Vinyl Windows offer the lowest cost to performance ratio of the the three major types of windows. Vinyl has a low co-efficient of thermal transmission relative to Aluminum and while they are closer, a properly designed vinyl window (with multi-chambered extrusion) will reduce the amount of cold transmitted through to the interior of the home.
Multi Chamber Profiles
Multi Chambered Vinyl Window
Multi chamber profiles create an insulation barrier of air that reduces the transmission of cold to heat. The optimal window profiles use two and preferably three chambers between interior and exterior faces. The multi-chambered profiles also increase the strength of the profile tremendously over a solid extrusion by increasing the surface of welded seam.
A typical welded profile will yield between 9 & 20 inches of welded seam. Some multi-chambered designs offer as much as 25 inches of frame and 14 inches of sash weld seam. This results in a weld that is stronger than the extrusion itself. Some manufacturers used to offer windows with mechanically fastened corners instead of welded. These would invariably separate early and begin a freeze-thaw attack or heat induced expansion that would shorten the life of the window and reduce its thermal performance. Avoid any mechanically fastened or glued corners. Always opt for a multi-chambered , welded corner window.
Colors In Vinyl Windows
Initially, vinyl windows were offered only in offered in white. This was to keep the cost down, but it was also to prevent obviating the issue of fading and color degradation. Over time, white PVC will become yellowish with age. Some extrusion manufacturers counter this by adding some blueish color to the polymers to balance this out. If you are driving around, and see some vinyl windows with a sickly looking yellow cast these were probably lower cost extrusions and you will see the result.
Additionally, the UV is the light spectrum most affecting the color degradation so the higher your altitude, the faster the process of color degradation will occur as UV at altitude is unfiltered. Some manufacturers now offer a rage of colors including darker browns. Be very wary of darker colors, especially at higher altitudes (Rocky Mountain Regions) as you will likely see a rather quick degradation of the color. There just is not a long enough history with darker colors under longer term exposure to intense UV. PVC formulations are improving, but more time is need to judge the effectiveness of the color imparting materials before taking the plunge.
That said, I have seen some beige colors under service for several years in the Colorado region that seem to be holding up quite well. One final caveat, PVC is subject to becoming brittle under long term exposure to high heat as in a desert environment. In these areas it is critical that you get a high quality, multi-chambered extrusion to counter the effects of long periods of exposure to high heat.
Maintenance of Vinyl Windows
The most attractive feature of vinyl windows is their low maintenance. Vinyl windows do not require any exterior maintenance other than washing. Do not paint them; ever, the chemicals in the paint will likely reduce their longevity…and your neighbors will want you drug-tested.
All in all, vinyl windows are a tremendous value. I have had aluminum windows, wood windows and vinyl and I preferred the vinyl windows. It is of course a matter of choice and budget.
People who looked at this item also looked at…
Related items
Popularity: 17% [?]
Tweet This
PVC Form-A-Drain is a new product I ran across on while researching my page on basement foundations. The
system is composed of a hollow PVC drains shaped like a rectangular tube. The drains serve as the concrete forms for the footers for the basement or crawlspace foundation and I suppose even for slab-on-grade foundations. The systems has corners to join the straight sections and outlet systems to connect to 4″ round PVC perforated or solid pipe to drain the water away from the foundation.
Foundation Perimeter Drain and Footer Concrete Form
In addition to acting as a perimeter hydrostatic water drain, it can also serve as an evacuation vent for radon gas. This is what caught my attention first and foremost. You get three functions for the labor cost of a single installation. For me that made this something to give serious consideration to.
People who looked at this item also looked at…
Related items
Popularity: 47% [?]
Tweet ThisMany people have a negative view of concrete as a building material that supports green building objectives. It is true that concrete does take a lot of energy to produce and transport (to smaller sites where on-site batching is not feasible). Concrete does consume water during the manufacturing process. But those are narrow views that do not hold up under critical examination.
LEED sustainable design principles have five disciplinary focuses:
- Sustainable sites
- Water efficiency
- Energy and atmosphere
- Materials and resources
- Indoor environmental quality
Concrete is recognized as a green building material in terms of qualification under LEED certification principles. The five ways that concrete can help support green building objectives:
This is a video that explains how concrete fits these principles:
- Concrete creates sustainable sites.
