My New House Build

buffalobillpatrick · 03-10-17, 04:55 PM

I finally sold my old house, so now I have the money to build a new one.

Close to Pikes Peak, climate zone 5B (dry), Design Temp = 2*F, Altitude = 8,750', Heating Degree Days = 6,415, Air Freeze Index = 2,500, Wind load = 100mph

IRC 2009 insulation levels & some 2015 mixed in for fun. IPC Plumbing 2006.

Everything has to be permitted & inspected.

I had to hire a Draftsman to format my hand drawn design. Now a Structural Engineer is doing his thing as almost 100 yards of concrete & rebar is needed.

I had to pay $600 for a 2nd soils test to satisfy the county that the 4,000psi decomposed granite (soil) hasn't changed in the last 5 years since the shop was built.
(County has a “Screw the new policy”)

House will be a simple rectangle 30' x 48' with a simple gable roof 9.7 in 12 pitch. Decra steel shake roof panels over batons on 5/8" CDX plywood sheathing.

2 bedrooms & full bathroom upstairs will go inside the framed opening in the engineer stamped attic trusses, 14' x 48'

No roof vents due to fire risk from nearby trees on neighbors property.

I will be using closed cell SPF on bottom side of roof sheathing made by Bayer, will be sprayed in warm weather to help prevent fishy smell.

It supposedly has a built in "Ignition Barrier", but I don't know if Teller County will force me to add a more stringent "Thermal Barrier" ?

If so, I will only use 4" of SPF (supposedly R28) + 3.5" of Johns Manville rock wool R-15 (approved Thermal Barrier)

The downstairs will be a walk-out basement, built into a South East hill facing Pikes Peak.

All concrete walls, 12' in front over stepped down footer (freeze depth) & 10' around rear, + a 24' x 8' retaining wall.

One would think that freeze depth is much more like 6-7' but because of the dry gravel nature the County specifies 32" below grade to bottom of footers, they also insist on 10' deep drain down yard hydrants???

All exterior walls will be insulated on the inside with 2 x 3" 4' x 8' panels of Polyiso foam that I got cheap off of Craigslist from a roof tear off in Dallas Tx.

Something interesting about Polyiso foam is that its R-value is GREATLY dependent on temperature. In example say it's 70*F inside house & 0*F outside, the very outside will be about R-2 per inch & the very inside will be about R-6 per inch.

BBP

Daox · 03-10-17, 05:01 PM

Congrats on selling the house! I really look forward to seeing updates on this thread.

Quote:

Originally Posted by buffalobillpatrick

No roof vents due to fire risk from nearby trees on neighbors property.

This was confusing to me. You don't have roof vents because of a neighbor's trees?

buffalobillpatrick · 03-10-17, 05:20 PM

Daox, yep. Big pines. Embers can be sucked into vents.

buffalobillpatrick · 03-11-17, 11:13 AM

I bought a small HRV, about 75% efficiency.
Fantech FLEX 100H Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV) CFM, 0.4 W.C., 50-106 CFM
It will suck stale humid air from master bathroom & return fresh air into great room.

The 3 toilet rooms will all have:
Panasonic FV-11VQ5 WhisperCeiling 110 CFM Ceiling Mounted Fan, White
The makeup air will mostly be drawn in through the HRV, I hope.

Upon running the Builditsolar Home Heat Loss Calculator, air infiltration will most likely be my biggest heat loss. Heating season is about 7 months. No A/C needed.

So I will try very hard to air seal as best I can. The suspect areas are the upstairs framed gable ends, all doors & windows.

I have a high volume lab hood type air pump.
What is a good strategy for finding air leaks, smoke? in cold weather use IR gun?

The spray foam company has agreed to totally cover the top plate areas where the trusses sit on the concrete walls.

BTW, closed cell SPF is very expensive here, about $1.00 / board foot.

buffalobillpatrick · 03-11-17, 01:16 PM

Radiant heating system:

It will have 1 high temperature zone, the upstairs bedrooms & bath.
Using 1/2" O2 barrier pexA 8" OC suspended under 3/4" Advantech subfloor including 4' loops up each side knee walls. Only need about 14 BTU/ft2 at 2*F.

Downstairs it will have 3 low temperature zones in the concrete slab (my favorite way) same pexA at same 8" OC. Slab will have 6" of type 2 EPS under & around perimeter.

The heart of my heating system is a Vie$$man 79 gal. Dual coil indirect water heater that acts as a Thermal Accumulator. The Domestic Hot Water will be drawn from the body of this tank and it acts as a buffer tank for the radiant floors.

