Studio Construction: Digging Trenches

A digger was used to dig a trench in front of the building. Dave and James are in the trench framing up foundations and footings for the porch and arcade.

Concrete was poured into sono-tubes with re-bar sticking out.

Meanwhile, Ron and I are digging trenches for the services to be taken from the house to the studio.

When I say 'we' I mean Ron is doing the hard physical labour of swinging a pick to dig out rocks and shovelling metres of soil.

I am using hand tools to excavate around tree roots and existing irrigation pipes.

We are doing the unskilled manual labour.

Studio Construction: Windows and Doors

I was working away in my current studio when things went dark.

A big delivery truck had arrived outside my window.

The outside doors had arrived.

One for the main level and 2 for the crawl space.

Ooh, another big delivery truck.

Milgard. That means the windows have arrived.

Out of all the different fittings and fixtures we have researched for The Shed, the windows have taken the most hours of research and most showroom visits. Our priorities for the building was no maintenance for 25 to 30 years, high energy efficiency and lots of natural light. These priorities meant we were looking for high-quality windows. The windows are an important part of the design of the building.

The front door has lots of glass to allow lots of light into the centre of the building.

Other window design issues we considered were that smaller, fewer windows are best for improved over-all building thermal performance, comfort, durability and efficient operations. On the other hand, I also require enough windows that are large enough to let in a lot of natural light. 

Some of the decisions that needed to be made about the type and design of the windows: 

• U. factor/ U. value - Thermal  conductivity i.e. how much warm air leaks out through them - we want to minimise this feature,
• SHGC - Solar Heat Gain Coefficient - how well the glass blocks the sun's radiant heat - we want to maximise this feature, 
• VT - Visible Light Transmittance - how much light comes through the glass - we want to maximise this feature,
• Material - Wood and fibreglass are the best for thermal efficiency but are the most expensive. Fibreglass is long lasting and strong enough for large windows. Vinyl is the most cost effective and has high thermal properties.
• Type: Casement, hung, double hung, awning, sliding, opening/non-opening, opening which direction.
• Colour: What colour? The architect and artist had to agree on this one.

The small windows are stacked inside, in my studio.

Our decisions on the windows:

• Material: Milgard's vinyl windows are thermally very efficient. We don't have any large windows so the frame doesn't need to be extra strong. The frame is painted in the factory so won't need painting on site or for the life of the window. Vinyl costs less than wood and fibreglass.
• Technical Specs: We went with double glazed. It doesn't get cold enough on Vancouver Island to justify triple-glazing. Argon gas filling the space between the panes of glass to stop the flow of warm air is pretty standard for windows now. We went with upgraded thermal spacers between the panes of glass, generally a weak area for thermal efficiency.
• Design; We chose different types of windows for different parts of the building. Some of the small windows on the east side open as part of the heating and cooling system, which I will go into more in a later post. These windows also have only 1 low E plastic film coating to maximise the amount of light coming through. The windows on the sunny side of the building have 2 coatings of low E film to stop some of the interior heating by the summer sun, but at the same time sacrificing some of the natural light - a compromise. These sunny-side windows can also be opened to catch the prevailing summer breezes as part of the building's cooling system. We chose the more expensive insect screen option in Gortex because it lets in twice as much light as the regular screens. The building is tucked in under shady tall trees, as I wanted it, but  we have been careful to design for as much natural light reaching the interior as possible.
• Colour: Black frames on the outside will help the building visually blend in with the forest. White frames on the inside help with the reflection of light around the room.

Phew! See what I mean about the windows being such a big decision and why it was so exciting to see them arrive on site.

Studio Construction: Another Roof Layer

Jeff  is getting up on the roof after a pellet of plywood was placed up there by a delivery truck with a large arm. 

A sunny day and the race to get the plywood layer on before the next lot of rain.

Next operation - digging trenches and holes for more foundations - this time for the porch and arcade that runs along the side of the building.

The resident 'retired, always-an-engineer' consulting with the digger operator, Aaron Yager, the owner of the construction company.

James is the 'look out' person or maybe 'spotter' is the correct term.

Dave, the lead carpenter, keeps an eye on operations as well.

There is a lot of cell phone consulting of different weather forecast apps to see when the next lot of rain is coming. These forecasts influence what can be done next.

The next lot of rain came. Now the building is covered with the ubiquitous 'blue tarp.' This distinctive blue colour is a common sight on the island. It indicates an issue with water whether it is keeping a pile of winter wood dry enough to burn or trying to keep an unfinished roof dry during construction or covering a roof damaged during a storm. 

Keeping water out of the materials and outside the building envelope is a major influence on building design in this rain forest environment. 

The Pacific North West rain forest ecosystem with its high rainfall and relatively mild climate produces the largest biomass in the world. The combination of conditions is perfect for growing huge trees then rotting and breaking them down in a self-supporting cycle of growth and decay. We are building a wooden structure within this ecosystem where the same processes will be active. All of the building's wood will naturally breakdown unless the water can be kept outside the building envelope.

'Canadiana', May 1-8, 2015 Textile Art Show

‘Canadiana’   May 1 - 8, 2015  Textile Art Show
Community Arts Centre, 9565 Fifth Street
at Tulista Park in Sidney  Open daily 10 am - 4 pm

A travelling exhibition of 30 works exploring a sense of place in Canada by members of the Fibre Art Network.  FAN is a co-operative of Fibre Artists in Western Canada.  This exhibit made it’s debut in Palmerston North, New Zealand in January 2015.  It is scheduled to travel for two years in Canada with the first showing in Canada at Tulista Gallery in Sidney.

