Better Builder Magazine, Issue 16 / Winter 2015

1
BETTER
BuilderMAGAZINE
the builder’s source
Issue 16 | Winter 2015
www.betterbuilder.ca
Better Builders from
Living the Best with LIV Communities
Are We Setting the Bar Too High?
Mentoring Change with Builders
Envelope – First Things First
The Path to Continual Improvement
In this Issue
Coast to Coast
Publication#42408014

A b r e a t h o f f r e s h a i r .
MAX SERVICE
All mechanical and electrical components are
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One of the most extensive warranties in the
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only,where applicable.
MAX COMFORT
With the increased efficiency of this optional
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with a minimal increase in electricity cost.
Continuous fan operation helps improve
filtration,reduce temperature variations,and
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making your customers’ homes more comfortable.
Mini Ducted Hi-Velocity Air Handling System
Optional Prioritizing of Comfort Levels with Energy Savings
MAX SPACE SAVER
The MAXAIR fan coil is so compact that it fits
anywhere:laundry room,attic,crawl space,you
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It can be installed in new or existing homes.
It takes less than 1/3 of the space of a conventional
heating and air conditioning unit.
MAX ENERGY SAVINGS
Energy savings,temperature control and comfort
levels are achieved in individual levels of the home
by prioritizing the requirements.This is achieved
by installing optional space thermostats. If any
area calls for heating or cooling, the individual
thermostat allows the space it serves to achieve
optimum comfort and still maintain continuous
air circulation throughout the home.
This method of prioritizing is a great energy
savings measure while offering an increased
comfort level to the home owner.
FLEXAIRTM
DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM
MAX FLEXIBILITY
The supply outlets can be placed in the wall,
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duct will fit in a standard 2"x 4" wall cavity.
Can be mounted for vertical or horizontal airflow.
Can be combined with humidifiers,high efficiency
air cleaners or ERVs / HRVs.
Snap-together branch duct and diffuser
connections.
MAX ELECTRICAL SAVINGS
ECMs are ultra-high-efficient programmable
brushless DC motors that are more efficient than
the permanently split capacitor (PSC) motors used
in most residential furnaces.This is especially true
at lower speeds used for continuous circulation in
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Feature story
18 Living the Best with LIV Communities
Landmart Homes rebrands itself as “an example
of a company willing to redefine itself beyond
what most builders are doing.”
By tracy Hanes
Inside this issue
02 Publisher’s Note: Good, Better, Best
by john godden
03 The Bada Test: Are We Setting the Bar
Too High Too Soon? by Lou Bada
04 Builder News: Denim Homes – A Quality Envelope
Is the Key by alex newman
06 Industry Expert: Round One – A Production
Style Net Zero Home by Gord Cooke
08 Industry News: Royalpark’s a PowerHaus
by Alex Newman
11 Site Specific: Nancy McCabe
by Alex Newman
13 Industry Expert: Mentoring Change with Builders
by Michael Lio
15 Builder News: Sharing Resources: The Essence
of Green by ALex Newman
22 Industry News: Fabulous Laneway Houses
by Lanefab by ALex Newman
25 Builder News: The Edelweiss Home: Envelope –
First Things First by ALex Newman
29 From the Ground Up: A Journey on the Path of
Continual Improvement by Doug Tarry
BETTER
BuilderMAGAZINE
1
Issue 16 | winter 2015
23
Cover Image: Shutterstock
25
www.betterbuilder.ca | Issue 16 | Winter 2015
SuppliedPhoto
11
15
photo:RNDCOnstruction
Photo:Lanefabdesign/buildPhoto:Ecohome

2 www.betterbuilder.ca | Issue 16 | Winter 2015
Publisher
Better Builder Magazine,
63 Blair Street,
Toronto, ON M4B 3N5
416-481-4218 fax 416-481-4695
sales@betterbuilder.ca
Better Builder Magazine is a
sponsor of
Publishing Editor
John B. Godden
Managing Editor
Wendy Shami
editorial@betterbuilder.ca
To advertise, contribute a story,
or join our distribution list, please
contact sales@betterbuilder.ca
Feature WriterS
Tracy Hanes, Alex Newman
proofreading
Janet Dimond
Creative
Robert Robotham Graphics
www.RobertRobotham.ca
This magazine brings
together premium product
manufacturers and leading
builders to create better,
differentiated homes and
buildings that use less energy,
save water and reduce our
impact on the environment.
Publication number
42408014
Copyright by Better Builder
Magazine. Contents may not
be reprinted or reproduced
without written permission. The
opinions expressed herein are
exclusively those of the authors
and assumed to be original
work. Better Builder Magazine
cannot be held liable for
any damage as a result of
publishing such works.
Trademark disclaimer
All company and/or product
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Better Builder Magazine is
published four times a year.
W
hat is your definition of a good
builder? Good reputation, good
customer service, a high Tarion
rating? The philosophy of sustainability is
nearest and dearest to my heart and hope-
fully included in your criteria
for a good builder. Regarding
sustainability, I’m not just talk-
ing energy efficiency, but also
durability; not just low operat-
ing costs, but also a structure
built to last. Remember the
requirements of the building
code are a minimum standard.
Today’s houses are built
faster because of the approval
process. Once permits are in hand, houses
must be delivered at a predetermined clos-
ing date. The discussion of what makes a
good builder needs to also include how the
builder handles the process of construction
under very challenging circumstances. Better
builders know quality takes time and find the
sweet spot between construction speed and
craftsmanship.
Better builders have emerged as a result
of utility programs like Optimum Homes.
The builder’s organization looks inward with
the help of outside consultants to determine
process and timelines. Consultants and the
builder collaboratively set realistic goals and
create a template for change. Accountability
increases across all depart-
ments as communication is fine
tuned and a feedback loop is
established. Key to the suc-
cess of better builders are the
individuals on-site who take
personal ownership of the orga-
nization’s goals.
In this issue our regular con-
tributors Lou Bada, Gord Cooke,
Michael Lio and Doug Tarry
discuss the path of continual improvement
between code homes and low energy homes.
Better Builder visits some of the best builders
across Canada – Lanefab Design/Build in B.C.,
LIV Communities, Royalpark Homes and RND
Construction in Ontario, Ecohome in Que-
bec and Denim Homes in Nova Scotia. These
companies are industry leaders practising
the triple bottom line in their construction
projects – what’s good for people, business
and the environment. BB
Good, Better, Best
publisher’snote
By Joh n Go dden
Better builders
know quality
takes time and
find the sweet
spot between
construction
speed and
craftsmanship.
BETTER
BuilderMAGAZINE
To advertise contact:
647-382-1402 • editorial@betterbuilder.ca
or visit us at www.betterbuilder.ca

3www.betterbuilder.ca | Issue 16 | Winter 2015
I
n Ontario we have a defined public
policy goal of achieving net zero
energy housing by 2030. The bar
has been set. The process of regula-
tion through the Ontario Building
Code (OBC) of continuous improve-
ment in energy efficiency for houses
in five-year increments until 2030 is
ambitious and reasonable, for the most
part. The overarching goal is a low car-
bon economy, lowering greenhouse gas
emissions, and ultimately doing our
part to lessen the effects of climate
change while improving the human
condition and our state of well-being.
Sustainability is important stuff.
I’ve always liked the “triple bottom
line” mantra for sustainability – planet,
people and profit. Sustainability initia-
tives that fail on any one of these fac-
tors do not achieve the intended goal.
Economic sustainability is maligned
far too often. The lack of adequate,
healthy and affordable housing is regu-
larly an afterthought. Affordability is
an elusive goal as a public policy objec-
tive. But it’s difficult to simply write
regulations to meet the important goal
of affordable housing.
With the advent of the
Net Zero Energy pilot
program, important
work is being done on
defining net zero ready
and net zero energy
homes as well as the
delivery program and
its labelling. This seems
to be following a similar path of
previous labelling programs (such
as R-2000, LEED for Homes and
ENERGY STAR). This important work
is being done by a group of stake-
holders from government, industry
consultants, suppliers, volunteer
builders, and led by the Canadian
Home Builders’ Association. While
this might seem to be a
great initiative, we must
be very careful and
prudent in our approach
to implementation. We
should always begin
with the desired result
in mind – improving the
human condition and
our state of well-being
on this planet.
The Greater Toronto and Hamilton
Area and other large Canadian metro-
politan areas have peculiar municipal
planning policy environments. Once
a document is produced for net zero
housing, there’s very little that can
stop municipal governments from
mandating this form of housing en
masse well before 2030. Politicians
will ask if there’s a definition of a net
zero home, and if it has been built
before, why shouldn’t every new home
in their municipality be built that
way? After all, “(fill in the blank) is the
greenest municipality in Canada.”
This is low-hanging fruit that is
easily picked. Just write it into a set
of development guidelines and you’re
automatically a green municipality.
And yet there is very little understand-
ing of the ramifications this, once
thebadatest
By L ou Ba da
I’ve always
liked the “triple
bottom line”
mantra for
sustainability –
planet, people
and profit.
Continued on page 32
Illustration:igorkisselev/Shutterstock
Are We Setting the Bar Too
High Too Soon?

