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A house is a machine for living in. Le Corbusier

Alternative building:

Building an active solar home

Kelly Coburn Colorado
2010

o-it-yourself homebuilding can be a fulfilling journey of education, fitness and self-expression, with a rewarding destination of home and equity. Read about our experience and consider it for yourself. During an introspective moment as a young man, I read an ancient passage by an elderly philosopher of the things we must do before we die. Build your own home was near the top of the list. I was moved to make my own Bucket List. Twenty-five years later, I still possess that highly personal scrap of paper. This article is mostly about the dos and donts of DIY building with an emphasis on energy conservation and capture. But it is also about the joyous process of scratching this must-do off the List.

Building his own home was near the top of Kelly Coburns to-do list.

Background In 2005 I found myself in an enviable position: married with children, in between jobs, neither young nor old, neither rich nor poor. We lived in Dolores, a scenic mountain river valley town in Southwest Colorado, close to Durango and Telluride. At 7,000 feet altitude and 37 degrees north latitude, Dolores is blessed with four seasons, 340 days of sunshine per year and a dry climate. We were surrounded by wilderness, yet convenient to building supplies, particularly lumber. I had basic amateur construction skills, almost no tools, was living in a rental home, and needed something constructive to do. I didnt need a regular paycheck, but

I needed to continue to build my net worth. Why not build a house? The result was a 4,700-square-foot fourbedroom, three-bath, three-story, active solar, mountain-view home in a small town in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado.

Dolores sits in the valley of its namesake river at the foot of the San Juan and La Plata Mountains.

Guiding principles I spent a year thinking about and researching the right way to go about homebuilding given my own values, the wants and needs of my family and the state of the construction market. The following decisions would shape this home far more than any blueprint: The L word: My wife Becky and I were preparing to invest 7,000 hours of our time into this project, so it would be a tragedy to do so in a poor location. We purchased a 6,100-square-foot lot, nestled against a stunning 500-foot south-facing sandstone bluff at the very end of a dead-end street, just above the flood plain, with trees, views of the town

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Art not only imitates nature, but also completes its deficiencies. Aristotle
and the values of potential future owners. As examples, we installed a dumbwaiter to haul groceries from the garage to the kitchen, just in case a future owner might be less physically capable. We designed, plumbed and wired a small second kitchen into the middle floor family room, just in case the next owner wishes to convert the homes use to multiple families. We installed radiant floor heat tubing in the lower level even though we didnt think that we would need it (we later changed our minds and used it). These are examples of features that would have been impractical to retrofit. I believe the principles above are sound advice for all homeowners. But there were some principles of my own that I refused to compromise, even though they may not be right for everyone: Function over form: I could not bring myself to invest in nonessential frills. As an example, I did not install granite countertops, even though all new homes seem to have them. The cost difference was a factor of 30, laminate requires no maintenance, and the next owner can easily replace. Reuse: Although not green, I abhor waste, both of materials and money. Many of our building materials were recycled, either new items cast off as surplus from other construction projects, or long-life used materials. As examples, all of the vital pillars holding up the house are five-inch diameter, thick-walled steel oil field pipes, the solar hot water panels and dumbwaiter are used, and the windows were the result of a misplaced order at a nearby ski resort. Some of the reuse also added soul to the home. The master bath tub is a carefully restored claw foot from a neighbor and friend who watched his grandfather install it as their familys first-ever indoor plumbing, just down the street, in 1938. The under-stair closet door was donated by a nearby elderly World War II hero who died three months after gifting it to me. When his children visit, they see that door and remember their childhoods.

