Deconstruction

Seasons Services sent a crew out yesterday to remove some of the foam board and EIFS around the house. This is where the 2"x12" pressure treated deck ledger board will be connected to the house with Hilti epoxy bolts.

You might be wondering why this wasn't done before the EIFS was installed, right? So were we, but Aaron from Cornerstone told us we could install the ledger board on top of the EIFS. Wrong again! The code doesn't allow that; the ledger board has to flat up against the concrete foundation and then bolted into that.

Seasons Services removed the extruded foam board along three sides of the house and waterproofed the cut area. Jeff Gunther, who will be building the deck for us, will start installing the ledger board this week. After the ledger board is up, Seasons Services will come back to flash around the ledger board and add new foam board and stucco in any gap that's remaining above the ledger board.

If the weather holds out and it doesn't rain, Bernie with Clarke County Plumbing is scheduled to come in the morning to bring the rainwater tank pipe through the house. Then we can schedule final grading, which will be a most wonderful day!

I'm off to Montreal for work for the week, so I won't be able to blog, but Andreas might provide some updates as time permits.

EIFS, Act 5

Andreas is out of town for work and I'm back from my trips, so it's my turn to blog again. I hope you have an enjoyable Independence Day holiday today.

The crew from Seasons Services finished up the EIFS installation on the Southern side of the house on Friday morning. They work quickly! They've taken down almost all of their scaffolding as well. And they've caulked around all of the doors and windows so they're sealed properly from the exterior. Now that the basement doors arrived and Aaron has installed those, they also started the EIFS in the areaway. Since the EIFS installation is a process, they'll come back a couple of times to finish that section. There are some other minor details they need to take care of - such as completing the work around the step light electrical boxes and cleaning up the site. But we've been really pleased with Seasons Services' work on the EIFS installation. They're quick, professional, on the job when they say they're going to be there, and the quality of their work is very high. Here are some pictures of the Southern side:

EIFS, Act 4

The final EIFS coat arrived by surprise. I went to the lot today to check on the sump pump, and Claudia's crew must have worked today, Saturday, to apply the final EIFS coat. Here is what it looks like:

EIFS, Act 3

This is what the next stage in the EIFS process looks like. The styrofoam is covered with a base coat that has a nylon mesh embedded in it. This already looks pretty close to the final product - the final coat (with color premixed into it) now goes on top of that.

Tight as ... Tupperware

Back in the late 1970s, my mother hosted at least one Tupperware party that I remember. The advantage of Tupperware is the airtight seal. Little did I know then that you want the same thing from a house.

I've been spending a few days on and off over the last few weeks airsealing around the house: mostly where the concrete meets the mud sill, and where the CEB wall meets the top plate. All you need is a caulk gun, a LOT of caulk (I used a GE product, Silicone I, but any silicone-based caulk will work well), and off you go. Believe it or not, this is one of the most energy efficient things you can do to your house (move over, replacement windows!) - so efficient in fact, that EarthCraft standards mandate airsealing in lots of places. Most of them I've covered now - for the rest of the airsealing (and firestopping), the professionals from Southland Insulators will take over before they apply sprayfoam insulation to our roof, the clerestory window area, and the bandjoist. More on that in a future post.

For now, just a picture of a nice, thick, bead of Silicone caulk between the top of the CEB wall and the top plate. Often under-appreciated, but such an important component of building green.

EIFS, Act 2

I'm blogging today instead of Mike - he's away.

Claudia and her EIFS crew wrapped the house in extruded styrofoam today. (Yes, there are different kinds of styrofoam: expanded - the white, bubbles-pressed-together looking kind; and extruded - which is much smoother in texture.) The advantage of extruded styrofoam is that (a) it has a greater R-value (R-5 per inch ... we have three inches, so a total of R-15) and (b) it is a water barrier (by contrast, expanded styrofoam is about as permeable as a sieve).

For now, the house looks like a big freezer box. The next few steps are to sand the styrofoam smooth; embed a nylon mesh in another scratchcoat, and then to apply the final EIFS coat. In a week, weather permitting, we should have the final product.