W
hen it comes to framing
houses, Caleb Howden
was something of a child
prodigy. He started the summer he
was 13, and by 14 had quit school,
left his home town in Alberta’s Peace
River district, and moved to Calgary
where he started working two or three
construction jobs. “I loved working
and I loved framing houses,” says the
39-year-old owner and president of
Denim Homes in Halifax, N.S.
At 18 he was headhunted by an
American framing company, and at 19
he and his bride moved to the States.
Within a few years he was project
managing commercial and residential
building all over North America, from
Ontario to California and Hawaii.
Moving around so much gave him
a “well-rounded perspective of the
industry,” Howden says. “When you
frame all your life, in so many differ-
ent locations, under so many different
bylaw requirements, you develop a
wide perspective and understanding of
how things are – and can be – built.”
It’s also caused him to ask a lot
of questions, especially why. In the
States he’d frequently question the
engineers about their methods and
objectives. Then he’d go back to them
with a better, simpler design.
If his questions went unanswered,
Howden would hit the books and
do the research. Soon after moving
to Nova Scotia, someone asked him
about the best heating system. He
didn’t know the answer, and since
he doesn’t like “not knowing,” he
researched hundreds of sustainable
housing models to understand.
The answer he came up
with was surprising – elec-
tric baseboard heating. But
Howden deemed it best for
practical and cost reasons.
“You have to look at the
upfront cost to build or
install a system, and then
the cost to maintain and
operate monthly. There is
no mechanical equipment
you can put in a house that
will pay itself off in the
time it takes to wear out.”
While that may sound
like something that doesn’t
belong in a magazine about
energy efficiency, sustain-
ability and environmen-
tally responsible building,
Howden makes a good
counterargument. “If you
build a home right so it
doesn’t lose heat, then the
heating system matters less
and less. It then becomes a
lifestyle question as in, Do
you like forced air? Do you
want each bedroom at a
different temperature?”
So Howden instead
focuses on building a “qual-
ity envelope” so tight, it
uses minimal energy – and
costs a lot less to operate.
He starts with staggered double-
studded walls that have a common
top and bottom plate, mostly 2x10s,
with 2x4s staggered on the top and
bottom. These are then insulated with
solid foam – either ½ lb, 1 lb or 2 lb
foam depending on the situation. It’s
not just about wall location either.
Howden says, “Putting tons of insula-
tion in a north-facing wall isn’t going
to save money on heating because
your heat loss is through windows.”
Howden focuses on the home’s
structure, where its weak spots are,
Denim Homes – A Quality
Envelope Is the Key
buildernews
By A l e x Ne w m a n
An efficient airtight envelope means the heating system works
less. Staggered studs on 2x10 wall plates give R40 walls.
suppliedphoto
4

and “How to mitigate thermal heat
loss due to that structure.”
He finds major heat loss spots are
between the footings and the founda-
tion wall, and around the room joists
and window headers.
Generally he’ll use ½ lb spray foam
in the walls, but wherever there’s
reduced thickness – like above the
window or at a load-bearing point
– he will use 2 lb foam because it
offers a more consistent thermal
level over the whole expanse of wall.
“Anywhere you have large areas of
built-up lumber, you are going to lose
a lot of heat,” Howden reasons.
This higher-cost 2 lb closed-cell
foam is also used in all the floor
joists, basement and main floor, as
well as rim joists because it eliminates
the need for a vapour barrier.
It’s also used anywhere “it’s difficult
to get an air seal, or where there’s mois-
ture like the basement or perimeter
walls because it doesn’t take on water.”
Ultimately, it’s about R-values, he
says. Spray foam in a double stud wall
offers significantly higher R-value than
the same wall packed with fibreglass
insulation. In the attic, however, he’ll
use cellulose insulation rather than
foam “because cellulose
is economic, people have
a lot of room in the attic,
so it’s easy to pile up.
Typically we put in R60,
but can be increased.”
Howden also zeroes
in on the foundation.
When outside ground
and air temperatures
are low, the founda-
tion wall and interior
slab are going to be cold. Separating
the foundation from the slab with a
thermal break helps retain heat, so
he uses R20 underneath and around
the perimeter of the slab.
An 8” exterior wall – which is what
Howden uses as standard – allows the
thermal break at the slab
edge to be capped by the wall
plate. This would not be pos-
sible with a 2x6 exterior wall.
While insulation is an
important factor in reducing
energy consumption, How-
den points out the impor-
tance of windows – how
many and where they’re
located. “You can put in all
the insulation you want, but
unless you’re strategic with
window placement and what
they’re made of – triple
pane, for example – you’ll
experience heat loss. Bot-
tom line is holes in walls,
although necessary for light,
are bad for heat loss.”
Programs
Most of the homes Denim
constructs could qualify
for programs such as
EnerGuide, ENERGY STAR,
R-2000, or Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED), but
Howden usually doesn’t bother regis-
tering for them. For one thing it adds
to the cost of the house – $1,200 for
an R-2000 label – and
some of the programs
(especially LEED) require
energy/carbon footprint
reduction in aspects unre-
lated to building, such
as proximity to public
transit.
And since he also
focuses mainly on build-
ing the tightest building
envelope possible, he
doesn’t factor in things like loca-
tion – or proximity to transit. “Those
things [lowering carbon footprint] are
relevant and have a place, but it’s just
not our focus. We focus on energy
efficiency through a quality envelope.”
Howden won the design competi-
tion to build a net zero home for
$275,000 – roughly half the cost of
the other bids. He’ll use the same
tight envelope and install a 9 kW solar
photovoltaic (PV) system for generat-
ing electricity. Nova Scotia, with its
greater number of sunny days, is a
good location for solar energy.
Apart from envelope and mechani-
cal systems, there are other things for
builders to consider when building net
zero homes. In Nova Scotia new homes
are required to have an HRV (heat
recovery ventilator), so Howden adds
sensible features like a drying closet.
“The HRV is running 24 hours anyway,
and it has a built-in exhaust. It’s noth-
ing to put up wire shelves and a timer
so you can hang up damp clothes to
dry. Yes, it’s slower than a dryer, but
uses absolutely no energy.” BB
Alex Newman is a writer, editor and researcher
at www.alexnewmanwriter.com.
buildernews
By Alex Newman
Thanks to Caleb – Gillian was voted the greenest dentist by
her association. Her office is a net zero building.
“Putting tons of
insulation in a
north-facing wall
isn’t going
to save money on
heating because
your heat loss
is through
windows.”
suppliedphoto

O
n September 11, 2015, at their
first net zero grand open-
ing, Reid’s Heritage Homes in
Guelph, Ont., announced, “By the
end of 2016 or early 2017, we will
be building net zero-ready homes in
all new single-family developments.”
That is a bold statement, but if you
consider current political agendas,
customer expectations and indus-
try trends, building net zero homes
starts to makes sense. It is a concept
really starting to gain momentum
across the country. So, let’s look at
one builder’s approach.
By the time this article is printed,
Reid’s Heritage Homes will be in the
framing stages of the last two of
five net zero homes. These are being
constructed as part of the Natural
Resources Canada (NRCan) and Owens
Corning-partnered ecoENERGY Inno-
vation Initiative (ecoEII) project. (For
more information on this national
project that includes four other build-
ers across Canada, visit www.zeroen-
ergy.ca.) You may recall a hot discus-
sion by Michael Lio in Better Builder
Issue 14, Summer 2015 on the water
heating equipment selected for these
homes. This was a great introduction
to some of the newer technologies
being selected, but it is not the only
new concept worthy of discussion. As
Reid’s Heritage Homes has learned,
it takes a lot more than the right
equipment to build a cost-effective
net zero home. It is about finding the
sweet spot between added enclosure
and systems costs versus reducing the
renewable energy capacity to achieve
a zero annual energy goal.
Round One – A Production-Style
Net Zero Home
industryexpert
By G ord Cooke
SuppliedPhoto
Net zero home #1: Zoned ductwork with inline electric resistance backup heaters.
Ceiling R60+ R60 blown fibreglass with 10” raised heel truss
Above-grade walls R35+ 2x6 @ 24” on centre (OC), R20 batts + R15 extruded polystyrene (XPS) exterior sheathing
Foundation walls R25+ 2x4 @ 24” OC, held out 2” for R23 batts + R10 XPS continuous tight to the wall
Foundation slab R10+ 2” XPS under slab, with 2” XPS slab edge insulation
Windows R5+ Triple-glazed, double Low E coating
Air tightness <1.5 air changes
per hour (ACH) @ 50
Pa (pascals of
pressure) lbs/sq. in.
1.0 ACH @ 50 Pa
Component Target Effective Reid’s Heritage Homes’ First Net Zero Home
R-Values Construction Elements

