Ready for Drywall!

Ready for Drywall!

With our blower door test done we are now in great shape for drywall. Since the open house we had a few other items to button up before we cover everything with drywall. 

1) Insulate the interior wall cavity.

 We insulted the remaining 2x4 wall with damp spray cellulose. This is a very effective process to ensure the entire cavity gets insulated. Unlike fiberglass installation, there are no gaps at the edge of the insulation due to "side stapling".

 Damp Spray Cellulose

Close Up of Damp Spray Cellulose

After the damp spray insulation we ran a standard size dehumidifier and a 1500W heater to help dry out the cellulose (We could maintain a 60 degree indoor temperature with below freezing temperatures outside). We tested various spots for dampness with a meter. Advanced Fiber recommends a maximum of 24% moisture content before drywall

While the face of the cellulose is dry, the cellulose tight to the ZIP System still showed 12% moisture content. There is no issue with covering this up.

2) Install necessary sound deadening
Part of the Passive House comfort is noise. There will be no "jet engine" sound when a fan gets turned on. You won't hear a "swoosh" of water when a toilet gets flushed. All mechanical equipment is as quiet as possible. We have decided to sound deaden the walls of all of the bathrooms, the laundry room walls and the walls to the master bedroom. We also have insulated and sound deadened all of the plumbing drains in the house.

This shows a before and after of the drain water heat exchanger. All of the interior walls we sound deadened look more or less like this.

 This is the 2nd floor laundry room. We will be installing a transom window above the washer and dryer. This is the only room in the house without a window and wanted to let some natural light into the room (another aspect of comfort is day-lighting).

3) Insulate plumbing drains
I suppose this can go under the sound deadening step - however the insulation of the plumbing drains serves 2 purposes. Since the plumbing system is vented to the outside though the roof, when it is not full of water, it is full of air - Outside Air. This makes the pipe very cold in the winter and can lead to some condensation on the outside of the pipe. So we insulate the drains to make sure the condensation doesn't occur. In a typical house this is not an issue since the house is much drier in the winter and there are much colder surfaces that show condensation 1st (WINDOWS). We will be maintaining a very comfortable 68 degrees and 40-50% RH all year.

4) Finish Attic Insulation
We finished the attic insulation. To achieve a settled thickness of 24" we blew the attic to roughly 30". I will re-inspect once the operable gable end vent gets installed, but everything should be done. We netted the area over the access hole, re-installed the ZIP sheathing on the ceiling and "dense packed" the entire cavity.

We had marked the trusses with orange paint to show the 24" mark

When we blew the attic we didn't want to see any orange!

We netted the entire opening and blew cellulose right up to the netting You can see the orange mark on the truss. We are now sure the insulation is over the 24" mark.

We installed the ZIP system on the ceiling and pumped the entire cavity full of insulation

We could inspect the tightness of the cavity 

We sealed the seams and hole with the approved ZIP tape.

5) Frame out window nailers
The window frame is the least insulated part of the house. We want to cover as much of the frame as possible with insulation. We are also going to be doing drywall returns to finish the windows. So we needed to install a nailing surface for the drywall.

 We installed a 2" of 1/2" polyisocyanurate rigid foamboard tight to the window and a 4" rip of OSB from the edge of the foamboard inward to the corner of drywall.

6) Install the front Door

Most of the front door prep was already done, we just had to install the door threshold insulation.

We took the door out of the frame, and placed the door frame in the opening.

We pre-drilled our holes for the 8" all thread screws. The nice thing about the screws that are all threaded is we can fully remove the shims and the screws will maintain the shim width.

After we adjusted the door, shimmed the sides and installed our screws we hung the door and re-installed the pins

The door looks great!

7) Remove window in 2nd floor bedroom to load drywall
 "If I had to do it all over again..." I would have made sure drywall could be loaded by just removing the sash. I was 2" short. So while the window removal and re-installation may be time consuming, it will save us some labor from having to carry all of the drywall up the stairs and allowed us to use 16' pieces. We couldn't load 16 footers up the stairs.

 Window removal took about 10 minutes

 2nd Floor drywall loading took roughly an hour

Window "re-installation" took another 45 minutes

Oh, did I mention drywall is here!

Stay tuned for the drywall, basement framing, front porch framing, etc...

Window and Door Installation

Window Installation

Now that we have created a pretty airtight structure we can begin poking holes in it.

To ensure our next blower door test is as good as the 1st one we have to maintain our air barrier.

Step 1

Cut open the window rough openings

I was very impressed at how well the inner wall and outer wall rough openings lined up! 

Step 2

With the Zip board removed, we used 6" Grace Window flashing to extend the Zip System to the inside face of the inner wall. 

With the air barrier extended into the house we can build the solid window buck. 

Step 3

We chose to use 1/2" zip board (the cut out section of the window) for the 2 sides and top. We used left over sub floor for the sill. I figured the thicker sill material would be a good idea with a heavy window suspended between the 2 walls.

