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Modular Construction: Prefab Reduces Residential Footprint

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Hush: Seeing green through the customer’s eyes

By Saul Chernos

Hush and its president Naheel Suleman have enjoyed early success building luxury houses in the Toronto area.

The Ontario Home Builders’ Association decreed one of the company’s projects, at 6920 Second Line in Mississauga, best model home of the year in 2009. Then, just 12 months later, the OHBA named The Avalon and The Gardens in Oakville project of the year and The Brownstone on Birch best new townhome.

Born in Tanzania, he was one year old when his family moved to Canada in the early 1970s. His father is a chartered accountant, and Suleman followed in his footsteps. Over time, as he worked with developers, Suleman developed an appreciation for architecture, and gradually shifted into home-building. Married with two young children, he’s decidedly private. It’s his business and the methodological, customer-conscious approach he takes to it that he wants to talk about. He founded Hush in 2005 as a builder of high-end, custom houses, and he keeps busy, with 10 to 20 low-rise residential projects on the go at any given time.

“I wanted to change the way business was done in our industry,” explains Suleman, Hush’s sole owner and founder. “The idea was to create a new type of home-building company that was focused not on houses or the buyer but, instead, on the buyer’s experience.”

To that end, Hush has come out with what Suleman and his own marketing materials call the Hush Methodology. This literal branding of the company’s approach seems like common sense, and no doubt it is.

However, it’s also a philosophical positioning. Suleman insists he doesn’t want to put down other builders. Yet, he acknowledges that the time he spent in building circles before launching Hush taught him that houses are more than just a product and that people don’t buy homes just to live in them but, rather, that homes are central to peoples’ lives.

“A house to a home-owner is very different than a house to a builder. For the owner it’s their everything. It’s where they live, it’s family, it’s personal. The home is the by-product – it’s how we make our customers happy.”

The Hush methodology plays out, then, in the nature of the relationship the company and its personnel set out to form with each customer. The first step with any potential customer is to meet with them, and learn about their lifestyle, and then to work with them to determine what they want in their new dwelling.

As far as environmental features are concerned, Hush is reluctant, as Suleman puts it, to “shove green down their throat.”

Hush doesn’t seek independent, third-party environmental certification through bodies such as the Canada Green Build Council. However, the company devises and presents potential attributes, including environmentally-minded components, from an experiential point of view.

The company’s literature includes a green glossary, with basic information about options such as air-source heat pumps and paints and stains that are low in volatile organic compounds. But this information is presented in terms of benefits such as health, safety and long-term savings – in other words, a home that heats and cools efficiently and respects the health and wellbeing of occupants.

“To us, green isn’t about saving the world, it’s about having a better built home that contributes to a buyer’s health, comfort and economics,” Suleman says. “That’s how we jump to green.”

In order to give customers what they want, and yet maintain organizational sense and consistency, Hush breaks its green home offerings into categories, each with an array of features. But, one of the categories is à la carte. Suleman says Hush is flexible. If solar panels or geothermal systems are desired, Hush will provide.

The methodology continues as work proceeds. From initial planning and design through to construction and completion, there’s frequent walk-throughs and meetings with Hush’s in-house personnel, including the architect, engineer, interior designer and Suleman himself, with thought and consideration to what life will eventually be like for the occupant.

“If we follow that process properly it will ensure that the buyer receives the best-in-class experience,” Suleman says. “We want our home buyers to tell us that this is a house they want to live in as opposed to us telling buyers that this is the home they should live in. The look and feel has to be about who lives in the house.”

Hush employs a client concierge, who liaises directly with customers and is available as a key point of contact should any questions or issues arise, and to ensure consistency and continuity in the flow of information.

Separately, Hush also offers a virtual concierge, whereby all customers have password access to a private, dedicated web portal that contains up-to-date and ongoing information about the home, including legal documents, owner manuals, floor plans and a schedule of meetings with Hush personnel. Photos capture and document the entire construction process, and Hush uses the portal to offer post-occupancy services.

Providing this degree of customization might, at first glance, seem uneconomical. However, Suleman says Hush restricts itself to approximately 50 projects a year. All are in the million-dollar-plus market, and in an area largely bounded by Toronto, Mississauga and southwest Oakville, so the economics work for Hush.

“We are an elite home-builder that limits the number of homes that we build, and we allocate staff to properly handle that load,” Suleman says, adding that the sub-trades Hush works with come from the custom world and are used to this level of work. As well, he adds, Hush also wants its partners also enjoy a positive experience and feel respected.