The design requirements of the
R-2000 Net Zero Energy pilot techni-
cal standard were a good starting
point as they require the passive
elements of the enclosure design
to reduce energy consumption by
33% compared to the R-2000 typical
reference house. The chart shows the
effective R-values and air tightness
targets for assembly components
and the construction elements Reid’s
Heritage Homes has used in the first
of their five homes.
Add a Mitsubishi cold climate
air source heat pump with electric
backup, a Rheem Hybrid air source
heat pump hot water tank, the most
efficient vanEE energy recovery
ventilator (ERV) available,
a drainwater heat recov-
ery system, light-emitting
diode/compact fluorescent
lamp (LED/CFL) light-
ing, and voilà! Net zero
Canadian-style (albeit
Southwestern Ontario).
Seriously, that’s it. That’s
what it took such that an
8.5 kW solar photovoltaic
(PV) array on the roof was
enough to achieve net zero
qualification. Well, not
quite that easy. There were
challenges such as the wall
assembly and meeting air
tightness targets.
If you grimaced at the
R15 (3” XPS) insulated
sheathing on exterior
walls, you weren’t the only
one. This item was one of
the first on the chopping
block. It alone caused sub-
stantial foundation costs,
unnecessary complexity
for brick ties and siding
fastening, and significant
process changes that
proved detrimental to air
sealing. With more practice
all these would have improved, but
sometimes the two steps forward,
one step back approach is helpful.
On the second net zero home, the
main framed walls had to change.
Two main choices stood out above
all – 2x8 framing with double R14
batts or staggered double stud fram-
ing with 2x4s. In the end, the framing
crew had the last say and elected to
use 2x8s. Exterior insulated sheath-
ing was limited to R10 or 2” and
additional cavity insulation was
added. Compared to the first net zero
wall assembly, framing and sheathing
time was cut in half and the process
differed very slightly from ENERGY
STAR walls, with 1” thicker exterior
insulation and 2” thicker studs. Most
importantly, all air sealing details
were consistent between Reid’s Heri-
tage Homes’ normal ENERGY STAR
process and these net zero homes.
To address air sealing struggles,
bath fans in attic ceilings were
replaced by ERV-ducted exhausts
powered by a vanEE 90H-V electroni-
cally commutated motor (ECM) ERV
in all five homes. The basement pour-
in-place windows were also upgraded
to bucked-out sliders that were much
easier to seal.
In the second home, changes were
also made to the heating, ventilating
and air conditioning (HVAC) system.
For space heating, the Mitsubishi
zoned heating and cooling system
with individual inline electric resis-
tance backup heaters was replaced
with a Dettson Chinook/Alizé Smart
Duct System. It turned out cost-effec-
tive natural gas heating was a good
match with the net zero concept for
these homes.
On the other hand, for water heat-
ing all five homes will be using air
source heat pump hot water heat-
ers (HPWH). Gas water heaters can
make economic sense in some cases,
but for these five homes the HPWH
matched very well with the available
solar PV capacity.
In building the five net zero homes,
Reid’s Heritage Homes has gained
valuable experience in the process –
between net zero home #1 and net
zero home #5 the incremental cost
has dropped 25%. As the cost of
solar continues to fall and the cost of
utility energy continues to rise, it is
only a matter of time before net zero
becomes a compelling opportunity for
builders and their homebuyers. Reid’s
Heritage Homes is figuring it out. All
builders should have a go at it. BB
Gord Cooke is president of Building
Knowledge Canada.
suppliedPhoto
Net Zero Home #2: Dettson
Smart Duct System
industryexpert
By Gord Cooke

R
oyalpark Homes has green
history. The Woodbridge, Ont.,
company built the first LEED
Silver home in Markham, and was
the first in Brampton to build under
Enbridge’s Savings by Design program.
“We’re always looking for ways to
be greener, and more sustainable,”
says Marco De Simone, Royalpark’s
president. A typical Royalpark home
has a tight envelope – their wall sys-
tem was rated the most efficient in
Ontario by a Best Wall Study under-
taken by Ryerson University – and
they’re built better than code with
exterior sheathing with a higher insu-
lation level, De Simone says.
So when Panasonic Eco Solutions
launched its residential energy storage
offering – a 10 kWh lithium-ion battery,
solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, and
hybrid inverter package – Royalpark
jumped onboard. A pocket of eight
homes at their new Simcoe Shores low
rise project in Barrie, Ont., comes with
the new battery storage system.
Even though De Simone has always
been an early adopter of green tech-
nology, he thought carefully before
taking on the solar panel and battery
storage system. What influenced his
decision was the Panasonic name.
Panasonic developed a unique
package that combines a Tabuchi-
manufactured inverter and battery
powered by Panasonic lithium-ion bat-
tery cells, solar PV panels, and a moni-
toring system to ensure a headache-
free experience for the builder.
Even so, De Simone says, “We
couldn’t have committed to this
unless we knew it would function well
and cut energy costs. As a builder I
have to stand behind my product, and
if it’s not working, my reputation is
on the line. Since Panasonic is a high
end company, I know they’ve done the
research and testing, and it will run
the way they claim it’s running.”
Called the PowerHaus collection,
the eight homes within the larger
Simcoe Shores project are being used
as a demo, says De Simone, “to see if
the product is successful. These are
stepping stones. Two hundred homes
would be too big a commitment,
but eight homes allows us to see if
we can manage this. Next, maybe
we’ll [do] 15 houses, and build up
confidence along the way about the
industrynews
By A l e x Ne wm a n
Royalpark’s a PowerHaus
At the opening of PowerHaus, then minister of environment and climate change Glen Murray and Sylvie Briz of Panasonic exchange ideas
about Near Zero houses and solar battery storage.
Photo:RoyalParkHomes

system and its saleability.”
The battery storage technol-
ogy with its ability to store energy
for later use has helped the homes
achieve 50% better than code. But the
PowerHaus homes have also been
built even tighter – with higher level
mechanical components – than the
company’s regular homes.
All eight of the homes have sold.
So What Is It Exactly?
The Panasonic Residential Storage
Battery System – a package of lith-
ium-ion battery, hybrid inverter and
solar panels – allows homeowners to
generate, store and manage electric-
ity generated by solar panels. At the
heart of the system is the compact 10
kWh lithium-ion battery unit, which is
paired with a unique hybrid inverter
that allows electricity to be stored or
discharged depending on the home’s
needs. It can convert from DC to AC,
and vice versa, on demand.
A monitoring system and remote
control device help homeowners
oversee their electricity use, and
lets them set times for charging and
discharging the battery. It can also be
programmed as a backup electricity
source during grid outages.
Sylvie Briz, director of marketing
and business development, residential
energy storage at Panasonic Eco Solu-
tions which offers the system, believes
solar energy, especially when coupled
with battery storage, enables home-
owners to store clean energy and bet-
ter manage their energy consumption.
As well, homeowners want energy
security, especially if they live in
places where there are frequent grid
outages, she adds.
But What’s It Going to
Cost Me?
“Where the system is offered up front,
it can be included in a mortgage. Then
it’s embedded in the overall cost of
the home,” explains Briz. Since home-
owners will be producing the energy
they consume – and possibly export-
ing some back to the grid – they’ll
enjoy huge savings on their utility
bills. “And that’s something you can
take to the bank – literally.”
Panasonic is making it as easy as
possible for builders to include solar
and energy storage. Panasonic does
all the work, Briz says. “We do it all
for you, from start to finish, manag-
ing the timeline and schedule, all
the paper flow, applying for the net
metering agreement with the local
utilities, the structural engineers’
work, the installation labour, and
making sure the system is up and
running and monitored properly. We
offer a complete turnkey service.”
Since launching the battery storage
system, the phone has been ringing
off the hook with builders wanting
to know more, Briz says. “I think that
shows there’s a pent-up demand from
consumers for homes that are energy
efficient, cost less to run, and are
good for the environment.” BB
industrynews
By Alex Newman
Photo:RoyalParkHomes
Marco De Simone of Royalpark and Walter
Buzzelli of Panasonic discuss his home
monitoring system.

