DIY Green Home Improvement » Structural Systems

LED Lighting, It it Ready Yet?

rcovington — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:34:54 +0000

Yes, oil has dropped 50% in the last year natural gas has been more than cut in half in the last year, so your electric bill will go down…right? I would not count on it and given the political situation in the world today, you must consider the impact your new home or home improvement will have on energy consumption. There is also the

LED GU-10 Lightbulb

possibility you may face large increases in your electric bill if Cap & Trade passes into law. LED lighting is fast becoming a viable option for you to consider in the design phase for your house. LED’s have a solid history of performance in commercial applications. Most traffic signals incorporate LED’s. The typical traffic light will contain 196 LED’s and will draw 10 watts. To produce the same light requirement with incandescent lights would consume 150 watts. Replacing all 260,000 U.S. traffic signals now using incandescent would reduce electrical consumption by 2.5 billion kWh annually. This is just the tip of the iceberg of savings in this one example. Maintaining the incandescent light bulbs in all these traffic signals is far more expensive than the electrical consumption. With and average life of 2,000 hours, a typical signal will have to have the bulbs changed at least 4 times a year. Some LED’s will last 15-20 years. The cost savings from the reduced replacement cycle should justify the cost of replacing the existing bulbs, even with a unit cost for LED’s which runs 50-60 times that of an incandescent bulb. But the savings do not end here. If LED’s started to replace lighting in the broader scope of lighting both residential we would see savings from the reduced need to build new power plants, reduced emission from reduced power requirements for the plants to produce, reduced recycling cost to process the burned out fluorescent and incandescent bulbs and a host of other energy and economic impacts attendant to lighting. They could also solve the dilemma of Mercury in CFL that we al face with the demise of incandescent bulbs slated to occur in 2012. The cost of LED’s is coming down as their use spreads. To date the light output and the color rendition have been the main inhibitors to seeing them spread to general lighting purposes. Both of these issues are finding solutions through research and development. There are lighting solutions for the home now available for residential applications. Quasar makes a fairly broad line of LED light solutions that will work for your home lighting needs. Even if you investigate them and decide they are not right for you, it appears that the industry is looking to make the transition easy once the light source gains greater acceptance. In the mean time, you should look at the possibility of using these in your new home. The benefits are very attractive for the investment. Just imagine if you did not have to change a light bulb for 20 years.

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French Drains – Solutions to Poor Draining Yards

rcovington — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 04:14:36 +0000

Anyone can have issues with water accumulating in low spots in your yard. In years where conditions are extraordinarily wet, this can lead to real serious problems and damages from flooding to structures and more expensive landscaping or pools and driveways. if you notice a problem in a give year, you may be well advised to address it before the problem can compound itself. French Drains can be a simple, effective DIY solution to these problems.

Additionally, if you have a sloping lot, the water running across the surface (particularly unsodded surfaces) can cause erosion problems. The solution is to provide a controlled channel (French Drain) for the movement of the water to a retention area for safe and slow absorption back into the ground or draining it along a designated path towards retention beyond your property. You need to be extra careful not to take your runoff and dump it uncontrolled onto you neighbors property as this will only cause you bigger problems.

French Drain Profile

A French Drain is a channel for water to drain away in to a specific spot under controlled conditions. This can be as simple as a trench filled with crushed gravel or stone. But the force of water moving through the crushed stone can cause the fines of the soil to filter into the open spaces around the gravel diminishing the effectiveness of the drain over time. It is better to construct a stage 3 French Drain that will have both a perforated pipe buried in the trench and a fabric to separate the soil fines from the gravel maintaining the effective flow of the water through the drain.

Perforated drains are easy to install and not very expensive. Your largest expense will be the excavation and restoration of the excavated area. If you have had draining water damage the area, this is an expense you were going to incur anyway so it pays to install measure to prevent a recurrence.

First you need to understand how the water flows across the property. If you are not clear about this or it is not easily apparent, do not hesitate to call a professional civil engineer for advice. This may even be a requirement (some jurisdictions require French Drain systems be permitted and be designed by an Engineer). A small investment with an Engineer may save you big headaches later.

Once you determine the slope of the lot and where the water is emanating as a source, you need to determine where you want to direct it to. This could be down to the street, it could be down to a sloping hill that directs the water to safe retainage and in some instances you may even need to install either above ground retainage or underground storage to store the water until it can percolate into the ground naturally or to be pumped to another location.

French Drain Storage Tank

Once you have your plan, determine how big a trench you need – this will depend on the amount of water you want to handle. If you see the gross amount of accumulation that occurred when you had the problem and can guesstimate the width by the length x the depth of the water, it will give you a rough estimate of the amount of water (cubic foot wise) that you have to be able to accommodate. Depending on the planned slope of the trench (suggest a minimum or 1/4″ per foot) you will get an idea of the width, and depth of the French Drain trench and the size and number of perforated pipe you need to put in it. Again, if any of this seems unintuitive to you, call on a Civil Engineer. They may save you from over designing or under designing the system. It is important to verify that the drain is sloping towards your intended direction. Check it with a level as you proceed to dig your trech and as you lay down the stone bed on the bottom of the trench. Verify the slope on the perforated pipe as a final check before laying on the top layer of stone.

