Good Bones matter

Sure it looks nice when it’s all done but what’s behind the drywall or below the concrete? These are questions that usually can’t be answered unless the builder wants you to know…and they usually don’t want you to know. The good news is, ALL the questions can be answered about 23 Black Hawk Dr. because the builder is proud of the things nobody can see. He is proud of the “boring” mechanical systems, the way the home works with nature, the durability without maintenance and most importantly the way the home feels. The home was designed and constructed to be the builders own home so added time and cost in materials and labor were not even a consideration. It is all about meticulous attention to detail from dirt work to the final finishes. This home was built to be enjoyed by not only you, but your great grand children. The materials, building science and most importantly the execution will bring a family hopefully a millennium or more of enjoyment.

Some quality brands at 23 black hawk dr:

01:Foundation

Once the dirt is meticulously prepped its time for concrete. One of the if not the most important design element in the house is the heated polished concrete slab. If you face the building properly for the site and get all the insulation details right, your slab will be maybe the largest contributor to a truly comfortable home. Cool in the summer, warm in the winter with an almost indescribable feeling that you must experience.

The Facts:

R22+ EPS Insulated foundation walls
R10 XPS Insulation below the slab below radiant heat tubing
15 mil Stego commercial vapor barrier lapped and taped seams and all plumbing/electrical penetrations
5 zones of radiant heat tubing

02:Building envelope & air sealing

Anyone that has experienced a truly comfortable house will inevitably re-examine what they value in their home. Unfortunately in a mass produced cookie cutter society, very few people have experienced a truly comfortable home because it’s not profitable to build one. The American built home is generally built to code, in other words, “the worst home legally allowed”. It’s a bandaid strategy as opposed to a preventative strategy. If the house is leaking, just turn up the oversized heat or A/C to hide it. Of course this leads to higher energy costs and unhealthy air, but it also leads to a drafty home with hot and cold spots everywhere.

Consistent, stable or predictable are words that might be used to describe a comfortable home. Comfort begins in the details and the most important detail is stopping cold, hot and dirty air from entering your conditioned building envelope. To achieve this in a climate with 90F summers and sometimes below zero winters, it takes meticulous and unwavering commitment to the hundreds of small details that ultimately come together to form one large balanced system.

The Facts:

1/2” Zip System walls
Zip Liquid Flashed wall base to insulated foundation (prevents leaking between walls and foundation)
5/8” Zip System roof deck
Minimal wall and roof penetrations. All penetrations air sealed with Liquid Flash.
Membrain smart vapor barrier between insulation and drywall.
Loewen dual and triple paned windows and doors tuned for north, south, east and west exposures.
Windows and doors meticulously flashed to Zip system.
Air gap behind siding adds R-value and promotes dry stable siding.

03:Insulation

Let’s face it, when you live in the mountains it can get cold in the winter and hot in the summer. The vast majority of the time homes are built with the minimum allowable R values. Problem is, if it’s not a perfect installation in a perfectly air sealed envelope, they’re not achieving the values on the bag. It is nowhere near as simple as just stuffing batts in a wall but that’s how its usually approached. Here are a few questions to consider:

Did you know that cold and hot air reduce insulation performance drastically? Some types more than others so using the right products in the right places is a strategy that should be discussed.
Did you know compressed stuffed in insulation drastically reduces performance? This is the number one offender, just lazy installs.
Were the batts sliced around all electrical, plumbing and hvac or were they just stuffed in?
Is there any insulation on the outside of walls and roof? If so how did you manage any potential moisture trapping issues especially on a sealed roof assembly? No matter how you build, moisture is always a concern and there must be a plan to deal with it.

The Facts:

Rockwool R23 wall insulation.
Closed cell spray foam flashing at exterior wall base plates and seams. “Flash & Batt” for air sealing.
R65 roof assembly. Rockwool R30 batts between joists. R35 (5”staggered seams) exterior poly-iso foam above roof deck.
Closed cell spray foam at all exterior roof joist blocking.
Spray foam in all window and door rough openings.
Rockwool between rooms for temperature zone control and sound damping.

04:Glazing by Loewen

With so much glass in a house like this, it’s the last place you want to cut corners. Only the most discerning builders, architects and homeowners are familiar with Loewen.Seamless exterior aluminum cladding with the best possible commercial finishes that stand up to the climate. Prime grade vertical grain Douglas Fir interiors that add warmth and furniture like style, these windows are not only functional, but gorgeous as well.

This is a difficult site to build on if you care about comfort. There are 360 degree views in this house but the big mountain peak views that Carmen Creek is known for are all to the north east. The solution is almost unheard of in American home building but is pretty simple. “Tune” each window for its location on the house. All north, east and west facing glass is triple paned to keep cold out but allow solar heat gain. All south facing glass is dual paned with coatings that reflect heat in allowing as much solar heat gain as possible. What this means is if the sun's shining, the heat is probably barely running no matter how cold it is outside.

The Facts:

Highest quality North American doors and windows on the market
True triple pane glass. Full thickness to house two 1/2” sealed panes.
Flashed directly to Zip system with liquid flash and zip stretch tape.
Windows and doors installed with stainless steel screws.
Vertical grain Douglas fir clad in black aluminum
9 ft tall great room doors connect the outdoors

05:Siding should blend in & be low maintenance

Siding is often misunderstood and quite frankly misused. Think of it as the clothing your home wears, not weatherproofing. The air and water barrier is taken care of behind the siding so the main goals of siding are to make the house look like it’s been there forever and to have minimal maintenance if any at all.

