Baiser Construction Management - an intro

This is from Mel Baiser of Baiser Construction Management. I am working with her on several projects and here is what she has to say about the Greenfield project. I have the great fortune of teaming up with Architect Bob Swinburne of Bluetime Collaborative and builder, Chad Mathrani of Vermont Natural Homes on the construction of a Passive House in Greenfield, MA. This project is incredibly exciting for a number of reasons. For a passive house certified builder (PHIUS) this is rare opportunity to be involved in the planning and construction of a home which meets the highest international building standards. As someone in my mid-thirties and the parent of a young child, I am all too aware of the climate crisis. I am also a firm believer in that bumper sticker slogan, “If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.” Having dedicated over a decade to working in construction, I am committed to every effort to push this industry towards sustainability. After all, nearly 50% of the energy consumed in the U.S. can be attributed to the initial construction and operation of our buildings. Buildings that meet the Passive House standard are the buildings of tomorrow (even though we are far behind Europe and really they should be the buildings of today.) My company’s logo is “revolutionizing the building process” and though I may be outing myself in terms of political sympathies, my intent is to bring a new level of efficiency, organization and collaboration to the construction industry. In particular, in a high performance, net zero or passive house building, effective pre-construction planning and an integrated delivery process is essential to the success of these projects. My company offers cost planning, scheduling and project management services and I feel grateful to have found like-minded architects and builders (and clients) with whom to collaborate. I often find the traditional top down, architect driven delivery method (design, bid, build) to be antiquated, inefficient and not a suitable match for high performance building. By involving the builder, cost estimator and even the client very early on in schematic design, you can save thousands of dollars, weeks in the schedule, avoid technical errors and potential interpersonal conflict down the road. Green building is really nothing more than a marketing tool until we make it financially and culturally accessible. Aside from achieving the Passive House standard (heating and cooling demand less than or equal to 4.75 KBtus per SF/Yr; Primary energy demand less than or equal to 38 KBtus per SF/Yr and an air leakage rate of .6 air changes per hour at 50 Pascal) our team is motivated to bring this project in on a relatively modest budget. An architect committed to building performance, budget, function and aesthetic; a contractor/project management collaborative leading local natural and high performance building efforts and a client who believes in the importance of healthy efficient homes and “you get what you pay for” is the absolute dream team for any project, but especially for this project.

Mel Baiser Baiser Construction Management mel@baisermanagement.com

Here is an example of a project scheduling chart that Mel uses to keep everyone on track and doing their jobs in a timely fashion.

Early Thoughts on the Greenfield Project (architect)

