Design Police Log #01

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Author Message Jonathan Miller, FCSI, SCIP Advanced Member Username: jmma_specs Post Number: 5 Registered: 04-2009 Posted on Friday, May 01, 2009 - 10:29 am:    Perhaps design police are something society needs in this world… or at least in the small Vermont town I was waking through. I’ve experienced the fact that design is not something valued by many people…. Mostly because they do not know what it is or the many personal and community benefits from good design. One aspect of good design is efficiency, like efficient plan layouts that functionally use the least amount of space to meet the program. A primary consideration is choosing the best materials that ‘do no harm’ and perform as desired. One should also make sure that the building efficiently harnesses the free natural energy that shines, blows, bubbles, falls, and flows nearby. Good design is in harmony and not in conflict with the earth and your neighbors. But the bottom line is that good design can save you money in the short, and more importantly, the long run without exacting additional costs to the environment or your health. Conversely bad design is inefficient, wastes space, uses the wrong materials, ignores the abundant free natural energy, and may affect the health of the occupants. What else is wasted is your hard earned money. Citation So… what event has a self deputized Design Police Officer issuing a Citation? The DP Officer was walking by a historical building on a noisy downtown street being weatherized, as evidenced by its’ clapboarding torn off exposing the wood studs and wood lath from the backside of the interior plaster walls. However, this was an attempt to weatherize gone bad…. a design crime. The insulation they chose to place in the empty stud cavities were simple batts of unfaced ‘pink’ fiberglass, which were then covered with short sections of an air-barrier stapled into the wood studs. Do No Harm. The carpenter cutting the pink fiberglass was using his bare hands and was not wearing a mask, exposing himself to potential harm. The pink color of fiberglass indicates that urea-formaldehyde was used in the glue binder holding the glass fibers together. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified formaldehyde as a known human carcinogen in 2004. Formaldehyde exposure is associated with nasal cancer and nasopharyngeal cancer, and possibly with leukemia. For more on formaldehyde see http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PUBS/725.pdf. Loose glass fibers themselves are a dermal irritant easily avoided by using gloves and a mask. Be Efficient. Fiberglass insulation by itself is not a good insulator. Its thermal R-value effectiveness as insulation has been proven to decrease as the temperature drops. Air easily passes though fiberglass batts that do not have a foil backing. And unless an air barrier like foil is present, warm and cold air simply infiltrates through. The stapled sections of air barrier were not tape sealed, effectively canceling any benefit by allowing air to freely pass through the stapled edges. Combining both an ineffective air barrier and a sieve for insulation negates the thermal barrier all together. That air, moving freely through the supposed air barrier and insulation deposits dust, and also condenses moisture within the wall cavity. Dust is mold food and moisture is a mold catalyst. “Danger…. Danger Will Robinson…” What to do? So it looks like they are using materials in an inappropriate and potentially harmful manner…. A Design Police Citation! If they want to keep the batts they might want to put one-and-one-half to two inches of tape sealed rigid insulation board on the outside of the studs, switching it for the air barrier pieces. Fastening vertical wood strips through the rigid insulation into the studs and attaching new clapboards. However, the best solution may well be to remove the fiberglass batt and install damp-spray dense-pack treated cellulose insulation between the studs, wrap a full sheet of seamless air and water barrier outside it fastened with vertical wood furring strips into the studs, and then nail on the new wood or cement fiberboard clapboards. Make sure that the cellulose is only treated with non-toxic borate-based fire-retardant, insecticide and preservative. Cellulose thermally and acoustically insulates well, and is a vapor retarder. Now if only these thoughts had made it into the heads of those responsible or if they had at least hired a professional knowledgeable about building envelope design…. sigh. End of Log number DP20090501.1jm By Jonathan Miller, FCSI, SCIP, AIA Jonathan is a Specification Consultant and ‘Green’ Architect with over 25 years experience that is currently practicing in Middlebury, Vermont. Tony Wolf, AIA, CCS, LEED-AP Senior Member Username: tony_wolf Post Number: 11 Registered: 11-2007 Posted on Friday, May 01, 2009 - 11:11 am:    I agree with the criteria listed for good design. I'd have to say that few design awards I've seen could possibly have used it as their basis. Thankfully, that is beginning to change somewhat in terms of energy and environmental aspects. Maybe the lack of substance in most awards for 'good design' explains in part why the public is unconcerned with dictates of design police. Awards for architecture should be given only after some period of years, and they should require the owner's agreement. I now yield the soap box. Jonathan Miller, FCSI, SCIP Senior Member Username: jmma_specs Post Number: 6 Registered: 04-2009 Posted on Sunday, May 03, 2009 - 09:18 pm:    I must correct one error to my initial post. In the last paragraph I state... Cellulose thermally and acoustically insulates well, and is a vapor retarder. What I meant to say is that cellulose is a great air barrier not vapor retarder. Cellulose has a 75 perm rating with moisture moving pretty readily through it. It's not much of a retarder neh.