and the La Plata mountains, just two blocks from our boys K-12 school and easy walking distance to the river, restaurants, groceries and the library. Do it yourself: I was self-trainable and maybe slower than a professional, but time isnt money when you have nothing but time. There is a deep sense of satisfaction in learning valuable skills like plumbing, HVAC and trim carpentry. There is also a tendency to forgive self-made mistakes that would otherwise be infuriating had they been made by a paid professional, thereby reducing some of the projects stress. It is also comforting to know that when anything needs to be repaired, you know how to fix it because you built it. Do it right: A home well built should last 200 years, and might be the only noteworthy thing I leave behind on this planet after a lessthan-fulfilling business career that produced little more than reports, presentations and software. A sound home doesnt have to be fancy or luxurious, but it should be reliable, solid and safe. As examples, hire a structural engineer instead of just over-engineering, err on the side of too good when it comes to the foundation and roof, dont buy insulation that degrades over time, and a poor staircase could break somebodys neck. I also tried to heed my father the cabinetmaker s advice: never use a screw if you can use a bolt instead, and the same with nails versus screws, and adhesive bonds break down over time, so always back them up with fasteners. In other words, quality is a mindset that you must take to the construction site each day, like a voice in your head or an angel on your shoulder, and lay down your tools and go home when you start to agree with the little half-assed shortcut devil on the other shoulder. Build modern: Not bleeding edge, and not the way Joe Sixpack has been doing it for 30 years, but state-of-themarket. After all, I didnt know how to do it the old-fashioned way and would face a learning curve regardless, so why not use PEX instead of copper, or structural insulated panels

Radiant floor heat is not only comfortable but almost free when powered by the sun.

instead of balloon framing. But dont build modern to a fault: our floors are solid oak rather than engineered wood, because we have proof that this flooring will last for centuries, and at no additional cost. Bigger can be better: A 4,000-squarefoot house does not cost twice as much nor take twice as long to build as a 2,000-square-foot house, affords certain comforts and should increase return on investment. Energy efficiency is critical: Energy is not getting cheaper, a big house built wrong can cost a fortune to heat and cool. The industry was making technology leaps in efficiency, and as a matter of principlecreating yet another fossil fuel vortex McMansion is simply wrong in the 21st century. Im yet to fully embrace the green religion, but solar heating makes sense when paybacks are less than three years. Low maintenance: The last thing I nor the next owner wants to do is a lot of cleaning and painting and replacing, so look for long-life materials like cement siding and steel roofing, and avoid things like carpet and drapes that are magnets for dirt. Embrace The Code: Dont cut corners on things like structural engineering, rebar, smoke detectors or adequate wiring. Exceed the building code instead of trying to short-change it. Youll sleep better both under its roof and after having sold the home to the next family. Design with marketability in mind: Every time we made a design decision we had to strike a balance between our own idiosyncrasies

Countryside & Small Stock Journal, July/August 2010 After receiving the electrical bid: $15,000? Hand me those tools, Ill rope it myself; While laying hardwood floors: That looks like fun, let me do it; At move-in: We did it. She made an incredible contribution, working some long hours, providing the right-brained solutions that baffle males, and were still friends. My boys did a lot of heavy lifting, too. Thanks to my family and many 90-hour weeks on my part, outside contractors were limited to 210 workdays, less than one-fourth of the total labor. Contractors performed all of the engineering, excavation, crane work and drywall, over half of the framing and concrete, and some of the plumbing, electrical and siding. Some jobs are best left to the professionals. I lost over 30 pounds during the project despite ravenous eating. I never visited a doctor during the project nor received any stitches, but it took a year for my fingers (I still have ten) and elbows to return to normal. If only it was just pounding nails. Besides brute physical labor, my job involved countless hours shopping for materials, learning building codes, searching the Internet for tips, drawing schematics, revising budgets and schedules and making a million decisions. Having been there and done that, my best advice to the owner-builder is: Take care of your body; Always seek advice, particularly online; Minimize distractions so you can concentrate; Be decisive and dont over-think things; Dont be afraid to buy tools, because your productivity is critical, and theyre easy to sell when youre done; Dont let construction get ahead of planning and materials procurement; Dont let contractors work when you are not onsite; and Get er done.

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Some remnants of yesterday still have a place in a modern home.

Becky proudly installing oak hardwood flooring.