I took a shot at writing down my own thoughts about the Greenfield project I’m doing for my wife’s folks. Sometimes I have so many half-baked ideas in my head that writing them down creates a jelling effect and helps me to clarify and focus my efforts. I’m planning on documenting this project to a much higher level than I have in the past, partly because we are assembling something of a dream team to get this done and partly because I am using this project to redefine how I work in order to bring my own practice to a higher level. I have encouraged the others to start writing as well and some of that will show up here on the blog as well for a more well-rounded perspective. We are currently exploring the feasibility of doing this house as a Passive house and seeking certification. I hope, as usual, to show what can be accomplished when a highly functional and customized plan is also an emotionally uplifting place to live. This projects continues my exploration into the emotional aspects of “home” and how to use architecture to augment and reinforce the emotional connection to place. Phew! What have I to gain from doing this project as a full-on Certified Passive House? So what if the winter heating bills drop from $75/month to $25/month? Is that really worth all the extra effort and expense to go through certification? We don’t know the answer to that yet. “Let me run some numbers” as the engineer or accountant would say. Passive house has cache. It attracts media. There is huge marketing potential. The clients (my in-laws) are understandably interested in that aspect of it - it relates to their son-in-law’s ability to financially support his wife and children. I want to do more of this type of work in the future and will I ever get such a good opportunity to gain exposure, attention and build a reputation that to do a very attractive and relevant project at this highest level… and market it to the greatest extent possible. I have seen that model propel other firms into the limelight so I am aware of what power and potential in inherent in this thinking. Otherwise- My own limited knowledge of Passive House indicated that this house as designed thus far could attain Passive House certification with minimal extra effort. I’m a Certified Passive House Designer – CPHD with the international credential but I have little practical experience. This project could be a great way to gain that experience. The most effort and extra money will probably be in soft costs – hiring someone with experience to do the energy modeling, advise on detailing and assist in the certification process. With this project we are also formalizing a fairly progressive project delivery process that I am realizing is crucial to creating high performance buildings. This represents the direction my own business model is headed in. I have, in the past, followed both the more traditional architect route where I work with clients to design and detail a project and we shop it out to builders. I have also worked (more often) in a more design-build model where the builder is integrated into the process from very early in the process. That has been my preferred method of project delivery but I am realizing that to provide the highest levels of service, I need to fill in some gaps. I can’t do everything and I don’t have expertise in everything so I’m bringing in people to help fill the traditional gaps. Subcontractors as well need to be on board as part of the team at a much earlier stage and need to be aware that they will be asked to perform at a very high level of professionalism. Part of my job is to make that as easy as possible for them through design and detailing. I am working on this project with Mel Baiser of Baiser Construction Management and Chad Mathrani of Vermont Natural Homes both of whom have training in passive house detailing and construction. They understand what it takes to reach that highest level of building excellence. And considerable enthusiasm to do so. We are pouring over the details as fast as I can draw them up to insure that no stone is left unturned. The process requires a high level of integration at this early stage in terms of product selection, integrated assembly, cost (and relative costs). Assumptions are challenged and vetted and everything will be put down on paper before the project is staked out on the site which is under considerable snow at the moment. We will maintain a process blog as part of Vermont Architect to provide a window into this process. Blog readers and Bluetime Collaborative facebook followers have already seen some early schematic design images of this project. Stay tuned.

Portit mollis vitae

Nullam ornare, sem in malesuada sagittis, quam sapien ornare massa, id pulvinar quam augue vel orci. Praesent leo orci, cursus ac malesuada et, sollicitudin eu erat. Pellentesque ornare mi vitae sem consequat ac bibendum neque adipiscing. Donec tellus nunc, tincidunt sed faucibus a, mattis eget purus. Nunc ipsum orci, consectetur in euismod id, adipiscing nec libero. Vivamus sed nisi quam. Donec id arcu non libero pellentesque condimentum at in mauris. Duis et lacus lectus, eu aliquet tortor. Maecenas cursus consectetur tellus non lobortis. Donec sed arcu a justo cursus varius ut et diam. Suspendisse lobortis pulvinar velit, id convallis eros pulvinar ac. Cras a lorem lorem, et feugiat leo. Nunc vestibulum venenatis est nec tempor. Nunc mattis sem in mauris posuere aliquam.

From the archives - Grumpy architect time

From the archives - Grumpy architect time: 1.If your house is adequately insulated there should be little temperature differential between the ceiling and the floor. 2. Adequately differs from code. Remember, a house built to code is the worst house you can legally build. 3. If you choose not to build an Energy Star certified home please give your poor starving architect the $2k that you obviously have to spare. 4. Does anybody with any real knowledge of building use fiberglass batts anymore? probably not anyone who reads this. 5. Air sealing folks! do it correctly!- not 6 mil poly vapor barrier - that was the 90's We are SO over that. There are some great products and great information is available. Check out 475 supply and Green Building Advisor. 6. Why do people want to build a super-insulated house and then put a full on radiant floor heating system in? - see #3 above about where to send all that extra money. 7. Why do people want to build a new house that looks old? I think it's just a phase this country is in. I see signs that the retro-anachronistic architecture phase is fading. 8. But I do it anyway - gotta feed the family + I enjoy it. Sometimes. 9. Bright side - the science of how to build correctly is settling out in favor of simplicity. That is what draws me to the Passive house approach. 10. Why do people have SO MUCH STUFF? 11. How did it happen that I'm going to my 20th year architecture school reunion tomorrow? - footnote: this was the summer before last and it was a blast!

Always know what and where your AIR BARRIER is.