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N
ancy McCabe has been super-
vising sites for most of her
life. She started at 13 work-
ing summers for her dad and since
then has supervised sites for several
builders. She’s seen many building
practices, both good and bad, along
the way.
“Generally, the basics are the same
– there’s safety, organization, plan-
ning. It’s important to be a couple
weeks ahead of the trades – if a
house is not ready, they lose out on
pay, which isn’t fair, so you have to
make sure that when the tiler arrives,
the floor is ready for them, and that
the workers are safe in any project.”
While everyone has a differ-
ent approach to building, success
depends on being organized – and if
you’re not organized, “You’re toast.”
The Challenges of a Site
Super: What It Involves
A site superintendent’s role is to
manage a site from dirt to when
homeowners get their keys. “You
plan, organize, control, check, direct,
there’s the whole safety aspect, which
gets more comprehensive every year.
You need to oversee quality control,
keep the site spotless, deal with any
problems that arise. Plus there are all
the relationships to sort out – Min-
istry of Labour, the builder’s head
office, the homeowners, building
inspectors, the trades.
“At each step of the process,
there’s management of materials
and trades. You need to make sure
that everything is on site when it’s
needed, like basement windows for
the foundation guys. Sometimes
there are problems with the archi-
tectural drawings, when it
comes to executing them
– there are a hundred dif-
ferent problems I deal with
every day.”
Going Green
For the first time in her
career, she’s managing a
site for a green builder –
Casablanca for LIV Com-
munities. “It’s unusual
for a subdivision builder
to be building better than
code,” admits McCabe. “At
least it’s not something
I’ve seen. The last builder
I worked for was doing
a project of 250 homes which were
supposed to be ENERGY STAR, but it
was a seat-of-the-pants type of thing,
and the ENERGY STAR ratings were
more of a marketing thing.”
She has found the process on a
green project a little slower going
because of the learning curve for the
trades. “The first few houses can take
a little longer as you educate framers,
insulators and so on, but once every-
one is on board, they’re not doing
anything appreciably different to slow
down production.”
One snag is the building inspec-
tor, especially when new technology
is involved. So she took advantage of
John Godden/Clearsphere’s offer to
come in from the beginning to explain
to the inspectors how and why things
were being done a little differently.
At the Casablanca site there are
three package grades – LIV Better and
LIV Best, with Best being the upgrade
that gives higher insulation values,
a different heating, ventilating and
air conditioning (HVAC) system, hot
water tank, better windows, compact
fluorescent (CFL) lighting, Power-Pipe
and energy recovery ventilator (ERV).
Then there is LIV for the Future,
50% better than code, with features
such as the best available ERV,
superior windows with a 1.4 U value
rating that minimize air conditioning,
Power-Pipes on two drains, the 96%
efficient Amana Goodman furnace
with electronically commutated motor
(ECM), a condensing hot water heater
and a 6.75 kW photovoltaic (PV) solar
system with energy storage battery.
Of the 120 homes in this higher
end project – split between two
phases – McCabe figures about 30%
of buyers have upgraded to the Best
package. Most of the buyers she has
met are slightly older, have a bigger
budget, and are ready to embrace
green building. BB
sitespecific
Success depends on being organized, says Nancy McCabe.
suppliedphoto
Nancy McCabe

I
took my first R-2000 workshop in
1982. National Resources Canada
(NRCan) mounted these workshops
to make builders aware of this new
innovative way to build and also dem-
onstrate some of the new practices
that define R-2000. Three facilitators
(including one builder) talked about
insulation, did live demonstrations
on polywrapping windows, and led
multiple HOTCAN (HOT2000’s pre-
decessor) modelling exercises for the
builders in the room. Thousands of
builders attended these workshops
over more than 20 years. Despite the
enormous training effort, R-2000
housing starts never captured more
than a few percent of the market.
What became clear later when
we introduced ENERGY STAR to
the Ontario market was that it was
completely unreasonable to expect
builders to be able to understand and
adopt complex R-2000 practices by
attending a workshop. Perhaps the
junior staff person, who was assigned
to attend the workshop, understood
the implications of adopting the
innovation, but they could never com-
municate all the implied changes to
the rest of the company, let alone the
trades who actually built the houses.
Ten years ago we suggested to
NRCan that workshops alone should
not be relied on as a means to facili-
tate change in the homebuilding
marketplace. We suggested workshops
build awareness, but deep engage-
ment and mentoring was needed with
individual builders over an extended
period of time to truly build enduring
change. NRCan supported the Building
Mentoring Change
with Builders
industryexpert
By Mi c h a e l L i o
Canada initiative to do
just that. Building Canada
engaged and mentored
just 4% of registered
ENERGY STAR builders.
These builders, however,
labelled almost 50% of
all ENERGY STAR houses
during that same period.
One-day handholding
sessions help to build
awareness, but they can’t
help builders make the
needed changes to their
assembly lines as they
try to adopt complex
innovations like ENERGY
STAR (or R-2000).
What Is Builder Mentoring
and Deep Engagement?
Our builder engagement process is
founded on a multiyear relationship
with the builder. The process is itera-
tive and digs as deeply as the builder
wants. It addresses any area of the
production process. It can be used,
for instance, to uncover savings to
pay for upgrades to enhance the
home’s performance. Our first Build-
ing Canada builder in Nova Scotia
was able to build an R-2000 house
at a cost less than their standard
house. They identified savings they
reinvested in improved performance.
For each builder the objectives
and outcomes are completely unique
and driven by their individual needs.
Over the last decade we have helped
many builders adopt new innovations
and often at the same time helped
them to improve:
• designs and scopes of work
• construction quality and supervision
• internal communication
• trade relationships
• customer satisfaction
• staff engagement and morale.
The engagement process is inte-
grated and touches every aspect of the
builder’s operations, including market-
ing, sales, contracts, construction, ser-
vice and trades. The process demands
a long-term commitment to continual
improvement and reinvestment in the
company. The builder’s leadership
team is challenged with defining the
problem and devising solutions.
Builders are encouraged to rap-
idly prototype solutions. They are
encouraged to retain what works and
discard or modify the things that
don’t. They are encouraged to pack-
age a small number of changes into
a discovery house and try the things
Chase Tsampiras
from York Trafalgar
applies a 20% Better
Than Code label.
photo:BetterBuilderStaff

that work in a discovery site before
adoption across their entire produc-
tion. What’s clear is that the path to
innovation adoption requires many
intermediate steps – far more than
what a single workshop offers.
Optimum Home
Our latest builder engagement
project has been through the Union
Gas Optimum Home program. The
objective of this program is to assist
builders to benchmark construction,
develop a construction specification
20% more energy efficient than the
current code, and build a discovery
house and discovery site to the new
specifications. Over almost a year we
worked with three builders on vari-
ous objectives including:
• developing a new ENERGY STAR v12
or 20% better than code design spec
• field testing and achieving ENERGY
STAR v12 or 20% better than code
• developing quality control forms for
on-site staff
• developing a detailed design book
• reviewing and revising exterior
sheathing/air barrier details
• developing a standardized project
schedule
• developing a protocol for better
company-wide communication
• developing new practices for
reduced housing defects
• reducing construction costs through
various efficiencies
• improving customer satisfaction
• training trades on consistency,
scopes of work, and ENERGY STAR
requirements
• training sales and décor staff on
energy efficiency upgrades
• engaging the municipality on how
CSA F280-12 would impact permits
• preparing for OBC 2017.
My experience is that every builder
organization is different. On the surface
it seems they build similar products
often using the same trades, but a
deeper examination reveals there are
vast differences. Their approach to their
customers, construction, even to their
sales varies considerably. While the pro-
cess is the same, solutions are custom-
ized for each builder. What they test is
different in every case. We remind our
builders of the Chinese proverb: When
the wind of change blows, some build
walls, others build windmills.
For more information on build-
ABILITY’s individual builder mentor-
ing or what mentoring might look
like for your company, please contact
Michael Lio at michael@buildability.
ca or 416-961-3487. BB
Michael Lio is president of buildABILITY
Corporation (michael@buildability.ca).
industrynews
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buildernews
R
oy Nandram’s building story
begins in a tight-knit commu-
nity in Guyana, South America.
One of ten children, he lived in an 880
sq. ft. house in a city block close to
about a hundred other kids.
It’s how he learned about sharing
resources, and navigating relationships.
“Sharing resources is really the
essence of my green story,” says
the 58-year-old Ottawa custom
homebuilder. “We weren’t poor, but
resources were scarce. With that
many kids in that size house, you can
imagine we spent a lot of time out-
doors, but so did everyone else in my
community. Having that many kids in
the neighbourhood was fun. My mom
cooked for 12 and sometimes more
because friends were always dropping
by, so we shared food, we shared toys,
and what we couldn’t buy, we made.
Recycling was part of everyday life.
Nothing was wasted.”
In 1976, when Nandram was 19, he
came to Canada and started working
in construction. Within a few years the
oil crisis affected not only the global
economy and interest rates, but the
price of heating a home as well. He
set out to learn about building effi-
ciency, but it wasn’t until his boss sent
him for energy conservation training
in 1982 with the Canadian General
Standards Board that his “eyes were
opened. I really learned the benefits of
saving energy by insulating and sealing
against air leaks.”
Investigating every new conserva-
tion technology that came on the mar-
ket is something Nandram continues
to this day. “I’m always looking to
make our projects better. I travel to
trade shows and subscribe to about
30 trade magazines. Companies send
us info on a regular basis. As the
chair of the building committee at the
local building association, I’m always
researching new speakers and pre-
senters, as well as new technology.”
He expects everyone in his office to
do the same, which is likely one rea-
son his company RND Construction
has won so many awards for green
construction and renovation.
Most recently, they won an Ener-
care-sponsored award for an R-2000
custom home which is 56% more
efficient than a home built to current
building code, Nandram says.
On the award winner, Nandram
started with a “supertight” building
envelope: high performance triple-
glazed windows that provide double
the performance of regular; and
upgraded insulation – Heatlock soya-
based spray foam to fill the subspace
and then a layer of insulation on the
inside layer of the studs, 1” poly-
urethane foil face used as a vapour
barrier for additional insulation. The
entire house was spray foamed on the
inside for an air tightness of .77 ACH
(air changes per hour) at 50 Pa (pas-
cals of pressure or lbs/sq. in.).
“With a building envelope like
this, the home is like a thermos. The
heating and cooling load drops and it
doesn’t take much energy to heat or
cool,” Nandram says.
You can afford to use a small
furnace and even a cheaper one with
this kind of envelope, Nandram adds,
“Especially since some of the new heat-
ing, ventilating and air conditioning
(HVAC) technology doesn’t pay back in
the short term. For example, I’d never
encourage someone to put in geother-
mal in a small house. It’s a matter of
balancing economy and environment.”
The R-2000 home’s HVAC system
has a boiler to supply hot water for
secondary heating and radiant heating
in the floors, which is more for thermal
comfort, he says, but ultimately lowers
Ottawa’s RND Construction’s
award-winning green home.
photo:RNDCOnstruction
Sharing Resources:
The Essence of Green

