The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...

This is not a particularly attractive phase of the project.  The rough wiring is complete as is the rough plumbing, including the supply and return lines for the heat recovery ventilator.  The tech wiring is mostly done and the lines for the central vacuum have been installed in the interior walls.

All of the holes in the building envelope for the plumbing and wiring were sealed and Efficiency Vermont has performed the initial door blower test.  Although this sounds like a sequel to The Three Little Pigs, what actually happens is the doors are sealed with plastic and tape, and the house is de-pressurized to -50 pascals of negative pressure and then the air movement is measured.  This tells us how tight the house is, before insulation and sheetrock are installed.

Our project measured an impressive 320 cubic feet per minute at -50 pascals.  Based on the size of the house, this translates to .6 air changes per hour (ACH).  The threshold for high performance homes is less that 1.0 ACH and the threshold for a passive house is .6 ACH.  This is indeed the "Good" part of this post.

I mentioned in the last post that the exterior doors will be mounted to the inside of the building envelope, so they can swing all the way open.  In order to make sure we do not have any moisture infiltration under the doors, we are having copper "pans" built that will sit under the door threshold and keep all the rain on the outside.  I suspect these little devils are responsible for the some of the delays we are experiencing.

So our move-in date has been pushed out a month, we are now looking at the end of February.  This would be the "Bad".  I've mentioned several times, I can't wait to be living there and these delays are agonizing.

So on to a little "Ugly".  This week, the insulation contractors have installed a fiberglass mesh, that is stapled tightly to the inside of the exterior walls to hold the dense pack cellulose insulation.  Although we see a lot of spray foam used in "This Old House" type shows, cellulose is recommend for thick walls as it is easy to identify and fix gaps in the insulation.  You can see through the installed mesh and if there are any gaps in the cellulose, you just pump some more in.  Not so with the spray foam.  Once this hardens, it is virtually impossible to see and fix any gaps inside the walls.

The downside is: to be blunt, the shit is ugly!!  It's gray, dusty and tends to get everywhere.  If there are holes in the fiberglass mesh, it falls out and on to the floor.  With snow on the ground, water is constantly tracked in, which which forms a nice gray stew when mixed with the cellulose.

But the stuff works, and once the sheetrock is up, you won't see it again.  We stopped by on Saturday when it was sunny and calm, but around 20 degrees.  Even with nothing but a loose sheet of plastic for a back door, and no insulation in the attic, the house seemed nice and cozy.  The south windows were producing just enough heat to keep the first floor comfortable.

 So this is what keeps me positive when things are looking grim.  This beauty is made by Brunswick and I have just the place for it.  Even though right now it's a little dark, dusty and grim.