Here is a great article about deconstruction:
Next week, the foundation will be removed and the mound of dirt in our new backyard will fill in the partial basement.
26 February 2011
91st Post – Deconstruction up to day 13
Week 36
We have finished taking down the house. It took four men ten days to complete the task.
Next week, the foundation will be removed and the mound of dirt in our new backyard will fill in the partial basement.
Next week, the foundation will be removed and the mound of dirt in our new backyard will fill in the partial basement.
25 February 2011
90th Post – 2011 NW Passive House Conference
Week 36
Our home will be one of the houses being discussed at the NW Passive House Conference on March 18, 2011 in Olympia, WA. Here is the link:
I will be there along with our builder, Ethan Beck and PH designer, Ted Nickell. I have put together a slide show and a display board with information about our home. This is a great way to learn more information about building a passive house. You must register because space is limited.
This is my schedule for speaking about our PH:
March 1st – School group coming
March 14th – School group coming
March 17th – Lincoln City Green Drinks
March 18th – PH NW Conference
March 29th – Two school groups coming
March 30th – Two school groups coming
March 31st – School groups coming
I will share their questions and comments on my blog.
20 February 2011
89th Post – Deconstruction to day 12
Week 34
PH news – We have kept our temperature set at 66f/18c and in our old home it was always 68f/20c. It was cold and drafty so we were always putting on sweaters. In our PH home, the other day it was 45 outside but sunny, the temperature inside was up to 71f/21c.
I was asked about the deconstruction cost and cost effectiveness for others. We looked into different ways to take out our 2600 square foot home with a partial basement.
To bulldoze the old home down and remove the foundation - $12,000. All of the materials would go to the landfill.
Take it apart and recycle plus remove the foundation prices varied widely. We are using the framing company that built our PH, Eugene of Skyline Construction. When you donate the materials to a non-profit you can use that as a tax donation. So we will break even.
You can also donate the building to the fire department for a practice control burn. The fire department has specific requirements that have to be meet to have this option. But we have an addition, our PH, so that made it impossible. This option is also tax deductable; please check with your tax consulate.
We have sent only two 30 yard waste containers to the landfill. All the rest of our house materials have been recycled. The wood that has not gone to the non-profit center is being ground up for other products.
Here are the latest photos of the deconstruction. |
| End of Friday |
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| Composite board that was on our outside..it was like compressed cardboard |
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| Saturday..here it goes! |
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| Saturday night |
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| One wall to go! |
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| Sunday |
16 February 2011
88th Post – Deconstruction day 8
Week 34
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| Front of house |
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| Kitchen |
More pictures!
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| livingroom fireplace |
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| looking out to the front |
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| Our daughter's room |
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| Our boy's room |
15 February 2011
87th Post – Deconstruction - day 7
Week 34
As you can see, the garage is almost gone.
The roof is stripped of most materials.
13 February 2011
86th Post – Deconstruction
Week 34
What is deconstruction? It is taking down a house in the reverse order of how it is built. So in construction the last thing in a home is the lights, toilets and sinks. In deconstruction it is the first to go and so on.
It is very interesting to know that 85% of the materials from a deconstructed home can be reused or recycled. The only parts that can’t be saved are the sheet rock, carpet and pads plus the tile. It would be great to keep all of these materials out of the landfill. The estimate is about 80 tons per 1000 square feet. So we are not putting in the landfill/dump approximately 170 tons of materials that now will be reused or recycled.
Here are some pictures of the deconstruction. They took out 72 bags of insulation from the house and garage. This was brought to the rebuilding center and sold to others who need it. The Rebuilding Center said that most of the insulation was gone in an hour.
The composite roofing is all off the roof and it is going to be recycled and be made into asphalt.
We have brought in all the metal in the old home to metal recyclers.
Be Blue – Protect our sky – Why? We only have one sky that contains the air we all need!! Do your part by using the three “Rs” – Recycle, Reuse and Reduce.
08 February 2011
85th Post – Platinum
Week 33 Earth Advantage/Deconstruction
Ethan Beck, our contractor, came with our certification from Earth Advantage; we reached Platinum level…the top grade!!! Earth Advantage is an agency that trains builders and gives information to people who want to build in an environmentally sound way. Here is a link to their site:
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| Kitchen |
Next, we are starting the deconstruction part of our building process. We built our PH as an addition, so now we must remove the old home. The quickest way would be to demolish the house down. But it would not be the most environmentally sound way to put close to 200 tons of materials into the landfill. So this is why we are deconstructing our home. We made our other house to be the most environmentally friendly, so it is only right that we do the same to our old home. Here are the first pictures of the process.
First the all the cabinets, water heater, furnace, toilets and anything else that can be reused are removed.
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| Kitchen |
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| Our daughter's old room |
Next, the drywall is pulled out, carpet and backing is also removed. This the first load to go to the dump.
Insulation with in tacked backing is rolled up and put into bags. Here there is over 50 bag of insulation that can be reused!!!
06 February 2011
84th Post – Moving In
Week 33 Making the Transition
We have been so busy that I have hardly any time to wind down at night before the next day begins. We just finished moving in all of our things from the old into the new house. We haven’t even had time to really put away things in the new house. As soon as it is presentable I will take pictures and share them with everyone around the world.
The next part of my blog is about the deconstruction of our older home. I will also be sharing the heating/ventilation system and the windows. I want to compare what our old homes past heating and electrical loads and cost were compared to our new PH and share them with you.
HEATING OUR NEW HOME:
Our home is shaped like an arrow with the tip as the living area, zone 2, and arms are the bedrooms areas, zones 1 and 3. Zone 2 we have kept at 66F/18C and zones 1 and 3 64F/17C. This is lower then what we kept our older home at 68F/20C. We have found that we are very comfortable at these new temperatures because there are no drafts! During the day with just a little sun our PH warms up to 68F/20C and keeps this way until the evening and then drops to the 66F/18C for the entire house. We are not sure if the heat has even gone on. Our temperature has been in the 50F/10C this last couple of weeks so I know this has been helping out.
It is interesting to see that every Continent has been to my blog and many nations are represented in reading what the passive house movement is all about. Saving resources and then our planet at the same time. Spread the word!
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