Small houses are great. They can be comfortable, cost effective, energy efficient, highly valued, and attractive. However, many could be built much better simply by considering a few things before starting.
Here are 10 things to consider:
1. Build with Wood
Despite what many advertisers would have us think, wood is a sensible, natural, renewable resource. I've even had people email me criticizing the use of wood at all. A contrario! Wood is strong, manages high wind and earthquakes very well, is inexpensive, widely available, often locally harvested and milled, and has been successfully utilized by homeowners and professionals alike for building long-lasting, highly-efficient, attractive housing for centuries.
Wood has less embodied energy than concrete, bricks, aerated blocks, steel, plastics (vinyl, e.g.) and most other construction materials. Wood can even be easily modified and recycled.
- Wood is sustainable.
- Wood is green.
- Wood is strong.
So there.
2. Put your house on a slab.
If possible we should consider building 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. Do some investigation.
3. Invest in good windows
People often tell me - with notable pride - about the repurposed windows they intend to put in their 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.
4. 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.
5. 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 an on-demand electric, propane or natural gas water heater is a wise choice.
6. Reduce thermal bridging in walls, floors & ceilings; or, Oh my God, what does that mean?!
An insulating material's resistance to conductive heat flow is measured and rated in terms of its thermal resistance or R-value -- the higher the R-value, the greater the insulating effectiveness. Here is an example of a code mandated R-value for a house:
- Floors: R-30
- Walls: R-21
- Ceilings: R-49
Those minimums must be met in the cavities between the joists, studs and rafters of a house. Now consider that wood has an R-value of about 1.25 per inch, which means every stud, joist and rafter in your house has a VERY low r-value. That wood is essentially a bridge for heat loss (or heat gain depending on the season). And there are a lot of studs, headers, trimmers, rafters and joists in even a small house.
So what can we do?
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 wall design ideas from Lami Designs.
Air-sealing is a great idea but we can do better - it's easy! In North America we're not doing nearly enough. Make your house better by reducing conductive heat loss.
7. Super-insulate
This goes with point number six. Because insulating itself is such a widely advertised good thing to do it baffles me to see people - including builders - so often cutting costs in this department. Crappy insulation: it's ridiculous; it's dumb; don't buy it. Insulation is not a place to cut costs. Good grief, in the scope of construction it's actually inexpensive! It even pays us back by reducing heating and cooling loads and adding comfort to out houses. Why wouldn't we insulate properly? Ignore code too. Well, don't ignore it - improve upon it.
8. Avoid formaldehyde
The construction industry has a rotten history of approving allegedly safe building materials only to outlaw them down the road after they've been shown to be hazardous. As a practice, not a hard and fast rule, be suspect of engineered building materials, especially ones using urea-formaldehyde glues and binders. Here's an example: don't build cabinets from interior grade plywoods that use this type of glue and reject engineered flooring that uses it as a binder (note: most interior sheet goods and bamboo floorings use urea-formaldehyde binders).
9. Install an HRV
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 it wasn't worth the cost and put together my own fantastic system using a Broan HRV and aluminum ducting sealed with UL 181B-FX foil tape. The system cost me around $800, took only two days to install, and works great.
Removing moisture and VOCs is an important leap forward in modern housing so I recommend some sort of air-exchange system.
10. 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 arbitrary, made up notion 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. Be modest and build a good house.
Afterword: There are so many ways for all of us to improve what we do and we can learn a great a deal from each other. However, I also recommend taking ideas like the tiny house movement or the small house movement - or any movement at all in fact - with a serious grain of salt. Movements have a terrible tendency to lose their way. Give up the idea of any one size fits all, perfect house design or building material. Be a part of the conversation and be open to new ideas. If we're successful we'll continue to innovate and make ourselves and our houses better still.
source Blog - THE small HOUSE CATALOG http://ift.tt/1MpXF5U
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