A proper chimney - part 1

I'm choosing the chimney as my starting point for getting back into more detailed construction-related posts since it seems to follow nicely from where I left off with a post about the air-tight ceiling, which I ended by showing a photo of two foam boards acting as a place-holder for my future chimney.
Installing the chimney was pretty straight-forward with the biggest consideration aforehand being careful measurement. A "proper chimney" should go straight up (without any bends), while all clearances to combustible materials (from bottom to top) are maintained, and while also having the chimney "land" where the stove is supposed to go.
Prepare for many a photo "below the fold".

The finished install: In this case the chimney had to land in just the right spot so that the stove could sit correctly on it's tiled pad next to the air-supply duct I roughed in oh-so-many years ago. There wasn't much wiggle-room to play with but fortunately luck was on my side here, and there happened to be just room enough to find a path through the roof framing. Measure thrice, cut once, I say.

Burning Down The House - Talking Heads

The christmas gift that keeps on giving - an airtight ceiling.

After the first week of December, Northwest Ontario was put in a deep-freeze (check out those daily mean temps). The early arrival of such extreme cold made the completion of the ceiling assembly in our house all the more timely. One morning I woke up to find the thermometer outside reading -39C. Taking a stroll to the house, I found the thermometer in the basement reading a balmy -2C. It seemed almost weird given that I was only occasionally firing a small propane construction heater in the basement for heat - the benefits of air-sealing, super-insulation and passive solar heat gain! A nice early Christmas present indeed.

It may not look it through the window but on this clear morning of December 31, it's -39C (-38.2F) and feels like a blistering -51C (-59.8F) in the wind. In this kind of weather, it is nice to be able to keep all the warm air trapped inside the house and then have the ventilation controlled either by HRV or by window if necessary. The advantages are many and include energy savings, durability and controlled clean air supply.

Echoes - The Wilderness Of Manitoba

Ventilation duct supports.

In an earlier post, I briefly described some ventilation duct supports that I needed to fabricate. I had four supports to make, two for the HRV (one for the intake vent and one for the exhaust vent), one for the dryer exhaust vent, and one for the electrical service conduit. Each vent (and the conduit) are supported at the rim board, but because of the thickness of the exterior wall, each needs to be supported again at the exterior face of the wall.



This is what I left off with in that earlier post - a 1/2" plywood panel, 2x2 flanges, 2 layers of 1 1/2" rigid foam insulation and the start of a hole. I used a hole saw to finish off each hole through the rigid foam.

I Don't Know - The Sheepdogs

The joy of insulating.

I've decided to take a break from posting on topics in [quasi] chronological order. To that end, I think I'll get into how I've been insulating the exterior walls of this house. Overall, I've been quite pleased with how the process has been going - it's always nice when things work out according to plan.

Knowing that I would be insulating with Roxul batts, the walls were built so that their dimensions would suit "off-the shelf" insulation - in this case, "ComfortBatt" for 2x4 walls at R14 per layer (three layers).

Joy of Cooking - Old Man Luedecke

Framing the sunroom - part 2.

In part 1, I layed out the more important design considerations of the sunroom. Now, in part 2, I'll get on with some of the practical aspects. Back in spring, I was putting a "push on" to get the sunroom to a point where I would be able to leave it alone for a few weeks as we were planning to visit my family out west by the end of May. Since I was working hard to get things done, I unfortunately didn't remember to take as many pictures of the process as I would have liked. Apologies in advance.

Wall framing is all 2x6 24" o.c., while the roof joists are 2x8 24" o.c. for the short span over the door switching to 12" o.c. for the longer span on the east side. The window and door headers were set flush with the inside of the wall since the sheathing will be applied on the inside - as with the rest of the house. Overall, I don't intend to superinsulate the sunroom, nor do I intend to make much effort to reduce thermal bridging through the studs and joists. I am, however, committed to making the sunroom as "tight" as I can for durability reasons.

Framing the sunroom - part 1 revisted... again.

In the same vein as my last post, this post is in response to another new detail - at the sunroom [exterior] wall top and bottom plates.

Framing the sunroom - part 1 revisited.

I finally managed to add some sunroom details to the "details" section the other night so I thought it might be helpful to revisit "Framing the sunroom - part 1" and relate the new sketch to some of my earlier verbal descriptions.

