Shilshole Pointe is notable for many reasons, not the least of which is the community aspect.  There are five homes, each with it’s own style, layout, and fantastic view of Puget Sound.  The homes are designed and located to relate to one another, creating a feeling of community, but also to stand for themsleves and provide a sense of privacy for each homeowner.  Design and Function of each individual home varies considerably to broaden appeal and promote diversity within this mico-community.  The intent is for the homeowners to enjoy the benefits of community both amongst themselves and within the surrounding community as well. 

The homes at Shilshole Pointe range in size from approximately 2700 to 3400 square feet, with 4 bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths.  Their contemporary design ranges from open plan modern, to more traditional with centrally located bedrooms and separate areas for guests found throughout all of the homes.  The finishes feature use of local, sustainable, and reclaimed materials with efficient windows, super-insulation, and renewable energy heating and cooling.  Shilshole Pointe is, in fact the first community of homes in the city fo Seattle that features Geothermal Heating and Cooling.  This simple, effective heating and cooling technology has been around for centuries and can save up to 40% on the amount of energy required to keep a home comfortable year round.

JRJ Development has been building homes in the Seattle area since 1992 and the knowledge, experience, and pespective they have gained from 18 years in local building is clearly stated in this collection of homes.  There is currently one completed home remaining with two more in the final stages of construction.  If you would like to take a walk through the project please contact us.  We would be glad to make the arrangements.  The homes are open to the public on Sundays from 1-4 as well.  They are absolutely worth a visit and of consideration if you are in the market for a new, green, well-designed home.

On Sunday, August 29th at 1:00pm please join us for a special tour of the latest project from YS Development.  The YS Bellevue 41st project is a collection of what will be 4 custom designed green homes.  At this point of construction there will be one home well on it’s way, one home preparing to have the foundation poured, and a third having just come throught the design phase with the homeowners.  Learn about each step in the process of designing and building a green home guided by Yuval Sofer from YS Development and Matt Muhsam from GreenDwellingSeattle. 

Please RSVP in advance by contacting matt@greendwellingseattle.com or yuvalsofer@hotmail.com

This month we are excited to visit the latest project by one of Seattle premier green builder Dwell Development.  Exceeding Built Green 5-Star and targeting LEED Platinum certification, 436dwell is destined to be one of the most efficient speculative homes built to date in the city of Seattle.  Utilizing techniques such as superior air sealing and insulation Dwell has been able to achieve a nearly airtight building envelope with this home, setting the stage for phenomenal energy efficiency. 

Please Visit the tours page for more information and to sign up.

The foundation has been formed and poured for the first home at YS Development’s Bellevue 41^st Street Development and they are now ready to construct the framing that will serve as the structural and interior bones of the home.  The structural engineering behind a homes framing is intricate and highly technical, but we would like to help you develop a basic understanding of the major aspects of framing, and to be able to recognize the value of a home that takes a thoughtful approach to development and construction from beginning to end.    

In modern residential framing we often refer to light-frame construction; a technique based around structural members called studs, to which interior and exterior wall coverings are attached.  These stud walls are topped with structural members called floor and ceiling joists and finally the roofing structure.  After all this framing is in place, the entire home is covered in rigid panels/ sheathing such as plywood or OSB (oriented strand board) that the exterior water proofing, rigid insulation and siding will eventually be attached to.  OSB is a cross-oriented layers of thin, rectangular wooden strips compressed and bonded together with wax and resin adhesives (95% wood, 5% wax and resin). The finished product has similar properties to plywood, but is uniform and a bit cheaper. Common uses are as sheathing in walls, floors, and roofs. Similar to engineered wood these are sustainable choice and they emit very low levels of formaldehyde.  In between floors joists are placed and the interior walls are framed within.  Basically, the framing of a home is a collection of structural lumber supports that evenly distribute the weight (load) onto the foundation below

At YS Development’s Bellevue 41^st Street development, a special technique called Advanced Framing (or OVE – Optimum Value Engineering) has been used. OVE techniques are implemented in both the design and the construction phases of the project and include designing the building on 2-foot modules, aligning openings with stud spacing, increasing wall stud spacing from every 16″ to 24″, spacing floor joists, roof rafters, and/or trusses at 19.2″ or 24″ instead of 16″, utilizing double top plates at walls and aligning floor, wall, and roof framing members such that loads are transferred directly from the roof to the foundation, among others.  In simple terms this system uses standard products in more effective ways that save material, and provide a better insulated and stronger structure. The resulting building has improved thermal performance with added insulation, which results in energy savings for the homeowner.

