Archive for the ‘Projects’ Category

The Eco Builders Guild \ South Sound Chapter has announced it will host the South Sound Green Tour on April 17th and 18th, 2010
The theme of the event will be Innovation – Education – Inspiration

It will be a community event to celebrate green innovations through education in sustainable building and inspired living.
This year’s tour will showcase the greenest homes and buildings in our area that incorporate significant use of solar or other renewable energies, new and reclaimed materials, low energy consumption and water conservation technologies, and sustainable design techniques.
Educational sessions will be held at various locations and feature real life topics on how to build and live greener. See our website for more details – www.SouthSoundGreenTour.com ( The site should be up and running by January 1, 2010

South Sound Green Tour is looking for participants and sponsors. If you are interested in either contact me at info@laupenhomes.com. After January we you will be able to contact us directly at SouthSoundGreenTour.com

We recently hired Todd and Kari Harris of The Stone People to install a rain water harvesting system at our current project “The Cooper House” The system is designed to collect approximately 1000 gallons of rain water and store it under ground. During the summer months the homeowners will be able to use this water for their lawn and plants. They also will use the water to feed the water fall which is part of our landscape. Here’s how it works.

The Cooper Water Fall

The water is first collected from the roof with normal rain gutters. From there each rain gutter down spout is connected to a series of drain pipes which carry the water to a filter. As water enters the filter, the first twenty five gallons runs right through the filter and into the ground. By allowing the first twenty five gallons go into the ground we get rid of any bad things the water my have picked up from the roof. Once that occurs, the ground around the filter is saturated and the filter begins to fill up with water. When the water reaches a certain level in the filter it begins to drain into an out feed pipe and is carried to the 1000 gallon tank.

The tank is just a hole we dug, which we then wrapped with a heavy rubber liner. Inside the liner we stacked crates similar to milk crates which provide the structure for the tank. We then wrapped the top of the crates with the liner to provide a continuous cover. Also in the tank next to the crates is a pump chamber were the pump that runs the water fall is located. There is an over flow drain on the tank to allow water to escape once the tank is full.

After the tank was complete we poured a concrete walkway right over the top of it. Since the creates are incredibly strong, you can actually drive vehicles over them if you choose. Our concrete is part of a walkway that takes you from the street to the front door of the house. We plan to install a bench at this spot in the walkway so you can sit and watch the waterfall if you choose.

The city of Olympia bases homeowner’s sewer bill on how much water they use. They get the numbers from the water meter. By using water from the roof for irrigation you not only cut down you water bill but also you sewer bill. Imagine the savings if we could use this same water for the toilets inside the house.

We had been looking for some beams to use on the living room and dining room ceilings and finally found some old growth beams in Seattle. The beams were originally installed in the Packard building, which was built in 1910, to house a Packard Auto dealership. From what we have learned, the building had at least two businesses occupy it during it’s 98 year life., the Packard car dealership and the Foley sign company. The building was torn down in 2008 to make way for new multi-use retail and residential building. A demolition company salvaged the lumber from the building and we were able to purchase a few of them.

As you might imagine, the beams needed a little work. We took them to Quality Solutions, a carpentry shop owned by Mike Anderson here in Olympia. Mike has the right equipment for cutting and planning large lumber like this. We started by cutting the beams down to the size we wanted, which was 8″ X 8” We then ran them through a planner to get all four sides smooth. From there we took them back to the house to finishes prepping them.

Using a hand power planner with a special curved blade, we proceeded to cut gouges into three sides of the beams. After that was completed, we sanded the beams with 60 grit and then again with 120 grit sandpaper. Then we coated them with a dark stain to contrast with the pine T&G boards we had already installed on the ceilings. After cutting the beams to fit between the walls and wedged them into place we crawled into the attic and secure them. We did this by laying 4X4’s across the top of the trusses bottom cords and then screwed ten inch long lags into the beams.

The end result is beautiful. It also fills good to know the beams have been given a new life ready to go for another 100 years.