This home is clad in two materials. The first is Corten weathering steel in a true standing seam profile. This is actually a roofing material and each seam is hand folded to form a very water tight barrier. This was used on the garage which is exposed to the most weather and western afternoon sun. This is meant to last 100+ years on a roof so probably twice that as siding. The second material is a circle sawn Douglas fir ship lap treated with a natural product called Lifetime. It allows the wood to slowly grey out over time to a barn wood look but also doesn’t require staining every couple of years.

Behind the siding there is a 1/2” air gap that allows your siding to dry and in the rare circumstance that moisture gets behind it, the water can drain and your wall sheathing can dry. This is a time consuming step that at least 9 out of 10 builders skip.

The Facts:

Corten steel and Douglas fir
Blends with the environment and continues to weather over time
Standing seam corten steel siding is zero maintenance
Douglas Fir is treated to “grey out” over time and requires very low maintenance. No re-staining.
Modern nickel gap ship lap with rustic circle sawn cut gives mountain modern look
Custom corten flashing details gives corners a clean modern trim-less look
1/2” air gap or “rain screen” behind siding allows the back of the siding to always dry and adds a little more insulating value

06:Roof, Facia & Soffit

Most roofs like shingles or metal rely on the slope to shed water. One piece lapped on top of the other so it’s not actually water tight. On a low slope roof designed to keep snow on the roof and not on the ground needs to be water tight. EPDM or rubber is the best choice and has been used on commercial roofs for a very long time. In fact, when used in a commercial application some companies warranty it up to 30 years which would be unheard of with any other products. It is perfect for low pitch sealed roof assemblies because it’s water tight and can be placed directly over several layers of rigid insulation which is a critical and almost always missed detail. Typical roofs have a few inches of metal nailed into the valleys, a properly installed rubber roof has at least a foot or more of rubber turned up the walls. No product is perfect but this is as close as it gets.

If you ask the builder what his favorite detail on the house is, he’d say the soffit design. The downside to putting so much insulation on the roof is that the roof assembly becomes very tall and bulky looking. By notching every single roof joist and stepping it back, it allows a blend of metal and protected wood to break up the bulk for a clean crisp facia that will weather nicely over time.

All the gutters are on the south side of the house so they’re always in the sun to melt ice. Also made from Corten steel, you might not even notice them, which was the goal.

The Facts:

Firestone EPDM membrane roof system
5” R35 of Firestone polyiso insulation between roof deck and membrane
Custom Corten steel facia weathers over time to match siding with no maintenance.
Shiplap soffit with custom notch detail for low profile modern look

06:Mechanicals are the heartbeat of a home not an afterthought

DISCLAIMER: This will be boring unless you’re a nerd. Rest assured, we got it right and you’ll feel it.

When you build an air tight house with modern materials, you have to get the systems right to make it not only a healthy environment but also a durable structure. If you don’t manage stale dirty moisture and contaminate filled air in a house that’s air tight, you’re asking for problems. The building code is starting to recognize this but as usual they’re decades behind the times.

Forced air heating and cooling is inefficient, drafty, loud, dirty, maintenance heavy and quite frankly not very comfortable. A radiant heated slab is as good as it gets and if you face your house properly towards the sun, your floor heat rarely needs to run. It’s silent, doesn’t blow dust and allergens around and brings the heat directly to you evenly around the house not out of vents 15’ away. Think of it like heated seats in your car, it’s like a warm hug. As a backup, or main heat source, there is a Blaze King Princess wood stove that can burn for over 30 hours, burns extremely clean and has a thermostat. No question the best stove on the market. Lastly, the ductless mini split system was installed mainly for A/C in the summer but acts as a very inexpensive heat source if you want a quick blast of heat or a redundant heat source while your out of town in the winter. So you’ve got electric, gas and wood options to heat the home. Each bedroom has its own control of radiant floors and mini splits so no fighting over temps.

Since there is no forced air, there is a dedicated home ventilation system that constantly and extremely efficiently removes stale air and replaces it with tempered clean air from outside, even on smoky days. Watch the video to the right for details but know that no expense was spared. Zehnder is the leading brand in the world and that’s what we’ve got here. Silent, efficent and low maintenance balanced to keep a healthy environment in tune with all your other mechanicals.

The Lochinvar combi boiler takes care of heating the floors but also provides more on demand hot water than you could want. The 50 gallon per minute well is something to brag about. Although the water straight from the well is fantastic, a whole house maintenance free water filtration system reduces any possible contaminants in your plumbing systems.

The mechanicals and HVAC are literally the things you interact with everyday and they are almost always an afterthought and done as cheap as possible. This house is designed around the mechanicals from the start and you’ll feel it as soon as you walk in.

The Facts:

50 GPM well with whole house filtration
Zehnder Air Filtration HRV
5 Zone Radiant Heat in Polished concrete floor
5 Zone Ductless Minisplit A/C & Heat
Blaze King Catalytic Thermostatic Wood Burning Stove
Uponor engineered domestic water supply
Dedicated hot water recirculation system with smartphone app scheduling
Heated make-up air system for high flow range hood vent
American made Lochinvar Combi Boiler for radiant heat and domestic hot water