Category: Design

With the home raised on piers and the lower level neither insulated nor conditioned we had to do something to keep the water line coming up from the slab and into the bottom of the home envelope from freezing. We decided to build a 2×4 framed enclosure from the slab up to the home envelope and had the insulation guys spray it with closed cell foam. Plumber then ran heat tape along the pipe and left us with a plug at a nearby outlet so we could plug it in when/as required. You can get a thermostatically controlled outlet to make this approach a little more elegant.

This approach still left me nervous, so I looked for a way to heat the enclosure, and it was surprisingly hard to find a suitable heater with a thermostat that would do the job. Finally found a German-made heater made by Stego, 950 watts, with a built in thermostat. I ordered it from Galco and I think it took a couple of months to arrive. The thermostat can be set at 32 degF or above.

As soon as the shell of the home was complete we got moving on getting the roofing completed, in parallel with installation of the windows. There were/are four roof surfaces, the top surface pitched 1″ per 12″, and the other surfaces were all flat with plans calling for tapered foam to bring to 1/4″ per 12″.

The top roof was sufficiently pitched for a metal roof, and given the salt air environment we opted for an aluminum standing seam roof. Our roofing contractor used coil from Englert and we picked Dove Gray for the Kynar coating (I think we used 0.032″ aluminum). At this point we had pretty much settled on using Cembonit (now called Patina) in their pearl color for the siding, with a couple of accent walls in Trespa Pura in their romantic walnut, with lower level and trim (and windows) in a bronze color.

For the flat roof surfaces we looked into monolithic (liquid applied) membranes, which are pretty cool, but cost was 2-3x the cost for EPDM. Liquid membranes we looked at included Soprema Alsan RS and Kemper. Our (local) roofer, who was one of our best subs, said he had some experience with these, but for residential construction I think these are a pretty esoteric choice. Our concern with EPDM, which turned out to be misplaced, was rubber tire smell when the roof got hot, and to a lesser extent longevity/durability. It really did not smell, even when new. There are liquid coatings that can be applied to EPDM to increase reflectivity and longevity, we could still put one of these down at some point.

For roof and overhang fascia the plans called for 1x Azek trim painted (it only comes in flat white color) to match window trim (so for us a dark bronze color). The idea of having to repaint trim was not at all attractive to us, 30-odd feet up in the air. Our goal with all exterior material selections was to pick things that were low or no maintenance. I rebuilt a deck at our last house and used TimberTech full PVC boards and fascia. TimberTech has since been acquired by Azek and their boards are capped, but they still make and sell colored PVC fascia boards that are 0.5″x11.75″x12′. The boards are expensive at a little over $100 per, but the Azek warranty is impressive and the color (we picked cypress) is hanging in there 3 or so years in. The roofing crew put the fascia up and found the rim and outer joists to not be very fair, so there was a lot of shimming to get the fascia to be straight.

There are special colored fasteners for the fascia and also a bit for pre-drilling/countersinking that creates a hole that is a bit larger than the screw to allow for movement (PVC moves a lot with temperature). The crew did not really follow the instructions and fixed the fascia without allowing for movement in many places. So far it is holding up.

The crew flashed the roof/wall connections with copper, not sure exactly what this does, but I think they knew what they were doing. That said, this joint was problematic in a couple of spots where the EPDM was brought up the side of the Zip system sheathing, creating a reverse lap that for me is a fatal flaw of this approach. More on this in another post, but we had leaking problems at this joint and we ended up wrapping the entire home using VaproShield’s RevealShield SA, making the Zip sheathing sort of a waste of time and money. The Zip panels are also OSB, which for strength is inferior to plywood. Lesson learned, for me plywood sheathing and a high quality wrap/vapor barrier are the way to go.

The metal roof can be quite noisy on hot, windy summer days. Not sure if this is because of an installation problem, or if it is just a metal roof thing. But it is loud enough that it is a little annoying. Also if we get a melt and then a freeze you can get some pretty hefty ice slabs that eventually get cut by the seams and then slide off onto the roof below, with a large bang. Given that the roof below is EPDM over rigid foam the makes me worry about getting a puncture, so when these conditions occur I go up to manage the movement of ice from upper to lower roof. I am not sure if there is a better way or not. Our neighbor has some snow guards on his standing seam roof, perhaps we should look into putting some of those up. There are also some little stick on shark fins that supposedly slice the ice into smaller chunks.

As we went through the process of developing the construction drawings with Turkel we made some changes to window sizes and locations to (a) improve potential airflow through the home, (b) improve privacy, and (c) accommodate limitations of another product line we decided to include in the package. Once the windows were on site and they started to go in we learned about implications of some decisions we had made without knowing we had made the decisions.