- Concrete enhances energy performance.
- Concrete contains recycled materials.
- Concrete is manufactured locally.
- Concrete builds durable structures.
For residential construction, the main guiding principle for design over the last 60 years has been on affordability. Trying to match the overall cost to produce the home to the ability of the local market’s economic base to afford the home.
This led to design decisions solely focused on initial costs that did not account for life cycle analysis that would dictate different decisions if the installed and operating and maintenance costs were analyzed over a specific life cycle. If fact, not one has ever sat down and really focused on what is a reasonable economic life cycle to build to when it comes to residential structures for the mass market.
There have been some studies, but the market has never really focused on this previously in establishing a target sustainability for building homes to. The focus has been on costs, profit to the developer, profit to the builder and profit to the financing entity. to be fair, there are so many layered costs dictated by housing regulation, that has made it almost an impossibility to make these considerations very high in priority. Part of that is attributable to the structure of regulations that deal with the development of housing for the larger market.
But, getting back to concrete. Because it creates very durable structures, first and foremost, lands it in the sustainable category. It would be hard to argue that building a home that lasts 2-300 years is not worth the expenditure of resources required to build that home. Properly built and maintained, this is definitely an achievable goal, we have examples all over the United States and Europe towards this end. One thing about concrete is that it is not a very friendly DIY material to work with. The skills, and equipment necessary typically exclude it as a DIY project.
Next, final production of concrete occurs close to the site of installation, again this is in conformance with LEED principles. Concrete can also contain recycled concrete as an aggregate although there are greater opportunities to expand this practice. The highest profile example of large scale concrete recycling back into a redevelopment occurred in the late 90′s and early part of this decade in the redevelopment of Stapleton International Airport from the main airport in Denver into an urban mixed use suburb. All of the concrete from the runways was recycled back into this and other construction projects in the Denver urban landscape.
To be sure, there are new technologies and ways of thinking, such as precast panels used as basement walls.
Precast Concrete Basement Walls
So analyzing concrete as a sustainable material is perfectly valid and in the case of residential foundations and homes built in high-risk areas (Florida and coastal hurricane zones) certainly support green building objectives. There is no currently available material that can offer the durability of concrete under the stresses of soils that are subject to expansion forces that can destroy a foundation. Building a foundation that can be viable for 2-400 years allowing the recycling of the basement over that lifespan, further establishes the viability of concrete as a green building material.
People who looked at this item also looked at…
Related items
Popularity: 27% [?]
Tweet ThisPresent Needs
Floor Plan programming is the beginning process to designing your home. It is where you sit down and specify the various rooms that you wish to have, the number of people that will live in the home and the capacity of the various rooms and their essential functions.
For instance, if you think about your master bathroom, and both of you work, it’s essential function is to provide enough space and facilities so that you and your spouse can both get ready for work at the same time. Continuing on this path, if you have 3 very young children all within a year of each other, you had better certainly provide a bathtub for all to be bathed in at once now, but you had better allow for additional facilities for the time when they mature and have to all go to school at the same time and have to all get ready at the same time (hint jack & Jill bath, separate tub area 2 sinks). See this page for more advice on decorating a bathroom.
Future Needs
If you do not sit and do this planning before hand you may very well design a house that will suit your needs today, but fail to do so five years from now, requiring either a new home or a major remodel. It will be less costly for you to plan this functionality and facility requirement in advance.
Even if you think your budget will not allow for all the possible contingencies, it is best to proceed in this manner to really focus your priorities to ensure you have designed a home you can live with.
This planning should occur before you engage a designer or Architect to produce the actual floorplan. They will be charging for their time to make revisions, so having a program that was well thought out and discussed in advance will save you money at every step of the way. The most costly thing to impact your project will be changes so proper planning from the start will go along way towards maximizing your dollars.
Once you have committed to a plan, stick to it. At the very least, make your second step be the construction of a budget. More about that next.
People who looked at this item also looked at…
Related items
Popularity: 6% [?]
Tweet ThisDesigning Your Home
Before beginning the process of designing your home, you need to do some upfront visioning about the type of home you want, the budget that you are comfortable spending, and the program requirements that the home has to meet.