You will notice from the slideshow that the floor joists used in this project are slightly different than what we are accustomed to seeing in many older or more traditionally built homes. These are known as I-Joists and they are a great choice for a number of reasons.  First, they tend to be straighter and more uniform in strength than traditional lumber. Second, they have a greater load bearing capacity and can span farther (in the first house for example we have TGIs that spans more than 36’ in length in one piece).  Third, they are a green choice, using far less wood than traditional joists due to the center panel being generally made from waste wood or small, fast growing species that are sustainably harvested.  The layout of framing and the various forms of support structure found in homes is engineered to deal with forces from gravity to snow load, green roofs, high winds to earthquakes.  It is a crucial and often overlooked element within a home that is certainly worth establishing a working knowledge of.

If this is the first post you have read about this fantastic Eastside green building project take some time to browse through past post about this and other projects.  It is an excellent way to see what makes a green home different and to learn a great deal about this thoughtful approach to development.  We will be holding a public open house at the project this coming Saturday, August 15^th from 1-4 pm and would love to have you stop by for a tour of this home.  For more information contact Matt Muhsam or Yuval Sofer.  We welcome your comments and feedback about this post and encourage you to reach out with any questions you might have.

Now that the excavation is complete it’s time to move onto the foundation walls that will support the first home at the YS Development Bellevue 41^st project.   The opportunities for thoughtfulness and forward thinking start from the beginning of any building project and in keeping with this philosophy YS Development is using a special concrete mix which has 50% recycled slag content (a byproduct of smelting ore).  Not only is this an excellent reuse of otherwise waste material it also results in concrete strength close to double that of the more traditional concrete mix. Additionally, special attention is given to preparation of the foundations forms including placing the necessary pipes for electricity and plumbing inside the foundation walls at the time of pour to avoid having to drill the foundation wall in the future.   

A typical foundation is generally made up of two components: the footing and the foundation wall itself.  The footing is a pad of concrete above which the foundation walls will be formed and subsequently poured.  The footing width and thickness is determined by a number of factors including stability of the soil, the height and thickness of the foundation wall that will rest upon it, and the load that foundation wall is engineered to support.  The foundation wall is determined by the footprint and design of the home and the height of the foundation walls is largely a function of the depth necessary to get below the frost layer and by the topography of the site.

Both the footing and the foundation wall are reinforced with steel (rebar) to provide additional strength to the concrete.  You will see in the images that as the footing forms are set they are filled with steel in an orientation that will not only provide the greatest amount of support, but that the steel actually protrudes from the footing form itself.  This will enable the foundation wall when it is constructed to be structurally tied to the footing beneath it. 

After the footing is poured and the forms removed, it is time to start constructing the foundation wall forms and subsequently filling them with more reinforcing steel.  This reinforcing steel is tied with wire to connect it to the steel that was embedded in the footing; creating one solid steel reinforced foundation structure.  Now it’s time to bring the pumper trucks back onto the site and fill the completed foundation forms with concrete.  After the concrete is poured a worker comes by and repeatedly sinks a vibrating wand into it to make sure that every nook and cranny is evenly filled and that there are no air bubbles. 

A few days later the concrete is sufficiently set and the forms are ready to be removed revealing the first permanent structure on the site; the very structure that will be in constant service supporting the framing, roof structure, and every finish detail that will be added to this home over the course of the next several months.

 From a green building perspective it’s important to note the special measures that are taken during excavation and foundation work in order to minimize site disturbance and retain native conditions as much as possible. These include avoiding soil compaction by limiting heavy equipment to the building footprint and construction cntrance, to plan and post restricted areas on site, protect the topsoil on site for reuse, and to preserve the existing native vegetation whenever possible for use as future landscaping.

As the construction process progresses we will continue to follow along.  If you have any questions about any of the steps along the way please get in touch.  We would be happy to provide you with clear answers.  If you would ever like to take a tour of the site we would be happy to make the necessary arrangements.  If this is the first post you have read in our series of green building posts following the construction of green homes, please take a few minutes to review past posts.  You can search the terms Seattle Green Building and go from there. 

It could be said that outside of design and use of sustainable materials, this entire project revolves around the efforts undertaken to properly air seal and highly insulate this home.  As we have mentioned before Dwell Development is on a path to creating Net Zero homes by 2012.  An important part of attaining this goal is to create a home that has very little air leakage and that is well insulated to keep the warm air in during cool months and to keep the warm air out during the summertime. 

