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The Pretty Good House

prettygoodhouse.org

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Re: The Pretty Good House

#131

Post by dan-robertson »

desiarnezjr wrote: post #113
jonasdegendt wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Frequent checking on the work and hounding the people to fix it. Isn't this partially what you pay your architect for? If you're willing to pay top dollar you should be able to find one that's very hands on and coordinates the whole building process as your representative.

No. Architects are about end results and "vision". General contractors, while imperfect, should be about getting it built. So an architect you should roughly expect getting something built at any cost. A GC should be how to do it pragmatically or even if it's possible. In between is the end result.

I think some architects will offer this kind of supervision of the project as a service. I don’t know to what extent these are handled by different people at the firm from the design part but I expect there are small firms where one person can do both.

I think it’s wrong to think that all architects are like celebrity architects. If you’re designing a house there may be room for weird designs (if that’s what the client wants) but I think there’s also just a lot of technical or boring details that are handled by architects too.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#133

Post by masklinn »

hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #117
masklinn wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is the same, except for the part where you replace the house by an apartment complex because US zoning is fucked.

It's the same everywhere that doesn't implement a robust land tax. Which is to say, everywhere.

Nonsense. In most of the world you can tear down a bunch of houses, merge the parcels, and build an apartment building.

It might require permitting, but zoning is not an issue, because outside the US zoning tends to be based on activity nuisance levels.

In the US however zoning tends to be exclusive and a lot more specific, so you can (and cities do) zone large areas as single-family residential meaning you can not replace single family houses by MUAs without rezoning the area, a much more complicated, expensive, and lengthy proposition.

Not to mention US-style exclusive zoning also by definition precludes mixed-use developments.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#134

Post by 10u152 »

sgt wrote: post #94
bjarneh wrote: post #88

> Even the best windows and doors on the market perform much worse than even an average wall New windows here in Norway are often triple or quadruple glazed, and they have a pretty good R-value; so they are not that much worse than average walls at least.

Here in South Africa, single glazed is still a thing. I've been replacing all my windows with double glazing. I considered triple but that makes them very heavy and expensive. Benefits are both in hot summer and in the relatively cold winter.

My house in Australia is all single glazed. But where I live summers aren’t that hot (rarely over 30c) and winters aren’t cold (rarely less than 10c overnight). I’ve considered double glazing but it makes no sense really

Re: The Pretty Good House

#135

Post by switch007 »

123pie123 wrote: post #120
bjarneh wrote: post #88

> Even the best windows and doors on the market perform much worse than even an average wall New windows here in Norway are often triple or quadruple glazed, and they have a pretty good R-value; so they are not that much worse than average walls at least.

I'm still amazed seeing "x panes" windows that are supoosed to be great with a "trinkle vent"/ aka adjustable gap - at the top of them to let air in/ out!!!

Exactly! I pleaded with the window company not to put vents in the new windows, as my house is already very draughty. They said it’s the law. They are cheap and poorly designed so they let in lots of noise too. And I had to tape them off because of the draught they let in even when closed.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#136

Post by michpoch »

fy20 wrote: post #48
nbar wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dan do you ever talk about retro fitting old houses at your monthly talks. It would wonderful to learn what can be done to existing (my home is 1880’s) buildings to improve their performance.

Not exactly the same, but my city is retrofitting a lot of Soviet-era apartment blocks to bring them up to modern standards. They are made out of concrete with no insulation and were built when (natural) gas was basically free. The bulk of the work is wrapping the building in 25cm of rigid foam exterior insulation, replacing windows and making sure that they are fairly air tight. They aren't adding mechanical ventila…

I see some early trends in Poland (a lot of soviet-style concrete blocks of flats) where the modernisation is done better.

Article in Polish, but worth translating or just looking at the photos: https://www.money.pl/gospodarka/w-tym-miescie-nie-martwia-si...

Shortly: insulation, new windows, solar panels, heat pumps (heating + warm water).

They do not show "before" photos, but I found some similar building before renovation on the same street: https://www.google.com/maps/@51.3586963,21.5793371,3a,75y,16...

They mention 90% savings in heating costs, which apparently pays off the debt they had to take to make the upgrades.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#137

Post by maratc »

dan-robertson wrote: post #121
bjarneh wrote: post #88

> Even the best windows and doors on the market perform much worse than even an average wall New windows here in Norway are often triple or quadruple glazed, and they have a pretty good R-value; so they are not that much worse than average walls at least.

I guess a ntuple-glazed window is going to have a lot less thermal mass than a wall (though presumably depends on the wall material too – thick stone walls will have more mass than wood+plaster). But I’ve little idea what the right amount of thermal mass is for a building.

Thermal mass is usually not a factor you're looking at when choosing windows; thermal resistance is.

In a nutshell, stone, concrete, metal, and glass are very good at transmitting heat, so the inside of your house will quickly be as hot (or as cold) as the outside. Plastic, wood, and especially air are very bad at transmitting heat (or good resisting to heat transmission) and this is what you want for your house. Back to windows, multiple sheets of glass are only desirable because they have an air chamber inside. Three layers of glass mean two air chambers, each at its own temperature.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#138

Post by hrudham »

ido wrote: post #128
sgt wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in South Africa, single glazed is still a thing. I've been replacing all my windows with double glazing. I considered triple but that makes them very heavy and expensive. Benefits are both in hot summer and in the relatively cold winter.

Where in South Africa? I would guess that along the coast the weather is never extreme enough for this to matter all that much?

Different South African here, but I grew up in Durban and now live in Cape Town, with regular visits to Johannesburg (2-4 times a year). Single-glazing is used in all three by default, despite the climate being quite different in all cases. Durban is tropical; winter (we joke that it doesn't have one) is dry, and summers are wet, but its warm year-round. Temperatures can vary quite a bit between seasons in Joburg and Cape Town. Cape Town has a Mediterranean climate; summers are warm and windy, while winters are cold and wet, often getting to 7°C at night (it's a cloudless 25°C summers day today though). Joburg can get a little colder, although its a much more dry kind of cold.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#139

Post by michpoch »

Y-bar wrote: post #118
RektBoy wrote: post #111

From wood? Good one Americans, really good one, ha.

Aren't most single- or few-family homes made of wood? I'm living in in the farming belt (i.e. not the actual forested parts of our country) and over 80% of these houses are wooden. It's mostly apartment buildings over three floors being built using cement.

Not in Europe, besides some old mountains huts.

It's always a very strange feeling when I see how in the american home-reconstruction TV shows they're tearing the walls and it's all wood.

Same case when I see the effects of hurricanes... it all feels very fragile comparing to what we have here.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#140

Post by toyg »

skipnup wrote: post #116
gambiting wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>and the voids are frequently filled with noble gasses like Argon for improved insulation. How long is such a window rated for? Surely the gas will eventually leak out?

Not really a problem one would be aware of. Double glazing is the default since 50 years at least in Germany, so the manufacturing processes are quite good. Still, leakages happen, you recognize that usually by water/steam between the two glass panes. If the windows aren't to old you can just switch out the glass leaving the plastic frames. If they're older (30 yrs) it's more economical to switch out glass and frames…

Almost all my double glazed windows have now failed and I'm looking at replacements, but my fear is that the failures are due to the amount of vibrations this house gets (I'm close to a busy road, every time a lorry goes past I can feel it in some rooms).
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