Siding and Exterior

Last week the builders started putting the siding on the exterior. In the interior, the painters have primed the walls and have a first coat of paint on. We selected a light beige paint for most of the house, but the girls' room is a bright pink. Ang's initial reaction was that someone vomited cotton candy throughout their room. We are using a low VOC (volatile organic compound) paint to provide a healthier house by keeping all the chemicals out of the paint. The paint is from Benjamin Moore, their Eco-Spec line. This low VOC product is to have few chemicals that vaporize upon application and are not expected to continue to give off chemicals as it sits on the wall. The price is not much more and to give the girls a house that does not smell like a chemical factory made some good sense, although we might not have that "new house smell."

So what will be between us in the interior of the house and the exterior elements? From the inside beyond the paint and drywall, we have the insulation that was mentioned in the previous post. To clarify, the insulation was not recycled newspaper specified in the plans; it was substituted with a better product, rock wool. The material is completely recycled and is naturally mold and fire resistant. As it is a better product and the price has come down to the same price as the recycled newspaper, our contractor Todd went with that.

The insulation is in the frame that is built with studs that are 2 x 6's, 24" on center. These support studs are placed wider than most frames, allowing the house to be more energy efficient as there are not as many studs that allow breaks in the insulation. The wood frame of the house is 5/8" particle board that is FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council) certified, which means the lumber supplier manages their forests in a sound manner. Next the house is wrapped in Tyvek, which forms an air barrier to keep the house from being drafty.

Then the more interesting items come into play. The exterior siding is cement fiberboard from a company called James Hardi http://www.jameshardie.com/homeowner/. So basically, we are hanging sheets of concrete onto the house, which should do something for the energy efficiency. The fiberboard is 5/8" thick and 4" in height. The fiberboard provides a very durable, low maintenance exterior that is great because it has the paint color baked in, so should never need to be painted, but could be if we decided to do that. The siding will be 'Heathered Moss' and the trim is 'Navejo Beige' if you were wandering - basically a green house, and yes, I get the irony.

Between the cement fiberboard and the Tyvek is a 1/4" thick Home Slicker Rain Sheet from Benjamin Obdyke http://www.benjaminobdyke.com/html/products/slicker.html. The rain slicker will allow any moisture from the inside or out that gets behind the siding to escape. Without the rain slicker, moisture behind the siding could turn into mold and affect the health of the house, not to mention, sitting around degrading the wood products that are making up the walls.

Last week we heard from a TV show, Renovation Nation with Steve Thomas, which will be on the Discovery Channel's new channel premiering June 4 called Planet Green. We submitted a demo with Nate, making sure all the girls were in it as no one has ever called me photogenic. It sounds like they are interested and I will keep everyone posted if anything comes of it. It was great to put the demo together as it made us take a step back and take stock of why we are doing the green house and what it means to us. It was also great to hear Nate go through the house and highlight all the green elements, some of which start to blur in the middle of all the building decisions we have been overwhelmed with lately.