I’m working on detailing out a smallish house in Greenfield, MA. We probably won’t go full Passive House on this but we will look at what additional costs and detailing it would take. And if we’re close… We are doing some novel (to me) stuff for the shell of the house that, I suspect, will become more standard practice for me in years to come. Here are some “progress print” detail drawings from the plan set. My drawings tend to look a bit different than most architect's drawings due to two things: The time I spent wielding a hammer and trying to interpret my own drawings and the fact that I have worked as a sole practitioner for so long and have developed my own graphic style. I should add to that a third thing – my knowledge of building science informed best practices.

The first thing you will notice about these drawings is actually the most important thing. The red and blue dotted lines represent the weather resistant barrier and the air barrier respectively. If your drawings don’t have at least the air barrier called out in the sections, (and continuous around the thermal envelope) The drawings are incomplete. I have been getting picky in my detailing about how to make the air barrier both easy to achieve and durable. In my opinion, relying on painted sheetrock to serve as an air barrier just doesn’t cut it – certainly not for the next 100 years.

Many builders and architects in the Northeast US are still building 2x6 walls with fiberglass batts and a poly vapor barrier. That’s how I learned to do it when I was just starting out in the 90’s. I also opened up a number of walls built that way that were full of mold.

Good

builders don’t build this way anymore. Check the Building Science Corporation website for some pictures of what can go wrong.

One part of building science is probability and statistics. I often hear builders say “I’ve always built that way and I’ve never had any problems” - that you know about. But those builders are only looking at 50 or 100 projects. Luck plays a part here. What happens when you look at thousands or even tens of thousands? You start to see some patterns emerge and you start to see the luck factor drop out of the equation. You are able to formulate some best practice standards for a number of things including durability, air quality, energy use and even catastrophic failure. I prefer to work with builders who are informed about building science and involved in the discussion.

That’s easy here in the Southeastern Vermont area home of Building Green area, home of Building Green and SEON which sponsors a well-attended monthly building science discussion group and learning circle. – If anyone wants to get something like this started in their own community, send Guy an email at the address in their website.

I owe it to my clients to help them get the best constructed project possible. That, in addition to the most functional, aesthetically appropriate, finely crafted project possible. – Oh and the budget thing too – Detailing such as represented in these drawings is also very much about budget. The goal is to bump up the levels of insulation, air tightness, r value of windows etc. so that we can eliminate the traditional boiler and heat distribution system in favor of a minisplit heat pump which is more of an appliance than a system and dramatically less expensive. (I think this link is a GBA pro only link - subscription) For those without a subscription try this alternative Ideally, it becomes a wash cost wise but with the added bonus of very low monthly heating and cooling costs. Those savings alone can represent hundreds of dollars per month.

A Smallish House in Massachusetts

I am working on a 1400 s.f house in Massachusetts. Given that the walls are over a foot thick, the actual square footage is quite a bit less (about 1200). The extra insulation (and cutting edge building science) allows us to forgo a heat system other than a relatively inexpensive minisplit - and monthly fuel bills. Here are a few images of what I'm up to. no fancy rendering for now, just the Sketchup model and some Vectorworks CAD drawings.

I spent a fair amount of time detailing the steel and wood stairs in Sketchup as I have found that is the only way for me to really figure out every nut and bolt and refine the design to the level that I am comfortable with before construction drawings. I like to approach the stair as sculpture with every piece exact and connections "just so". Thus I am able to design something that is quick and easy to assemble with just the right amount of "fudge space" built in.

The floor plans have shrunk and simplified from the last version becoming more functional and comfortable.

Perry Road House photos

Some photos from the Perry Road project which is sitting empty and unfinished and for sale UPDATE: SOLD!- (It's hard for people to earn a living around here so the owners made the decision to move to where they could work.. for money)

This is a Structural Insulated Panel (SIP)house on and Insulated Concrete Form foundation (ICF) The windows are Marvin Integrity - there are a lot of them although they seem all very logical and needed. Too bad they are not triple glazed. The basement slab is piped for radiant heat, there is an air exchange system, two bathrooms, (plumbed for a third) up to 5 bedrooms, porch and sleeping porch. There is also a lot of land with a stream and waterfall.

Mod Ski Home in VT - interiors

I'm working on fleshing out the interiors for this addition renovation project here in Vermont.

G-Jan-4 from Robert Swinburne on Vimeo.