Bathtub Buy localnot: Despite all the pressure to support the local economy by buying local, the scale of this project combined with the power of the Internet sent me far and wide for the best materials at the best price. As an example, I rented a truck and drove nearly 2,000 miles roundtrip to acquire slightly used 75-year guarantee metal barrel tile roofing, reducing the cost per square foot from $2.50 to 40 cents, and saving thousands. And while there are four lumber yards and five saw mills within 10 miles of the house, most of the lumber came from a national chain 60 miles away. Furthermore, my Four Corners location enabled me to run across three state borders and avoid sales tax. Life as an ownerbuilder I believe the military refers to it as the toughest job youll ever love. It took one year, nine months and 10 days from the first shovel of dirt to receipt of the Certificate of Occupancy. I was fortunate to live under the threat of a one year deadline imposed by the building permit. With no artificial deadlines, many owner-builders simply never finish, or worse suffer from the old adage build a house lose a spouse as life in a construction zone wears on the relationship. My wifes attitude toward the project could not have been more evolutionary: At first mention: Dont do it; While planning: Let me do the floor plan, but dont ask me to work; After framing: Stand back while I move those two walls;

Saving energy I wont bore you with the conventional wisdom on building a tight house with good insulation, strategically placed windows and fluorescent lighting. We took this house far beyond energy efficient, and did so at minimal incremental cost. Despite the locations 5000 degree-days of heating requirements, and the homes year-round 24/7 occupation, combined gas and electric bills average $900 per year including utility base fees, with electrical usage averaging 14 kWh. Firewood consumption is also minor; about a pickup load per year. There are also no cooling costs. The homes energy performance is due to its conservation of heat, collection of heat energy from the sun and prevention of summer heat infiltration. This is not passive solar; fans, pumps and thermostats control the heat so that a warm, sunny winter day doesnt

These are conventional SIPs: polystyrene foam sandwiched between OSB. Notice the electrical chases.

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Painting, n: the art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic. Ambrose Bierce
gle-pane high heat-gain glass. When heat is available in the greenhouse and needed in the main structure, a blower system controlled by a differential thermostat distributes heat via a system of insulated supplies and returns. A large woodstove with outside combustion air supply in the greenhouse takes over for the sun to provide heat for the system on cloudy days and cold nights. The greenhouse location for the woodstove has the added advantage of keeping the dirt and bugs of firewood out of the main living area. The greenhouse controls also invert to distribute cool night air throughout the house in the summer. This feature is virtually unneeded, due to the homes optimized overhangs, which prevent summertime overheating. As an added benefit, the greenhouse gives the family a jump start on the summers vegetable garden, and can produce vegetables all winter. The greenhouse and the solar panels access rights to the sun are also guaranteed by a solar deed restriction which prevents neighbors to the south from building structures that shade this home, and allows me to trim their trees at my expense.

bake you out of the house. Here are the details: Structural insulated panels (SIPs) were used to build the middle and upper floors. The panels consist of 5 inches of expanded polystyrene sandwiched between two half-inch sheets of oriented strand board (OSB). Much has already been written about the pros and cons of SIPs. For this home, SIPs are important because they provide a combination of insulation without thermal bridging or air infiltration, keeping the house both warm and cool, almost like the walls of a refrigerator. We appreciate their quietness, not having to install insulation, and the ease of hanging a picture (no studs to encumber placement decisions).

Pumice is stable, insulates the basement floor, eliminates the need for compacted gravel and costs less.

ICFs serve both concrete forms and insulation, negating the dismantling of forms when finished.