the thermostat because “When
the feet are warm, the rest of
you feels warm.”
Costs:
Building green is more expen-
sive, Nandram admits – more
insulation and better windows
equals more money. For an
ENERGY STAR home, he would
add 5% and for R-2000 he’d
add about 10% to the cost.
The company’s minimum
building standard is ENERGY
STAR – they’ve completed
three Leadership in Energy
and Environmental Design
(LEED) Platinum homes in
Ottawa and are currently
building two R-2000 homes.
He does find energy effi-
ciency a harder sell to clients,
especially when the economy
is soft or in a bad state. But he
also finds most clients will do
green upgrades incrementally
as you’re making good argu-
ments for greater efficiency.
For example, the R-2000
house that garnered RND the
Enercare award started out as
a regular house construction,
but as Nandram made sugges-
tions, the clients added on.
“You need to explain to peo-
ple – a hedge against future
price increases, especially.
They get it because nobody
knows what tomorrow’s oil
and gas prices will be.”
Costs are also more easily
controlled when everything is
decided ahead of time at the
design stage – midconstruc-
tion change is always expen-
sive. So the furnace, windows,
wall construction and insula-
tion have all been decided
long before subcontracting
the trades to install them.
And as Nandram explains, “It
makes absolutely no differ-
ence to the drywaller if you’re
using a green product or not,
and if you tell the insulation
company they’re putting R20
instead of R12, it makes no
difference.”
But you do need to research
the technologies before build-
ing to understand how they
work together, “because one
thing always impacts some-
thing else,” Nandram says.
He finds an integrated
approach is effective when
it’s put in place at the out-
set of the project. “A highly
effective way to build is to
involve the architect, owner,
engineer, and trades from the
beginning, especially when
building green. We hold a
design charette, and the archi-
tect might say, ‘I want a big
window here,’ and the owner
says, ‘Yes, I like that,’ and the
engineer says, ‘There has to
be a beam here,’ and I come
in and say, ‘We have to put in
triple-glazed glass.’”
This approach – known as
the integrated design process
(IDP) – helps create “best
value. It ensures that balance
between economy and effi-
ciency. I really hate it when
someone throws a set of plans
to me and says, ‘Give me a
price.’ I like to work as a team
to put the pieces together.
Those are my most successful
projects – we don’t make mis-
takes, and don’t end up install-
ing something we regret later,
because it’s decided at the
beginning what the important
elements are, and everyone
agrees about that.” BB
Alex Newman is a writer,
editor and researcher at
www.alexnewmanwriter.com.
buildernews
By Alex Newman

W
hen Ancaster-based
builder Landmart
Homes decided to
rebrand and expand its
business, it hired former
Greenpark director Anthony Martelli to
take the company to its next stage.
For Martelli, now chief operating
officer for LIV Communities (as the
company’s expansion is now known),
one of the major challenges was
determining how to distinguish LIV’s
homes in the GTA and Golden Horse-
shoe from the competition’s.
Martelli, a longtime supporter of
energy-efficient building who devel-
oped Greenpark’s Eco-Friendly pro-
gram, saw an opportunity in adopting
the Better Than Code approach to
help set LIV apart as a quality builder
and industry leader.
“We want to be an example of a
company willing to redefine itself
beyond what most builders are
featurestory
By Tra c y Ha n e s
Living the Best withLandmart Homes rebrands itself as “an example of a company willing to
redefine itself beyond what most builders are doing.”
LIV Communities distinguishes itself from other builders by offering LIV Better, LIV Best and LIV for the Future.
Photo:LIVCommunities

doing,” says Martelli.
Better Than Code is
a simplified platform
that helps builders of
high performance homes
reach their objectives by
modelling energy per-
formance in a way that’s
not subject to the rigid
guidelines of programs
such as ENERGY STAR,
Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design
(LEED) and R-2000. It
allows flexibility in choosing how to
build and which features to include,
and uses the comprehensive and
long-established HERS (Home Energy
Rating System) index to measure
home performance.
LIV’s model home in its Casablanca
community in Brampton will showcase
features that will provide homeowners
with substantial savings on their natu-
ral gas and hydro bills, future proof
them against rising energy costs, and
offer enhanced indoor air quality and
comfort. The 4,254 sq. ft. five-bedroom
model home is on a 50 ft. lot.
The homes at Casablanca will offer
homebuyers a choice of three pack-
ages, all built beyond the current
Ontario Building Code (OBC) criteria.
LIV Better is the standard package
and those homes will be 15% more
energy efficient than OBC; LIV Best is
25% above code, with features such
as enhanced insulation and windows,
an ERV (energy recovery ventilator),
drainwater heat recovery Power-Pipe,
compact fluorescent (CFL) lighting, a
condensing hot water heater, improved
windows and a 16 seasonal energy effi-
ciency ratio (SEER) air conditioner.
The top end package, LIV for the
Future, is 50% better than code, with
features such as the best available ERV,
superior windows with a 1.4 U value
rating that minimize air conditioning,
Power-Pipes on two drains, the 96%
efficient Amana Goodman furnace
with electronically commutated motor
(ECM), a condensing hot water heater
and a 6.75 kW photovoltaic (PV) solar
system with energy storage battery.
The PV system is one of the more
innovative aspects of a partnership LIV
has formed with Panasonic Canada.
The system will allow homeowners to
store energy produced by the solar
system for use at peak rate periods,
replenish the battery with cheap power
at night, and also provide energy
security in case of a blackout. This
system will be the first installed on a
new production home in Canada, and
will be available as an option on other
selected LIV homes in its Classics and
Casablanca communities in Brampton.
Panasonic is a global leader in
housing innovation that derives more
than 20% of its revenue from hous-
ing. In Japan, its PanaHome division
is a leading home developer. Its
cutting-edge Fujisawa Sustainable
Smart Town, a development that will
have more than a thousand homes
when completed, will have a carbon
footprint 70% lower and use 30% less
water than similar communities.
In this country, Panasonic Canada
forms regional partnerships coast to
coast with leading builders and will
partner with LIV Communities at its
two Brampton communities. Homes
will be equipped with Panasonic
Home Monitoring systems that can be
customized to suit owners’ needs, and
Panasonic WhisperValue ventilation
fans. Homeowners can also add space
management solutions and built-in
kitchen appliances including induction
cooktops with Genius Sensors.
Panasonic and LIV will partner
on the first limited use of vacuum
insulated panels (VIP) in a produc-
tion-built home in Canada, a product
which delivers R63 of insulation value
LIV Communities
HERS Index – Home Energy Rating System
Existing
Homes
150 60 48 40 0
More Energy Less Energy
Ontario Building Code
Standard
LIV for
the Future
Zero Energy
Home
25
HERS helps builders sell energy upgrades.
featurestory
By Tracy Hanes