Old Fashioned Stoves in New England

I grew up in Maine with a large wood cookstove similar to this one. Cooking in it was sketchy and it was far from tight or efficient. The top surface and oven provided excellent places to keep pies and already cooked food warm on Thanksgiving. My own home has a small efficient and relatively airtight woodstove tucked into the stone fireplace. It has a knurled top surface which makes it hard to even heat water on but it does a good job of heating the house and the front is a large widow so we can watch the wood burn. (nice) We used to have an old fashioned parlor stove but it was too big and inefficient (and a bit scary when it ran hot) It now sits in the barn awaiting installation out there for use during barn parties. Here is what it looked like in place: Please ignore the pink fuzzy slippers and yellow koosh ball. And the socks... I would love to have a spot in my home for a modern wood cookstove such as this:

Here are some places in New England that restore and sell antique wood stoves.

Once Upon a Time Antique Stove Shop in Vermont. VPR recently did a story on them HERE

Good Time Stove Co. in Massachusetts

Bryant Stove and Music in Thorndike ME I purchased my own parlor stove from this place and it is truly amazing. there are not only hundreds of stoves but an antiques museum and a huge room packed full of dolls and gizmos that, when you flip the switch upon entering all erupt into action including merry go rounds, dancing dolls, teddies on airplanes, circus bands....I can't really describe it well. Here is a Boston.com article that does a better job and an image from their article did I mention Slinkys?

Education of an Architect('s wife)

The Day I Became a Modernist—Guest Post by the Architect's Wife There was a time in my life when I would not have uttered the word “modernist” without an accompanying sneer. My aesthetic tastes then ran toward the…dilapidated. If it was old with a sagging roof, I liked it. Bonus points if it looked like it might fall over any minute. I loved dark little stone cottages that probably had little light and abundant mildew inside.

No Bob - maybe more like this: but crappier - ed.

When I was a child visiting my grandparents in Chicago, I was bored to tears by the Frank Lloyd Wright tour.

Then I met Bob. Who will describe how he was moved to tears the first time he saw Falling Water.

Gradually, from listening to him talk I began to be more open-minded. I realized that much of what I had derided was not actually modernist, but rather the post-modern stucco’d bland that was the hallmark of the late ‘80s gentrification during my teenage years in Seattle. Under Bob’s tutelage, I developed an appreciation for the concept of modernism as something that embraced clean simplicity, elegance in minimalism, form in the service of function. But I still didn’t really like it.

The other thing for which Bob helped me develop an appreciation was bicycling. I had not owned a bike since the one I had at age 8 that had pedal brakes and a coveted banana seat. But since he was an avid cyclist, I got a basic mountain bike and began learning some technical skills for riding the trails. I loved riding but rolled my eyes when he would wax eloquent about sleek steel or clean joints or carbon fiber. To Bob, a well-made bicycle is a work of art.

added by Bob - ed.

About a year and a half into our dating, Bob and I took a trip out West to Seattle (my childhood home), Portland and Northern California. Since one of Bob’s favorite pastimes was (is) visiting bike shops to ogle the merchandise, we stopped at a large shop in Portland. After forty minutes or so I was feeling glazed and wandered to a different part of the shop.

And there, at the end of an aisle, I saw it. It was titanium. It was sleek. It was retro. For the first time, I could understand the urge to hang a bicycle above the mantle. The angels were still singing when Bob found me staring slack-jawed at the Merlin Newsboy. If I recall, he nodded patiently with a knowing smile as I sputtered about how beautiful and perfect it was. That Christmas, he got me a Merlin decal as a joke (the actual bicycle was a limited edition with a price tag something on the order of $3500, and didn’t come in my size frame anyway).

By the following Christmas after that, we had gotten married and bought our home together. Browsing through the tool department at Sears, the angels sang for me a second time. Bright red, ball-bearing Craftsman cabinets. Those drawers feel downright sexy, how smoothly they open and close. Open-close, open-close I went as Bob looked at table saws or something. And all I could think was : kitchen utensils!!

So I guess that sort of clinched me as a modernist. And I even like the buildings now, too (I challenge anyone to not love weathered core-ten steel cladding).

I suppose fifteen years of living with Bob has rubbed off on me. But I still love dilapidated, too.