Program Requirements In Home Design
The program requirements that your home must meet are the functional needs that your will require. It is important to think about these in detail at the beginning of the process to help you keep focused throughout the process. The reason for doing this early on is that you will have less of a chance of being distracted into decisions that will, in the end, not meet a basic program requirement. This is especially important to do before beginning the process of drawing the Architectural plans.
Whether you buy an off-the-rack set of plans or opt to have an Architect design your home from scratch, to some degree that will involve paying someone to produce the drawings from scratch or modifying an existing plan to conform to your program requirements. Time spent in planning on the front will reduce the time to accommodate your changes/requirements in the plan and that translates to money saved.
Detailed Functions
Your program requirements begins with the number of people that will live in the home (present and future), the facilities therein that will be required to service those people and the broad outline features that you desire in your home. It is alright to load up on features, but a more useful method of doing this is to do a matrix of features with a priority assigned (1-5) you assign to that feature.
Functional Space Requirements
Include the size of the kitchen, number of full bathrooms the number of 1/2 or 3/4 baths, any powder rooms, media rooms, family rooms, number of bedrooms, number of sinks in the bathrooms, number of showers occurring at the same time, etc.
Design Features
Include items that will enhance your enjoyment of the house, the comfort and usability and the level of customization. This can extend to items such as:
- Home Theater Systems
- Home Automation Systems
- Tankless Water Heaters
- Multiple Dishwashers
- Alarm Systems
- Heat Pumps
Once you have developed both a functional requirement and a features matrix, you can start the process of thinking about the budget and budgeting for these specific features so that you can start to relate them to the overall budget.
The Value of Bubble Diagrams
Bubble diagrams are a useful tool in the beginning stages of designing your home. Before you can begin defining the spaces with walls on the floor plan,you need to understand the relationships between the spaces as you picture them in your mind.
Architects begin with a bubble diagram. The bubbles represent interior spaces and their importance and relationship to each other. You can do simple ones with your Open Office Draw tool (free download) or the Microsoft Paint program on your Windows computer. These will be easier to change and manipulate, but you can do them with plain old pencil and paper also. You can also do them by hand.
Defining Relationships Between Spaces
Larger bubbles mean larger rooms, overlapping bubbles are spaces that are accessible from another space. You can also let every bubble float free and draw connecting lines to indicate access and flow.
This exercise will save you time and money later if you are drafting your own plans or paying a designer to do them. This process is critical and precedes the others and is reiterative ( it is cheaper to make mistakes here) but it will help you clarify how you want the space to relate and flow and will be very helpful as floor plans are drawn. Go ahead, have fun and draw away.
Once you have completed these exercises, you are ready to start thinking about building plans.
People who looked at this item also looked at…
Related items
Popularity: 9% [?]
Tweet This
Photovoltaic Shingles
Massive changes are coming to an energy code near you. Under a Federal Law under consideration in the Congress (H.R. 6279). The law requires the model energy codes establish minimum targets of increases in energy efficiency as mandates of the Federal government on the order of :
30 percent in editions of each model code or standard released in or after 2010
50 percent in editions of each model code or standard released in or after 2020.
The law also mandates that if the body that governs the IECC model energy code that is the basis of almost all energy codes in the various states do not achieve these goals, the Secretary of Energy is commanded (within 12 months) to institute a Federal energy code that achieves the mandates. The law will have the effect long term of mandating that all new buildings have solar panels, photovoltaics or wind turbines installed on all new construction.
The law will also mandate the enforcement of the new mandates on states could risk the loss of Federal funds. It also does not fully fund the regulations and structure to oversee all the enforcement that will occur under this law.
Funding shall be considered adequate, for purposes of this paragraph, when the Federal Government provides to the States at least $50,000,000 in a year in funding and support for development and implementation of State building energy codes, including for training and enforcement.
Of course, the problem with all this is that what is good for one area of the country is not good for another, but the imposition of Federal regulations on issues that are local in nature many times distorts the solutions and results and brings massive inefficiency to the markets. The other problem, it adds costs to the system that will in all probability far exceed the laudable goals.
There are provisions in the code that will make it necessary for all new “buildings” to consume “zero net energy”, by the year 2050. Well this will be enormously expensive to attain. If they include residences in this provision, imagine the cost of adding solar and wind systems and what that will do to the cost of building that home. It will exclude many first time home buyers from being able to purchase or build their own home and will drive rents up dramatically.