Basement Insulated concrete forms (ICFs) make up the lower floor, providing many advantages including insulation from their five inches of polystyrene. The walk-out lower level is nearly half covered by berms. Soil temperatures in this region range between 55 and 70 degrees, and help regulate the homes temperature. Greenhouse The attached greenhouse is the homes biggest energy producer, with over 300 square feet of tempered sin-

the steel deck pillars above the greenhouse roof rather than the main roof to facilitate ease of access and prevent potential roof leaks. Additionally, a timer and thermostat-controlled water-to-air heat exchanger in the middle floor enables the conversion of surplus hot water to hot air for a boost of warmth on cold mornings. This heat exchanger also serves as a heat dump for excess hot water, used when the family is away from the home for more than a few days. The system also features a hot water recirculation system for the top floor kitchen, which uses a motion sensor to ensure that hot water is instantly available at the kitchen sink whenever the kitchen is in use. Pumice basement The solar radiant floor heating system keeps the lower level warm in winter. A closed-loop glycol system transfers heat from 72 square feet of solar collectors to 1,500 feet of tubing within six zones in the concrete floor. The seven-inch concrete floor used to heat the lower level is insulated by two-inch foam board on its outer edges, and by nine inches of quarter-inch pumice stone beneath. Pumice is a superior alternative to foam in regions where it is locally available not only due to cost, but because of its near-infinite life as a stable insulator. A small thermostatically controlled gas fireplace with blower is on the upper floor, for the few days and nights when the absence of solar heat calls for a little fossil fuel supplement, even if its just to warm your backside for a few moments. We could use its thermostat to rig-

Homegrown solar hot water may look like a moonshiners still but works like Old Faithful.

Berms surround half the lower level and provide consistent moderate temperature mass year-round.

Water heater The domestic solar hot water system produces a surplus of virtually free hot water. The system consists of 84 square-feet of solar collectors, a closed-loop glycol system, a flat plate heat exchanger, two 120-gallon storage tanks, an 80-gallon pre-heater tank in the greenhouse and a thermostatically controlled electric heating element on a timer. The solar panels are installed at an angle optimized for year-round use, and are installed on

Countryside & Small Stock Journal, July/August 2010

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Manually switched motorized roller shades are used in the living room.

Battens reduce the number of membrane punctures and keep the attic and membrane cool in summer.

idly control the homes temperature, but usually dont, in the interests of energy conservation. Consequently, we sometimes pay the price and come home to a cold house. Roller shades Roller shades are vital to minimizing nighttime heat loss and enabled the home design to incorporate many windows for the benefit of the city and mountain views. Two types of shades were used: honeycomb cellular and infrared radiant barrier. Critical shades such as those in the greenhouse are not only motorized but employ a sun sensor to automatically open and close them. For added view flexibility, manually switched (not sun sensor) motorized roller shades are used in the main floor living room. Roof The metal barrel tile roof is installed upon battens rather than the roof sheathing. This provides a 1- inch ventilated airspace between the roof tiles and the roof deck, keeping the roof cooler in summer, extending the life of the roofs waterproof membrane (superior to roofing felt and only $500 more) and reducing the number of nail and screw holes in the membrane and deck. Radiant barrier stapled to the bottom of the trusses top chords also help keep the summer heat out, and motorized gable vents keep the attic cool and dry. The home site benefits from its own microclimate as a consequence of its location at the base of a southfacing sandstone bluff of 40 degrees slope. This scenic mass, warmed all

day by the sun, produces both hot air and radiant heat in the winter. As testimony to its effectiveness, the resident elk herd spends winter afternoons on the ledges behind our home, not only for its warmth but for early forage. Other small, but nonetheless important energy features of the home include: An 80% efficiency heat recovery ventilator which draws warm air from outside under the south eaves and exchanges it with indoor air to keep indoor air fresh, but extracts the heat from the indoor air before expelling it. The ducts also serve as a substitute for the upper floor kitchen and bathroom exhaust fans; A clothes dryer exhaust system that enables routing of dryer exhaust from the outdoors to the lower floor via a filtration box. A clothesline also functions well in the greenhouse; Light switches that incorporate a timer, so that lights cannot be left on accidentally. Other unique features There are many freedoms an owner-builder can enjoy. Id like to thank my general contractor, banker, homeowners association and inflexible wife for their nonexistence, because I had none of these to encumber me in designing features. Here are some things that make the home unique, beyond energy: The floor plan employs inverted living, similar to a beach house. The living area is on the top or third floor, with all bedrooms except the master on the middle level. In this way, the views are where you live, not where you sleep, and the homes heat rises

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Buildings should be good neighbors. Paul Thiry

This shed on a trailer allowed the leftover building materials to go to good use. Pond excavation provided soil for vegetable gardening.