At the end of the day, all the pieces fit together for Suleman. “We want to be forefront,” he says. “We know it’s important to be ahead of the curve.” GB

 

Sustainability

Fifthshire Homes

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The Sultan of Steel

Even after decades of award winning projects under his belt, Joe Vella doesn’t easily relax. He is in a hurry. He has site visits to complete, estimates due and customer meetings to attend. He doesn’t really have time to help with this story, but he will make time because the message is important.

“In terms of sustainability,” says Vella, President of Fifthshire Homes, “…steel is the ultimate.” He explains that with a durable life of hundreds of years, compared to the considerably shorter expectancy for wood frame buildings, steel makes sense both economically and ecologically.

Most of his projects today are framed in steel. “This steel has a recycled content as high as 87% and can be credited with the maximum number of points for the material and resource credits aspect of the LEED Rating System.” It minimizes health problems and investment decline caused by mold and rot, termites, shrinkage, expansion and warping. It doesn’t move or will not contribute fuel to the fire, and creates a straight surface for finishing. With steel there is very little waste. The joists, studs, lintels, and so on are all pre-cut and the few waste off-cuts we have are picked up and recycled.” Vella says it’s about the same labour cost for framing, and about 20% more for material that lasts about four times as long. Within the total project budget, the premium for steel usually amounts to just 2%. The return on investment with repair issues and reduced insurance costs will soon mitigate the additional costs.

Vella loves steel and sustainable architecture. He started building R-2000 homes in the 1990s and was named Central Ontario Builder of the Year back in 1998. Some people might have relaxed, but Vella kept going strong. He won an R-2000 Hall of Fame award in 2000, in 2001 EnerQuality Pioneer Award for the First Certified all Steel Framed R-2000 Home in the World, an Award of Excellence in 2006, two CMHC EnviroHome Designations in 2008 and R-2000 Builder of the Year again in 2009, after completing more than one hundred and fifty R-2000 certified homes.

PORT CARLING SUSTAINABILITY

“I say save the trees and build it with recycled steel. It would take more than an acre of trees to build this home if it was made from wood.” He is referring to a four-bedroom+ 5600 square foot house (and outbuildings) just completed in Port Carling. It was designed by Boyd Montgomery and built into the rock with heavy structural and lightweight steel framing from Bailey Metal Products in Concord, Ontario.

It’s an R-2000 energy rated home with R-34 insulation in the exterior walls and Loewen

Triple-glazed, low E argon-filled windows; with spectrally selective window glazing technology called Heat Smart T Glass. When the sun hits it in winter, the low angles increase solar gain, but higher angle summer rays are reflected away, keeping things cool inside.

Thermal bridging is minimized by insulated exterior sheathing; and most of the windows are operable for natural ventilation when appropriate. The house also features Sylvania LED pot lighting and a top quality custom Altima Kitchen.

The design has been warmed up with elegant 10” wide oak pre-finished engineered Hardwood flooring over in floor radiant heating system. Exterior finishes feature low maintenance Cape Cod siding and is made from Canadian Lodgepole Pine with a factory applied, low maintenance finish. The wood is slowly kiln dried and then two coats of fine quality acrylic are applied (in any of a range of colours). It comes with a 15 year warranty against peeling, chalking and blistering.

RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES

The Port Carling project is heated and cooled using renewable energy technologies. These include geothermal and solar thermal. The building site in Muskoka consisted of granite bedrock. The geothermal wells were drilled over 300 feet deep into the bedrock. When the piping had to be run from the wells to the building mechanical room, the pipes had to be protected with clean imported sand. Foundation footings involved blasting requiring the use of special rubber blast mats to protect workers and the surroundings.  Footings are quite irregular in their configurations to accommodate the peculiarities of the geography. Blasted rock from the site was processed locally into crushed product and used as slab fill for the foundation and the larger boulders used to construct retaining walls on site.

Mechanical consultant David Gallagher notes that the 7-ton geothermal system consists of four wells drilled 325 feet through bedrock, and Geosmart Q series multi-function all-season ground source heat pumps; water-to-water for DHW, radiant floor heating and water-to-air for cooling. The compressor can either reject heat to the water side or absorb heat through the air coil. Two Viessmann Vitosol 200-F solar thermal collectors supplement the geo system and a high-efficiency Viessmann Vitodens 200 propane-fired condensing boiler serves as an emergency backup, season-startup supplement and domestic hot water (DHW) top-up.

Radiant is used on all levels, slab on grade for the main floor and high mass slab down below. A 120-gallon SME60 Smart-Multi-Energy tank by Triangle Tube for the hydronic system contains an internal coil for heat exchange and a 60-gallon stainless steel DHW preheat tank. During heating season the Ground source pumps maintain supply to the SME tank at about 40oC (105oF) which supplies the radiant floors during the heating season and preheat the internal DHW tank.