You should get educated about this bill. It will start to have an immediate impact in the next 2-4 years. It couls cost you personally and it is not necessarily the best method to move the country towards energy efficiency. In fact there is no technology that gets us to these goals without dramatically higher costs of energy. This bill is more about a stealth method of impsoing limits on green house gasses than it is about energy efficiency.
Solar, Photovoltaic, Wind and other methods of generation that are available to make a new building “zero net energy” have not reached the stage where they can fill this role in an economically efficient manner. The reason we do not have them in place in a massive way is that the market is waiting for the economics to change for that to take place. No amount of government intervention can force that to change. Only massive investment in the technologies and adoption that brings economies of scale that lowers the cost of these technologies can do this. Otherwise we could end up with massiv energy inflation along the lines like we have seen sscoiated with food and corn ethanol. This is the example we must all consider when moving down this road.
There are other methods of moving forward towards these goals. The better approach would be to embody incentives towards the investment in these technologies. Tax credits and other mechanisms, modulate investment into technology in a market efficient manner and avoid the kinds of distrotion you see with mechanisms like mandates and regulation.
Expanding the credit for Solar generating systems will do more towards these goals. Adding a credit for the installation of wind turbines and establishing a registry for manufacturers to concentrate information on available systems would increase the use of this technology. There is a serious shortfall on readily accessible information on wind generation systems and there is apparently a lack of independent independent research and ratings for systems that consumers like to see before committing to such a large investment. There will also have to be a change of heart in zoning commissions and HOA committees to allow expanded use of Solar Panels, Wind Turbines and Photovoltaic. This is one area that Federal Legislation could be of benefit in supporting and expanding investment in these technologies.
People who looked at this item also looked at…
Related items
Popularity: 8% [?]
Tweet ThisThis podcast series is excerpted from a two-day class called “Building Science Fundamentals” taught by Dr. Joe Lstiburek and Dr. John Straube, both of Building Science Corporation.
Related items
Popularity: 6% [?]
Tweet ThisInsulated Concrete Forms are a modular structural building system that mimics the Lego concept of pieces that fit together to make a larger structure. The forms are made of either Expanded Polystyrene or Urethane based products. By themselves they will not burn, have been found non-toxic and emit no gasses in place.
Typical Properties of Plastic Foams
|
As part of a system, there are provisions made to support the rebar necessary to hold the concrete together after the pour and to support the attachment of siding and interior drywall for direct attachment of these finishes to the system. Many times, the exterior finish will be a troweled on stucco type finish that will add additional fire resistance to the structure. As the structure is reinforced, solid concrete, the structures have a high resistance to windstorms (hurricane and tornado) and to seismic events. The structure is also fire resistant.
Insulated Concrete Forms Efficiency
Since the systems are engineered, they tend to maximize the efficiency of the concrete needed to support a residential structure and eliminate to typical overuse of concrete for the limited loads involved. A standard formed concrete foundation will have a full 6″ thickness of concrete wall where as an ICF will have 4″-12″ of solid concrete depending on the load you need to engineer for, but you can select that which maximizes the resources for the needs of your specific project.
In addition to having excellent strength characteristics, the insulating qualities of the foam and the solid, construction reduce air infiltration to minimal levels increasing the energy efficiency of the system. The structures also are impervious to attack from insects or mold and are much quieter in urban environments. There is much to recommend them.
Insulated Concrete Forms As a DIY Project
ICF With Corbel
While Insulated Concrete Forms are a project you may undertake as a DIY home building project, get well educated in advance. Because they are the core structure, there is no room for mistakes in planning, and construction of the system so you need to take advantage of all the expert advice you can find from ICF manufacturers and ICF contractors. You would be well advised to hire a professional ICF contractor if you have any doubts as to your ability to do this project, make sure at a minimum that you hire a qualified Engineer or ICF contractor to consult with and most importantly to inspect the forms before you pour the concrete. In many jurisdictions you may be required to have a licensed Engineer inspect the forms before the pour anyway. Spending a few hundred dollars for expert advice could save you thousands of dollars down the road.
The ICF forms are lightweight and assemble like blocks or are sheets that are tied together with pre-designed form ties. The blocks may be simpler for the DIY home builder while the sheet systems can be faster and offer a cleaner surface to stucco over. The system you select will determine the overall complexity.