in one inch. It will be used in attic
hatch assemblies to ensure the integ-
rity of ceiling insulation values.
The Casablanca model will show-
case all the LIV for the Future prod-
ucts, says Martelli, as well as “the
staples” such as stone countertops
and hardwood floors.
Cosmetic features remain first and
foremost on customers’ lists when
they choose upgrades, and Martelli
well knows how difficult it can be to
convince homebuyers to invest money
in energy-efficient features or those
that enhance air quality and comfort.
Greenpark eventually stopped offer-
ing its Eco-Friendly packages because
of limited uptake, though Martelli
stayed in tune with what was happen-
ing in the industry in terms of energy
efficiency and other products that
would conserve resources.
He feels with energy prices ris-
ing, the timing might be right. “And
hitting people in the pocketbook gets
their attention.”
The easy sells are hardwood and
kitchen upgrades, he says, but it takes
time and an informed sales team to
educate the public about the benefits of
choosing energy-efficient upgrades. The
LIV Better home would save homeown-
ers $346 a year over a code-built home,
the LIV Best package would save $868 a
year, and the LIV for the Future option
would offer $2,074 in annual savings.
“Some people have $20,000 to
spend on upgrades and when you’re
pitching these features to them, they
think the builder has a hidden agenda
to make money,” says Martelli. “It
actually costs us to do this. We as
a builder are trying to distinguish
ourselves, to show leadership and be
good corporate citizens. Our mission
statement is Loyalty, Integrity and
featurestory
By Tracy Hanes
Clockwise from top: Anthony Martelli and John
Godden present Better Than Code to other
builders; thermal bypass inspection helps
homes get lower HERS ratings; Better Than
Code includes Panasonic WhisperValue fans.
Photos:LIVCommunities

Vision, and we have to live up to this.”
Martelli is hoping buyers can be
convinced of the merits of future
proofing against rising energy costs,
and points out that even if they have
to add the cost of the $6,500–$8,500
energy-efficient upgrade packages to
their mortgage, it’s money well spent.
And by using the HERS index, it’s
easy to show buyers how much each
feature can save them.
“They are surprised to hear, ‘You
will be able to afford a larger home
because it will cost you less to oper-
ate it,’” he says.
Martelli says for a builder like
LIV that builds 250 to 300 homes a
year, their influence is limited when
it comes to raising awareness of the
benefits of eco features, but “We
need the industry to step in and
make a difference. It needs better
promotion from builders, rather
than waiting on code changes.” The
Ontario Building Code (OBC) will take
its next step forward in 2017, but
LIV is already achieving that target
with its standard LIV
Better homes. The LIV
for the Future package is
HERS 25, which is close to
achieving net zero where
a home will produce as
much energy as it uses.
Mortgage lenders could
also help encourage homebuyers
to consider investing in more eco-
friendly features, Martelli says.
“A step in the right direction would
be for banks to offer a preferred rate
or green mortgage,” he says.
What Is HERS?
HERS, or the Home Energy Rating Sys-
tem, measures a home’s energy effi-
ciency and assigns it a performance
score. The lower the score, the more
energy efficient a home is. A net zero
home would have a HERS score of
zero and produce at least as much
energy as it consumes on
an annual basis.
It is a proven, long-
established system and
more than 1.5 million
North American homes
have been rated using
HERS.
The HERS index takes into consid-
eration features such as air condition-
ing, lighting, appliances, loads and
gives credit for renewable options
such as solar thermal, solar air and
PV panels. It’s also easy for homebuy-
ers to understand. BB
Tracy Hanes is a freelance writer for the larg-
est daily newspaper in Canada and several
magazines. www.tracyhanes.ca
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“A step in the
right direction
would be for
banks to offer a
preferred rate or
green mortgage.”
featurestory
By Tracy Hanes

industrynews
N
o longer the domain of garages
and compost bins, the lane-
ways of Vancouver are filling
up with small energy-efficient homes.
Like most major North American
cities, Vancouver is running out of
land for development and real estate
is skyrocketing. Hemmed in by the
Coast Mountains and the Pacific
Ocean, there’s no place to move out.
As a result lanes have become the
last frontier.
Bryn Davidson and Mat Turner
decided to merge their building and
design backgrounds to form Lanefab
Design/Build just when the City was
moving ahead with bylaw changes to
better accommodate laneway hous-
ing. It was 2009 and the recession had
brought the homebuilding business to
its knees.
Davidson and his wife had already
experimented with small space living
– a 360 sq. ft. condo attached to the
back of a house – and he was keen on
sustainable building generally and net
positive specifically. In the partnership
with Turner, they’d focus on smaller,
more affordable housing forms.
Laneway housing hadn’t yet become
accepted, but Davidson says, “It was a
good housing form. We knew it filled a
need, and would be in great demand.”
Their first laneway house was fin-
ished in May 2010. A small space won-
der of 775 sq. ft. over two floors, it had
bedrooms on the main floor, principal
living space on the second, and a tiny
drive just big enough for one car beside
the front door under the second floor
balcony. They’d turned traditional lay-
outs on their head, literally, to capital-
ize on mountain and ocean views from
the second floor living room.
The house generated so much
interest that a thousand people lined
up the first weekend for the open
house. “There’s a lot of pent-up desire
and need, but people didn’t realize
the $200,000 price tag didn’t include
the land,” Davidson says. “Or that it
even came with land.”
And there’s the rub for Vancouver’s
laneway market – bylaws won’t allow
the homes to be severed or sold sepa-
rately from the main house. Which
means they can function only as rent-
als or for family members. Davidson
would like to see the bylaw changed
so the homes could be stratified and
sold, “because Vancouver is missing
this middle housing type, between
condo and full-sized home.”
Vancouver homeowners who
develop the laneway either move in
themselves – and move their grown
children into the family home – or
rent it out. For those lucky young
couples who build on their parents’
property, the laneway house has
become a very affordable alternative,
Davidson says. That said, per square
foot the lane home is more expensive
than Lanefab’s regular-sized homes –
$350/sq. ft. as compared to $250/sq.
ft. for a regular home. The reason is,
“Small buildings have all the expen-
sive elements – kitchen, bath, mechan-
ical – and few of the cheap rooms
(like bedrooms and living rooms) that
dilute the cost in a big home. Fixed
costs like sewer connections are the
same whether you build 500 sq. ft. or
5,000 sq. ft. Many builders got into
trouble on their first lane house by
using regular cost per square foot to
estimate,” Davidson explains.
Although they can’t be severed, the
Fabulous Laneway Houses by Lanefab
Lanefab Design/Build is filling the gap between condos and full-sized homes.
Photo:Lanefabdesign/build

industrynews
By Alex Newman
laneway house is fully independent
of the main house – separate sewer,
water and gas lines, separate address
and mailbox. Its use dictates the
floorplan, says Davidson. For rental,
the bedrooms are on the main floor
and principal spaces upstairs, so the
balcony overlooks the lane rather than
intrude on the private space of the
main house. But if it’s for extended
family, the layout is more standard
with principal rooms on the main
floor to allow access to the courtyard
from the ground level.
The bylaws have also created size
restrictions – up to 800 sq. ft. on a
33 ft. lot, or 1,000 sq. ft. on a 50 ft.
lot – but the way Lanefab builds has
allowed them a little extra interior
floor space. Because their wall assem-
bly provides R36 as opposed to the
usual R19 of most homes, Davidson
went to the City arguing that the 13”
wall thickness offers such an energy-
efficient envelope, they should be
granted an extra 6” all the way around
(to compensate for the extra thick
wall). The City agreed.
The homes also can’t be any more
than 18–20 ft. high, which makes for
low ceiling heights on a two-storey
structure, but Lanefab deals with this
by sinking the ground floor 18–24”
below grade, thereby creating just
enough extra volume so both floors
have better ceiling heights.
How Are They Built?
Lanefab’s goal is to build only green.
“We don’t want to do ten code build-
ings and one green.” And so they
looked for a system that could be
repeated in both large and lane homes.
It starts with 13” exterior walls –
the Lanefab Hybrid Wall system – that
have an effective insulation value of
R38. It’s a combined outer structural
wall and inner service wall. [Their Pas-
sive House version, with thicker struc-
tural insulated panels (SIP), is R58.]
The outside wall is constructed of
prefab SIP, preassembled at the fac-
tory and installed on-site. It sits on
the concrete foundation, while the
slab-on-grade (which typically has
in-floor heating) is surrounded on all
sides by insulation.
The inner service wall holds the
electrical wiring and plumbing, and
is framed out of 2x4s with a ½”
gap to the SIP. After plumbing and
electrical are installed, the inner
wall is filled with batt or cellulose
insulation and the foundation wall
insulated with spray foam. Because
the SIP acts as a vapour barrier, no
plastic sheeting is needed.
All of Lanefab’s homes – both lane-
ways and regular sized – are designed
and built with energy efficiency in
mind. Their standard construction
ensures an EnerGuide 86 efficiency
rating with an R40 Lanefab Hybrid
Wall and triple-glazed fibreglass win-
dows, aluminum clad fir doors, heat
pump hot water, drainwater recovery,
heat recovery ventilator (HRV), and
whole house light-emitting diode
(LED) lighting. In higher-end homes,
they add a net zero solar energy
system, high efficiency heat pump for
heating, ventilating and air condition-
ing (HVAC), and a green roof.
Although Lanefab builds regular-
sized homes, Davidson says the
laneway model has been great for
experimenting with green building
and likens it to “a kind of R&D lab.”
While laneway housing has gener-
ated a lot of interest, it’s also caused
fears – and tears. In the early days, it
was so contentious that people would
literally cry at community meetings
about how lane homes would ruin
their community, Davidson recalls.
Now people are starting to under-
stand the housing form. It’s also
changed the real estate market – peo-
ple buy a house these days knowing
full well that they or their neighbours
could build a lane home in the back.
Although Lanefab’s homes – lane-
way or otherwise – are built with
advanced energy efficiency tech-
niques aimed at achieving net zero
or net positive results, Davidson says
location is key to sustainability. You
can’t just focus on building a super-
tight house without looking at where
it’s located, says Davidson. “You can
build passive, the gold standard for
building and way beyond Leader-
ship in Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED), and it could even be
net positive, but it doesn’t necessar-
ily make the world better. We ran the
numbers, and found we’d be better
off with a drafty home in a walkable
neighbourhood than an ecohome in
the middle of a field. It may have no
impact, but if you’re having to drive
everywhere, that’s not net positive.”
By all means build passive, super-
insulated, low energy houses, but do
it in walkable neighbourhoods, David-
son says. “That’s net positive.” BB
Beautiful spacious interiors with solar PV. The home rates a HERS 3.
Photos:Lanefabdesign/build