Framing the sunroom - part 1.

The first major goal for the spring of 2012 was to frame the attached sunroom on the south wall of the house. There are a number of factors that led me to build the sunroom in the way that I have decided to proceed. This first part of a new series on the sunroom will set the stage by covering some of the important design considerations.

The attached sunroom in an early stage of construction during the spring. Spring was early this year so I had plenty of time to get'er done before we were due to leave on a trip to the west coast at the end of May.

Framing the exterior wall trusses - part 3.

In part 2, I described my approach to installing the secondary studs and the secondary top plate. In part 3 I am getting into how I framed the window and door openings into the secondary structure. Throughout this post I will drop the use of the term "secondary" since all the components discussed in this post belong in that category, but if some clarification is required I'll just insert the term "primary" where required. On with the show!

A completed opening photographed in dusky winter light. Plywood window bucks to be added at a later time.

"Wing" insulation, drainage and parging.

With the foundation insulation done, it was time to turn my attention to insulating the ground around the foundation. This insulation for the ground is sometimes called "wing" insulation and is an important part of the FPSF foundation design. The wing insulation effectively protects the shallow footings from frost heave by raising the frost line towards the surface. In my case the insulation plan called for R20 insulation extending outwards 4' from the footings but 6' at all corners (except where the footings were more than 6' below final grade).

The colder the climate, the higher the R value the wing insulation must provide to keep the earth below from freezing. Also, the colder the climate, the further the wing insulation must extend outwards from the foundation. When the underside of the slab and footings are insulated as well, the R value of the wing insulation must be increased more still since reduced heat loss from the underside of the foundation will contribute less towards keeping the earth under the footings from freezing.

Waterproofing and insulating the rest of the foundation.

I was very excited to be done with the concrete work - it was  a big job and I was really looking forward to setting my own pace with the rest of the project. Before I could do that, however, there was one last reason to bring out a couple of the concrete guys again - the "Blueskin". Applying the "Blueskin" waterproofing membrane wasn't terribly difficult, but I wouldn't want to try it single handed - it's too sticky, awkward and expensive.

4" rigid foam around the exterior wall makes a good capillary break but something more is required to fight hydrostatic pressure. We applied the "Blueskin" membrane only to within 12" of the top of the wall to save material - this stuff 'aint cheap. The black line around the top is a mastic "goo" that seals the edge of the membrane to the wall.

Pre-slab preparations - part 1.

With this post, I am jumping back to where I left off with my post on pouring the footings.

The footings had just been poured, the plumbing was roughed in and now it was time to fill the void. For fill, I used more of the same gravel that we had used for the pad. The form work that was left up around the exterior perimeter of the footings prevented us from driving a skid-steer over top of them. Instead we used the excavator that we had on hand to reach over and drop the fill in one scoop at a time. We then shoveled, raked, leveled and packed until the tamper bounced off the surface. The finished height of the gravel was three inches below the top of the footings to account for the thickness of the sub-slab insulation.

In this photo, my nephew Parker and I are finishing the gravel between my new footings. Parker did a lot of raking while I ran the packer. It was hard work but we had it all done in less than a day owing to the help I received. Even my mom pitched in - I warned her that the gravel was very heavy and hard to move but she replied "Don't worry Lucas, I'm a gardener."

Footings.

Using a simplified foundation plan I had made from the architect's plan, the concrete contractor and I marked out the outer edge of all the perimeter footings and the center-lines of the peninsula footings. Even with the slim steel pins we were using, it was difficult to drive them into the compacted gravel. A string line was stretched between the pins to outline the house's footprint.

A mountain of foam.

I hate rigid foam insulation for many reasons... but it's so damn practical in certain applications it's almost impossible to ignore. In my case, I cannot think of any other workable solution to insulating my foundation in the same way that I can using rigid foam.

A fully wrapped residential foundation requires a lot of insulation. Even more so in our case since I also need to insulate the ground around the footings as part of the Frost Protected Shallow Footing (FPSF) system we are using. Fortunately, I was able to find a local source for reclaimed XPS rigid insulation boards. The boards were in good shape (though dirty and a little dented here and there) and they were a little more than half the best price I was quoted for new material.

On the left are 2'x4'x3" boards. On the right are 2'x8'x4"
boards. Together that pile is 8' high, 12' wide and 16' long.