The DHW preheated inside the SME60, then moves into a Viessmann Vitocell-V 300 79 gallon solar storage tank, which can  boost the water to about 70oC (160oF) on a good solar day. DHW then moves through the final Viessmann Vitocell-V 300 79 gallon indirect DHW tank fueled by the Viessmann Vitodens 200 propane condensing boiler. The propane heated DHW load is substantially reduced by the solar and ground source contribution.

Two zones of coils are used for cooling. One serves the master bedroom lower level, great room, dining room and kitchen. The other air zone serves the family’s bedroom area and a loft guest room over the garage.

Building systems are managed by Uponor CCN controls, with web server-based access that allows for remote monitoring via computer and mobile devices, troubleshooting and alarms to trades.

“David’s mechanical systems are wonderful because they are based on renewables, but they don’t have to work too hard,” says Joe Vella. “That’s because we start with a very solidly built, well insulated steel building.”

“I’d like to talk more about this, but I have another meeting,” he says on his way out the door. Joe Vella is in a hurry.

Architecture

Slow Down, Breathe Deeply, Build to Live: Martin Liefhebber

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Sitting down with Toronto architect Martin Liefhebber to discuss his work and his outlook on sustainability, I find myself imagining the occupant of a building as one of its material components, and of the building as an extension of the person living within.

The notion of mutual dependence, of building and occupant as a single organism, seems absurd in today’s harried world where interaction between prospective homeowners and the myriad of building tradespeople and professionals is at best fleeting and harried. At the frantic pace condominiums, green or otherwise, are filling out the cityscape, how can there possibly be time for anything more than impersonal, tightly scheduled meetings with clients?

From his storefront studio nestled within a residential offshoot of Chinatown East, Liefhebber could walk to Bay Street to do lunch with developers. Or, conversely, they could take the streetcar to visit him. But neither happens terribly often. Not that his firm, Breathe Architects, is hurting for work in these tough economic times. Design posters and blueprints abound, and it isn’t long before I’ve memorized Liefhebber’s ringtone.

“I have a big problem with green building,” he tells me, with just enough smile to suggest a love-hate relationship. “The hubbub around LEED, new glazing systems and everything else is really to facilitate the construction of high-rise buildings, because that’s where most of the money is sitting.”

This seems harsh from someone whose curriculum vitae is replete with green projects of assorted shapes and sizes. But then, again, these projects aren’t generally mainstream. Sure, there’s Calumet College at York University, built in 1990, and the high-profile Toronto Healthy House off-grid project of 1996. But there’s also The Roost, a garden studio measuring a scant 100 square feet, and buildings made in part with discarded tires and pop cans. But Liefhebber, who teaches environmental design at the Ontario College of Art and Design, says he’s more concerned about an occupant’s lifestyle than he is with building size, and sees a greater need to consider how materials function than rely on machines.

A 900-square-foot house Liefhebber designed is currently under construction in Meaford and is centred around his client – a woman, recently retired, who wanted simple, low-cost, active country living. “It’s very efficiently laid out and has a fairly steep steel roof that collects rainwater to flush the toilet and water the garden,” Liefhebber says. A cistern beneath the kitchen floor supplies potable water, and his client is considering breeding tilapia, a fish species in the carp family people pay for in supermarkets, in an outdoor pond and indoor pit that are interconnected. But it’s the lack of a furnace or other heating and cooling equipment that stands out.

“It’s designed on passive principles,” Liefhebber says, explaining that gobs of Roxul and vermiculite insulation will help en

sure comfort even during the coldest weather. A greenhouse that will add warmth on sunny days can be closed off at night or when it’s cloudy. However, it’s a third component to the home’s heating plan that stands to make all the difference – the occupant, and the various activities such as cooking and making tea, that occur within. “The whole idea of PassivHaus, as I interpret it, is that the house is heated because someone is living inside.”

Liebheffer considers the use of machinery to heat and cool buildings antithetical in sustainable building and says his client’s interest in farming tilapia speaks to the relationship between home and occupant. “The idea is not to go out to Starbucks and pay $3.50 for a latté, but to make your own latté at home, or to invite friends over for warm wine. The whole thing is like the slow food movement, a slow way of life. It works with no energy and by keeping our imaginations strong.”

While the countryside might seem idyllic for active, PassivHaus living, Liefhebber is convinced it can also work in cities. “We have a social problem, not an engineering one,” he says, tying modern building to a lifestyle built around consumption, excess and waste. “You need a lot of money to maintain that. Instead of buying fossil-fuel-based energy, we need to be a little bit more active, walk to work, wear a sweater and close our drapes at night.”

