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Interesting pics. On the trusses, what is the spacing? From the pic they look to be a lot farther apart than we would use here. Most builders will use 24"on center spacing but all of mine are 16" OC. With the insulation loads we have these days I'm not going to deal with sagging drywall later on. I also didn't see any laterals installed on the truss system. I assume you have no wind loads there? There doesn't seem to be any end wall bracing either but that may just be from the pic not showing it.
If trusses is the same than rafters, the center to center measure is 35" (900mm). The distance between joists is 16" (400mm). There is absolutely no problem with sagging drywalls with these measures. Please, remember that our rafters/trusses are designed to stand the snow load as well, on top of the insulation. Depending on the roof material and slope, it differs somewhat how thick snow/ice layer each house will have. On a good winter our house seems to have maximum of 20" of snow on the roof. The outmost rafters are heavily attached to concrete walls with 2x5" wood planks. If I'd build the house now, I'd go with hollow concrete slab as a ceiling structure and then rafters sitting on top of that. Reason? It would again save time and less burning mass in the structures. Plus, I "hate" drywall as a material.
There are laterals in straight and diagonal manner in place. Very difficult to see from the pic. The rafters are sitting on top of the concrete blocks and bolted to them with several bolts. The white canvas you can see is used for eliminating any leak problems the final roofing may have. It the water goes through the roofing, this water resistant canvas will simply let it drain outside.
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Originally Posted by TrapperL
It would appear that the moisture barrier you used is a plastic film, like maybe 6 mil poly. WE can't use that here unless you just like mold. Here in Texas, we fight the summer heat but the winter we see high moisture levels in our houses. Poly traps it and you can have windows making water from the high humidity against the cold frames. WE use a fresh air intake on our A/C systems to keep not only drier air in the house but also fresh air. Our houses are so tight the air gets stale inside and studies have shown some houses are labelled as "sick" from it.
I have a question regarding ventilation codes. Is it obligatory to have a ventilation unit that changes the air inside the house? All new houses need to have a unit for that and there is certain factor how to measure them based on the volume of the house. Simply: how many times the volume of air inside the house has been replaced with new fresh air from outside in 1 hour?
The reason why I'm asking this is that unsufficinet fresh air coming in and old air going out are the most typical reasons why there is problems with mold, moisture condensating on structures or bad air quality inside the house. Plastic film is to prevent the natural moisture going to the structures. Shower, sauna, drying wet clothes etc. create extra moisture inside the house. Without the plastic film, it would go to the rafters and insulation with known and unwanted results.
Everyday physics: a car with A/C: what happens if your clothes are moist from rain and the A/C is not on or on recirculation? Windows get moist inside and you don't see outside. I know this is not 100% compatible with houses, but shows you well the importance of getting fresh air in and getting rid of the moist. Basic idea is still the same.
It's no problem to have a tight house. Energywise that is good, but you need to control over the ventilation very well. We don't have A/C in our house, yet. I made an initial purchase to go that direction, though. We have a deep well, where we take the heat. It has constant temperature of -14F throughout the year. There is 3 separate pipes in the well, 1 emitting/2 absorbing. A lot of people don't understand that you can use the same well throughout the year for heating and cooling. During summer, the floor heating is basically on halt. The most power goes to make hot water. With separate circulation loop it is possible to use separate heat exhanger to cool the house with this -14F liquid. All you need is the heat exhanger, circulation piping, pump and a 3-way valve + thermostat. I bought the most expensive item this summer, heat exchanger and plan to install rest of it next spring.
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Originally Posted by TrapperL
Are you required to have combustible air piped to the fireplaces? From the pics, that install would not pass code here. Amazing that things can be so different in different locations but we have differences even in the US. What we build to here in the hot south would be different from Atlanta, or Detroit or even Kailfornia.
