High Performing Buildings - Spring 2009 - (Page 51) t he American foursquare, a sears, roebuck & Co. kit home, was a staple of small American towns between 1908 and 1940. more than 100,000 of them were built in America. sears offered 15 styles of foursquare kits, which were available through the mail-order modern Homes program. these homes arrived via boxcar, making them particularly common in neighborhoods near rail lines. the design is simple to understand and elegant in its efficient enclosure of space. most of these designs are nearly perfect squares, with a footprint ranging from 28 ft to 34 ft and are two stories in height. they are typically crowned with a pyramidshaped roof detailed with dormers. the window-to-wall ratio is typically sparse, yet each room in the house has at least two windows on at least two sides of the house. this concept means that quality daylight is available in every room during most daylight hours. the windows’ location on different sides of each room also promotes natural ventilation. this 1915 house never had any system upgrades, and still had its original wiring, plumbing and oilfired boiler. But it had beautiful plaster, interior wood trim and maple flooring that was in good shape and ready for another 100 years. While the original house enclosed 3,600 ft2, only 2,000 ft2 were intentionally conditioned. the nonconditioned space included 1,000 ft2 in the basement and an additional 600 ft2 in the vented attic. We replaced the bathroom and kitchen, which were in bad shape. one of the second-floor bedrooms was changed into a bathroom and laundry room in anticipation of future occupants. Another full bath was added in the now-conditioned attic. In the end, what was a four-bedroom, 1.5-bath house became a four-bedroom, 3.5bath house with a fully conditioned basement to be used as an exercise and family room. Long-range plans called for four to five occupants. energy reduction strategies All of the renovations used systems engineering principles to ensure good indoor air quality and longterm durability while providing deep energy reductions. extensive information on these topics can be found on our company’s Web site (www.buildingscience.com). Drainage plane (water-repellent materials designed to drain water — e.g., housewrap, building paper or taped facing on sheathing); Air barrier (airtight continuous enclosure around conditioned space); thermal barrier/insulation (layer that controls heat flow by conduction between interior and exterior); Vapor control (materials designed to control the movement of water by vapor diffusion, to prevent accumulation that can result in damage to the building); Combustion safety (fossil fuel burning appliances using sealed combustion technology); spring 2009 HigH B u i l d i n g at a g l a n c e Project name Concord retrofit House location Concord, mass. size 3,600 ft2 Construction started 2006 Construction Completed 2007 Building use residential Total renovation Cost $300,000 Building team owner/Architect/systems design Betsy Pettit, principal, Building science Corporation Building science Consultant Joseph lstiburek, fellow AsHrAe, principal, Building science Corporation energy modeling and Performance Testing Kohta ueno, associate, Building science Corporation Contractors The synergy Companies, owners gary Bergeron and david Joyce HVAC Contractor finn’s Tin, Jim finnegan Photos Betsy Pettit Performing Buildings 51 http://www.buildingscience.com
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