Liefhebber says he sees little merit in designing green buildings if their occupants spend little time in them and commute long distances to work, or if energy-efficient heating and cooling systems require ongoing maintenance and replacement within scant decades. He’s particularly outraged that green buildings are so dependent on pricey components. Drawing on the recent Occupy protests, which laid bare the fact that less than one percent of the people control the world’s wealth, he says it’s high time the sustainability industry pays attention to the bulk of the population. “A glazing sandwich that allows sunlight or direct light to come in, and passive solar to heat buildings – they’re wonderful and I do many of them, but they cost a lot of money and are for very well-off people.”

The answer, Liefhebber suggests, lies in going back to basics and planning more thoughtfully at the neighbourhood and community level – for instance, locating jobs and services within walking distance rather than in designing cars that use less gas. He says LEED for Neighbourhoods “comes close to the mark” but calls for a more fundamental shift in attitude. Walking to work and shopping in one’s immediate neighbourhood would undermine certain sectors of the economy, but others would thrive. Instead of big-box stores and massive, central factories, there would be increased emphasis on local jobs and sustainable communities. “When something destabilizes it creates new opportunities. Everything would just shift a little bit,” he explains.

Many of Liefhebber clients fall within the 99 per cent bracket he’s concerned about. Some are on fixed incomes; others work in creative areas that don’t pay well; a few prefer to grow their own food and be as self-sufficient as possible rather than being tied to jobs to pay utility or mortgage bills. So, when it suits his clients, he sources materials that are inexpensive and whose reuse constitutes an environmental virtue. He’s built several straw bale houses over the years and even crammed discarded pop cans and rubber tires with earth and placed them inside walls to support buildings, much like pillars.

The Knell Tire House in Price Edward County, near Belleville Ontario, is a perfect example. Designed by Liefhebber, the occupants built the house themselves. The building has a pitched roof, increasing the capacity for storage and roof insulation, but does not have any central heating or cooling, and uses rainwater wherever possible. More to the point, Liefhebber salvaged the tires and cans from the recycling bin and redirected them to what’s considered even more environmentally virtuous – re-use.

Most of Breathe’s clients are low-rise residential, but he’s incorporated his green ideas into a daycare, a veterinary clinic and a cultural centre. In 2001, he designed a housing project for people with chronic fatigue syndrome in Clarkson, a Mississauga neighbourhood. Four households pooled their money and each got independent 1,200-square-foot apartments inside a building with straw bale insulation and a solar photovoltaic system that supplies one-third of the power. “They shared an allergic reaction to chemicals in the air and were thinking of renovating,” Liefhebber says.

Pop cans, tires, straw bale and huge wads of insulation aren’t the stuff which condos are made of. But then, again, towers aren’t what Liefhebber and his associates want to work on. “I don’t have a big thriving office with tons of people working here, just a handful of colleagues. What drives all of them is the search for alternatives. They don’t want standard jobs, and our clients don’t want a standard product.”

For more information, please visit www.breathearchitects.ca.

By Saul Chernos

Architecture

Let Mother Nature In

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Light. Air. Earth. Sun. Water.  Harmony.

At the celebration to mark the unveiling of 27 Farnham Avenue in Toronto, soft-spoken Architect William Dewson made a respectful speech, thanking the owner, the general contractor and many other building partners. It felt unforced, modest and natural, yet he had designed and realized an outstanding creation; a home that brings together many of the ideal elements of contemporary house-building.

Dewson works on dream homes and cottage properties, and he loves the outdoors. This is obvious when he describes his practice. “The symbiotic relationship between the natural environment and our projects is inspired by organic architecture and sustainable solutions to shelter.” They aren’t just words.

LIGHT

The LEED Gold or Platinum home on Farnham is filled with natural light as the back wall of each floor is nearly all glass, and a big central skylight spills luminescence through three floors, even into a basement apartment, through a glass floor on the ground level. There are more skylights over the kitchen and top floor rooms.

Generous windows are Canadian-made, Loewen triple glazed, low-E argon filled, with thermal edge spacers and Douglas Fir wood frames. The exception is the huge living room sliding glass wall from Bauhaus, which is eco-glass double-glaze plus reflective heat-mirror film and Krypton. This solution equates to triple glazing, achieving a 9.9 R-value, but with less weight. Heat mirror film is transparent to visible light, and reflects radiation back to the source; keeping the room cool in summer and warm in winter.

Artificial light includes LED strips and a daylight harvester which continuously samples the light levels from natural and artificial sources and adjusts control output to the fixtures, maintaining a set point. Settings can be locked in, or override dimmers can be deployed.