A colorful winding oak staircase greets entrants to the home.

to warm your waking hours, not overheat your bedroom. The staircases provide a striking first impression as you enter the home. They are wide, gentle, winding and all oak in a pleasing variety of grains, finishes and colors. The floors are all pre-finished solid oak and tile, with the exception of the lower walk-out basement concrete garage and workshop floors. The oak is a randomized mix of short pieces in several colors. Our floors dont look dirty even when they are, and the odor of dirty carpet is absent. The walls employ a Santa Fe texture and bull-nosing throughout, for a plaster look without the expense. Even the basement walls are similarly finished, giving the workshop a rich look. The workshop is a handymans

dream. There is 1,500 square feet available for workspace or to park as many as five cars, 400 square feet of perimeter shelving, overhead storage and a built-in workbench wired and lit for serious work. The greenhouse brings nature indoors in the winter, puts food on the table, makes a fantastic clothesline location, provides dry firewood storage and can even cool the house in summer. Weve even used it to bake paint onto auto body panels and dry fruit.

foot tall ponderosa pine nestled against the house for protection from the afternoon summer sun, producing apple, peach and cherry trees, extensive hardscaping and, most important, not one blade of grass to mow, water or fertilize. The 8" x 10" tool shed is not a shed but a trailer built from the same materials to match the home. As a trailer, it is not taxed as a structure, can be placed on a setback or easement and can be moved at will. The shed keeps the workshop uncluttered and keeps volatiles like gas and propane out of the house. The mud room at the main entrance stops the dirt in this no-shoesallowed house, and its double doors prevent winters blast of cold air. Almost 50 running feet of art shelving provides space for handicraft display of our Indonesian art, such as the handmade bronze door handles installed in the kitchen. And of course the dumbwaiter the only elevator in town. Mistakes were made If I had this project to do over again (and someday I will), Id be happy to make only as many mistakes as I did. Instead, I will probably make a whole new set of mistakes. But hopefully I will avoid most of the following foibles: I built the woodstove chimney without regard for how I was going to clean it, and should have installed a wye for doing so. Fortunately the 30-foot stack of eight-inch triplewall pipe combined with a hot stove burns almost creosote-free.

The greenhouse in February is the starting point for 1,500 square feet of vegetables.

The deck off the kitchen provides city and mountain views, and is maintenance-free.

The Trex deck provides over 200 square feet of outdoor living just off the kitchen and 20 feet off the ground, where you can not only grill, but admire the city, mountains, garden and pond. The landscaping includes greenbelt to the north, a 4,000 gallon koi pond deep enough for fish yearround, a 1,500 square foot irrigated vegetable garden, a 60-year-old 50

Countryside & Small Stock Journal, July/August 2010 blueprints, and found myself forcing re-work upon them because I had not pointed out the finer points of the plans. I underestimated the quantity of labor to be expended in moving materials around, and found myself moving stacks of building materials multiple times, because I hadnt planned better. And speaking of underesti mates, the dumbwaiter and the automated shades were costly in terms of schedule, taking far longer to design and install than planned. While Im delighted to have them now, I would never have installed them had I known their difficulty. The self in Do-it-yourself is a misnomer This house would be a wreck without the help and advice I received. I expected an antagonistic relationship with tradesmen and vendors, and found quite the opposite, with the exception of the few who just arent team players and