436dwell is aiming to achieve a goal of less than 1 air exchanges per hour, meaning that the house is essentially air tight.  To do this, great care must be taken to ensure that every single penetration and seam in the exterior envelope is dealt with properly including the joints in the exterior sheathing, where the roof structure meets the exterior walls, where the exterior walls meet the foundation, and around every window and door.

In addition, Dwell has decided to look to the airtight drywall approach to to achieving an essentially airtight seal between the interior and exterior of the home.  The product they have chosen is called the Energy Complete System by Owens Corning.  This is a spray on foam material that forms a gasket between the drywall and framing at every location with a direct connection to the exterior.  The product is designed to be permanently tacky and flexible in order to form a seal that will maintain a seal and will move with the home as it settles a bit over it’s lifetime. 

Once the “gasket” has been applied insulation will be installed; in this case BIBs, a blown-in material as well as Batt insulation between floors.  This super-insulation will work in conjunction with the air sealing to minimize heat loss and gain depending on time of year, and will make the already extremely efficient radiant heating system operate at it’s highest performance rating. 

Proper air sealing and superior insulation do create an airtight home, and when used with a Heat Recovery Ventilation System (HRV) will provide a comfortable, healthy, efficient environment for it’s inhabitants year-round. 

If this is the first post you have read about Dwell Developments 436Dwell project take a few minutes to look back through past posts.  These homes are available for presale and we are happy to coordinate site tours for interested homebuyers as well as those of you who may just be interested in seeing how these homes are constructed up close.  We will cover the remaining aspects of these homes construction in future posts and encourage your comments and feedback.

Saturday, July 24th.  This month we are very excited to have an opportunity to take a closer look at Seattle’s first geothermal community.  The Shilshole Pointe project by JRJ Development at it’s completion, will be a collection of seven Built Green 4-Star homes in the Sunset Hill neighborhood of Ballard.  Aside from the Geothermal system, other various features include 50 year metal roofs, super insulated walls and ceiling, Energy Star appliances, low VOC finishes, water conserving fixtures, rain barrels, drought tolerant plantings, and more.  5 of the 7 homes are in varying stages of completion.  We will start with the completed ”Captains House”, and have an opportunity to view other homes in the project and see the different stages in a green building project.    

Please visit the Tours page for more information and to sign up for the tour on July 24th.

For our next green building informal case studies we will be following the construction by YS Development of what will be four new green homes in Bellevue at the base of Somerset.  This will be an exciting opportunity to talk about not only the steps involved in constructing one home, but how an entire community of homes comes together.  These posts will follow much the same format at our Seattle Green Building series of posts and will mark the major milestones of these builds and describe in detail how they are different from traditional homes and why the efforts that go into them are important in reducing our impact on the built environment. 

After a home has been designed and the plans have been approved by the local municipality, the permits are issued and we are ready to ”break ground” and start preparing the site for the future home that will rest there.  This is the point when excavators arrive on site and begin the process of digging down to a stable surface on which the footings, and then the foundation will be formed and then poured. 

After a survey of the site has been completed, the site is appropriately marked for the location of the foundation footings and the excavator can begin work.  You will see from the images that the ground is excavated to different depths, depending on the requirements of the foundation, to where it is determined the ground is sufficiently stable to carry the load of the home.  Care is taken during this process to minimize site disturbance and to remove only as much soil as is necessary to properly place the forms where the foundation footings will be placed.  It is important to note that after the foundation work has been completed a great deal of the soil that has been removed will be replaced to where it was excavated from.  Towards the end of construction, the top 12 inches of soil will be amended to return the soil to a condition where it will effectively manage storm water and minimize the effect the site work will have on the long-term health of the homes natural surroundings. 

As the construction process progresses we will continue to follow along.  If you have any questions about any of the steps along the way please get in touch.  We would be happy to provide you with clear answers.  If you would ever like to take a tour of the site we would be happy to make the necessary arrangements.  If this is the first post you have read in our series of green building posts following the construction of green homes, please take a few minutes to review past posts.  You can search the terms Seattle Green Building and go from there.

