'Tis the season...for allergies - Indoor Air Quality

A few nights ago, I woke up in the middle of the night with a terrible feeling that I couldn't breathe.  Very soon I realized I had a terribly stuffy, itchy nose, and a sore throat.  I've been suffering from these symptoms for a few days now.  While everyone in my household has taken a turn at a viral fever over the last few weeks, I know for a fact that I am suffering from seasonal allergies, not a viral infection. It's that time of year again, when environmental airborne allergens are high.  Having lived in Austin for 15 years now, I am very familiar with seasonal allergies, especially sniffles caused by hay fever and cedar fever.  I myself developed nasal allergies just a few years ago.  For me, it usually starts in late December/ early January, when juniper (mountain cedar) pollen is at it's highest, and continues through late spring, when oak pollen abounds, and everything in the city is covered in yellow dust.

Austin Allergy Calendar

Most people start out experiencing allergies in one season, that then expands to two seasons, and soon they have year round allergies.  All too common in Austin.

So, if you call Austin home, and you are allergy-free, count your blessings! Also, make the most of it, because, rumor has it - there is a high probability that you will be under an allergy attack in a few short years.  And then, brace yourself!

Along with my nasal steroids and anti-histamines, I arm myself with an app on my phone that alerts me on the allergen of the day and it's count.

This time, the culprit is mold.  Mold is a perennial allergen that thrives in moist conditions that are prevalent outdoors after rainfall or indoors in wet areas.  Mold sporulates in the darkest hour of the night (which explains why I woke up feeling suffocated at 2am), as opposed to pollen which is highest in the wee hours of the morning.

Mold - allergy count in Austin

Is your indoor air cleaner than outdoor air? 

When outdoor allergens are in the red zone, the common recommendation is to stay indoors.  But the truth is, you are not as protected indoors as you would think. Do you know the quality of your indoor-air?

There is plenty of air-exchange between the inside and outside of a house, even when your doors and windows are closed.  The older the house, the higher the chances are that the inside is not sealed from the outside.  Even houses that are built today are not as airtight as they could be.  There are gaping holes in the walls, ceilings, and roofs.  Vents, lights, plumbing and electrical penetrations, gaps around windows and doors, fireplace chimneys, connections between different materials, etc., all puncture the inside-outside barrier and unintentionally let the outside in.

Moreover, the mechanical system is (intentionally) mandated to bring "fresh air" from outside into the house to meet ventilation requirements.  This air is seldom treated or controlled.

Then, there are the allergens generated inside the building - dander, dust, mold, etc.  All this affects the quality of your indoor air.  There are visible and invisible particulate matter suspended in the air you breathe.  There are also chemical contaminants, which is another topic.

The role of the air-conditioner

Your air-conditioner is supposed to "condition" the air that it circulates through the house.  “Condition” meaning to clean and disinfect, in addition to cool and dehumidify.  But most air-conditioner units, specifically mechanical systems installations, are designed to do one thing most effectively, and that is, cool the air!  The rest is done inadequately.

For effective results, it's a good idea to take care of each task of air-conditioning separately.  So, if you are replacing your indoor air-handler unit, you have an opportunity to upgrade your system.

The best way to make sure that air recirculated by your air-conditioner is clean, is to get the best filter you can afford.  Most homes in America have a 1” thick filter behind a return air grille located in the wall or ceiling. It’s better to have a thick pleated (accordion) air filter with a High MERV (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value) rating (ranges from 1 through 16). These are typically located at the air handler unit (AHU).

The last time I upgraded my ac system, I got a 7" thick pleated MERV 10 filter, located at the air handler unit, in addition to the filter at the return air grill on the wall.

The filter is the first (and sometimes only) line of defense.  It blocks particulate matter before it enters the air handler unit, thereby limiting the debris on the evaporator coil and blower inside the unit.  Dirty coils and blower leads to efficiency loss and also contamination of condensate pan below, which then leads to clogged drain lines. Imagine a dirty, moldy broth at the bottom of your unit (inside).

