I am currently working on final approvals for a small patio home subdivision and am looking at the possibility of using ICF’s for the foundation/wall construction. The site has some bedrock conditions that make basements on most sites impractical. These units are targeted at more of a senior’s market, and the basements wouldn’t be walk-outs anyway. They are one story duplex units, with a radiant floor slab, nat gas heat system, sized between 1200 and 1500 sq.ft. I’ve used ICF’s quite a bit for basements but never for the whole house construction. My idea is to try and incorporate some other green type constuction details into these units and am looking for any input from anyone that has any experience with such details. They will be located on a southfacing site in a cluster type design with small lots but a fair amount of forever wild land set aside adjacent to them. I’m considering low voc paints, carpets with low emissions, energy efficient appliances. Any other good ideas?
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If we knew your climate it would help.
ICF's are an excellent choice. They insulate very well, so be careful to calculate the sizing of your heat and air conditioning rather than taking rules of thumb. If you get either too large they will perform poorly.
Designing to the site is vital to good design. So pay attention to orientation, where the sun comes, views and privacy, and so forth. An arrangement with some sort of private yard space gives a sense of comfort. Porches are nice. Don't make every house the same -- customize the layout for the individual lot direction.
Attention to accessibility is good, too. If you can pull it off without the homes looking like institutions that would be wonderful. Wider doors, ramps to the front door that don't look like an afterthought, outlets slightly higher on the walls, lots of grab bars in the bathroom but in a homey rather than a locker room style, and so forth.
As for low emission carpets, wool is a really nice choice. High end vinyl (not the cheap paper thin stuff) in the bathrooms is warmer on the feet and much easier to clean than tile. Old folks don't want to clean so much as when they were fitter.
Maybe a pantry instead of upper cabinets, or have only a few upper cabinets, not mounted too high.
Careful of tripping hazards such as thick carpets, clumsy thresholds, and so forth. Buy a bathroom fan with a built in nightlight. Install lighted switches in key areas such as bedrooms, bathrooms, hallways, entrances, etc.
Thanks, those are good ideas. I'm located in Central New York State, in an area with lots of cold and snow. My experience with ICF's so far shows they are as good as advertized as to insulation. We can install them pretty quickly too, regardless of weather. We have multiple exterior elevations, with floor plans trying to benefit as much as possible from the southern exposure. Kitchens have pantrys, master bath will have a low curb type shower and higher toilet, along with some grab bars. Doorways are wide also. I've had some experience working on senior 's housing before, but more towards full care type housing. This is a little different. As you said, I don't want it to look institutional.
Anyone got any suggestions for gas fired small boiler/water heater units for domestic/radiant heat source? This will be on city water but it is still somewhat hard water so I'm not sure about any of the instant type heaters.
Gee, I lived in Canton for 18½ years. Good to see a project like that in New York, it is much needed.
I would recommend against demand heaters for domestic hot water for your type of owner. There are volumes written about tankless heaters in the archives.
ICFs are wonderful for cold and snow. I did a basement with them and love it. Warmest, driest basement I've ever been in. Some friends built their entire house of ICFs. They said it was really quiet, but I've never been in it.
Another feature I used which worked out well was raised heel trusses. With 15" heels I could take 12" of insulation all the way to the outside sheathing, so there was no cold spot along the top of the walls. It changes the look of the elevations, though, so has to be considered as part of the total design.
For the boiler, it is not unreasonable to fill the system with distilled water. It is only about 99¢ per gallon. You could buy it in the drugstore and dump them into a clean plastic trash can and pump it from there. I believe you could add years to the life of a system by charging it with good water. If there are no leaks it would stay clean for a long time.
Wayne, A bunch of my buddies went to Canton for college, so I used to get up there once in a while back 30 years ago. We get a little more snow in the hills south of Syracuse, but Canton sure gets colder. I remember waking up in the back of my van after a long night on the town with the guys, and it was 30 below. Seeing as how I didn't have a sleeping bag, I spent the rest of the night driving around with the heater on full blast to try and stay warm.
The raised heel trusses are a good point. We do that also, and actually the code calls for that now, at least in our area. It also makes for simpler soffit framing. The bottom of the truss is the soffit line. I'll read more in the archives about the boilers and instant heaters. I've considered using 2 water heaters, one for domestic, the other for heat. Thats what I have in my own house and it seems to work fine. I think that the heating load will be small enough that a 40,000 btu unit would handle the 1200-1500 sq.ft. My heater is a 60,000 btu and I'm heating about 2300 sq.ft not including my ICF basement. I've got radiant heat in the basement floor slab over 1" foam bd. and have not had the zone on in the last 7 years. It stays comfortable all winter just from the heat of the boiler and exposed pipe of the manifolds. It's a walkout basement but all the glass is south facing.