Remodeling – The Home Plan

Truth be told, when homeowners start off with remodeling their home; they have no idea as to what they actually want the home to look like, unless they know something about construction and architecture. Normally, they will wait till the contractor draws up certain plans, and then will generally approve or disapprove with little conviction in either case. So, when your contractor approaches you with the plans, this is what you should be noticing, and asking:

1. First and most important identify how family members use the rooms. The space requirement and positioning of rooms should be made accordingly in the plans. For example, does your wife take the kids’ lessons while cooking? If so, then the kitchen must be large enough to accommodate the wife’s requirements and sit the kids comfortably while they study. Similarly, if you work from home in the study, then you need to have the bathrooms close by. Or if you like entertaining guests every weekend, the living room needs to be large enough.
2. Keeping the family’s requirements in mind, is the house plan as eco-friendly as it could be? Ask your contractor to explain how much energy the new house will save as compared to the old house and if changes in the plan could make it better or worse. Don’t worry; contractors are more than happy answering questions.
3. How easy will it be to maintain the house, keeping in mind the time you have, and the environmental conditions?

The ORO coating complete

August 13 2009

“When you start looking and keep your mind open – you’ll be amazed at the number of options you really have.”

This is something we learned on one of our custom homes projects. With green building, one really finds many viable and better alternatives if one looks long and hard enough. Take the case of this current project. One of the issues builders always face while building or remodeling is how to ensure stability of the house in a seismic zone like the one in Olympia. Using quality building material is, of course, a must — but not enough. Conventionally we’ve been using cement-based stucco to go apply an exterior finish to ICFs, (insulated concrete forms) but since it is cement-based, it normally tends to crack in the event of movement which happens to all houses here in all the Northwest. We found the answer in Oro coating.

Oro coatings is a synthetic stucco system, that can be used in place of traditional stucco to provide great coating, finishing, stability, adhesiveness and pliability which makes it the perfect stucco system for homes that are prone to damages during settling, due to seismic shocks and due to thermal expansion. However, most of all, 48% of this system is made from recycled or reclaimed materials and is 100% acrylic resin-based with no cement. One of the four components of Oro coatings is reclaimed rubber which contributes to its pliability. The entire system consists of a base, prime and top coat in 24 different colors, three textures and custom colors. We realized later that using Oro coatings also helps us gain credits for LEED certification. Our designer Tessa Smith had us router some clover details on the walls, which look absolutely fabulous with the Oro stucco. To know more about the Oro coatings, you can visit their website: http://www.orocoatings.com

The other great thing we learned on this project was related to insulation. Traditionally, attics are hardly ever heated. With this home, the attic was quite small with a shallow sloping roof. There were three things that needed to be taken care of. First, the heat recovery ventilator was to be installed inside of the attic, which meant additional insulation for its duct work. Secondly, because the attic was small, it would be impossible to have use blown in insulation due to  limited access. This meant we would have to use batt style insulation installed between the bottom cords of the trusses. No matter how good of a job your installers do, with this type of installation you always get air gaps, which allows heat to escape. Thirdly, if the framing members, ( 2 x 4 bottom cords) are not covered completely, (which is always the case when you use batts), a thermal bridge is created. In the absence of proper insulation, heat escapes easily through the wood member. We solved all three problems together using 2 lb foam spray insulation on the underside of the roof deck. This created a conditioned space within the entire attic. Thus, there is no need for insulating the duct work for the ventilator, since the entire ventilator now lives with in the conditioned space. Next, it takes care of the gaps that will result out of the batt style insulation, since the foam expands as it is applied and  penetrates into every gap in the framing members thus eliminating  all air gaps. Thirdly, since it is five inches thick, it covers all of the plywood roof sheeting and the top cord trusses member thus eliminating the possibility of thermal bridging. All in all, we have a very tight house that should be very inexpensive to heat.

In the next few weeks the drywall gets installed as well as the exterior hand rails and window sills.

The Red clovers really add to the look of the house

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