There are other techniques and products available to purify and disinfect air. Selection depends on target - UV lamps, adsorption, Ionizers, Ozone generators, etc.

Maintenance of AC filters

My allergy attack reminded me to replace my AC filters.  And it was as yucky as you can imagine.  Unfortunately, I only have the protection of a regular 1" thick household filter at the return air grill in the wall.  I sorely miss the 7" thick pleated filter at my old house.  I would have liked to clean out the condensate pan, but the drain line coming out of my AC unit was not set up to allow that (i.e no clean out, T-fittings, or valves).

When was the last time you did any house keeping or maintenance on one of the most important systems in your house - the one that is controlling the air you breathe? (This is not a guilt trip. I am just as guilty.)

If you haven't already done so:

• change the air filter at each return air grill in the wall or ceiling, every 3 months

• if you have a thick pleated air filter at the unit, replace that once a year

• if you have a UV light in your return air chase or inside the unit, change it out every 2 years

• clean out condensate pan and drain line, once a year with bleach water (if you have the right set-up)

• set up an annual a/c maintenance and they can take care of all of the above along with other stuff

Are you building new? 

If you are building a new house right now, take a step back and discuss your indoor air quality, especially if you suffer from environmental allergies.  How are you preventing outdoor air pollutants from entering your house?  And what are you doing to mitigate indoor air pollutants?

You may not have allergies, or asthma, or any related health issues now, but what about the future? What about your kids?

Your health and comfort are at stake.  It pays to take a comprehensive approach to the design and construction of the entire house, in addition to thoughtful design and installation of mechanical systems.

Cheers,

Sharon

5 Fantastic books on details

Designing and drawing good details is an essential skill required of architects.  And there are so many great books on the topic.  I only list here the ones that I have used, and think every architect should review, not including the code book.  And for a book to make the list, it has to meet these three criteria:

1. More illustrations than paragraphs of text.  In that regard, architects are like a 3-year-olds - a drawing speaks a thousand words.

2. I regularly use(d) the book as reference. That it was not just sitting on my shelf, for show, collecting dust.  More often these days, I use it as a teaching tool.

3. It specifically applies to residential architecture. And even more specifically, they apply to work in North America, specifically the US.  Because here, everything is opposite to the way the rest of the world does it.  I'm slightly exaggerating, but from electric power supply and units of measurement to the direction of locksets and a sense of space, it's opposite way once you are stateside.

I should prelude by saying that I grew up in India, where I earned my B.Arch degree.  I was accustomed to reinforced concrete and masonry construction and oh, using the metric system!  Imagine my surprise when I learned that most buildings in the United States were made of sticks and stones.  And that there was hot water running in the pipes.  In my world, that was quite a contradiction.  I knew I had my work cut out for me.

I was fortunate that my first second real job out of graduate school was at a small architecture firm that devoted a lot of time thinking about the way you detail a building. There was a steep learning curve in the first few years.  But these books, along with patient colleagues and old project drawings, were extremely helpful.  Now, it all makes sense.

As I celebrate 15 years in the US, it seems appropriate to reflect on how much I have learned.  But also humbling to admit that I continue to learn - as new materials are added to the market, technologies evolve, construction methods change, our understanding of building science grows, clients want something new that you haven't done before (like an old-fashioned brick pizza oven or an observatory).  The important thing is to know how things go together and what to account for.

That said, here are my fantastic five.

1) Thallon, Robert, Graphic Guide to Frame Construction: Third Edition, Revised and Updated (For Pros By Pros), Third Edition, Taunton Press Inc., 2009

This book is a very useful resource for professionals as well as do-it-yourselfers.  It was a savior during my early years of professional practice as an architectural intern in an American office.  I would refer to it as I drew wall-sections and roof overhang details in AutoCAD.  I would take it with me to the job-site. I learned the correct terminology and conventional methods used in light wood frame construction that is typical in North America.