The bottom coil will add heat into tank from Solar panels or from Burnham RV3 gas boiler.

The top coil will provide heated water for the radiant system.

The slab zones water temperature will be controlled by a Erie Boiler Boss 3000 Outdoor Reset injection pump controller (brand new in box on EBay for about 1/4 of retail)

"
The TAC Erie BB3000 Injection Pump Control with outdoor reset provides accurate control of the water temperature in the secondary (radiant) loop of a heating system, using an injection pump. The BB3000 also protects against boiler condensation by monitoring and anticipating the boiler return water temperature in the primary loop. The outdoor air and loop temperatures are sequentially displayed, along with the secondary loop setpoint and injection pump speed.

Features:
Microprocessor control
Built-in transformer and relays
Real application data inputs
Large, bright display and indicators
Boiler short cycle and low temperature protection
Sure start pump control
Priority override
"

It will control the speed of a Taco 006 used as the injection pump (must use a standard SPC pump) into my DIY cast iron Hydraulic Seperator (mixer) (I copied the design of the Caleffi $$)

http://s3.supplyhouse.com/manuals/13..._PROD_FILE.pdf

It is made out of cast iron tees & nipples & has an air vent on top, fine mesh Stainless steel screen rolled up in middle to elemonate air. Has a strong high temperature magnet in the drain at bottom (needed for ECM system pumps).

All 4 zones will have continuous circulation using 4 Grundfos Alpha pumps set at lowest constant speed (about 3-5 Watts) Each zone has a Tekmar PID thermostat, smart but not WIFI, wired to a Taco ZVC.

The 4 zone valves are 3-way, when OFF (thermostat is not calling for heat) water circulates within its zone to even out hotter & cooler floor areas.

When ON (thermostat calling for heat) the 3-way zone valve directs the zone's return water into the Hydraulic Seperator lower System side port. The zone valve End Switch sends a "Heat Request" to the Erie BB3000.

The injected tank hot water goes into the Hydraulic Seperator top Source port and returns to the tank via the lower Source port.

Hotter tank sourced water is mixed with the zones cool returning water & exits via the top System side port, the BB3000 uses a sensor in this pipe to control the speed of the injection pump.

The upstairs High Temperature zone does not use the ODR controlled water but pumps directly through the Heat Accumulator top coil.

BBP

buffalobillpatrick · 04-22-17, 12:56 PM

Just got the county to approve the plans & issue building permit.

Some changes:
Due to polyiso foam R-value dropping by 2/3 at 0*F I changed all the exterior walls buildup to 3" type 2 EPS on outside, them 4" polyiso on inside, where it won't get as cold & drop so much R-value.

The county didn't require any additional ignition or thermal barrier to be applied over the closed cell spf on the underside of the roof sheathing. This is probably due to the very limited access.

R-38 is minimum requirement here (5.5")
I will pay extra to have the 2x6 rafters & the wall top plates completely encapsulated.
This will increase the R-value to about R-50, improve infiltration, & water vapor management.

AC_Hacker · 04-22-17, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buffalobillpatrick

Just got the county to approve the plans & issue building permit.

Some changes:
Due to polyiso foam R-value dropping by 2/3 at 0*F I changed all the exterior walls buildup to 3" type 2 EPS on outside, them 4" polyiso on inside, where it won't get as cold & drop so much R-value.

Good thinking!

-AC

buffalobillpatrick · 04-22-17, 01:55 PM

A strange roofing requirement here, ice & water shield (Grace) etc. must be applied at eaves & extending 6' past the interior wall vertical line.

This is to prevent ice dams (which I won't have, no gutters & 9.7 steel roof pitch)

I believe that this is a bad idea, with my closed cell SPF this will create a double water vapor barrier with 5/8" CDX plywood sheathing trapped in the middle.

Perhaps I will file for a variance on this?

buffalobillpatrick · 04-22-17, 10:04 PM

Before I backfill around all the footers, I will put down 600' of 1" PEX to use to temper the incoming air to the HRV.

Will build a water to air heat exchanger. Possibly a couple new automobile heater cores in a plenum box.

DEnd · 04-23-17, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buffalobillpatrick

A strange roofing requirement here, ice & water shield (Grace) etc. must be applied at eaves & extending 6' past the interior wall vertical line.

This is to prevent ice dams (which I won't have, no gutters & 9.7 steel roof pitch)

I believe that this is a bad idea, with my closed cell SPF this will create a double water vapor barrier with 5/8" CDX plywood sheathing trapped in the middle.

Perhaps I will file for a variance on this?

