Small houses are great. They can be comfortable, cost effective, energy efficient, highly valued and uber-cute. However, many could be built much better simply by considering a few things before starting.
Here are 10 things to consider:
Put it on a slab.
If possible, build your house on a super-insulated slab. I know, I know, slabs have been seen as a crummy, poor man's foundation for years. No more! I'm not a Passive House certified designer but I can confidently tell you that some of the most energy-efficient houses in the world are being built on insulated slab foundations.
Reduce thermal bridging in walls, floors & ceilings.
While North Americans have focused for years on reducing air-infiltration with insulations like spray-foam over in Sweden they've been building assemblies that not only reduce airflow but reduce thermal bridging - through floors. walls, and roofs - as well.
Wood has an R-value of about 1.25 per inch, which means every stud, joist and rafter in your house is a bridge for heat loss (or heat gain depending on the season). I've written a little about the Scandinavian-style walls I build up here in the mild Pacific Northwest but you can also read more extensive experiences and designs from Lami Designs.
Air-sealing is great but we can do better - it's easy!
Install a heat-recovery ventilation system.
An HRV removes stale moist air from inside a house via a simple inexpensive mechanical fan and vent system. An HRV goes one step further than a standard ventilation fan though; it brings in fresh air in an exchange. Air comes in to replace the air going out. And it gets even better: the warm outgoing air is used to warm up the colder incoming air thus reducing heat loss!
Surely, this sort of thing costs a fortune, right? Well, sure it does. But it doesn't have to.
After I got a $5,000 bid for materials from an admittedly good HRV manufacturer I decided to put together my own good system using a Broan HRV and some aluminum ducting sealed with UL 181B-FX foil tape. The system cost me around $800 and took only two days to install. It works too!
Removing moisture and VOCs from your house is an important leap forward in modern housing and I recommend some sort of air-exchange system.
Invest in good windows
People occasionally tell me - with notable pride - about the repurposed windows they intend to put in their new house. My advice is almost always: don't do it!
But whhhhhhhhhy not? It's reusable. Aren't you concerned about the environment? Yes, I am, and so are you - so take my advice.
For starters, ask yourself why those free windows were given away (i.e. thrown away) in the first place. I can answer that for you: they probably don't perform well and leak air like the devil. They're junk because they're old, not built well in the first place, or even worse, both.
Remember used windows will almost assuredly underperform even new, inexpensive, low end windows. Sure, using recycled materials is a great idea, don't let my sarcasm discourage you from creative recycling. Just do it appropriately because using badly performing materials, even recycled ones, is a terrible idea.
If you need a third reason, those used windows - no matter how cool they look - are unlikely to meet code.
Annie, Get Your Caulk Gun
Buy a case of quality, non-toxic, zero-VOC caulk and lay a bead along every seam in your house before you close up the walls. Caulk:
- the plates at the subfloor
- sister joists
- built-up posts
- adjacent studs
- around windows and doors.
Caulk every narrow path to the exterior that I missed in that list.
Go Tankless
A tankless water heater is one of the best ways to obtain hot water in a small house. Don't believe me? It's what they use in Europe, Japan, and other places where space is at a premium, and so should you.
If you've got space - or live in a desert - also consider a solar powered heat-pump hot water heater. But on on-demand electric or gas water heater is a wise choice.
Super-insulate
Insulating is such a widely known, easy to achieve concept in modern construction it baffles me to see people cheaping out on it. Insulation is not a place to cut costs. It's inexpensive anyway, pays you back by reducing heating and cooling loads and adds comfort to a house. Why wouldn't you insulate properly?
Avoid Formaldehyde
Especially urea-formaldehydes. Don't build cabinets from plywood that uses this type of glue and avoid engineered flooring, e.g. commonly bamboo, that's uses it as a binder.
Build with Wood
Sorry to burst a few bubbles but wood is a natural, renewable resource. It's strong, especially suitable for high wind and earthquake zones, is inexpensive, widely available, and can be successfully utilized by homeowners and professionals alike for building long-lasting, highly-efficient, attractive housing. Wood demands less embodied energy than concrete, steel, and other common construction materials, and can be easily modified and recycled.
- Wood is sustainable.
- Wood is green.
- Wood is strong.
Build What Makes Sense
Build what makes sense and build it well. That's the smart thing to do. Let the alleged know it alls - who typically don't design or build anyway - calculate the virtues of their own square footage. Definitely don't build small for the sake of some alleged virtuous, arbitrary idea of what small is. There's so much noise and baloney about what a small or tiny house should be that it's best to simply ignore the debate.
I recommend staying away from movements because they generally lose their way. Rather, I prefer to stay busy following my dreams, learning new things, and doing good work.
source Blog - THE small HOUSE CATALOG http://ift.tt/1NYC4aa
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