AIR

The big windows and many of the skylights are operable and complemented by a reductive cooling system which pumps air through a fan coil and along dynamic partitions in the ceiling toward the windows. “This allows it to float down, rather than blowing cold air on the feet and up the spine. Cooling works best from above and heat should radiate upwards from the slab,” says Dewson. In winter the house is conditioned via the geo ground source pump, through bottom-up radiant floor slabs, and also through an energy recovery ventilator, a fan coil, humidifier and HEPA air filtration.

The envelope of the building is at near-Passivhaus standards. It’s ultra-insulated exterior walls reach R-35. The insulated lowest level concrete slab is R-20. Structural framing is wrapped with exterior polyisocyanurate foil faced panels that eliminate 95% of thermal bridges (and emit zero HCFCs). Also a reverse insulation system on the rooftop below the membrane achieves R-40, because it is applied to the exterior.

Window shim and joist cavities are filled with spray foam from soy/vegetable oils and polyethylene from recycled plastic bottles. PIC joints, seams, fixture wells, filter housings, electrical and communication boxes and vent ducts are all carefully taped and caulked. Paints are low VOC. Wood flooring and Oak, Maple and Birch millwork are low or no VOC; including veneers which are locally pressed onto regionally milled non-formaldehyde boards. Polished ultra-low maintenance concrete floors require no sealers or waxes. To guard against interstitial condensation, dryers and bathrooms vent to the exterior. Plumbing is not located in outside walls. Cold water pipes and toilet tanks are insulated.

EARTH

The geothermal system consists of six 180-foot deep wells. Each well supplies one ton of Mother Nature’s heating or cooling. The water-to-water system uses organic ethanol in the below-grade section, ensuring that any leak would not contaminate the water table. During excavation and construction a comprehensive erosion and containment plan protected the soil.

SUN

On the roof of the house 25 bifacial panels work with a white roof to generate 7 kilowatts of electricity that feeds directly into the Ontario power grid. The system will pay for itself in 10 years, after which the homeowner will enjoy 10 more years on her Feed-in Tariff contract, receiving 80+ cents per kilowatt/hour generated. The white roof reflects 89% of the suns rays, which helps photovoltaic efficiency and reduces the heat island effect, cutting cooling costs by more than 20%. Bifacial panels use direct sunlight plus reflected sunlight and are considered about 30% more efficient. Electricity costs will be reduced with the use of Energy Star appliances.

The solar panel array was also designed to hang over the rear roof edge, providing window shade, and later when a planned deck is added, partial shading for the deck.

WATER

Not surprisingly, plumbing fixures are low flow and toilets are dual flush. Domestic hot water heating costs are minimized by geothermal pre-heating.

A rainwater system and cistern were considered but Dewson opted instead for drought-tolerant native plants, no invasive species, a dry well and a permeable parking pad area. The pad is pre-wired for installation of an electric-car charging system. Numerous specifications such as drip edges, sealing and extra membrane protect the house from moisture and control water flow.

 

HARMONY

Before the previous home was dismantled Habitat for Humanity inspected and recovered both kitchens, light fixtures, plumbing fixtures, doors and windows. Recycling of demolition waste was more than 80% efficient thanks to fastidious organization by general contractor Southpark Design Build.

“I can’t say enough about how great Southpark was throughout the process,” says Dewson. “They took sustainability very seriously and managed all of the materials well.” Brick for the project was reclaimed from a warehouse demolition in Woodstock, Ontario at a cost of about half what it would be worth. Douglas Fir timber for trusses and steel columns and beams came from Canadian forces airplane hangars in Trenton and Ottawa. Floor joists came from a factory near London Ontario.

 

Harmony. Water. Sun. Earth. Light.  Symbiotic indeed.

Technology

Acoustical challenges in green buildings

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Post occupancy evaluations reveal that the acoustics in sustainable commercial interiors are typically worse than that of their traditional counterparts, a deficiency the United States Green Building Council is attempting to address with the introduction of LEED® Pilot Credit 24: Acoustics in November, 2010.

While an acoustic credit certainly helps draw attention to this vital aspect of workplace performance, it is also important to have a firm understanding of the elements involved in providing speech privacy and controlling noise, and why many of the current strategies used to improve airflow, temperature regulation, energy conservation and daylighting tend to lower acoustic performance.

The ABC Rule provides a good framework for this discussion. This acronym stands for the principal methods used by building professionals to achieve effective acoustics: absorb, block and cover.

Many green buildings feature an exposed deck. While it may assist with temperature regulation and day lighting, this tactic also eliminates what is often the most significant source of absorption in a facility: a suspended ceiling. Ideally, open spaces should feature a ceiling tile with at least a 0.75 Noise Reduction Coefficient. Tiles used in closed spaces should have a high Ceiling Attenuation Class, because they will be better at containing sounds.

