Elemental Building- International

March 26, 2010
Earlier in the month the COO of Elemental Building went for a site visit to check in on a project in the international program, ElementalBuilding-BC (British Columbia, Canada).  Though there were some initial concerns, the project is actually coming along nicely.  The project leader, Greg Dunn has designed space that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing, with lots of light, open space and interesting angles.  A lot of thought has gone into functional pathways, use and flow- with lots of attention to details.  From a green perspective, the project will have sprayed closed-cell foam insulation, and, well, that’s about it.  Though I’m sure the lumber was also drawn from local sources and the structure is incredibly solid which will make it extremely durable- an often over-looked green element.  Overall, we are really interested in seeing how this project pans out and revisiting it and providing future updates.  
 

Gregg Dunn- Project Manager

 

The source of concern on the initial site inspection

Dunn and Simpkin (specialized field consultant) on site - note multiple microlam beam and joist hangers

Next month we’ll go south of the border to ElementalBuildings- Melaque for a look at what’s developing south of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

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Placing Concrete

March 21, 2010
As Mike Molnar once told me (from back in my Comer Children’s Hospital Days), you place concrete, you don’t pour it.  Last month we placed the basement concrete and have since framed the walls and run most of the plumbing and electrical in the basement and 1st floors.

Under the concrete we first placed 2 ” of  Polyiso Foil Faced Foam Board from AtlasRoofing.  The product will provide an R-value of 6.5 per inch under the slab.  It was also a bit hard to find, but we were steered in that direction after the August 1st article from Environmental Building News described the numerous downsides of Polystyrene Insulation which is still the dominant market product in below-grade applications.

Polyiso avoids many of the Polystyrene problems and the foil facing will help reflect the radiant heat from the radiant coils which were embedded in the concrete.

Since the concrete is going to be the finished floor we added ‘limestone’ color to lighten the look.

Polyiso Insulation as viewed from above

 

'Limestone' concrete comes down the chute

 

Vladamir (foreground), and Woytek, roll it out

 

A happy man

 

the calm after the storm

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Raise the curtain(wall), the show is about to start

March 7, 2010
Last month we put the support structure in for the south-facing window wall.  Eventually, there will be twelve 7′ x 4′ windows from Serious Materials.  These windows will have an R-value of 9 and are the most energy-efficient windows built in the US.  R-value is the measure of insulation and basic windows have an R-value of 1, with most high-end windows only achieving an R-value of 3 or 4.
 

The Day Begins

Vladamir takes the top position

Woytek and Slovek take the middle of the column

Bogden, John, and Artur raise the base

'You're doing it wrong', says Ted

Checking for plumb

Victory!

Artur is satisfied

The Final Product

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Raise your hand if you’ve set off the new alarm system. . . .

March 3, 2010

Woytek fesses up!

The new alarm system is working as evidenced by two calls in the last 36 hours.  The first was Tuesday morning at 3 am, which resulted in Chicago’s finest responding within 5 minutes, where a real attempted break-in was discovered.  Together, we did a walk through of the house (after I had slinked up to the house afraid I was going to surprise the potential burglars in the act), and discovered the break-in point.  They held a light on the door while secured it with two more 2 x 4s.

This morning, Woytek decided to enter the garage without turning off the alarm- presumably to test the system, which it seems was mildly amusing to John.

John the Plumber (not to be confused with Joe)

What is fortunate is that Dexter did not have to get involved, and its good to know the new system is working as it is supposed to.

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