Ice and water shield does not prevent ice dams. It only provides leak protection from them. This is because the product is fully adhered and provides sealing around penetrating objects. Ice dams still happen even with metal roofs and no gutters.

https://buildingscience.com/document...d-135-ice-dams

In your situation I would probably do a ventilated over roof. Figure 8 in this link: https://buildingscience.com/document...46-dam-ice-dam
It's not the cheapest solution, but the cheapest solution would be a ventilated attic, and I'm assuming you want your attic sealed and conditioned.

03-10-17, 04:55 PM	#1
buffalobillpatrick Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Florissant, Colorado Posts: 599 Thanks: 814 Thanked 59 Times in 55 Posts	My New House Build I finally sold my old house, so now I have the money to build a new one. Close to Pikes Peak, climate zone 5B (dry), Design Temp = 2F, Altitude = 8,750', Heating Degree Days = 6,415, Air Freeze Index = 2,500, Wind load = 100mph IRC 2009 insulation levels & some 2015 mixed in for fun. IPC Plumbing 2006. Everything has to be permitted & inspected. I had to hire a Draftsman to format my hand drawn design. Now a Structural Engineer is doing his thing as almost 100 yards of concrete & rebar is needed. I had to pay $600 for a 2nd soils test to satisfy the county that the 4,000psi decomposed granite (soil) hasn't changed in the last 5 years since the shop was built. (County has a “Screw the new policy”) House will be a simple rectangle 30' x 48' with a simple gable roof 9.7 in 12 pitch. Decra steel shake roof panels over batons on 5/8" CDX plywood sheathing. 2 bedrooms & full bathroom upstairs will go inside the framed opening in the engineer stamped attic trusses, 14' x 48' No roof vents due to fire risk from nearby trees on neighbors property. I will be using closed cell SPF on bottom side of roof sheathing made by Bayer, will be sprayed in warm weather to help prevent fishy smell. It supposedly has a built in "Ignition Barrier", but I don't know if Teller County will force me to add a more stringent "Thermal Barrier" ? If so, I will only use 4" of SPF (supposedly R28) + 3.5" of Johns Manville rock wool R-15 (approved Thermal Barrier) The downstairs will be a walk-out basement, built into a South East hill facing Pikes Peak. All concrete walls, 12' in front over stepped down footer (freeze depth) & 10' around rear, + a 24' x 8' retaining wall. One would think that freeze depth is much more like 6-7' but because of the dry gravel nature the County specifies 32" below grade to bottom of footers, they also insist on 10' deep drain down yard hydrants??? All exterior walls will be insulated on the inside with 2 x 3" 4' x 8' panels of Polyiso foam that I got cheap off of Craigslist from a roof tear off in Dallas Tx. Something interesting about Polyiso foam is that its R-value is GREATLY dependent on temperature. In example say it's 70F inside house & 0F outside, the very outside will be about R-2 per inch & the very inside will be about R-6 per inch. BBP Last edited by buffalobillpatrick; 03-07-18 at 01:47 PM..*

03-11-17, 01:16 PM	#5
buffalobillpatrick Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Florissant, Colorado Posts: 599 Thanks: 814 Thanked 59 Times in 55 Posts	Radiant heating system: It will have 1 high temperature zone, the upstairs bedrooms & bath. Using 1/2" O2 barrier pexA 8" OC suspended under 3/4" Advantech subfloor including 4' loops up each side knee walls. Only need about 14 BTU/ft2 at 2F. Downstairs it will have 3 low temperature zones in the concrete slab (my favorite way) same pexA at same 8" OC. Slab will have 6" of type 2 EPS under & around perimeter. The heart of my heating system is a Vie$$man 79 gal. Dual coil indirect water heater that acts as a Thermal Accumulator. The Domestic Hot Water will be drawn from the body of this tank and it acts as a buffer tank for the radiant floors. The bottom coil will add heat into tank from Solar panels or from Burnham RV3 gas boiler. The top coil will provide heated water for the radiant system. The slab zones water temperature will be controlled by a Erie Boiler Boss 3000 Outdoor Reset injection pump controller (brand new in box on EBay for about 1/4 of retail) " The TAC Erie BB3000 Injection Pump Control with outdoor reset provides accurate control of the water temperature in the secondary (radiant) loop of a heating system, using an injection pump. The BB3000 also protects against boiler condensation by monitoring and anticipating the boiler return water temperature in the primary loop. The outdoor air and loop temperatures are sequentially displayed, along with the secondary loop setpoint and injection pump speed. Features: Microprocessor control Built-in transformer and relays Real application data inputs Large, bright display and indicators Boiler short cycle and low temperature protection Sure start pump control Priority override " It will control the speed of a Taco 006 used as the injection pump (must use a standard SPC pump) into my DIY cast iron Hydraulic Seperator (mixer) (I copied the design of the Caleffi $$) http://s3.supplyhouse.com/manuals/13..._PROD_FILE.pdf It is made out of cast iron tees & nipples & has an air vent on top, fine mesh Stainless steel screen rolled up in middle to elemonate air. Has a strong high temperature magnet in the drain at bottom (needed for ECM system pumps). All 4 zones will have continuous circulation using 4 Grundfos Alpha pumps set at lowest constant speed (about 3-5 Watts) Each zone has a Tekmar PID thermostat, smart but not WIFI, wired to a Taco ZVC. The 4 zone valves are 3-way, when OFF (thermostat is not calling for heat) water circulates within its zone to even out hotter & cooler floor areas. When ON (thermostat calling for heat) the 3-way zone valve directs the zone's return water into the Hydraulic Seperator lower System side port. The zone valve End Switch sends a "Heat Request" to the Erie BB3000. The injected tank hot water goes into the Hydraulic Seperator top Source port and returns to the tank via the lower Source port. Hotter tank sourced water is mixed with the zones cool returning water & exits via the top System side port, the BB3000 uses a sensor in this pipe to control the speed of the injection pump. The upstairs High Temperature zone does not use the ODR controlled water but pumps directly through the Heat Accumulator top coil. BBP Last edited by buffalobillpatrick; 03-11-17 at 02:20 PM..*