35 will only work for (and not with) the owner. For about a grand, a structural engineer not only performed detailed load calculations, but translated them into design specifications complete with materials alternatives for achieving the needed strength of the foundation, floors, verticals and roof. I sleep soundly knowing that a pro made sure the house was solid. For under $200, a solar thermal specialist taught me the dos and donts that enabled me to design and build practical, efficient and maintainable solar systems for about a tenth of what it would have cost me to purchase them turnkey. The surveyor performed a minor miracle. The lot was intersected by the floodplain, necessitating thousands of dollars of hydrostatic venting to meet code, and flood insurance that would also cost any mortgageholding homeowner thousands per year. The surveyor petitioned for and received a Letter of Mapping Amendment (LOMA) from FEMA,

Storing heat in cobble below the greenhouse turned out to be unnecessary.

I spent a lot of time and money building an insulated cobble heat sink beneath the greenhouse floor, complete with ducting and a blower to store excess heat during the day for nighttime use. It turns out that the most efficient place to store heat is in the home. We just overheat the house a little to deal with a cold night. I should have put a drain in the garage floor underneath the cars. Now I have to sweep water out when snow and ice make a mess. I soundproofed the interior walls and floors with R-38 fiberglass batts, but I did not ask the drywallers to install sound-deadening soft strips between the bottoms of the floor joists and the ceiling drywall. I think it would have made the house even quieter. I wasnt prepared for the politics of the concrete guy leaving and the framing crew arriving, or the importance of a level top-of-concrete wall. The framers didnt want to do a good job leveling the top, and I had to work frantically to replace their flimsy shims with broad, pressuretreated, custom-planed wedges, well-caulked, or suffer air and insect infiltration. We spent a lot of time and money installing three- and fourway light switches, but as creatures of habit always use a single switch. I underestimated contractors reluctance to read and embrace

Framing is fun and easy, but this crew shaved three months off the one-man construction schedule.

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Light, Gods eldest daughter, is a principal beauty in a building. Thomas Fuller

two or three hours per week teaching us to wire, inspecting our work and sourcing materials, saving us about $10,000 versus contracting out the electrical work. The plumber worked side-by-side with me and taught me so much that he was able to reduce his participation from full-time to an hour per week, once again saving a bundle. Without a good old-fashioned laborer as a third hand, it would have been impossible to install 12foot strips of siding 35 feet off the ground. The framing foreman knew how to keep five framers extremely busy, yet personally built the tough stuff like the staircase rough-in, shaving three months off the project had I framed it myself. Without an experienced SIP erector, we would have spent far more time and produced walls, windows

effectively re-drawing the floodplain to exclude the home. It was my good fortune that the building inspector didnt just in spect, but helped me draw up plans and spent the extra time helping me evaluate better, cheaper ways to meet and exceed the code. My concrete guy had a keen sense of how to use $100 of extra materials to save $500 of labor, and coached me on the benefits of violently executing a good plan, rather than analysis paralysis. The electrical consultant spent

Coming up:
Sept/Oct: Hog butchering Nov/Dec: Raising goats Jan/Feb: Homeschooling March/April: Fencing ideas

Wed like to hear from you, too! Countryside, 145 Industrial Dr., Medford, WI 54451; csyeditorial@tds.net

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and doors that werent nearly so tight and strong. I was blessed to have a cabinetmaker for a father, who could whip out high-quality millwork from an emailed sketch and have it in the mail in a matter of days. Probably the most selfless act of kindness was the contractor who passed by one day, saw me struggling at the top of a 40-foot extension ladder and, taking pity on me, dropped off a motorized mobile manlift for my complimentary use, probably literally saving my neck. The outcome Maybe it was dumb luck, but as a consequence of my decision to invest two years of my life as an owner-builder, Im more than just a homeowner. I own a home the likes of which I could have never afforded to contract or purchase. It will sell for far more than it cost me in dollars, if I ever sell it. Ill never need a repairman to maintain or fix it, because I can do it myself. I have the satisfaction of knowing that the product of my work will tread lightly on the planet from an energy perspective. And Im a wiser person with some life-long friends and newfound respect for the professionals of the building trade. I cant wait to do it again.

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