E
mmanuel Cosgrove is a self-con-
fessed “ecofreak and extreme
environmentalist.”
He and business partner Mike
Reynolds, editor of www.ecohome.net,
just completed the Edelweiss Home in
the Gatineau Hills 30 minutes north of
Ottawa. It’s a demo for a passive solar
index initiative, they say.
Just to set the record straight, Cos-
grove says he’s no longer a builder.
He only constructs homes now so he
can educate consumers – and build-
ers – on the merits of green building.
The Edelweiss, he says, is “like a
showroom for extremely high perfor-
mance houses … inspired by the whole
extreme performance, 90% savings kind
of passive house movement. We don’t
do the passive house certification, since
we’re not dogmatic about ratings. We
just like to show better performance.”
Although the house is nowhere
close to public transit, they man-
aged to attain not only Leadership
in Energy and Environmental Design
(LEED) Platinum, but it is Canada’s
first and only LEED v4-certified build-
ing of any sort. Since LEED’s use of
life cycle analysis is tough on homes
that aren’t transit-friendly, they added
a charging system for electric cars.
But what really pushed the house
was a supercharged building envelope
and mechanical system, and a long list
of eco-friendly components, from For-
est Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified
wood to rainwater harvesting, ten-zone
hydronic radiant floor with electric
boiler to an air-to-air heat pump that
effectively reduces domestic water heat-
ing by two-thirds. The heat pump, with
its 3:1 efficiency ratio, also acts as an
air conditioner, effectively offering free
air conditioning as you heat your water.
The building envelope is a green
marvel, with insulation at “more than
twice what the Quebec code requires,
buildernews
The Edelweiss Home:
Envelope – First Things First
Photo:Ecohome
The Edelweiss Home
in the Gatineau Hills
30 minutes north of
Ottawa: A demo for a
passive solar index
initiative.

locally built windows with triple pane
glass, and specified Low E coatings.”
Adopting traditional passive tech-
niques they designed the house with
60% of the glazing on the south wall,
and they planted deciduous trees clos-
est to the house to avoid traditional
problems of solar overheating all year.
The idea was to insulate to a point
where there would be little or no
heating costs. After passive house
modelling – conducted by a thermal
bridge modeller – showed through
thermal imaging where heat gets lost,
they opted to use ROXUL as the sole
form of insulation. Rigid insulation –
8” R32 ROXUL COMFORTBOARD CIS
(commercial insulated sheathing) –
was added to exterior walls and under
the slab on grade. The ceiling has R95
ROXUL, and 5.5” ROXUL batts in wall
cavities gave them R58 nominal, and
an R50 effective R-value.
Not one ounce of spray foam or sin-
gle piece of cellulose batting was used
– they didn’t even use cans around the
windows, Cosgrove says. “Foam not
only shrinks, but has brominated fire
retardants … which are bioaccumula-
tive and get into our bloodstream.
[And] you don’t want to be putting
persistent chemicals that can leach
into the groundwater. Every decision
we make is not only for environmental
impact, but also health.”
ROXUL is also not a laminated
product, which are “hard to deal with
at the end of their life. When this
house is taken apart in say a hundred
years, you could pick up the ROXUL
and use it on another project. It
retains its structure. Just unscrew it
and away you go.”
Even on an old house, he says, you
can achieve the same performance
as the Edelweiss Home by applying
8” ROXUL COMFORTBOARD to the
exterior walls.
Water management was also a
major consideration. “If you look at
Canadian homes, what determines
the lifespan is water. Basements,
especially, are a major durability
issue in aging homes,” says Cosgrove.
Instead of a basement they designed
large overhangs and surface drains
to manage the surface water. The site
was graded, and the house situated
on a slight slope or berm to ensure
water streams away from and not into
the house. The house also has interior
floor drains in case of flooding inside.
Building to last 50 years – without
maintenance beyond filters – drove
other decisions such as heating, ven-
tilating and air conditioning (HVAC)
and the roof. As Cosgrove points out,
“Homeowners don’t really want to do
anything. I don’t know anyone who
looks forward to home maintenance.”
Durability is why they chose a 6”
intensive green roof. It has a 50-year
life cycle, the dirt protects the mem-
brane from ultraviolet (UV) radiation,
and there’s the curb appeal of a roof
covered in wildflowers.
The Edelweiss has a home energy
rating system (HERS) rating of 34, which
is the lowest you can go before adding
renewables like solar to get closer to
a zero score. Its annual heating cost is
$200 – that’s $1.39 a day for hot water
use and heat plus electrical loads. Add
another $0.91 a day for the electricity
to run the car from the house to Parlia-
ment Hill and back every day, and the
total costs for all energy and transpor-
tation are $2.30 a day – or the price of a
medium Tim’s, quips Cosgrove.
The house isn’t just green, it’s also
beautifully designed and executed.
Interior features include main floor
ceilings crafted entirely of river wood
reclaimed from the old log driving days
and pulled out of the Gatineau River by
divers. Other features include: repur-
posed and sandblasted antique interior
doors; recycled quartz countertop com-
prised of porcelain plates, bottles and
mirrors; locally sourced slate for bath-
room floors and shower walls; high
efficiency toilets and fixtures offering
60% savings over comparable homes;
light-emitting diode (LED) lighting only;
zero volatile organic compounds (VOC)
interior paint and cork floors.
In spite of all the features, the
house cost just $250,000 to build.
“This was definitely about what you
can build on a budget,” Cosgrove says.
“We wanted to show builders what’s
possible in 1,500 sq. ft. of space, and
that you don’t need 2,500 sq. ft. to get
everything you need. We wanted to
show you can have a beautiful house
and not cut corners.” BB
The house isn’t just green, it’s also beautifully designed and executed. Interior features
include main floor ceilings crafted entirely of river wood reclaimed from the old log driv-
ing days and pulled out of the Gatineau River by divers.
Photo:Ecohome

www.goodmanmfg.com
Goodman is mine.
When it came time to find a strategic partner to help take his company to the next
level, Mike Martino knew there was only one choice: Goodman. With Goodman on
one side and “the best employees in the business” on the other, Martino HVAC
became Ontario’s premier HVAC contractor. Service calls were significantly reduced
and, along the way, Martino picked up many industry honours including the prestige
of being named BILD’s “Trade Contractor of Year” an unprecedented three times.
Martino won’t give you all the secrets to his success, but one he’s happy to share is the importance of a
great product partner. As Mike puts it, “Goodman is mine.”
Behind Every Successful Contractor
There is a Great Partner.
www.goodmanmfg.comwww.martinohvac.com

and he asked me what category the
home would be in at Nationals so
he’d know not to enter that category.
I told him, and true to his word, he
didn’t. It was very high praise from
Paul and it turns out he was right.
The Waterford Cottage won at every
level that year as we also received
our first CHBA Grand SAM award.
However, it was something else
Paul said that caught my attention
and started us on the energy effi-
ciency part of our journey. Paul asked
if the home was an ENERGY STAR
D
oug Tarry Homes broke ground
on our first net zero home
a few weeks ago. Seeing the
foundation in and the framing materi-
als on-site got me thinking about how
far we’ve come as a company. So I
thought it might be a good time to tell a
part of our story on the Path of Con-
tinual Improvement, and to thank and
acknowledge some of the many indi-
viduals who helped us along the way.
I remember my brother Bill and I
attending our first Canadian Home
Builders’ Association (CHBA) conference
fromthegroundup
By D ou g Ta rry
in Victoria, B.C., as award nominees. We
went to the awards, saw what we were
up against and had the Wayne’s World
“We’re not worthy” moment. But we
learned, took notes and decided to try
again as we were determined that one
day we’d win a national award. We kept
submitting and it took awhile, but even-
tually we did win. That was a pretty
special night in St. John’s, Nfld.
A few years later we entered our
Waterford Cottage in the local St.
Thomas & Elgin Homebuilder awards.
Paul Rawlings was one of the judges
A Journey on the Path of Continual
Improvement
vanee.ca
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For more information or to order, contact your local distributor.
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Ideal for LEED homes and new building codes
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*ON MOST MODELS.