An important aspect of green building is creating comfortable, healthy efficient interiors within a home.  One of the many unique features of these homes is the choices that have made to heat the interior spaces and meet the homes domestic hot water needs.  The single piece of technology Dwell Development has chosen for these purposes is a Navien Condensing 98% Water Heater.  The Navien system is 98% efficient, meaning that out of every dollar spent to heat the water only 2¢ worth of that energy is lost to the exhaust.  This is an all-in-one unit comprised of a boiler that heats the water as needed to deliver hot water for the radiant heating while simultaneously delivering hot water for use in laundry, dishwashing, showers/baths, and sinks.  The two systems can be seen in the photos as color coded tubes (red for hot, blue for cold) for the domestic hot water, and black tubes for the radiant heating. 

These units are equipped with two heat exchangers; one for turning cold water into hot and the other being a condensing heat exchanger that uses the condensation that is created as a result of the cold water cooling the hot gases inside the unit.  Normally these hot gases would escape through the vents in a conventional hot water heater.  In this case the heat in the condensation is utilized to help heat the water, dramatically increasing the efficiency of the unit. 

Both for the radiant heat system and for domestic hot water it is necessary to bring the water to a specific temperature.  This is achieved by sending the hot water through mixing valves that are controlled by a thermostat to deliver just the right temperature water on a constant basis.  These mixing valves will introduce just enough cool water to the heated water to maintain the desired temperature and are shown in the slide 7 of the slideshow. There is a separate mixing valve for each zone controlled by its own thermostat.  With the capabilities of the Navien unit homeowners can enjoy a virtually endless supply of hot water.

At 436Dwell the radiant heating systems has been installed in two seperate applications.  On the lower levels the pex tubing has been embedded in the concrete floors (stubs visible in slide 1).  Heating this concrete slab creates a significant amount of thermal mass that can be taken advantage of for heating during cooler months.  In the warmer months of the year this same thermal mass will contribute to the cooling of the home as it will remain cooler that the air that surrounds it when it is not being heated.  On the upper floors the radiant heat is being delivered through the same pex tubing, however in this case the application method is to run the tubing in the space between floors and install diffusers that help distribute the heat evenly to the floor above. 

Radian heat provides a comfort at lower thermostat settings, aides in healthy indoor air quality, is quiet, and greatly reduces drafts in homes.  On demand hot water systems are an efficient, space saving means of providing an ample supply of hot water as it is needed, rather than maintaining a volume of heated water even when it is not in use.  These are just a few of the ways that these homes will give back to their homeowners just as much as has gone into their design and construction.

If this is the first post you have read about Dwell Developments 436Dwell project take a few minutes to look back through past posts.  These homes are available for presale and we are happy to coordinate site tours for interested homebuyers as well as those of you who may just be interested in seeing how these homes are constructed up close.  We will cover the remaining aspects of these homes construction in future posts and encourage your comments and feedback.

The Shilshole Pointe Geo Homes by JRJ Development will be the first installation of Geothermal Heating and Cooling for a community of homes in the City of Seattle.  The project consists of seven homes, approximately 3150 square feet with sweeping views of the Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains.  The various green features of each home will include superior insulation, extensive use of materials reclaimed from the site, rainwater collection, low-flow fixtures, low VOC finishes, and passive ventilation.     

Geothermal Heat Pumps are the most efficient heating and cooling technology available today according to the US Department of Energy.  Buildings that employ this technology can expect an annual savings of nearly 60% for space heating and domestic hot water over conventional systems.  This installation included the drilling of four 200-225 foot deep loops (down and back up) for each home into which 1600 feet of tubing filled with a liquid solution was placed to form a continuous loop.  The ground at that depth maintains a constant temperature of 55-57 degrees Fahrenheit year round (warmer than surface temperatures in the winter, cooler than in the summer), and basically a heat exchanger does the rest; heating or cooling as needed.  It is a relatively simple technology that could have a dramatic impact on a number of environmental considerations, namely and perhaps now most poignantly a reliance on fossil fuels for residential (and commercial) space conditioning and water heating.   Among the list of benefits immediately available to the homeowner is a tax credit of 30% of the total installation cost*. 

JRJ Development has been building homes in the Seattle area since 1992.  Their vision began with a desire to enhance Seattle neighborhoods by developing and constructing high quality properties.  The knowledge, experience, and perspective they have gained from 18 years in local building has encouraged them to explore and now confidently integrate technologies such as Geothermal Heating and Cooling into their projects; along with a myriad of other green building practices.  Guided tours are available for this project.  If you would like to take a walk through and learn about the many materials, techniques, and technologies that have been utilized at this site please contact us and we would be happy to make the arrangements.