I have problems understanding you question here. Was it Ultrarunner in one of the previous posts who said about wood being forbidden as a source of heat, but gas allowed/preferred. Please, rephrase or explain in more details your question.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TrapperL
Our electrical is pretty much governed by our building codes. The receptacles, for example, are placed so that an appliance can be placed along any wall and be plugged in. Cords are 6 feet long so you're pretty much looking at a plug for every 12 feet of wall. Then it changes for the kitchen and wet areas, etc., so yeah, we use a lot of receptacles in our homes versus yours apparently. In the larger homes the buyer will almost always add more especially in media rooms, garages, and pantries.
Our building code in general is quite strict. National level sets the standard and local towns have their own twist depending on the area related needs. Electrical codes don't basically vary at all. It's clear for everyone and easy to follow. Our approach was to do good pre-planning and make ot work in the first place, sockets are there where they are needed and few extra ones. My garage has a different approach though. Its machine/cabinet/toolboard layout was not 100% clear when we started and I chose to go with surface-mount cables, in a housing of course. That gives me the freedom to make changes in the layout later on. I have a hardwired internet connection in my garage + WLAN, signal cable for TV/radio (flat screen on the wall ), DVD player and harman/kardon amp. (still need the woofer and rear speakers), microwave and a fridge... My mancave, that I so long waited for.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TrapperL
Looked at the linked website. I don't read your language but it appears to be close. The first job we did with it had us using a 6" thick panel and the electrical and plumbing were routered into the AAC panels then floated out. They had issues afterwards with the flexing of the Pex in the panels and they came back and stick framed over it. The rest of the building, over 1 million sq ft of it, was changed back to stick framing with the outside veneer only using the cement panels. I like the concept of it but getting it work here hasn't been easy. The biggest issue is I don't think there are many architects here that have the faintest clue how to plan for it.
Yes, I thought this could be close to yours. Any pictures from that project?
Here is a link for National building code in Finland: Ymparistoministerio > The National Building Code of Finland)
Unfortunately not too many translated documents, but I'd say at least the foundation part of it should be interesting read.
I have a question regarding ventilation codes. Is it obligatory to have a ventilation unit that changes the air inside the house? All new houses need to have a unit for that and there is certain factor how to measure them based on the volume of the house. Simply: how many times the volume of air inside the house has been replaced with new fresh air from outside in 1 hour?
No, and it's not addressed as such in our codes at all. WE subscribe to a lot of the methodology from Building Science which has a website if you'd like to take the time to read the extensive research. We've attended all of their local seminars and have gleaned some fabulous technologies from them. One is the 6" fresh air intake we install on all of our HVAC units. It provides positive ventilation to the house, lowers the humidity in the house in the winter, and keeps the house air fresh which can make a home far more healthy.
Combustible air at the fireplace. We are required to run a duct from the outside to the firebox of any fireplace we install. WE are not allowed to use the air in the home for combustible air to feed the fire. We also are required to run a fresh air or combustible air duct to any gas fired HVAC system.
No, and it's not addressed as such in our codes at all. WE subscribe to a lot of the methodology from Building Science which has a website if you'd like to take the time to read the extensive research. We've attended all of their local seminars and have gleaned some fabulous technologies from them. One is the 6" fresh air intake we install on all of our HVAC units. It provides positive ventilation to the house, lowers the humidity in the house in the winter, and keeps the house air fresh which can make a home far more healthy.
Combustible air at the fireplace. We are required to run a duct from the outside to the firebox of any fireplace we install. WE are not allowed to use the air in the home for combustible air to feed the fire. We also are required to run a fresh air or combustible air duct to any gas fired HVAC system.
I want to apologize to take this thread into a side step with my detailed comments about our house that is made from CMU's. I know the difference between CMU and poured concerete. When reading the original post, I felt that the poster didn't mind that much about if the house was poured concrete or CMU. Instead, he was, the way I understood, wondering if the houses made from concrete in general will ever come and spread out on a large scale. Telling from our house with pictures seemed like a good idea to share what other people on the other side of the globe are doing. I can honestly say that I'm a HC CMU guy with very, very good experience from the CMU as a material and its advantages in living standards/quality. In Finland, with our cost levels, it is guesstimated to have 20% higher building end costs compared to stick framed houses. On the other hand, when selling the house, you usually get far better price from it so it's not that straighforwarded.