Step 4

Now we need to install our 2" rigid foamboard to insulate the window buck and prevent "short circuiting" around the window frame

Step 5

Install beveled rigid foamboard to window sill to allow for water drainage

Step 6

Wrap window buck foamboard with Solitex Mento. The Solitex Mento will be the connection between the Grace 6" tape and the inside surface of the window.

Step 7

Install stop blocks on the outside of the window opening so the window can be lifted and pushed flush to the stop blocks

Step 8

Prep the window - For fixed pane windows a metal clip is inserted into the UPVC frame. We can then screw the metal clip through the rigid foam into the solid buck.

For operable windows we predrill holes though the UPVC frame. Once the window is in place we can install the screws from the Manufacturer. 

Step 9

Shim window and screw into place. Once in place we removed all of the shims (except for the bottom). 

Step 10

Seal the window in place

We filled the void between the Mento and the window with low expanding foam. Then we taped the Mento to the Window on all 4 sides. 

I hope this helps show that the detail of installing the Passive House Windows is just as important as the window itself. 

The door install is very similar with a little change to the threshold.

Because the low profile threshold of the doors (The bottom of the door is only 3/16" above the bottom of the frame) we cannot install to door directly on the subfloor. We raised the door 1" with a combination of rigid foamboard and pressure treated lumber to maintain a thermal break and still give the stability due to the weight of the door. This way the depth of the flooring will not interfere with the operation of the door. 

Also, since the exterior doors are all in-swing we wanted to allow for full 180 degree swing. We installed the door to the inside of the wall assembly. 

With the windows and doors installed (except for the front door) we can begin the installation of our Rain Screen in conjunction with Rough Plumbing and Rough Electric. Our 2nd Blower Door test will be coming shortly as well!

Window Delivery

Zola Window Delivery

On Friday we received our delivery of windows from overseas! It was both nerve racking and exciting. I've heard plenty of stories of domestic window shipments being delivered with broken windows and incorrect items. The fact that these windows were shipped all the way from Poland and not just across the country created additional concern for safe transport. Turned out there was no need to worry-the windows were expertly packaged! 

Zola provided us with a "what to expect" form. They recommended having 8 people on hand and a skid steer to help unload the shipment. The shipping cost included a 2 hour time frame to unload the shipment. We would be charged accordingly if the unload took longer. There would also be extra charges if we delayed the shipment for a day or 2. 

When I spoke with the shipping company on Wednesday to set up a time on Friday they said it was a 40 foot long shipping container. This only made me more nervous - how the heck could we unload a 40 foot shipping container in 2 hours without breaking anything.

I contacted Zola and asked if they could send me the "pre-packaged photo" so we could set up a game plan. They were very accommodating and sent the photo right over.

(Sent from Zola prior to window delivery)

This photo eased some of the stress. The whole container was not even 1/2 full, it was just all they had available to send when the windows were packaged. 

We set the delivery time up for around 9am. The driver communicated with us very well to ensure prompt delivery. 

Right on time!

We had to cut the locking pin off

Next we had to photograph the contents to make sure nothing appeared tampered with or broken. I can see Zola has done this before. 

Next we did an inventory - all 5 pallets were accounted for

Again, I was very impressed at how everything was packaged! 

Now the challenge began, we didn't have a pallet jack available to use, so we hooked a chain up to the pallets and dragged them to the end of the container with the skid steer

Then we had to spin the load so the skid steer could lift them out and set them on the ground. 

Once everything was out of the container I inventoried the shipment for completeness - PERFECT!

Our major lesson learned was a skid steer is a must, there is no way we could have unloaded these in the allotted time without one!

Here are a few stats on the Zola Passive uPVC series windows and doors:

• 8 lbs per square foot
• U: 0.11 (R-9) *Remember the glass is R-11 and the frame is R-7 so the larger windows are more efficient than the smaller ones

Window Cost Breakdown:

• Passive House uPVC Triple Pane Windows were $23 per sqft 
• Passive House uPVC Triple Pane Doors were $65 per sqft
• Passive House Wooden Front Door was $135 per sqft
• Double Pane uPVC Windows $15 per sqft (but they are still U:0.2 or R-5)
• We paid extra for some solar heat gain adjustments (0.6 on south side and 0.3 on east and west side) so that increased the cost slightly
• We paid extra for custom removable screens on all operable windows 

Total window package with screens, tax, duty and shipping was $30,900. 

The addition of window mullions would have just about doubled the cost of the windows, so be mindful of these during any future projects you may have. 

Now for comparison - an Anderson 400 Series wood window will cost $33 per sqft. This kind of proves the theory there is no correlation between window efficiency and cost among different manufacturers.

Zola Passive House uPVC Window -            U:0.11 (R-9), SHGC 0.50, $23 per sqft

Anderson 400 Series wood window -            U:0.29 (R-3), SHGC 0.31, $33 per sqft 

On my next post I will be going into more detail on the framing and designing for air tightness as we have to perfectly seal the joint between the foundation and the flooring system and the walls.