Scandinavian influence in Vermont

AmesHill October29 from Robert Swinburne on Vimeo.

This one will have a bit of a rustic Scandinavian feel to it. And be super-insulated of course.

Progress on Mod ski home in Vermont

One of the projects I'm working on is an addition to and renovations of a ski home in Vermont. The main house is well built and and other than a maroon and pink bathroom and rather 80's finishes, we are not doing anything too major to it. We are locating a family room addition between the existing house and garage which will provide a much nicer kitchen and living area plus additional bunkrooms and a multi-user bath on the basement level. I'm sticking with the dark clapboard and red standing seam roof of the existing as I think it provides a nice base for some fun things to happen with color at the doors and windows. I am using big windows, wood, steel etc to create a warm, modern and relaxed space for lots of people to be in. Here is the current plan: and I put together a few videos of the sketchup model

Perry Road Realtor Listing

Masiello Real Estate in Brattleboro, Vermont

Tiny House Infographic from CustomMade

I was just emailed a link to this really excellent tiny house infographic and it seemed worth sharing. I would add to this the community building aspects of the tiny house movement.

Click to Enlarge Image

Less Is More:The Tiny House Movement
Infographic by CustomMade

D2R2 2014

I just registered for D2R2 - The Deerfield Dirt Road Randonnee Next Saturday. Will I see any of you there?

Thermal bridging and Air sealing - simplified

Just a quickie about thermal bridging and air sealing. I can explain it in way fewer words and terms and scientific-ness than what you find when you go looking for information on the web. Thermal bridging is when there is too much stuff that is not insulation in a section of exterior wall. This includes most traditionally framed houses. Especially near outside corners and around windows. In the cold of winter, the inside room surface of these areas stay much cooler than the surrounding room temperature and condensation occurs, then mold.

Improper air sealing is when your builder tells you your house needs to breathe and he's not talking about an air exchange system. Improper air sealing allows air to enter your house through tiny pathways through and near these moldy areas. The mold spores are then breathed in by your children.

Get it?

Our vacation and train ride across the country - travel log

Every few years we we take a vacation! This time around it was to visit Seattle to say goodbye to my wife's family home which will be razed to make way for a bunch of poorly designed condos. The house is on a double wide lot in the Madison Valley neighborhood. The house itself is a nice little craftsman that would otherwise need a lot of work. The yard is full of plums, figs, apples, kiwi vines, blackberries and assorted other plants so the big sad thing for all of us is losing all that.

The neighborhood is being "gentrified" with new, maxed out square footage modern buildings with, for the most part, only a few token shrubberies.

The last straw causing my wife's folks to sell was when the neighbor's house came down and three new condo units went up, towering over their house. I toured the middle one at an open house and took pictures from the roof deck of the in-law's house. They developer built a retaining wall right up against the foundation of the in-law's house which was, apparently, illegal in this case but happens commonly because the hassle of litigation prevents most people from bothering and the fines for being found "at fault" are less than the profits from doing it in the first place. Apparently this was a utility easement not to be covered.

Seattle has most excellent playgrounds with much "vestibular stimulation" of which I availed myself on a few occasions, resulting in severe queasyness.

Vestibular play from Robert Swinburne on Vimeo.

The neighborhood had much interesting and new modern architecture to look at although Much of it involved gratuitous use of materials and forms (overdone) so I'm currently on modernist overload. Most of what I saw had little relationship to the site other than topography on sloped sites (long stairs outside of buildings) This is mostly because the new buildings were built for maximum square footage on a given lot. There was very little room for green space left over although there was much median strip gardening going on. There is still some pockets of eccentricity and a few green-space holdouts in the neighborhood but I fear that in 20 years, these too will disappear.

Seattle is nice and all. Charlotte poisoned pigeons in the Park (click link for original video of Poisoning Pigeons by Tom Lehrer)

But the funnest part of our trip for me was the Amtrak train ride out there. We Left Albany on an overnight Amtrak train to Chicago to visit Grampa Allen there. Our train was delayed for several hours near Gary Indiana and I shot this video with my I-phone:

IMG 1331 from Robert Swinburne on Vimeo.

I think these are mostly steel mills (?) There were miles and miles of colossal and fantastic architecture right along the train tracks. It was stunning.