If this route is not taken, absorption needs to be provided by other means. Even adding absorptive panels to 30 percent of the deck will have some impact. Another option is to use vertical baffles. If a concrete deck is not being used to implement passive heating/cooling, but an open ceiling is still desired, an alternative is to use a perforated and corrugated metal deck with an absorptive material placed behind the perforations before the concrete is poured.

Workstation panels should also be absorptive – at least on the inside, above the work surface – in order to reduce the volume of the occupant’s voice before it is reflected into the space. If the space is narrow in order to promote natural light penetration, absorptive wall panels should also be used in order to prevent sounds from ricocheting between the exterior wall and core.

Soft flooring should be used to reduce footfall or ‘traffic’ noise.

Block

 

Green buildings generally feature a large percentage of open plan. In these areas, the height of workstation panels is essential to blocking noise. Panels should extend beyond seated head height (60 to 65 inches) or they will do little more than hold up the desks. If day lighting is a concern, compromise by using absorptive panels to a 48-inch height and top them with 12 inches of glass or another transparent material. Also ensure that the panels have a high Sound Transmission Class and that they are well-sealed along any joints, with no significant opens between or below them.

In order to reduce waste, many green designs use movable walls to create private offices and meeting rooms. However, these walls may not provide the level of sound isolation needed from one space to another. Gaps along the ceiling, exterior walls and floor should be addressed during installation. A good septum dividing each side of the wall is also advisable in order to prevent sound leakage along any cable raceways.

Cover

Many people believe they will achieve effective acoustics by implementing just these first two strategies: absorbing and blocking noise. While important, these methods simply reduce and contain noise. The final step of the ABC Rule involves ensuring that the background sound level in the space is sufficient to provide speech privacy and reduce the amount of disruption caused by the remaining noises in the space.

The background sound level in most conventional offices is already too low. The use of high-efficiency heating and cooling systems means that it is generally even lower in green buildings. Conversations and noises can easily be heard, even from afar, and are more disruptive. These problems are exacerbated when open windows are used to assist with air circulation, allowing exterior sounds to drift inside.

A networked sound masking system should be used to replenish the background sound level and maintain it at an appropriate volume, which is typically between 40 and 48 dBA in commercial interiors.

This type of system consists of a series of loudspeakers that are usually installed in a grid-like pattern in or above the ceiling. Unlike airflow, the sound they distribute is continuous and has been specifically engineered to increase speech privacy. Masking also covers up intermittent noises or reduces their impact by decreasing the amount of change between the baseline and peak volumes, improving overall acoustical comfort. Finally, by using a networked masking system, users have the flexibility to easily make adjustments to its setup as their needs change (e.g. volume changes in a specific area).

Attention to acoustics does not have to be at odds with sustainability. Indeed, one could argue that providing a fully functional environment is vital to creating a truly ‘green’ space: one that, as the U.S. Green Building Council stipulates, not only wastes minimal resources, but is also healthy and nurturing to occupants. Though applying the ABCs incurs some cost, even a small positive impact on productivity can easily outweigh this initial investment.

About the author

Niklas Moeller is vice-president of K.R. Moeller Associates Ltd., a global developer and manufacturer of sound masking system, LogiSon Acoustic Network (www.logison.com). K.R. Moeller is headquartered in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. He can be reached at nmoeller@logison.com.

Trends

Installing a House

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During winter on January 25, 2012, Nexterra Green Homes installed a house in North York, Ontario in just one afternoon and evening. That’s right, ‘installed’ rather than ‘built.’  It was a modular prefabricated home. The difference between this house in 2012 and prefabs installed during the past 50 years might be the price tag. This Ray Kappe design sells for about $1.7 million. Three more modular homes will be installed on the same site.

For pre-fabs to make a comeback and become the next big thing, you might think they would have to represent a less expensive way to build. In fact, despite the hefty asking price on this first Senlac Avenue home, it is competitive in its neighbourhood, and there are a lot of good reasons to look at factory built construction.

THE NEXT BIG THING?

“I don’t think in the future every house will be a pre-built modular,” says Nexterra’s Gary Lands, “But I think there will be more homes built this way and in particular there will be more modules used, perhaps in combination with site-building.”  He points out several advantages, such as total construction time, reduction of waste material and minimal weather damage during construction.

The house in question was installed in a single day, but of course total construction time is more like six months. It took only about 6 working days for a large team of factory tradesmen in Indiana to build the modules, but this could not begin until all materials and parts had been received at the plant. Ordering and receiving these was a two-month process. In addition, the building site had to be prepared, the basement built, and utility work completed. The difference is that this process could be undertaken simultaneously with the factory creation of the upper floor modules, rather than on the traditional linear construction timeline. You don’t wait for the basement to be complete before starting the upper levels.