All of the systems rely on steel reinforcement to tie the structure together, add tensile strength and to distribute temperature stresses throughout the wall. In very cold climes, often times you will see another wall re-framed to the interior to increase the available cavity for adding to overall u-value with sprayed in Icynene foam or standard fiberglass batts and to proved access to install mechanical and electrical systems. Additionally, ICF structure act as a heat sink in the winter, storing heat energy. and can act as a barrier to the transmission of heat energy in the summer months.
Green Aspects of Insulated Concrete Forms
There is some controversy over whether or not concrete supports green building objectives because of the energy intensive nature of its production. But ICF’s have been recognized for LEED points on the basis of their insulating capability and when fly ash is used in the concrete they are an excellent example of recycling waste to produce a high strength structure with maximum durability, another LEED characteristic. The structure will last a long time, with lower maintenance costs, reducing future impacts to the environment from having to rebuild the building say 100 years hence.
This system is becoming very popular here in Florida for their Resistance to storms, fire and for their superior thermal performance compared to CMU. They are certainly a very viable system for you to consider for your DIY home building project.
People who looked at this item also looked at…
Related items
Popularity: 22% [?]
Tweet ThisIn Real Estate they say that the 3 most important factors are location, location, location. This is a critical concept you must focus on when selecting your building lot (if you do not already have one).
Most Owner Builders approach the project thinking that they want to build their dream home and they intend to live in it for the next 30 years.
Unfortunately, it could be a large mistake to forget that life throws you curve balls from time to time and you may have to uproot your family and make a change willingly or not, due to circumstances beyond your control. It will also be the critical factor in determining accessibility to mortgage financing.
Accordingly, you must consider carefully, the resale consequences of the location that you select. The fact that your dream site is 30 miles outside the nearest shopping and employment centers may be fine with you but may negatively affect your ability to resell the property in a timely fashion without absorbing a loss. This does not mean you should not take the 30 acre site 35 miles from town, just stop and consider the impacts.
Additionally, your selection of site will necessarily mean you must consider the total hard budget you might invest in the location. If the surrounding properties have homes averaging 2500 s.f. with current market values of $ 250,000, you will be ill-considered to build 5500 s.f. valued at $ 1,300,000 unless you are prepared to be stuck there for a long long time. That is the other immutable law of real estate, if your property is over-improved for the surrounding market, your property will not command a resale value in line with your investment. Make no mistake, your dream home may be just that, but it will also likely be your largest investment so consider that carefully as you select your lot.
These are the subjective considerations that should guide you as you search for that perfect property to build your home. Careful consideration of these issues wll save you the pain that can come if you overinvest in a specific property location. A real estate professional can guide yu around the pitfalls and help in securing mortgage and construction financing.
People who looked at this item also looked at…
Related items
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tweet ThisSimply put windows…are what you put in the holes in your house. Think about that. Holes in your house. It seems to me that if you are going to have holes in your house, you want a very good quality window to prevent those holes from letting the conditioned air out and the cold air in and rain from destroying the interior of your house.
There are three basic categories of windows:
- Wood
- Aluminum
- Vinyl
I will discuss wood windows in particular in this post and specifically clad wood windows as very few people wish to put unclad windows in their house due to the added maintenance of having to paint them every 3-5 years. Clad Wood windows are made of wood, (primarily pine) but are sold primarily with a cladding on the exterior to reduce the exterior maintenance requirements that attach to all windows (no painting). The cladding on the clad wood windows is typically Aluminum, however their are increasing options in this regard in the form of extruded and sheet noble metal claddings such as Bronze, Copper and Zinc.
Clad Aluminum Double Hung Window
The last 3 materials are generally sold only on custom windows which are very expensive and typically can only be justified on hard budgets of over $ 400 PSF. If you are like me (and most others) you will not be building a home in this range.
Bronze Clad Door
However, there are a few copper alternatives manufactured by commodity window manufacturer’s that might in fact fit into your budget. I will discuss these in greater detail in a later post. Anyway back to clad wood windows.
