Week 11

Other than Comcast canceling my email account and Gmail suddenly not recognizing me as an author of any blogs because of an association with my cancelled Comcast email account, it's been a good week.  Thus this somewhat late and new continuation blog.  Now for the real progress.

The main roof was completed this week including the roofs over the entrance portico and the shed.  A heavy downpour validated a good job was done.  Externally, corner trim boards and vertical strapping boards were attached in preparation for siding attachment.  Between the strapping a densely fibrous, yet porous material was added to prevent insects from creating habitats under the siding, yet allow air circulation to aid in moisture build-up prevention after heavy wind-driven rains. (This 1/2" air layer together with the siding adds almost another 2 to the R value of the walls making them R40).  

More strapping was also added in the ceiling to avoid the weight of the blown-in insulation from deforming the ceiling boards.  In preparation for the ceiling board installation an insulated stove pipe collar was placed in hopefully the correct position.

The windows and glass doors arrived from Inline and as expected perfection in ordering was not achieved.  Two of the windows had the wrong size entered in the quote and even though the error had been communicated it propagated through to production and two of the windows were too long vertically by a foot and unacceptable considering that they would be showing the back of furniture and potty-goers sitting on the toilet.  This experience has taught a lesson of identifying each window uniquely on the drawing and on the factory order and that the builder should verify each window specification on a copy of the production order which was not supplied.  Another lesson learned is not to use one manufacturer's standard size numbers for specifying window sizes for another manufacturer who has no standard sizes and has total flexibility in window size construction.

The windows all have fiberglass frames with a dark bronze color externally and a almond color internally.  All north windows are triple pane and fixed with the exception of one which was shipped as a casement window when it was also to be fixed, another product of communication and execution errors.  This error was somewhat reluctantly accepted.  All other windows are double pane. 

Window Data Stuff

(Remember that a part of this blog is personal documentation ).

The following locates the various windows and doors in the house and gives the data in parenthesis for each item (Uvalue, SHGC, glazed area, rough opening area).  The U value is BTU/hr-sqft and the areas are in sqft.  These data will be used later to compute the heat gain and loss due to the various components. 

The bedroom has one fixed north facing window (0.17, 0.3, 3.07, 5.51), one east facing awning window (0.30, 0.29, 3.19, 5.65) and two south facing double hung windows (0.32, 0.33, 19.7, 30.4).  The bathroom has only one fixed north facing window (0.17, 0.3 , 3.07, 5.51).  The kitchen has one east facing tilt and turn door (0.33, 0.26, 9.39, 19.3) which goes to the solarium and two south facing fixed windows (0.26, 0.33, 20.9, 28.9).  The living room has one east facing fixed window(0.26, 0.33, 5.67, 8.84), one south facing sliding glass door (0.29, 0.21, 29.5, 42.4), and two south facing fixed windows (0.26, 0.33, 20.9, 28.6).  On the west side there are two casement windows (0.30, 0.29, 15, 16.7) which have angled vertical sides to help distribute the light better through the thick wall openings.  The window on the north side is fixed (0.17, 0.3, 8.64, 10.9) and has similar angled sides.  The mudroom has one north facing casement window (0.21, 0.25, 7.5, 10.9) and one half-glazed entry door (0.18, 0.13, 5.12, 24).  The exit door from the mudroom into the living space is also an entry type door also half-glazed but it doesn't sit in the outside wall.  It provides some extra insulation between the mudroom and the living space.  These two doors, from Therma Tru) are meant to be more community friendly and less isolating.

The total wall penetration area for windows and doors is 254 sqft or 25%.  Total glazing area is 167 sqft or only around 2/3 of the wall penetration area.  The south side has 9%, the north 2.2%, the east 1.8%, and the west side 3.5% of the glazing.

Because of a personally busy week, geek moment will continue next week - maybe.