interior of the house was a different problem.  The kitchen, as was typical in Victorian times, was cut off from the living spaces and arranged with a maximum of doors and a minimum of counter space. The owners wanted a more informal, free flowing space, so Beausoleil suggested taking out the wall between the kitchen and dining room, including a large non-functioning chimney. Besides opening up the spaces, the seismic hazard that the un-reinforced chimney represented was eliminated.  Beausoleil’s design also moved one of the doors – into a bedroom of all things – which freed up one wall for a large bank of storage cabinets. 

A rear extension of the house, including a bedroom and bathroom, was apparently remodeled at some point in the distant past, probably by enclosing what had been an outdoor laundry porch. The bathroom space in particular was substandard, and the new design created extra usable space by eliminating a rear stair and hallway.  A larger bathroom with a stacking laundry was the result – no more tramping down to the basement to do laundry.

The interior design is now being worked out by the owner and Anne Munemitsu Interior Design. The owner’s intention is to keep the basic Victorian detailing while updating the finishes and colors. The kitchen and baths will get all new fixtures and finishes.  Besides this eye candy, the underlying structure and systems are also be updated.  The crawlspace is being ‘voluntarily’ upgraded for seismic strength, and a new central forced air heating system and new wiring is being installed.

The result, when construction is completed in a few months, will be a beautiful ‘old’ Victorian, complete with all the modern conveniences, ready for its next hundred years of lounging at the beach.

Rags to Riches

This is hopefully the first installment of a rags to riches story: how discarded water from your laundry (that’s the rags part) can turn into edible riches.

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is launching a new Laundry to Landscape pilot program, the object of which is to install greywater systems that utilize laundry wastewater for irrigating landscaping, thus reducing water and sewer use. The program is aimed at single and duplex home owners, and includes a short training class and subsidised sale of the necessary piping equipment.

For those not familiar with Greywater systems, they involve the use of wastewater from bathroom sinks, showers, bathtubs and laundries to irrigate landscaping (and in some cases for toilet flushing).  Wastewater from toilets, utility sinks and kitchen sinks are not included, as they contain much more bacterial and chemical components and need more sophisticated treatment.  Bathroom sinks, laundries, showers and tubs, given the use of appropriate cleansers, are considered safe for use in landscaping, as long as some basic precautions are taken with how the water is distributed.  The state has even legalized ‘simple’ systems, involving water from a laundry, without needing a permit. More complex systems are also possible, however.  Check out the Greywater Alliance or Greywater Action for general information.

The program is being run by the Urban Farmer Store of San Francisco, and they are looking for 150 volunteers for the pilot.  The benefits include a $95.00 subsidy on parts and training by experts. This will cover most of the costs for many people.

We intend to irrigate edible plants -- a small fruit orchard and blueberry bushes – with our system. It may take a few years for things to mature (growing edible plants in San Francisco’s climate is always a challenge!) but we have hopes for a cornucopia. 

A new code for the new decade - the California Residential Code (CRC)

As if we didn’t have enough code books taking up valuable space on our bookshelves, the powers that be have adopted a new residential building code for California, to take effect on January 1, 2011.  I just went to an all day class on this new code, the California Residential Code, 2010 edition (henceforth known as the CRC), and thought I would share some of the information while my head is still spinning. The revisions to current standards promise to be variously useful and annoying. Along with the new 'CalGreen' code, also to take effect in January, we are in for a bit of a learning curve (more about CalGreen in the next blog).  

The new CRC does not supercede the current California Building Code (2007 edition), but rather supplements it, sandwiching a new Part 2.5 into the existing structure of the CBC.  The CRC will govern most residential construction, including single and duplex residential structures, live work units (when built as houses), semi-attached townhouses, and certain kinds of group care facilities.  It does not cover other residential projects such as apartments, condos, hotels, and so forth, which will still be covered by the larger CBC. Incidentally, the CRC is based on the International Residential Code (as the CBC is now based on the International Building Code). Most of the U.S. is using some version of these codes now, so we are gradually creeping towards a national standard. San Francisco, wouldn’t you know, seems to be the one locality that has not adopted the new CRC, so none of these changes are pertinent here.