BUILT IN HALF THE TIME

In both cases, once the shell is in place, finishing begins and takes months. The first Senlac house will be shown for sale in early April, about 11 weeks after installation. Because the modules arrived with windows already installed and most of the external facing in place, this was faster than usual too. Not bad for a three-storey 2,130 square foot detached house with 10 foot ceilings, four bedrooms, 3.5 baths, finished 9 ft high basement, two-car garage, plus multi-level exterior decks.

“I think if it was not a modular home, this particular house would have taken about a year to build, or about twice as long,” says Lands, “This is significant if you think about the cost of capital.”

SOLIDLY BUILT

“And there are other advantages.  In a climate controlled and quality controlled factory environment, there is less chance of human error caused by bitter cold, high winds or precipitation. Tradesmen are patient and precise. They usually live near the factory so there is reduced cost of travel and reduced worker stress. There is more control over design execution and the geometry of a box provides strength. The result should be a higher quality home. And it has to be solidly built because it is going to be transported by truck to the site, with the windows already in it.” The North York home travelled about 725 kilometres, then was lifted by cranes from flatbed trucks onto the foundation on-site. Modules were nudged into position with a backhoe.

As with any factory process, it gets more efficient over time. Waste material is more precisely calculated and avoided. Leftover material doesn’t sit in the mud for several weeks. The building itself is exposed to the elements for shorter periods and therefore sustains very little damage during construction that might haunt a builder later. And the neighbours complain less.

LEED PLATINUM

The house is extremely energy efficient and Nexterra expects it will be LEED Gold, or possibly LEED Platinum. It will be heated and cooled using a geothermal system of three 300-foot deep wells. It features a white roof, which reduces energy consumption, and it was built to be solar-ready.

The factory-made envelope is super-insulated using soy-based polyurethane foam insulation. Energy Star® certified fiberglass windows and Energy Star® appliances have been installed. Plumbing fixtures are low-flow and much of the lighting is LED. LEED awards four points for off-site fabrication, and the plan scores high for environmentally preferable products and waste management.

One of the unique features of this long-life house design is a special rain screen system that permits rainwater to flow between exterior panels and the building wrap, allowing air flow between structure layers for effective drying. This means less rot over time because water penetration is minimized.

Not all projects are built on prime ravine lots with premium budgets, but if pre-fabs continue to make a comeback, housebuilding might be able to increase efficiency. Perhaps this will permit more designed-in green and long-life features; in other words home building the way we all know it should be.

HVAC

Rebel With a Cause

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Hurtling Toward Tomorrow

Nothing is slowing him down. He may be in his late sixties but after 43 years in business, George Gronwall is still leading Applewood Air Conditioning into the future at blinding speed. Well, maybe not blinding. But growth is brisk for one of southern Ontario’s largest heating and cooling contractors.

That’s because George has continuously found crafty ways to adapt or lead in a changing world. He has mentored his team of 100+ employees with a mix of old fashioned human values, good customer service, contemporary sustainable technology and unfailing determination. The CEO whose email is theboss@applewood likes to think of himself as a tough operator with a rebellious streak, who loves speed. But his grandchildren know him as a softy who will do anything for them; and his numerous long-term employees describe him as generous and easy going.

In the early days NHL hockey legend Paul Henderson asked him for a deal and George spent a weekend with him drinking beer and installing the system together. “Now instead of beer they pay me with money,” he jokes.

Reducing Waste Since the 1970s

He wanted to study architecture, but he and his young wife, Hope, couldn’t afford schooling. So he established the business in 1970 and named it after his Applewood Hills hometown. The industry was competitive and George was looking for ways to serve customers faster and more economically. In1975 he set up an in-house metal shop so that Applewood could order material in bulk, customize systems quickly, use scrap to make cleats and dampers, and save customers time and money. It worked. The company began to grow. By the 1980s he had already diverted tons of waste from landfill sites.

Now more than 200,000 installations later, Applewood has 50+ trucks on the road and serves all the top builders in southern Ontario. Along the way George added a design-build department, gas fireplace mantle shop, and expertise in all of the newest heating and cooling technologies; including heat recovery ventilators, high efficiency furnaces, geothermal and home automation systems.

George Loves Speed

Success in the trade has allowed George to indulge in another passion: speed. He drives a 525 HP Porsche. “It smokes.” He says. He also rides an Indian Chief Vintage motorcycle when he is in Canada and a Harley Heritage Softail when staying at his condo near Sarasota in Florida. He likes speedboats and racehorses. Right now he owns one racehorse but at his peak owned 16 of them.