home and mentioned the ENERGY
STAR for New Homes pilot project.
He suggested we get enrolled in the
program as we were building well
enough that our home should qualify.
As it turns out, that was a watershed
moment in my life and I will always
be grateful to Paul for his encourage-
ment. Many times over the years I
have tried to pay that forward.
So we got enrolled in ENERGY STAR,
got to know Gord Cooke and Tex
McLeod, and immersed ourselves in
building science. Since that time there
have been so many amazing opportuni-
ties that have come our way, it would
be impossible to describe them all here.
A key decision was to make
ENERGY STAR our building stan-
dard. It taught us a more disciplined
approach to our house builds and
we became very aware of control-
ling air leakage. We developed the
Solar Ready Guidelines for National
Resources Canada (NRCan), and this
helped install a culture of innovation
and problem solving. We embraced
advanced framing out of the original
London Energy Efficiency Partner-
ship (LEEP) project and increased our
wall insulation by about 30% over the
Ontario Building Code (OBC).
Then we discovered we had a
moisture/condensation issue with
the main floor header. John Godden
walked us through the issue and we
decided to experiment with foam-
ing the main floor header. When we
looked at the subsequent air changes
per hour (ACH) results, we were sur-
prised to discover a side benefit in air
leakage improvement of nearly 1 ACH.
Currently our average ACH is less
than 0.8 compared to 3.0 for OBC and
1.5 for R-2000 homes.
Another issue was with the tighter
home we couldn’t get our heating,
ventilating and air conditioning
(HVAC) to work right because the
energy requirements for the home
were less than any furnace on the
market. I remember being on a confer-
ence call with Gord Cooke and all the
big American furnace manufacturers
describing our homes, and then there
was total silence on the other end.
That’s when you realize the world
is not the same anymore. They had
no idea what was happening in our
industry and really didn’t seem to
care to help us fit our needs. Chal-
lenge accepted, I thought. Let’s get the
HVAC industry to make right-sized
furnaces. That took about four years
and a lot of work by some really dedi-
cated people (I am getting ahead of
the story). I probably should mention
I had the honour to serve as president
of OHBA during this time, so I had
access to all the right people to help
move this project along, or it might
not have happened.
By sheer luck, Union Gas offered
us the opportunity to participate in
their Optimum Home program. Union
Gas was aware of our furnace-sizing
challenges, and suggested we part-
ner with Dettson Industries to help
bring their smaller furnace to mar-
ket. That’s the Dettson Chinook and
we’re really proud to support their
efforts to supply our industry with
the products we need. The very first
prototype was installed in our discov-
ery home in St. Thomas, Ont. Oh, and
they’re Canadian. How cool is that?
Since then, we also worked to bring
their right-sized air conditioning (AC)
to market, the Dettson Alizé, and now
we are involved with their HVAC in a
Box project.
Along the way we got tired of
basements that didn’t work and
through years of experimenting, we
partnered with ROXUL to develop
the Better Basement Wall and eventu-
ally the Optimum Basement Wall. It’s
fromthegroundup
By Doug Tarry

fromthegroundup
By Doug Tarry
still the most searched item
on our company website. In
reviewing the final report
from our Applied Research
Green Innovation Lab Experi-
ence (ARGILE) project with
George Brown on the wall’s
performance, it is very clear
we have to push the govern-
ment to change the Ontario
and National building codes
to enable builders to build
basement walls that work. We
have to get the poly out of
the basement. This is an issue
that is going to get a lot worse
for a lot of builders as they
build tighter homes.
Ironically, building officials
might be even more concerned
with this issue than we are as
builders, as their phone never
stops ringing when there is
a problem. Over the years, I
have also had the opportunity
to work with members of the
Ontario Building Officials
Association (OBOA), both at
the provincial level and locally.
Fundamentally, I see building
officials as our local partners
in helping ensure we build
our homes to meet an ever
more complex code. It was our
partnership with OHBA, OBOA
and other industry stakehold-
ers that led to the creation of
the Energy Efficiency Design
Summary (EEDS) form for
permit application. In case you
haven’t heard, we have a new
code coming I believe we must
address together.
And that leads me all the
way back to our net zero home.
As we increase our energy
efficiency in our homes, it will
be more and more important
that we work through the chal-
lenges with our building offi-
cials as our partners. On that
note, I want to personally say
thanks and good luck to Sandy
Lale, my structural designer
who has shared so many of
the steps of this journey with
me for the last decade, as she
moves on to her new career as
a building official for the City
of St. Thomas. Sandy had a
very large role in my being able
to bring many of these ideas to
life, and I am indebted to her
and her efforts.
What advice can I offer
other builders wanting to
pursue the Path of Continual
Improvement?
• Get involved. The payback
is way more valuable than
the time you commit! Your
local home builders’ asso-
ciation will thank you for
helping your industry and
it’s good for your business.
• Stretch yourself. You just
might find you come to a
solution that improves your
bottom line. It might even
be a benefit to your whole
industry.
• Reach out to your building
officials as your partners.
If you’re not on the same
page, reach out to OHBA and
OBOA. We are doing some
really great work as industry
partners.
• Share. That might be the
part I enjoy most and has
always given me my great-
est benefits as a builder.
A quick shout-out to my
good friend John Meinen as
he becomes the next OHBA
president. And stay tuned for
details on our net zero discovery
home. BB
Doug Tarry Jr. is director of
marketing at Doug Tarry Homes
in St. Thomas, Ont.

rolled out, could entail. A simplistic
solution to a complex problem without
upfront cost to the municipality.
Because it’s barely possible, at
great cost to the end user, I have a
question: Should we be doing this on
a large scale now and resetting the bar
earlier than 2030?
If there’s a great builder that can
make an economic case for building
these homes today, they will. And as
a voluntary program, it’s manageable.
It will give our industry an oppor-
tunity to gain experience, improve
the end product and work on getting
costs in line.
However, I doubt it will remain
voluntary because it is politically
expedient to mandate net zero at the
municipal level. There is also a cottage
industry of vested interests happy
to see these initiatives move forward
more quickly.
What is often missing in the discus-
sion of remedies to the problem of cli-
mate change is the notion of order of
magnitude. As for priorities on the list
of possible action on net zero, these
are some questions I believe must be
answered:
• How much affordability are we
willing to forgo in an already
unaffordable housing market to
achieve an incremental increase in
energy efficiency in new housing a
few years early?
• How much are new homes actu-
ally contributing to the problem of
global warming?
• Are we really achieving our soci-
etal goals? After all, inadequate,
unhealthy and unaffordable
housing has dire socioeconomic
consequences.
I can’t think of many industries
being coerced into creating a product
that produces as much energy as it
consumes while operating. But I do
believe the new homebuilding indus-
try has made great strides in energy
efficiency and is unparalleled among
private industry.
As for the urge to reset the bar
ahead of the 2030 deadline, why?
It’s not market driven, there are no
economic incentives available, and
it makes decent housing less attain-
able to those who need it most.
Remember the triple bottom line?
I’d say we achieve almost one out of
three. Affordable is good for people
and good for business. Current code
houses are good for the environment.
I guess it comes down to who is defin-
ing the triple bottom line and setting
the level of the bar. BB
Lou Bada is vice-president of low rise
construction for Starlane Homes and board
director of RESCON (Residential Construction
Council of Ontario).
Continued from page 3
thebadatest
By Lou Bada
• ENERGY STAR® for New Homes
• Home Energy Rating System
(HERS®) Index
• EnerGuide Rating Service
• GreenHouse™ Certified

Better Builder Magazine, Issue 16 / Winter 2015

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Better Builder Magazine, Issue 16 / Winter 2015