The new CRC is a sort of one-stop-shop, containing most of the pertinent code information for the most typical kinds of residential construction – up to two story wood frame structures, plus basements and habitable attics, on concrete foundations. In general, if there are conflicts between the overall code and the new CRC provisions, the more detailed CRC rules apply.  On the other hand, the CRC only covers very basic, standard kinds of structural designs, so one can defer back to the CBC for more more specific structural engineering problems.

Some of the more significant changes are as follows:

- Accessory structures up to 120 square feet are exempt from needing a permit (though they are expected to meet code requirements) and don’t need to meet fire separations for windows to property lines and other buildings.

- Requirements for fire resistance of walls and size of windows based on separation from property lines have been somewhat relaxed. Likewise, requirements for fire resistance inside structures and from garages to houses have been reduced.

- Requirements for fire blocking – construction elements that stop the spread of fire within structures – have generally been made stronger.

- Habitable attics are no longer considered a ‘story’ for code purposes. Converting an attic to habitable space does not therefore constitute adding a floor to a building – so one doesn’t necessarily need to upgrade the seismic strength of the entire building.  This will make it easier to build, and retrofit, attics as useable spaces.

- Minimum ceiling height for habitable rooms has been reduced to 7’-0”. This is quite important for those who have existing basements and attics with low head clearance.  Suddenly, thousands of dollars in structural remodeling may not be necessary to get that rec room or home gym that you wanted.

- Fire sprinklers are now required on all new residential projects; remodels and additions may need sprinklers depending on local ordinances.  This is a huge change, very controversial apparently because of its cost. On the other hand, most municipalities in the Bay Area already require this, so possibly not a big deal locally.

- Carbon monoxide alarms will be required in most dwellings, and the rules for smoke detectors are more stringent. Systems in new construction need to be interconnected, powered by building electricity (with battery back-up).

- Handrails on stairs may have the traditional wider shape, not just the cylindrical type required by the CBC.

- Guardrails are required not just when the adjacent ground surface directly below an edge is more than 30” lower, but if the ground surface within 3 feet of the edge horizontally is more than 30” lower. 

- Un-vented roofs and (minimally) un-vented crawlspaces are allowed if certain measures are taken regarding vapor transmission.

There are literally hundreds of very detailed changes, so contractors and design professionals will need to carefully review the pertinent sections of the new code.  So call us up! (or take a class). The particular class I took was taught by the incredibly knowledgeable Douglas Hanson, who is responsible for the “Code Check” series of books which makes all this information easily accessible. Copies of the new codes are available locally from the sponsor of the class, the wonderful Builder’s Booksource in Berkeley .  A visit there is more than likely to fill up any spare bookshelf space with even more interesting tomes.

Check the California Building Standards Commission website for other information. 

Permit approved!

 

A building permit has just been granted by the City of Los Altos for our first home under Build It Green's Green Point Rated standards.  Congratulations Carol!  Construction should be starting next month with Millenium Enterprises as the chosen general contractor.  We are shooting for 86 points in the categories of Energy Conservation, Indoor Air Quality, Efficient Use of Resources, and Water Conservation.  We plan to keep you posted over the next year to evaluate the associated costs  of our chosen points and the ease of adapting them to the constrution and verification process.

  We are also currently in the construction documentation phase on three other new Green homes in Los Altos and hope to contiue to share our experiences with you.  Feel free to use this format to ask questions, discuss your favorite ponts withing the system, and the greening of residential construction in general.

Save money on your remodeling

I was sent an interesting post by our Title 24 consultant today.  Mark Madison of Energy Code Works is the guy who checks our designs for compliance with the state of California's requirements for energy use in buildings.  There are new tax credits available for remodeling for energy efficiency.  See Mark's blog for full description of credits.