The basic components of the system are:

Perforated HDPE Pipe (perforation sizes and patterns vary).
Crushed Stone or Gravel (pit run).
Landscaping Fabric.

Perforated Drain Pipe

Crushed Stone

Landscape Fabric

You may find it easier to rent a light backhoe to dig the trench or possibly a Ditch Witch. Most Importantly, CALL YOUR LOCAL UTILITIES BEFORE YOU DIG – it is the law in most states and it could even save your life. Once you have gathered your materials, laid out the path, located the underground utilites, you are ready to build your French Drain go. Once last bit of advice, wait till the dry season or you will have a royal mess on your hands.

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Form – A Drain , Perimeter Perforated Drains And Concrete Footer Form

rcovington — Sun, 31 May 2009 15:35:56 +0000

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.

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Concrete – Green Building Material?

rcovington — Sun, 31 May 2009 13:30:44 +0000

Many 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.

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ICF – Insulated Concrete Forms Structural Systems

rcovington — Sun, 17 May 2009 06:23:26 +0000

Insulated 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

	PS	XPS	Polyurethane	Composite
Density (lbs/cu ft)	1.35-1.80	1.60-1.80	2.00	21
R-value per inch	4.17-4.35	5.00	5.90	3.00
Compressive strength (psi)	15-33	25-40	30	72
Tensile strength (psi)	18-27	45-75	30	42
Water absorption (%)	<3.0	<0.3	2.0	NA
Retail cost ($/bd ft)	.17	.35	.70	NA

Source: Insulating Concrete Forms Association

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.

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Concrete Basement Foundations

rcovington — Mon, 11 May 2009 03:45:54 +0000

Home Building starts with the foundation. The foundation of your house is…. well your foundation. If your foundation was laid out wrong, or you are having problems with water or expansive soils around your foundation, you will see them manifest themselves in other areas of the structure. Whether your project is DIY, or you have hired a building contractor, you need to understand the terminology and the pitfalls of each foundation type to make sure you cover all the issues and account for the proper handling of water infiltration and Radon infiltration.

If your foundation does not have an adequate waterproofing system to drain excess water and you do not have a sufficient water barrier on the exterior basement walls, you will have a damp or soggy basement and subsequently, this will lead to mold. In basement foundations, water infiltration is controlled with perimeter drainage systems tied to either a sump pump or daylight drain and a waterproof membrane either sprayed on or mechanically affixed to the perimeter walls.

Perimeter Perforated Drain system - DIY Green Home Improvement

Although basements are popular with a great many people, they are not always feasible. In Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, etc. – sub-surface water is too close for portions of the year to control the possibility of water infiltration to the basement. So in these areas the preferred foundation has become the slab-on-grade.
Slab-on-grade is a foundation where you pour a mattress of concrete (usually with thickened portions at the perimeter and at interior load bearing locations). These are typically 4-6 inches thick and are both very economical and reliable and the easiest to control water issues with. They are preferred when dealing with low-bearing capacity soils and areas with water tables close to the surface (less than 10 feet). You will notice if these are the predominant type of foundation in your area. just look at the building lots in your area when construction begins and you will see what type of foundation is there.
Another issue with basement foundations or crawl-space foundations is the bearing capacity of the underlying soil and the expansiveness of the soil. Expansive soils expand as the take on moisture. If not accounted for, they can destroy a foundation is short order because of the pressures they exert on the concrete. They require special attention to drainage , backfill and sometimes the addition of caissons drilled into rock to support the walls. The caissons are drilled down to rock and the walls are supported on the caissons with a void form underneath to allow for expansion of the soils. In any event, most basement foundations will have a concrete slab for the floor.

Concrete Void Form - DIY Green Home Improvement

Another issue that is important to the safety and health of your family is to plan to mitigate Radon. Radon gas is now recognized as a very serious threat to the health of those who endure long-term exposure. It has been linked to lung cancer and other serious illnesses. It is also present in about 80% of the country. So you need to incoprorate systems to mitigate its presence in the foundation. We will talk about this in detail later.
Lastly, if the foundation is not laid out square, you will have problems with framing the upper portions to a square condition and thus problems with interior finishes etc. It is important to pick a competent and diligent concrete contractor to build the foundation and it even more important to have an engineer design the foundation to ensure that the proper type of foundation is put in place on the site you have chosen. If you do not sufficient expereince and skill to perfrom this project, it will be best to leave it to a pro. It is highly likely, given the need for concrete forms, that you will not be able to justify tackling the foundation as a DIY project. Visit the American Concrete Institute for further information.

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