The get this thread back where it all started from, I'll give my contribution too, on top of my previous posts. Every now and then I've tried slightly to search for CMU/other concrete product suppliers from internet to get an idea if this is any business or not in USA. With not too good results so far.
There are pro's and con's with concrete/CMU, like any material has, and I'd like to hear now from you what reasons are actually preventing this to be more popular construction method. I'm also interested to hear if there are certain geographical areas or factors that would support using concrete as a building material. Price has been said as one main reason, but comments were also said that there is like 5% difference in price. If that is true, it's not much and can be saved with living expences later on (if insulations, proper windows/doors and other basics are taken care of to have a healthy house).
Concrete block is mostly commercial here in the SF Bay Area of California.
Earthquake regulations are quite strict and require a tremendous amount of steel and deep piers bored into the earth.
Also, we don't have the ready availability of precast ceiling/floor units that are lowered into place and then topped with concrete to tie the units together...
My home has an entire 22 x 30 concrete garage floor supported by 2 x 10 Doug Fir joists... my friends from Europe are always amazed to see concrete supported by wood...
I want to apologize to take this thread into a side step with my detailed comments about our house that is made from CMU's. I know the difference between CMU and poured concerete. When reading the original post, I felt that the poster didn't mind that much about if the house was poured concrete or CMU. Instead, he was, the way I understood, wondering if the houses made from concrete in general will ever come and spread out on a large scale. Telling from our house with pictures seemed like a good idea to share what other people on the other side of the globe are doing. I can honestly say that I'm a HC CMU guy with very, very good experience from the CMU as a material and its advantages in living standards/quality. In Finland, with our cost levels, it is guesstimated to have 20% higher building end costs compared to stick framed houses. On the other hand, when selling the house, you usually get far better price from it so it's not that straighforwarded.
The get this thread back where it all started from, I'll give my contribution too, on top of my previous posts. Every now and then I've tried slightly to search for CMU/other concrete product suppliers from internet to get an idea if this is any business or not in USA. With not too good results so far.
There are pro's and con's with concrete/CMU, like any material has, and I'd like to hear now from you what reasons are actually preventing this to be more popular construction method. I'm also interested to hear if there are certain geographical areas or factors that would support using concrete as a building material. Price has been said as one main reason, but comments were also said that there is like 5% difference in price. If that is true, it's not much and can be saved with living expences later on (if insulations, proper windows/doors and other basics are taken care of to have a healthy house).
I'm the 5% person . I read your posts - and looked at your pictures - and they made me smile. Your house looks perfect for Florida - even in terms of the elevation (I suppose your house is elevated because you get a lot of snow? - most of our houses here in Florida should be elevated due to storm flooding concerns). Soil preparation techniques will be course vary from Finland to Florida (and will even vary when it comes to different parts of Florida - some soils are sandy - some are muck - etc.).
IMO - the main reason why concrete block isn't used more here in the United States (although it's the main way houses are built in Florida) is cost. Even though the additional cost is negligible in my opinion. A secondary reason is earthquakes in those parts of the United States that are prone to earthquakes. Buildings in earthquake zones have to be able to "sway" and "jiggle" even when there are minor quakes. And concrete block is a pretty bad material for that. It is possible to engineer/build in concrete in earthquake areas. But it's generally a very expensive task - more suitable for a high rise building in Tokyo than a single family house in California. Robyn
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), DVD player and harman/kardon amp. (still need the woofer and rear speakers), microwave and a fridge... My mancave, that I so long waited for.
. I read your posts - and looked at your pictures - and they made me smile. Your house looks perfect for Florida - even in terms of the elevation (I suppose your house is elevated because you get a lot of snow? - most of our houses here in Florida should be elevated due to storm flooding concerns). Soil preparation techniques will be course vary from Finland to Florida (and will even vary when it comes to different parts of Florida - some soils are sandy - some are muck - etc.).
