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5 Kitchen Remodel Ideas with Before and After Photos

Accessible Design | Custom Homes | Interior Design

Drop Zone Area in Kitchen Remodel

We’ve all been spending a bit more time at home these days. Are you noticing little quirks about your kitchen you don’t exactly love? Not enough counter space to handle …

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Doug Talks About Passive House Pieces: Insulation

Architecture & Design | Custom Homes | Green Building

By: Doug Selby In a previous blog post, I introduced the topic of Passive Houses and talked about key areas that we focus on in the design and construction of a passive building. If you didn't know already, Michigan is a cold climate state. For Southern Michigan and its specific climate zone, about 93% of the heating and cooling energy used is for heating. Anyone who has lived in Michigan knows that we use a lot of heat in the winter, with air conditioning minimal in the summer -- one of the reasons why summers are so pleasant here! Insulation is Relatively New In Home Construction Living in this climate we understand the need for insulation in our homes, but, believe it or not, insulation in houses is a relatively recent phenomenon, first entering the code books in the 1960s. Insulation not only changes how heat flows through an exterior wall, but also how moisture migrates through the exterior envelope of a home. In the first few decades of use, insulation and vapor barriers in homes caused some spectacular failures in homes because these principles were not fully understood. These days, we can't imagine the thought of living in an uninsulated home, however; even in Southeastern Michigan, about 40% of homes built before the '60s have little to no insulation. Crazy, right? Most of these homes have plaster walls and ceilings, which is a heavy material with lots of thermal mass. It's a completely different subject, but thermal mass covers for the lack of insulation in a way that drywall cannot -- an uninsulated home with drywall would be super cold in the winter and use a lot more energy. In our custom homes and remodels it is customary for us to use a combination of mineral wool and spray foam to insulate exterior walls as seen in the photo above. Passive House Insulation Since Passive Houses have only been a part of the conversation in building science for that last couple of decades, we haven't seen many examples of super-insulated homes; but high levels of insulation are a requirement for passive buildings. With that much insulation required, a Passive House has much thicker walls. In the photo above you can see that the exterior wall framing has additional width to accommodate much more insulation and there is also rigid foam insulation used to mitigate thermal bridging around the wood components. Additionally, the windows must be set in the middle of the window opening. It's kind of a cool look for the home, and is also quite functional as the window sills are deep enough to place small plants, bath necessities or other decorative pieces. Those thick walls of a super-insulated Passive home are a distinctive feature, and they certainly help keep the home comfortable with very stable temperatures inside. The insulation also needs to be continuous, with vapor resistive barrier located properly in the wall and roof section. This is not a small matter for a home that performs properly, so I'll cover that in a future post. Stay tuned!

By: Doug Selby In a previous blog post, I introduced the topic of Passive Houses and talked about key areas that we focus on in the design and construction of …

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Shades of Green Building

Green Building

shades-of-green

What does “green” mean to you? There’s no easy answer. The term has been tossed around for years, from consumers wanting to “do the right thing” to the product manufacturers …

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Meadowlark gets another nod from the Detroit Free Press

Custom Homes | Green Building | Whole Home Remodeling

Deep Green Home Rendering

Showcasing a LEED Platinum Whole House Remodel Once again, we owe a big shoutout to Judy Rose at the Detroit Free Press for her wonderful article on the “Pushing the …

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