The Flatrock Passive House Gets a Firm Foundation.

After every day that goes by I realize more and more that this is actually happening. From grubbing, to excavation, to filling the hole, it has finally set in: this house is happening! Because of the way the foundation will be filled, it made sense to first fill the house footprint with blast rock. There are 12 loads so far! Each layer will be compacted with a roller and inspected by an engineer. Over the next two days we are expecting that this will be completed. By Thursday morning we'll have a firm base for the 4' frost wall. The stepped portion of the wall will have to be dug out again in order to have the 6' and 8' frost walls at the same height. Having this pad in place will provide access to the west of the lot where the septic system will be located and we'll begin rough work on the system before we start doing any foundation work. While this is happening I am hoping to bore the well. With the structural pad in place, the drillers will be able to get down on the pad and back into a small corner between the trees to start drilling.

You may notice a little girl dancing around...Yes she went right for the dirt! Not sure why they like dirt so much...I guess they just do.

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Building the Air Tight Barrier: Door Flashing Details.

It took us a while to wrap our heads around the door details on my plans. The main exterior wall is composed of 2x8s. The rough stud opening was substantially larger than the door. Because the walls are much deeper than a standard door frame for a 2x6 wall, the interior of the 2x8 opening was studded with double 2x4s. Outside of these 2x4s, there is 1.5" of foam and another 2x4 on face which brings the door frame opening flush to the exterior 3" of EPS foam. The brick mould of the door will sit against the exterior of the wall. The ganged 2x4s which define the opening will allow the door to open a little further than that of a 2x8 wall. With the door details finalized, I had to flash the opening as per the plan. I specified the size/shape for aluminum sill pans and CBS Eavestroughing made them for me. The sill pans have a kind of end dam to prevent water from entering under the under the stud opening should the door ever leak. (Photo 1-1). After verifying t

Choosing an HRV...My Thoughts....

So, which HRV do you want for your home? This is a question not often asked by the homeowner. When the house is built, somebody installed an HRV and that was it. The home owner is rarely involved in anything other than turning a knob on the HRV wall control if they dare fool with it at all. An HRV is probably one of the most important appliances in your house; it expels moisture, eliminates odours, evacuates stale air from bathrooms, provides clean air to keep you healthy and it recovers a lot of heat that would have otherwise been blown out through the vent on the house. It serves three main functions: 1. Supplies the home with fresh dry air. 2. Removes stale air and removes excess moisture. 3. Recovers heat or heat/moisture For a low energy home we need an HRV that is as efficient as possible. With the ventilation unit taking care of exchanging most of the air in the building, having an efficient one will pay for itself in the energy saved over it's lifetime. Zeh

Introducing: The Flatrock Passive House

So...after 8 1/2 years in our home, we have decided to move on. Well, not right away! We have quite a bit of planning ahead of us. With the likely onset of a 233% hike in the cost of electricity from Muskrat Falls (when compared to todays rate of $0.0972/kWh) we decided it was time to take energy consumption seriously before its too late to do anything about it. The land has been acquired, the planning has started! I am planning on nipping my energy bill in the bud before it becomes a major sinkhole in my pocket book. Upon investigating current building standards, I realized that the Canadian Building Code is below the standards necessary to really make a difference in energy consumption. There are some standards like R2000 which can make a difference to total energy usage. A R-2000 home can use up to 50% less heating energy compared to a code built home; if built properly! A blower door test will reveal the truth about that. Now....Imagine living in a home where you have em

Flatrock Passive House: A Passive House in Newfoundland

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