03-10-17, 05:20 PM	#3
buffalobillpatrick Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Florissant, Colorado Posts: 599 Thanks: 814 Thanked 59 Times in 55 Posts	Daox, yep. Big pines. Embers can be sucked into vents.

03-11-17, 11:13 AM	#4
buffalobillpatrick Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Florissant, Colorado Posts: 599 Thanks: 814 Thanked 59 Times in 55 Posts	I bought a small HRV, about 75% efficiency. Fantech FLEX 100H Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV) CFM, 0.4 W.C., 50-106 CFM It will suck stale humid air from master bathroom & return fresh air into great room. The 3 toilet rooms will all have: Panasonic FV-11VQ5 WhisperCeiling 110 CFM Ceiling Mounted Fan, White The makeup air will mostly be drawn in through the HRV, I hope. Upon running the Builditsolar Home Heat Loss Calculator, air infiltration will most likely be my biggest heat loss. Heating season is about 7 months. No A/C needed. So I will try very hard to air seal as best I can. The suspect areas are the upstairs framed gable ends, all doors & windows. I have a high volume lab hood type air pump. What is a good strategy for finding air leaks, smoke? in cold weather use IR gun? The spray foam company has agreed to totally cover the top plate areas where the trusses sit on the concrete walls. BTW, closed cell SPF is very expensive here, about $1.00 / board foot.

04-22-17, 12:56 PM	#6
buffalobillpatrick Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Florissant, Colorado Posts: 599 Thanks: 814 Thanked 59 Times in 55 Posts	Just got the county to approve the plans & issue building permit. Some changes: Due to polyiso foam R-value dropping by 2/3 at 0*F I changed all the exterior walls buildup to 3" type 2 EPS on outside, them 4" polyiso on inside, where it won't get as cold & drop so much R-value. The county didn't require any additional ignition or thermal barrier to be applied over the closed cell spf on the underside of the roof sheathing. This is probably due to the very limited access. R-38 is minimum requirement here (5.5") I will pay extra to have the 2x6 rafters & the wall top plates completely encapsulated. This will increase the R-value to about R-50, improve infiltration, & water vapor management.

04-22-17, 01:55 PM	#8
buffalobillpatrick Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Florissant, Colorado Posts: 599 Thanks: 814 Thanked 59 Times in 55 Posts	A strange roofing requirement here, ice & water shield (Grace) etc. must be applied at eaves & extending 6' past the interior wall vertical line. This is to prevent ice dams (which I won't have, no gutters & 9.7 steel roof pitch) I believe that this is a bad idea, with my closed cell SPF this will create a double water vapor barrier with 5/8" CDX plywood sheathing trapped in the middle. Perhaps I will file for a variance on this?

04-22-17, 10:04 PM	#9
buffalobillpatrick Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Florissant, Colorado Posts: 599 Thanks: 814 Thanked 59 Times in 55 Posts	Before I backfill around all the footers, I will put down 600' of 1" PEX to use to temper the incoming air to the HRV. Will build a water to air heat exchanger. Possibly a couple new automobile heater cores in a plenum box.