Solar Home Chronicles 16

Tuesday, 23 October 2007

Putting a house on top of our solar slab foundation

The concrete pouring was finished at the work site. After a day, the wooden forms were removed from the walls, so we could see what we had. Part of the nine-foot north wall was `honey-combed’. This means that there had been air in the concrete next to the forms, so the wall was pitted, and not smooth. This sometimes happens if the concrete is poured too quickly. If the honeycombing was too deep or extensive, the wall would not have the required structural integrity.

The concrete people returned, examined the wall and patched it over. We got a slight discount on their cost. We think that the honeycombing will be cosmetic, rather than a structural problem.

When we took the forms off the slab, we found that the concrete had not fully filled out some corners, probably because the plastic sheeting was bunched, rather than flat. We mixed some concrete by hand, and filled in these spaces. Then we made sure that the insulation fully enclosed the slab floor.

We were ready to build the wooden structure. The wood that we ordered through the Forestry Stewardship Council arrived late one evening, just as we were sitting down with guests to our big lobster dinner of the season. Fortunately, lobster tastes just as good cold as warm, because it took us 2 hours to unload the truck.

The wood was beautiful. Some of the beams and posts were 6 inches by 12 inches by 16 feet long. I can just imagine how big and straight these trees were. It takes a spruce tree at least 100 years to reach its maximum height of about 50 metres. I don't know much about trees, but I would guess that the trees selectively cut for our posts and beams must have been at least 50. So, two generations of the family that owned that sustainable woodlot watched those trees growing, before they were cut. And now these grand pieces would be showcased as exposed posts and beams in our home.

The builders for our home had been impatiently waiting for that wood too. When we decided to build a solar home, we knew that this endeavour would be a challenge because we had no local builders who were experienced in building solar homes. However, when EOS held the `builders workshops' following the popular Solar Shelter Workshops over the past 2 winters, we found that there were many local tradespeople who were interested in learning and practicing solar building techniques. They wanted to do good work with healthy materials on energy-efficient projects. Many of them had R-2000 building experience too.

During the design stage of our project, we simultaneously opened a conversation with some of these tradespeople. Would they like to be involved in building our home? Would they like to learn along with us, so that our new expertise could be available to others in our region too? How could we do this in ways that expressed some of our core values like sustainability, strengthening the local economy, living wages, and shared decision-making?

We all decided to form a green building cooperative. With the help of the Canadian Worker Co-op Federation, we spent months clarifying the business plan and organizational structure. In the end, I decided that, with my other work, I would not have the time to work within the cooperative, so I am not a member. However, including Eric as the manager, EnerGreen Builders Co-operative now has eight members.

In addition to working on our solar home, EnerGreen tradespeople are also working for others on energy-efficiency and renovation projects in the region. The cooperative structure means that everyone is sharing experience with others, so the growing expertise is shared.

EnerGreen Builders brought their electrical cords, saws, levels, hammers and years of experience in construction to our building site. They pored over the house plans. They selected pieces of wood and began to build framed walls, and attached them to the sill that was inset in the foundation. We started to see our home take shape, under the interested eyes and experienced hands of this keen group of workers.

Next time: turning a 2-dimensional plan into a 3-dimensional building

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