There was a very cool thunderstorm in Chicago one night.

Chicago Derecho Storm Video and Time-lapse Highlights - June 30, 2014 from Craig Shimala on Vimeo.

In Chicago we went to the Museum of Science and Industry where Charlotte fell in love with model boats which fit in well with her long standing aspiration to become a pirate.

Here is a view of the back of the museum which is more interesting than the front - Other architects will know what I mean, we are always ducking around back of buildings for a look.

This area of Chicago fascinates me because of the 1893 Chicago World's fair with all the fascinating stories surrounding it (Read Devil in the white city) and all the amazing but temporary architecture.

We then continued on for two days to Chicago along Amtrak's northern route. This led through North Dakota and Montana before reaching Spokane and Western Washington. Our country is very flat in places.

I found it interesting nonetheless and was interested to see the "placemaking" efforts of small homes in the middle of nowhere. The usual tack was to plant trees and in some places you could see a grove of mature trees signifying that a house once stood in amongst them. Some folks planted in a regular and geometric fashion and others much more randomly but in many cases there was nothing at all save a few shells of abandoned buildings.

LOTS of room for wind and solar power.

http://vimeo.com/100851253

Things got hilly once we hit the Cascades.

We flew back to the East Coast at the end of our vacation but that was just a plain old boring plane ride. Although there was a full moon at sunset over Baltimore.

Now I'm back at work and the world didn't end without me.

Be My Guest

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Praesent ullamcorper suscipit mi, id convallis risus ullamcorper eget. Aenean sagittis eros nec eros euismod, quis dapibus leo semper. Mauris rutrum viverra adipiscing. Praesent ac lectus est. Quisque neque massa, interdum sed mollis vitae, suscipit at tellus. Praesent porta urna dolor, vel rutrum quam facilisis at. Duis consequat sapien et tortor pretium, vitae feugiat augue rutrum. Pellentesque quis aliquam est, vel vulputate purus. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Maecenas aliquet blandit semper. Ut quis felis sapien. Aenean laoreet dolor ac mattis euismod. Sed sit amet sem dignissim, sollicitudin ante vel, consequat neque. Nunc justo lacus, rhoncus ut interdum nec, iaculis mattis orci. Donec at blandit augue, nec tristique ligula. Donec euismod nulla at erat fringilla, a porttitor lorem condimentum. Aliquam ut interdum libero, at pharetra orci. Quisque fermentum, felis ut gravida ornare, eros neque egestas dui, quis sollicitudin sem sem non ante. Fusce metus lorem, scelerisque ut diam non, vehicula dapibus sapien. Sed sagittis, ante at ornare pellentesque, sem justo consequat enim, quis adipiscing quam enim ac velit. Vestibulum condimentum tempus sapien eu porttitor. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Pellentesque interdum odio vel consectetur dignissim. Fusce eget tristique nulla.

Duis at purus ut est cursus imperdiet. Sed condimentum massa in enim cursus, sed mattis elit malesuada. Nunc tincidunt magna sit amet metus sagittis tempor. Maecenas lacinia condimentum ultricies. Sed et lacus nec augue venenatis interdum. Fusce sit amet luctus augue. Aenean scelerisque porttitor ultrices. Nulla dui tellus, egestas sit amet posuere sit amet, dictum tristique mauris. Praesent sed elementum mauris. Nullam et enim eget nisl eleifend auctor lobortis et dui. Curabitur at malesuada magna. Nunc nec tincidunt mauris, vitae tincidunt enim. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse ante leo, bibendum at metus in, dignissim sodales nisi. Curabitur id augue iaculis, elementum diam eget, ultrices massa. Fusce eleifend tincidunt neque, a porta nibh faucibus non.

Marlboro, VT: High Performance House with Vapor-Open Walls and Roof

Kent and I have worked together a bunch in the past and we are working on a project currently. This is a lovely little project that illustrates how using a few very high performance products can allow us to reconsider how we use materials elsewhere, often going back to more traditional materials. Note: I had nothing to do with this one.I promise to get some more recent photos soon and there is a link below to the full article on foursevenfive.com

http://foursevenfive.com/marlboro-vt-high-performance-house-with-vapor-open-walls-and-roof/