After a long weekend of air sealing, and with the roof deck, gable ends and band joists insulated, the home is finally ready for drywall. The foam used for these areas is Demilec Agribalance and it was provided and installed by the Build Smart Alliance and Ron Pariseau from Green R inc. The roof deck was sprayed to an average depth of 6.5", the gables at an average depth of 5.5" and the band joists at an average depth of 5". The resulting R-Values with sheathing comes out to about R-30 for the roof, R-26 for the gables and R-23 for the bands. The depth of the foam was important as I wanted to cover as much or all of the wood framing members of the roof trusses, floor trusses and gable trusses to reduce thermal bridging. With Eco-Panels 4.5" R-26 panels for the walls, this protoype home should perform extremely well. Although some might call it "overkill", I spent several hours air sealing all the interior plate connections in order to increase performance and to achieve a very low blower door test. I used an all purpose low VOC caulk and it took quite a few hours longer than I expected. I also filled every inch of the rough openings for the windows and doors with a minimally expanding spray foam rated for windows and doors. I used to work for an insulation company when I was performing the Energy Star and Healthy Built Home Certifications, and more often then not, most insulation companies that seal these rough openings only spray enough foam to create a minimal seal. I filled the entire rough opening cavity with as much foam as it would take. I also payed very close attention to the doors as these are often one of the leakiest areas of a home.
My dream home is a timber frame wraped with Eco-Panels for the walls and roof, but once again, my goal is to create the best performing home I can for around $95 per square foot. I met the H.E.R.S rater this evening to go over the Healthy Built Homes Checklist and to inspect the insulation. The rater is Amy Musser from Vandemusser Design. This prototype home is very close to achieving a Gold Level rating for Healthy Built Homes and should easily reach the tax credit level for Energy Star (minimum 50% reduction in heating and cooling load). The subfloor in the crawl space will be spray foamed later next week and I will go into more detail as to how I am finishing out the sealed/closed crawl space.
