Insulation from the Ground Up PATH Case Study

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A section detail shows properly placed insulation protection. "After laying out forms, we place our insulation on a sand bed. Blueboard is placed at the bottom 20 inches of the wall and polyiso above the blueboard from 3inches above the finish floor level to the top of the wall. Panel tie connectors are used to attach the polyiso insulation to the concrete walls. The special connectors that anchor the polyiso in place are arranged in a pattern consistent with code requirements for mesh attachment: every 2 feet horizontally, and every 6 inches vertically, allowing for conventional stucco application over the polyiso board. "We set in electrical boxes and blockouts for windows and doors and then pour the concrete walls on the ground. We stand the perimeter walls, and place them inside the footing trench on leveling pads. After footing trenches are backfilled to support perimeter walls, the slab is poured over reinforced steel, polystyrene insulation and a sand base to create a concrete home insulated from frost penetration. Our construction time just for the slab and concrete walls is typically three to four weeks for a larger custom home (2,200-3,500 square feet) and only one week for a smaller home (1,400-1,800 square feet). "For the Abbey Road project, we had to come up with a method of termite protection that would meet stricter code requirements. We used sheet metal flashing at the transition between the polystyrene below grade, and polyiso above ground. The homeowner was adamantly opposed to any type of pesticide or soil treatment anyway, so the sheet metal flashing was the proper solution." PREVIOUS  1 | 2 | 3 | 4  NEXT