Yukon Gold - Katie Stein Sather, Maple Ridge, BC

Pine Beetle Blues - Marcy Horswill, Cumberland, BC

Studio Construction: Roof Beams

This is an exciting delivery - roof beams.

They were designed by the engineer, Ritchie Smith of  Hoel Engineering and Contracting and constructed in a nearby factory. Another engineered product as the 'greener' option.

Dave guides a bundle of beams as they are taken off the truck bed.

Engineered roof beams have lots of advantages over lengths of timber. They are designed in an 'I' shape for strength and are reliably straighter than natural wood. There are fewer defects while a piece of timber will have weakening knots and grain abnormalities, structural and cosmetic problems that over time can take more resources to repair. The extra initial cost of the manufactured beam is more than made up with less wastage on site, fewer materials to get the equivalent required strength and quicker installation.

It looks like the load arrived with graffiti.

The name is not graffiti. It is the owner of the construction company's name, Aaron Yager.

Here is Jeff measuring twice and cutting once.

I think Dave and Jeff appreciated another advantage of engineered roof beams - they are lighter. But they still must have taken a lot of effort to hoist them up onto the roof.

Here is a cross section of the 'I' beam - a naturally strong shape.

Nearly all of the beams are in place.

Next a roooooof!

Studio Construction: Walls

The walls are going up quickly.

The carpenters frame up a section add plywood then raise it up.

The plywood gives the wall rigidity and strength while reducing the amount of lumber needed in the frame.

Framing up in the crawl space.

It rained a lot before the floor above went down and the crawlspace is still very wet.

I had a couple of sessions sweeping water out.

The yellow header board above every window and door frame is an engineered product called Glue-Lam. Blue sheet foam insulation is placed on both sides of the header because wood transmits heat more than air so the headers are places that need to be well insulated.

The header boards are made from many layers of slices of wood glued together. They are stronger than solid wood so less framing is needed over the windows and doors. These Glue-Lam boards use smaller trees so, in theory, the biggest trees are left standing. They don't twist like timber tends to so there is very little waste on site when it is used. 

Studio Construction: Framing Begins

A delivery of framing material...

...is offloaded.

The framing begins.

A milestone day.

Backfilling around the foundation walls.

The front pile of dirt came from the site excavation.

The back pile is the top soil that was lifted off first and kept separate. It will be used to make raised garden beds in front of the studio.

I have been given a job - moving all of these decorative river stones if I don't want them covered during the digging of trenches for the service pipes going from the house to the studio.

I have plans for these stones in the big Back Yard Project so I am keen for them to not be covered with dirt. Over the next few weeks, with a friend helping, we moved all of these stones, and there are more behind, to piles, out of the way.

I heard it said this job was 'grunt work.'

So it was mainly framing and backfilling this week.

Studio Construction: Flooring

Here is one of the project owners checking out the installation of the floor joists.

Another advantage of the concrete filled foam block foundation is that it is a bearing wall, meaning it is strong enough to hold the floor joists and floor bearers are not needed - another saving in materials.

The building was designed to be narrow enough that the single span floor joist can be supported by the wall down the centre of the crawlspace. No extra support is needed.

Here is Dave, the lead/head carpenter on the job, attaching a perimeter board to the floor joists.

Next he and Jeff secured plywood on top of the floor joists making the first layer of the main room floor.

One day I came home from a meeting to find this. The first wall was assembled while lying flat, then somehow raised and secured. 

Now it is really beginning to look like a building.

That is rain on the camera lens, not snow. It continues to fall making the site muddier and muddier. The backfill soil is too compacted and saturated for the rainwater to percolate through it so the water accumulates in puddles. Ron went out with a shovel and pick to make channels for the puddles to flow down the hill, away from the construction site.

Studio Construction: Lots of Activity

The crawlspace floor has set. Here I am trying it out, standing directly below where my irons will be set up.

Other activities continued over the week.

Henry, a water and airproof sticky membrane, was stuck to the outside of the concrete foundation around the back of the building.

All of the formwork timber had nails pulled out then was stacked up ready to be used again on another job site.

Early one misty morning a slinger truck arrived on site.

A wet gravel mix was slung behind the building.

It was used to support and cover the building's perimeter drains. It will keep any water draining away from the building to keep the foundation dry.

We have had a wet week, but the work continues.

Studio Construction - Crawl Space Floor

Early on a frosty morning a pumper truck arrived on site.

Not far behind was a concrete truck.

The 2 trucks connected. 

The guy high up in the control area directed the flow of concrete to the pump truck.

Meanwhile, a specialised concrete crew had arrived.

It was like watching a ballet as they worked quickly together to get the flowing concrete pumped out and leveled before it started to set.

Then they smoothed out the concrete with various blades and levelers.

Once the concrete had set to a specific firmness it was polished with a hovering machine then left to dry.

And that is it. The smooth crawlspace floor is finished. It doesn't need any further finishing with more materials. The concrete is designed with more than 1 purpose - it is part of the foundation of the building and it is the finished floor.

Concrete is a 'green' material in that it is largely a mined resource and only lightly processed. Once set there is minimal off-gassing which decreases as it ages. It is permanent. 

If the building is well designed it is likely to be in place for a long time without major changes.

 If the original construction is done well there will be minimal maintenance costs over the life of the building.  

 The concrete floor's durability, long life expectancy and ease of maintenance qualifies it for a high Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA is an analysis of something over its entire lifetime.