2) Lstiburek, Joseph,Builder's Guide: Hot-Humid Climates - A systems approach to designing and building healthy, comfortable, durable, energy efficient, and environmentally responsible homes, Energy Efficient Building Association, Building Science Corporation/ US D.O.E., 2002

Also available for 4 other hygro-thermal regions in the US, the guidebook, by the building science guru, provides climate-specific recommendations on building for improved performance.

3) Architectural Woodwork Institute, Architectural Woodwork Quality Standards Illustrated, Eighth Edition, AWI. 2003.

This book will take the guesswork out of anything you want to know about wood and wood products for interior finish carpentry, including cabinetry and finishes.

The last two need no introduction.  No list of books on well-illustrated detailing would be complete without them.

4)Ching, Francis D. K., Building Construction Illustrated, Fifth Edition, John Wiley & Sons, New York. 2014.

While D.K.Ching has several publications to his credit, BCI is a particularly useful reference for detailing.  I can safely bet that every architect and architecture student around the world has seen Ching's work.  If you love architectural free-hand sketches, and who doesn't, his blog is worth following.  Seeing.Thinking.Drawing. is where he uploads his current work.

5) American Institute of Architects, Architectural Graphic Standards for Residential Construction, Second Edition, John Wiley & Sons, New York. 2010.

For all those occasions when you don't have to reinvent the wheel; AGS is the architect's handbook. It is a one-stop-shop resource for industry standards on sizes, materials, components, assemblies, installation, building systems, etc.  It has the information in all the books mentioned above.  And more.

If you want to know the answer to something, look up AGS before you Google it.  You will most likely find a reliable answer pretty fast.

Note that links provided are for the latest edition, even if that is not the one I possess.  There is much overlap in the content of these books.  But I think it is a good idea to look at the same thing from different angles to fully understand it.  If you want to spend under $20, go with #1.  If you want to spend $200 for a more comprehensive book, get #5.

Cheers,

Sharon.

Rain, rain, go away, I've got a flood today

It has been raining cats and dogs over the past couple of weeks in Austin, totaling 9.8" of rainfall just in the Bull Creek watershed. Last Tuesday, we got 4.76" of rainfall. That is about how much is normal average for the entire month of May, our wettest month.  And it all came down overnight.  All the low water crossings in the belly of the watershed were flooded, with water gushing over the roads for well over 24 hours. I regularly check http://www.atxfloods.com/ for updates.

I love the rain. I love the bright green clean look that is a result of a good shower. I love cloudy days as much as I love blue skies.  After the drought we've had since 2011, you probably love it too.  And if you harvest rainwater as your sole source of water supply, you are probably jumping with joy, singing "let it rain". But if your site has drainage issues, you are probably worried, and thinking "rain, rain, go away". Whether it is a flat lot or there is topography (i.e. slope, as is common in some parts of Austin and the hill country), site water management is critical for the building's durability and worry-free home-ownership.

I used to worry. My first house was a garden-home with a yard that had all the right ingredients for a flooding recipe.  It was built in the late 70's in a zero-lot-line development, after the whole area was razed to the ground and compacted with caliche (crushed limestone). Although a good base for roads and driveways, and a cheap stabilizer for concrete foundation, caliche is bad for ground water seepage. (And gardening! Hardly ideal for a garden house!  The yard had about 4"-6" of soil before you hit caliche. Needless to say, it wasn't a very lush garden. Or you had to work hard for it. Of course, many trees and hardy plants have grown in the neighborhood over the last 30 years.)  Adding to the nonporous nature of the soil, the yard was flat as a pancake, and locked in between adjacent houses and their yards.  Hint: A depressed, flat, impervious area, bound on all sides is sometimes called a pond!  Let me just say, after having owned this house, "courtyards" have lost all their appeal.

When it rained, all the water from my roof and the neighbors' roofs would pour into the yard. Roof runoff was (and almost always is) by far the biggest contributor of water.  Runoff from the patio and entry walkway was the second. All this water would collect in my "pond" to a depth of 6" to 8" and then start creeping into my garage, and soon after, my neighbor's house.  You see, the lawn in front of the entry gate created a small berm, that trapped the water in the yard, preventing it from draining into the street. The whole neighborhood has grading and drainage issues. In a really heavy downpour, the cul-de-sac would collect so much storm-water that the street gutters would fill up to the curb and flood the sidewalk.

