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The Purpose of the build - The Enclosure is born!

Well, hundreds of hours of schooling and seminars, and thousands of hours of research have led me to the last couple of weeks of work at the site.  In fact, the last two weeks are representing the entire focus and purpose of this build – The Enclosure.

Over the last 2 weeks we have been detailing the window openings.  This has been a lot more difficult than anticipated (of course) due to the frigid conditions our region has suffered lately.  The foil faced membrane I am using at the window sills will not stick unless it is first warmed with a heat gun.  On my worst day, I only was able to detail a single 10ft wide by 6ft tall opening after 7 hours.  On my best day, I detailed three smaller windows.  I hope to finish the detailing by the end of this coming week and then will start the window installation process.

In all, there are 23 pieces of membrane (permeable and foil face) needed around every window and door opening.  It took a few days to optimize their installation (last time I did this was in 2012 at the BCIT Building Envelope Lab).  My thanks to Graham and James for their continued mentoring and getting me to the point where the openings represent best practices for the type of assembly we have designed.

I am writing a best practices guide to document this process but thought I would provide a look at what we have been up to.

Opening prep starts with bucking out the opening to support our ‘outie’ windows and installing a back angle
Its all about the darts. These carefully placed membranes protect the vulnerable corners of the opening.
With the sill corners detailed, we wrap the jambs and head in permeable membrane lapping the sill foil face non-permeable membrane.
Because the buck-out is really just another sill (flat surface that can see storm water), it too is detailed with non-permeable foil face membrane
Main sill membrane installed and lapped over sill corner membranes
Final membrane is a secondary sill membrane that will drape over the exterior insulation ensuring moisture is directed to exterior side of insulation.

Under separate cover, I have posted the definitions of the various barriers that make up a Building Enclosure and why they are important.

 

Thanks for visiting.

“Each time we face our fear, we gain strength, courage and confidence in the doing.” – Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) 26th U.S. President

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because in the end those who matter don’t mind  and those who mind don’t matter.” —Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904-1991) Writer, Cartoonist, Animator

“Confidence comes not from always being right, but from not fearing to be wrong.” —Peter McIntyre (1910-1995) New Zealand Artist And Author

 

 

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