In the initial design all three bedrooms had operating windows on only one wall (the master had a tall/skinny window around the corner of the main wall of windows). That did not make sense to us, and the next iteration had two windows either side and adjacent to a corner of one bedroom. The discussion with Turkel was about airflow you get when you blow on a straw while you have your thumb over the other end of the straw. So we added some operating windows and tried to get them on opposite sides of the rooms.

The home is on the water and SSE facing, and most of the south and east sides of the home are glass. The prevailing breeze in the summer is SW, and initially there was no nice way to open up the north side of the home without propping the front door open. So we added some windows to the north side, including a large operating casement adjacent to the front door (more on the front door in another post). We also added a high window to the powder room, over the commode in the master (giving windows on two walls of the master bath, up high for privacy, but adding natural light and operable for airflow), and a couple of small high windows in the mechanical room.

The Marvin Ultimate window package was not an insignificant cost that was not broken out in the Turkel purchase order, and we tried to get some visibility into that cost as we looked at making changes to the window package. This process was slow and difficult, so we started talking to other suppliers to try to get some cost granularity. During those efforts a couple of suppliers suggested that (Marvin) Integrity windows might outperform Marvin Ultimates and also save some money. Ultrex windows are strong, resulting in small rails and so larger openings, and are not susceptible to corrosion, so ideal for water front homes. Turkel had limited experience with this line of windows and it was a process to bring them up to speed of what was possible and what was not possible. Fixed Integrity casements are available in sizes up to 49 sqft, which is about as large a window as I’d want to have. The size of Integrity awnings is limited compared to Ultimates, so under large windows we doubled up Integrity awnings (so more smaller operable windows, which was fine with us and has worked well in practice), and for large awnings and a multi-slide assembly we stayed with Marvin Ultimates. The Integrity were available with wood on the interior, as well as Ultrex (we used the latter for bathrooms and laundry and mechanical rooms). All windows were available with square sticking and the exterior bronze color of Ultimate and Integrity windows is VERY close. I think more factory mulling gets done with the Ultimate windows, for our Integrity windows steel was installed for at least some of the mulling (maybe partially negating some of the cost savings, but again in a salt air environment I think I pick Ultrex over Kynar coated aluminum). The Marvin Ultimate hardware is a little nicer than the Integrity, but the Integrity is still quite OK and you would not really notice much of a difference unless it was side by side. The awning control handles are both metal, but on the Integrity the locking levers look like they are metal but they are plastic (on the all Ultrex they are white plastic).

On the stuff we learned about after the windows were on site, that was around jamb extensions and how the window frames were placed in the rough openings. Here is where we started to learn how finishing details could have huge cost implications. For the interior window to wall transitions the plans called for two pieces of trim, one of which was dadoed with the drywall going into the dado. Clearly a ton of work and our construction manager was puzzled by the design. If we were going to bring a jamb extension past the drywall I did not understand why we did not just have jamb extensions built into the windows by Marvin, then bring the drywall up pretty tight and use tear away beads to finish, that would have been a lot less work. The typical finish would be to install a jamb extension bringing the jamb flush with the drywall and then banging some casing around the window. None of these approaches seemed to be very clean to me, clean and minimal was a core tenet of the whole project. So we ended up using drywall for the “jamb extension,” using a tear away bead for finishing at the window jamb and a corner bead at the drywall to drywall corner (much as you would handle the outside corner of a wall). Still a lot of work (and cost), but a much cleaner look.

After the windows were in we learned about the importance of how those are placed in the rough openings. The plans called for 1×3 furring of all exterior soffits and interior ceilings. Our construction manager thought it was a waste of time and money to add furring to all of the joists for the ceilings, and installing furring on all of the (pretty extensive) soffits was not going to be cheap. If you did one and not the other the interior to exterior transitions at the windows would have a 3/4″ step from the side with furring to the side without. We decided to skip the furring and deal with gaps that might require trim on the exterior.

During the development of the construction drawings we had been discussing cladding options. On the lower level our thought was to have corrugated break-away aluminum panels between the concrete piers, and we had the idea to bring this aluminum up at a corner of the house to provide an accent to the main cladding (Cembonit cement board panels, more on that in another post). What I did not realize was that as a result of floating the idea of the corrugated aluminum we signed up for 2×4 furring for the cement board rain screen siding. So windows were installed with frames sticking 1.5″ out from the sheathing, so they would be flush. We ended up skipping the idea of the accent corrugated aluminum, instead using Trespa, which would install much as the cement board panels. A 1.5″ rain screen gap seemed crazy to me, though it might have been nice for bird nests. We went with 1x furring, so our window frames project 0.75″ beyond the cladding. Not the end of the world, still looks OK, but during the development of construction drawings I think it would be good if architects highlighted choices being made that have major cost and/or aesthetic implications.