I had to fix it.

Our HOA (Home Owner's Association) wanted us to build a concrete flume along the side of the property.  In my estimation, the flume would only serve as a ditch for water to collect and stagnate against the neighbor’s foundation till the rain subsided. This was the only predictable outcome as the elevation of the flume would be lower than that of adjacent grade and the street it was supposed to drain towards.

Instead, I took a more comprehensive approach.  First line of defense was to carry the roof runoff away from the yard and discharge it at the street.  I sized the roof gutters and downspouts for each section of roof area.  I replaced my dinky 4" gutters (which overflowed all the time) with 5" gutters that were big enough to handle the volume of water running off the roof surface. Then I added a few downspouts.  I connected the downspouts to corrugated PVC pipes that were buried below grade, going out to the street.  I installed clean-outs at the transition between the downspout and the pipe.  (No, I did not get leaf covers for the gutters, as they were beyond my budget at the time). Because of the lack of slope, I had to do pop-up drains at the end of the lines.It works like a charm. In a rain event, the water pressure in the underground line forces it to pop-up and spill over at the street.

To handle the surface water at the grade level, I installed a french drain all along the length of the property from the back corner to the front, also tied to a pop-up drain.  The HOA cut a swale into the berm at the front lawn.  They didn't want to spend the money to pave the swale, but had to come back later and do it anyway, as a grassy swale is not a very effective one.

And voila, that fixed it.  2" of rain in an hour and no flooding.

Now, I just need to keep my gutters clean.  Ugh!  I should have invested in the leaf covers.

Cheers,

Sharon.

Why designing a custom house is like having a child

For starters, you cannot know before you start what you are going to end up with.  You might have a girl or a boy!  He might have your beautiful eyes, she might have your partner's bulbous nose.  Regardless, you will love your child and not ever regret having this little bundle of joy that you created.  From nothing to a whole new living breathing person who leaves an indelible footprint in your life - it's rather amazing!   Likewise, if you have made the decision to go through the effort of building a custom-house that fits your family, your personal needs, and your lifestyle, it's quite a responsibility, and it's worth it.

Your child's skin color, eye color, hair color, sleep habits, personality, talents, it's all a toss.  Well, maybe some characteristics are predictable within a certain level of accuracy based on the two people involved in the pairing.  Every child is unique and a direct result of the people involved.  Similarly with building a custom-house - the major players involved in the project have a direct bearing on the end result.  This includes the architect, the builder, and you (the client).  The hereditary gene pool for the project is established by this unique combination.

You bring your site, your aspirations, your requirements, your budget.  No two architects will produce the same design for the same set of criteria.  That's the beauty of working with an architect, isn't it.  Architectural design is a creative process, and the resulting product will be as unique as the individual doing the creating.  Heck, the same architect will come up with a different design if they sat down to design on a different day, but I will ponder on that in an another blog post.  Architects come in all sizes and shapes - that's why selecting the right architect is crucial to the outcome of your project.

Design is one thing, building is another.  Yet, the same principle is true.  Given the same set of drawings, specifications, and instructions, no two builders will produce the same building.  Most seasoned builders assemble a team of sub-contractors that they like to work with.  The process of building is still considered a craft.  While the framing might be done by any number of framers per drawings and specifications, we depend on the artistic eye of the mason installing the stone veneer, the carpenter doing the trim work, the iron guy welding the ornamental railing, the tile guy laying the floor tile, just to name a few.  Some would argue that there are talented plumbers and electricians too.

And then, there is the nature vs. nurture conundrum, which also directly applies to the collaborative work involved in designing a custom-house.  Your project develops a personality and characteristics that are dictated by conversations that reinforce or alter a hereditary trait.  At the end of the day, one cannot say whether nature or nature played a more vital role in the outcome. It just takes a life of its own.

Cheers,

Sharon.

