Posts Tagged ‘Air tight walls’

The Hobbit House

This is the last day this house will be open to the public. Come out today between 10am and 4 pm to see this amazing one of a kind house with the round  front door. Whimsical and charming, this house hides the fact that it is on the cutting edge of Built Green and sustainability. I will be hosting the house all day along with Diane Gassman of Interior Dimensions. It’s a house everyone should see. From Rainer rd, turn right on Steadman, right on 103rd and left on Katie Ann. From Hwy 99 turn left on Waldrick, left on Steadman, left on 103rd and left on to Katie Ann

In the last posting I started the conversation about Air Sealing walls. The idea of air sealing is simple enough, the more air you prevent from leaking through the walls, the less your home will feel drafty. The less drafty, the more comfortable your house will feel and the less energy it will take to maintain the temperature of the home. The best way we have found to do this is to air seal on the inside of the wall or right behind the sheetrock. By sealing the wall at this point, we are still able to build a wall that can allow moisture to escape to the exterior side of the wall.

So how do we do it. One method is to use plywood or OSB on inside of all exterior walls, floors and ceiling joist. Then using tape we seal all the joints and seams were the individual sheets of plywood meet. We then fir out the ceiling and walls to allow for all of the electrical wiring and HVAC duct work. We design the plumbing so its on the interior walls as much as possible. This does add to both the framing materials and labor, and has to be accounted for in the budget. In the design we strive to have as few of penetrations in our air seal as possible. Each penetration is taped to prevent air leaking past. I know this sounds like a lot of extra work, and it is, however the long term payback will more then offset this cost, and remember the home will feel much more comfortable.

The tape we use is from SIGA. (http://www.siga.ch/Home.20.0.html?&no_cache=1&L=1) remember to hit the english button on the right of the home page..They are a company in Switzerland, who have been involved in air sealing for many years. They have fabrics and tapes for all kinds of air sealing. Their American distributor is The Small Planet Workshop. (http://www.smallplanetworkshop.com) locate right here in Thurston County in the Oyster Bay area.