Also not sure who picked out the trim for covering the mulls, it wasn’t us, I probably would have picked flat/plain trim. This is what came with the windows, maybe it was a standard/default thing. One of those things that I realized when it was ready to go on and there were bigger battles to fight …

As we were securing our initial (Coastal Area Management, or “CAM”) approvals Turkel was preparing a purchase order that would take us through the detailed design process and the procurement and assembly of a prefabricated “package,” leaving us with a watertight shell, including windows and exterior doors, which we would then finish with a local builder (walls left open for installation of MEP systems, insulation, etc.).

The purchase order included:

• Construction and permitting drawings
• Permitting support
• Shop drawings
• Procurement and assembly of the package
  • Trusses and framing, architectural glulams, etc.
  • 2×6 on 16″ exterior walls
  • Huber ZIP sheathing (1/2″ exterior walls, 5/8″ roofs)
  • Warmboard-S subfloors
  • Marvin Contemporary windows (DP50) and a Marvin Multi-Slide door (DP40)
• Local builder identification/vetting/selection

The purchase order did not include:

• Foundation (<=0.25″ out of square, elevations within 0.25″)
• Structural engineering
• MEP
• Roofing, cladding, flooring, interior doors
• Shear walls/moment frames (per structural engineering)

We had two main concerns with the purchase order, neither of which were show stoppers, but were still concerns:

1. There was no transparency into costs, for example we had no idea what the window package cost was, or what the markup on same was.
2. Somewhat related to that, this was a fairly large turnkey project with conveyance to us at completion, so we were being asked to assume a level of credit risk that is unusual in new home construction (where you would normally have a number of payments, with lien releases along the way, so you would never have too much exposure to your builder or a subcontractor). If we had been funding this portion of the project with any debt and the lender was paying attention this probably would have been a problem.

A prior Turkel client we spoke with had contracted directly with the window provider and also with the provider of the building components, which would have addressed both these concerns, but Turkel pushed back hard on this approach. The lack of transparency into costs was particularly frustrating as we started working through the details of the window package, more on that in a bit.

So with the CAM approval behind us the goal now was to get a building permit ASAP, and to get on with the construction. Prior to the CAM approval we had worked through some different options for structural engineering and ended up engaging The DiSalvo Engineering Company directly (rather than through Turkel, which would have added a 20% markup). The DiSalvo contract included the preparation of stamped detailed plans for the foundation and structure of the home and periodic site visits to check conformance to plans.

So on to the process of getting to building department approval of construction drawings:

5/14 – Turkel provided a DD (design development) set of plans to get the structural engineer going and to help with initial efforts to identify and select a local builder.

The DD set was provided to DeSalvo 5/19 and there was back and forth between them and Turkel. DiSalvo provided schematic framing plans to Turkel 6/9 for discussion, and we were all targeting 7/1 for a CD set we could use for the building permit submission. While this was in process we were weighing timber vs helical piles for the foundation system, discussing MEP design vs design/build, and looking more closely at the window package (SD did not give much or any consideration to air flow through the home). We were also working on a Turkel provided “builder specification” that would be used to cost out the non-package portion of the project and select a local builder.

7/1 – DiSalvo provided a foundation permitting set of drawings. At this point engaging a local builder and engaging a pile driving firm were the critical path items, so we elected to wait for a full set of plans and make a single permit submission.

8/3 – Submitted plans for permitting. Norwalk lost the plans and gave them another set a week or so later.

8/22 – Met with planning & zoning to go through their feedback, which was small inconsistencies between different drawings, need to label this and that, etc.

8/29 – Submitted updated drawings for permitting.

9/1 – Planning and zoning pointed out a few small mistakes/inconsistencies.

9/3 – Submitted updated drawings for permitting.

9/13 – Zoning permit issued.

9/15 – Building permit issued. So 13 months from signing contract with architect we had a building permit!

As we got into costing out the non-package part of the project, the main floor deck included about 355′ of steel beams (main floor deck roughly 49’x46′), about 110′ of which were under moment frames. And grade beams were mostly #6 rebar, which is unusual for residential construction. Turkel had another structural engineer that thought the home could be built without any steel, and DiSalvo said they could reduce steel a bit but the downside to that was additional concrete piers and steel to wood connections. Given where we were in the project re-doing the structural work was not an attractive option, and Turkel ended up moving the main floor deck and steel into the package, which was coming from a fabricator in Canada.

Turkel works with several different fabricators, and our purchase order indicated they would be using TekkHaus (no website any more, maybe they were acquired, or went out of business, not sure). For the steel value engineering Turkel worked with Pacific Truss Homes, so they were added to the mix with DiSalvo. The value engineering eventually went nowhere and we ended up back with TekkHaus for fabrication.

10/14 – Received final version of foundation plan with pile locations (as a result of coordination with package fabricator adjustments to the permit set were made).

2/16 – Complete construction set issued. Included additional detailing from the permit set, and incorporated a lot of work on the window package, window locations and sizes, and instead of just Marvin Contemporary went with a combination of Marvin and Integrity, more on that in a separate post.

4/20 – Final update to construction set. I think this was mainly window detailing updates.