View into Jeld-Wen

I was invited to tour the Jeld-Wen plant in beautiful Bend, Oregon, which is where they manufacture their custom series of wood and aluminum clad-wood doors and windows.  This used to be the Pozzi window company since 1978 before Jeld-Wen bought it in 1992. As an architect, this factory tour and their spiel was particularly inspiring because they showcased many custom designs and talked about their capabilities that compete with really high-end wood window manufacturers like Marvin or Kolbe-Kolbe.  I was also very excited to see innovation in a 100-year-old industry and a can-do attitude. Having toured the Andersen window plant in Stillwater, Minnesota many years ago, I knew what to expect and could immediately see some similarities.  As at any manufacturing facility, work flow efficiency and quality control are stressed upon; all the moving and heavy lifting is handled by machinery; measuring and cutting is computerized. One would think that a lot of the repetitive tasks involved in putting the windows together are automated, but not so!  Window assembly is a labor intensive process. I was surprised to see that many of the parts are put together manually - men and women working with hand-held tools. From cladding the wood frame to joining the window frames together, from sealing the glass in the sash to setting the sash in the frame, how many hands touch one window before it is ready to ship, I'm sure they have the numbers. Perhaps because this is a much smaller facility and most windows are custom sizes and shapes, a Jeld-Wen veteran checks each and every window at the end of assembly.

It was also interesting to witness the testing performed on the windows and doors. A window/ door was installed in a sealed chamber that simulated real-world conditions like wind-driven rain to verify the unit's performance, and check on status of the weather-stripping, joints, etc.

Much like other wood window and door manufacturers, Jeld-Wen started as small mill-work company in 1960 in Klamath Falls, Oregon where timber harvesting was booming. They have since grown to be one of the top, holding a large market share in a very competitive industry, offering a diversified portfolio of products that cater to various budgets.

My personal experience is only with the Jeld-Wen Siteline EX aluminum clad-wood series, mostly casements and fixed windows.  I would be loath to specify a window with wood on the exterior, but that's easy for me since I don't do historic preservation type projects. Wood on the exterior of a window is just asking for trouble, even if it is treated wood such as Jeld-wen's proprietary AuroLast wood.  I also only specify windows with an integral nailing fin, so that it installed and flashed according to best building practices.  Anybody who installs a window using a "block frame" so that they "don't have to disturb" existing exterior finish such as siding, stucco, or stone, knows nothing about infiltration and water management in building envelope. If you ask me, they should not even be selling this option.

Jeld-wen offers many features and options that let you customize their product for a sophisticated client - upgrades in glass (they buy from Cardinal Glass), screens (Phantom Screens), finishes (pre-finish options, wood species, exterior colors, kynar finish, etc).  But if you are looking for a window of an unusual size or shape with unique features, I think you will find that the custom Jeld-wen plant in Bend, Oregon will not disappoint.  They look at your request, and the design team will meet to review, do research, and get back to you with an answer. It could cost you a lot, but if there is a way to do it, they will build it.  They make a prototype of every unique window, test it in-house for wind pressure, water and air infiltration.

The highlight for me was the curved glass windows and the copper clad windows.  They can clad the sash with copper but since it is a roll-formed product (not extruded like aluminum) it cannot be used on the (structural) frame of the window.  They had several examples with black aluminum frames and copper sashes, which looked pretty neat.  Keep in mind that copper is a living finish, and will patina over time, the end result being different from New York to Austin.  I have a love affair with vertical grain Douglas Fir (something about all the grain lines aligned so tightly makes my heart sing) and copper.  My eyes got to feast on many examples of both materials.

Other products I was excited to see were the large-opening folding window and door systems - 4 panel bi-parting doors, multi-slide stackable pocket doors, zero-corner doors.  If money is no object, then the options start to open up, no pun intended.

I firmly believe that innovation at the customizable (uppermost) level trickles down to the mass market as demand will drive the cost down. What is expensive and high-end today, will become commonplace tomorrow.  What was considered luxury yesterday is a standard today.  We've seen it in the food industry, the car industry, all types of technology, and the building industry is certainly no exception.

Cheers,

Sharon George.