He still operates an indoor track where his friends in the racing field can run their horses during the coldest Canadian months. It was considered crazy when he first proposed it, but like many of his ideas it turned out to be a good one.

Rebellion

His rebel streak probably restored sanity to an industry. In the 1990s Lennox and other manufacturers began thinking that to maintain market share they should guarantee customer loyalty by buying up the independent contractors. George didn’t think this was a good idea and he turned out to be correct. He liked the personal touch offered by his family-run company and is proud that even with all their success, customers can call up during 2012 and talk to any of the Gronwalls on the phone without a problem. When it was made he resisted a formidable offer made for Applewood and kept growing the business.

The manufacturers soon realized that becoming an installer didn’t make that much difference to market share, and was a tough business to operate. In addition, they were competing with Applewood, one of the largest installers in Ontario. It wasn’t good for sales. After a few years they sold most of the businesses back to local people, including many of the original owners. George was happy to re-engage them as suppliers.

Charity

“He’s easy to get along with and can be very kind,” says Joel Pearce who manages Applewood’s high-rise and non-residential installations. “Sometimes he lets me and my family use his condo in Sarasota. He has a good heart. We’ve done some charity rides together.” Pearce is talking about the Mattamy Homes Ride for Cancer and several other causes supported by Applewood. “George’s Indian is very fast and George likes to be out in front.” Says Pearce, adding that there is absolutely no truth to the rumour that his own modified Electra-Glide Ultra-Classic Harley is faster than the boss’s machine.

“We install HRVs in most of the units and in medium-rise and hi-rise buildings. This means the pretty inefficient make-up air systems for pressurization in corridors are much smaller.”

 

Sustainability and Leadership

The company is also installing more and more radiant floor heating, tankless water heaters and HEPA filters. The Applewood web site notes that radiant systems are 30% more efficient than forced air and that HEPA filters remove 99.9% of particulates as small as .03 microns.

“We’re moving with the trend toward more mid-rise buildings,” says George. “It’s all about greater density and more energy efficiency.” You can be a follower or you can be a leader. I like speed and I like to be out in front.”

Trends

Passive-Aggressive Home Building

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There are no photovoltaic panels on the roof. There are no solar thermal panels either. But the house on the hill near Black Bank, Ontario is designed to use the sun’s energy in a highly sustainable and pragmatic way.

 

When applied to builder-architects Christine Lolley and Tom Knezic, the term passive-aggressive means they are dedicated to achieving excellence in passive solar design. And they aggressively pursue affordable, local-made systems to include in their building projects.

 

This new-build by Solares Architecture is oriented toward the sun, with a deep summer-shade overhang above large south facing, Canadian-made triple-glazed windows and no north facing windows. Its envelope is so well insulated that its air-tightness score is 1.3 air changes at 50 kPa, compared to 2.0 for LEED Platinum (but not reaching Passivhaus standard at 0.6).

Its heating system is in-floor electric cabling encased in polished concrete, which was built at a fraction of the cost of hydronics. Yet it will still achieve impressive operating costs of just a few hundred dollars per year, as the integrated elements of the overall energy-wise design interact to manage heat energy in cool months, and subdue high temperatures during summer.

 

Beneath the 4” concrete slab are 6” of XPS foam insulation providing R-30, 6” of clear stone gravel for drainage and compacted engineered fill, down to undisturbed soil (There is no basement).

 

The walls were built from Durisol insulated concrete forms made of mineralized recycled wood chips and mineral wool insulation. The design of the block with the insulation to the outside of the wall puts more thermal mass on the inside of the home. They also added 1.5″ of soy spray foam, to achieve R-40 in the walls. The insulated attic below steel roofing achieves R-60. “I love steel roofs for several reasons,” says Lolley. “They achieve a very high heat-reflection co-efficient. They recycle easily, unlike several sets of asphalt shingles over the same time period, which would all go straight to landfill. Steel roofs are warranted for about 50 years, but I’ve seen them last for 70 years or more.”

The mechanical design included a Canadian-made energy recover ventilator that performs at 94%, which was custom-retrofitted with a baffle device to avoid the effects of prevailing north winds. It also included an unvented Bosch clothes dryer, usually used in condominiums. It made sense in this structure, because it actually helps heat the house in winter.

The total heating load for a smallish 1700 square foot 4-bedroom home is about 10 kilowatts, which accounts for the affordable electric bill. “It’s important to keep today’s homes fairly small,” she says. “We need to be creative when we are resolving design challenges, rather than just adding space; which is not really a resolution.” It’s passive solar design, and it’s an aggressive effort to conserve energy.