Andersen, Pella, Weathershield, Jeld-Wen and Marvin
The best known names in this field (due to huge marketing budgets) are Anderson, Pella, Weathershield, Jeld-Wen and Marvin. They probably comprise about 65% market share between them and each of them have their own specific advantages and disadvantages. Only a careful review of the features and benefits of each window will reveal what is best for your project. A brief description of the features that I consider important when reviewing the various windows follows below:
Anderson – unique in that the wood window made by Anderson is clad with a PVC vinyl cladding. The cladding is bound to the wood substrate with an adhesive type mechanism which has shown effective, but in some extreme climates worries me that it could detach. The window is backed by a top-notch warranty and I have anecdotal experience that the company takes its warranty obligations seriously.
The other features of the window include a proprietary glazing system that will require that you will always have to go to Anderson for replacement and a reticence by the company to put breather tubes in their glazing system (critical in high altitudes). Anderson is the largest manufacturers of windows (under one brand) in the U.S. Anderson sells their product through a dealer network composed of lumber yards, window dealers and home-improvement contractors. Anderson now also sells a line of composite windows made from the waste wood derived from manufacturing its wood windows under the Renewal brand name.
Pella – Pella manufacturers windows, both clad and unclad in Iowa and markets them through primarily authorized distributors although they have recently started to distribute their builder grade line through Home Depot. The Pella product is distinguished by the availability of built-in roll-down insect screens, between-the-glass window blinds and and an exclusive distributorship for the clearest window screening material made in the United States.
Pella’s clad system is roll-formed and loosely attached which can cause problems such as “oil-canning” in very hot climates and the possibility of condensation forming underneath the cladding in high-humidity locales. Overall Pella makes a good quality window. Pella now manufactures a line of composite windows which show promise from a performance perspective.
Jeld-Wen – sells wood windows under a variety of brand names including Jeld-Wen, Pozzi, Wilmar and a few others. All of these brands were more or less regionally well-known brands and Jeld-Wen has made a weak effort to unify the brands either from a marketing perspective or from a manufacturing perspective from what I can tell. The various brands have quality reputations that you will have to judge for yourself. The Jeld-Wen moniker is a holding company for a broad range of construction products that make Jeld-Wen a very large presence in the construction products category, a great many of them in the commodity category. They are an excellent manufacturer. One special feature of Jeld-Wen windows is their Auralast brand of wood preservative treatment. If you select this optional treatment, you will get a 20 year limited warranty against wood rot on the window.
Marvin – is an old line family owned firm that manufactures a broad line of wood windows and composite windows. One of the distinguishing features of the Marvin brand is that the aluminum clad version is actually an extruded aluminum sash with a Wood insert to the interior. This scenario is also a feature of the Weathershield line and the Window Technologies (now defunct as of 5/2008 source: Window and Door Magazine) line in the Midwest. This method makes for a more rigid sash, and eliminates the possibility of oil-canning and reduces the chances of moisture forming under the cladding. It also places a barrier insulating air space underneath the sash which should add somewhat to its performance in cold climates.
An up and coming brand that traces its heritage back over 50 years is Windsor Windows and Patio Doors. Windsor has completely redesigned their product line to an extruded cladding design over the last few years and have focused on high performance windows available with a high degree of customization.
Among all these companies discussed, their is a strong commitment to supporting green building objectives. They have all submitted to the most stringent testing protocols and all of these manufacturers carry Energy Star qualified windows and doors. It will be critically important that you look very carefully at the energy efficiency of the windows that you select.
The cost of installing high-efficiency glazing systems has fallen to the point that the payback is as low as 3-4 years. As energy costs rise, this payback period will shrink lower still. Look for Energy Star qualified windows suitable to the zone you live in. Select those with the lowest U-Value if you live in the colder climes and select the lowest SHGC if you live in the sunbelt. Your home will be more comfortable, you will use 20-30% less energy over clear glass and you might just be able to obtain tax credits from your state or rebates from you local utility to help pay for the upgraded glazings. For more information on glazing systems see the Efficient Windows Collaborative Selection Tool.
These are the (5) largest manufacturers of wood windows in the United States based on market share. The relative value of their products is affected by a range of factors that will make your choice dependent on your specific needs. There are also a great many regional manufacturers, that make good quality windows that will be equally prevalent in your locale.
People who looked at this item also looked at…
Related items
Popularity: 73% [?]
Tweet This
