Most of the houst will be "stick built" out of 2x4 and 2x6 construction lumber, but the ballroom will be built with a timber frame from Harmony Exchange (2700 Big Hill Rd., Boone, NC). Spectrum Homes has been working with Mark Howell and Dan Keiser (828-264-2314) for the plans and timber pieces we will be using. Erci actually designed the finials from pictures of surviving Tudor era timber frame buildings, and the timbers themselves will be made of Eastern Pine, laminated together, chamfored, and stained "Provincial" (dark) to look like old oak beams.
Roof:
- GAF Materials Corporation's Slateline product looks pretty good, especially in the Slate Green Blend.
- GAF Materials Corporation's Country Estates product looks ok.
- GAF Materials Corporation's Country Mansion product looks ok.
- CertainTeed's Grand Manor Shangle line is exceptionally pretty, but at what price?
- CertainTeed's Independance Shangle AR, Colonial Slate
- Owens Corning's Oakridge 40 (Deep Shadow) line looks great, and they let you mix and match color palettes - Colonial Slate and Estate Gray look nice. Owens Corning also has MiraVista Copper roofing tiles with a 50 year warranty.
- eco-shake, nothing slate-like, but very envronmentally friendly and with a long warranty.
I very much wanted the roof to look convincingly like a real slate roof. Unfortuneatly real slate is both prohibitively expensive (up to 15 times the cost of other roofs) and very heavy, requiring extra structural support.
There are convincing slate-like roofing products that bear watching. A few of them are listed below. They make tiles that are very convincing, but the prices are just not quite low enough yet, and the labor costs of installing them are higher because more pieces takes more of a roofer's time.
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Crowe makes excellent Slate look alikes out of recycled rubber... very nice... $299/100 sq ft... environmentally freindly...
US Century, more excellent roof tiles... especially the "French Slate" - of note is the State Farm discount, the 50 yr warranty and the color choices...
Elagante makes cool looking tiles, cement roofing tiles... I like English Deluxe Slate Blend - color choice... - 50 year warranty...
EcoStar's Majestic Slate and Euroslate environmentally friendly, nice looking... wish there was more info abot color choices... - they have rave reviews about less solar gain... perhaps we should look again?
CertainTeed's Celadon Ceramic Slate line is exceptionally durable, with limited colors, it has a 60 year warranty.
HardiSlate, looks great - but James Hardie's websites have very little information on it...
Owens Corning, MirroVista faux slate looks fabulous.
GE Plastics, Perfect Choice "slate" roofing have some special fire retardand abilities.
So we will use "architectural grade" 40 year asphalt shingles. Some of the lines we looked at are listed below, in my favourite order. I want to stay fairly light in color to minimize solar heat gain.
Regardless of the materials used, Steve at Katchmark Construction will be the roofing contractor.
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Katchmark Construction
14230 C Sullyfield Circle, Chantilly, VA 20151
8-5 M-Fri 703-817-0200
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Jess at Luckstone in Sterling is our supplier.
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Kitchen Fireplace: Weather Edge Ledgestone (Fox Valley), Cobblefield (Old Country or Ohio or Gray), or RiverRock (Lake Shore) on both interior and exterior of Kitchen fireplace/chimney.
Stone Wall in Ballroom will be the same European Castle Stone (Bucks County) as on the outside of the "keep" of the house.
Master Bedroom Chimney (exterior only) in Weather Edge Ledgestone (Fox Valley), Cobblefield (Old Country or Ohio or Gray), or RiverRock (Lake Shore) also.
Stone (Keep) Facade (both interior and exterior):
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Cultured Stone European Castle Stone, Bucks County (PF-8213) color palette on all outside walls of the "keep" of the house, including the walls that are now inside (wall facing ballroom, wall facing mudroom).
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Cultured Stone Dressed Field Stone, Bucks County (CSV-2030) color palette for the basement walls and the foundation.
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In particular, the James Hardie site has "HardiPanel Stucco Vertical Siding" for the Tudor look (5/16" thick, 2.3 lbs/sq ft, 4'x8' or 4'x9' or 4'x10' sheets.
Or, from ABTCo, their Pro-1 Stucco Panel Siding even has trowel marks!!! and they have a lot of Trimboard selections that look like real wood. 800-566-2282
Also: Temple Inland has convinving hardboard siding and trim boards
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Concrete Siding from CEM Plank or James Hardie (both are concrete fiberboard technologies).
Painted or Colored to match the Norco Window Sandstone color
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P.G. Awning Sunrooms (aka: Sunroom Designs of Annapolis) has a fascinating technology using vinyl glazed windows for easy stowing when you want air flow, they look decent and affordable too.
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Garage Doors - Fine Homebuilding Magazine's Article on Overhead Garage Doors
- Plastic Garage Doors (never need painting!) $1700/door typical:
- Gadco, Freedom HDPE (High Density PolyEthylene) Door comes in White or Brown
- Overhead Door Company has the Royal PVC Renata line which is interesting, ArmorTite safety lifting spring, Uni-hinges (quiet), and Ultra-Glide Ring Clips instead of Wheels (silent).
- http://www.raynor.com/Products/resident/">Raynor Genesis is a "Fylar" (Fiberglass/polyester resin) door, but only in white colonial (yech!).
- Steel Sandwich Doors (baked on primer and polyester topcoat of paint, nylon wheels) - $1200/door typical:
- Wayne-Dalton, the safety Garage Door company (Waynegard finger pinch guards, Torque Master steel shell tube around torsion spring, hot dip galvanized steel sandwich), Thermowayne II (9902) in limited Color Choices in flush or colonial raised panel, R-12 door. Nice Door opener too, with rolling access codes, door close delay, battery powered operation in case of power loss; check out Doormaster (BDOR-2000)
- Raynor has very good tech information about the mechanicals of their door openers - I like their openers in particular, and a hot dip galvanized steel sandwich "Decade Showcase" (R-10+) or "Masterpiece" (R-10+, Nylon Rollers) Door makes a nice default door to measure other doors against (possibly Bronze Tone color with flush panels and no windows, or Diamond Colonial Windows). We ended up using Raynor Masterpiece doors on our attached garage and a very large Decade on the detached garage, both finished in Raynor's Clay Tone.
- Amarr, very informative website... nice hot dip galvanized steel sandwich WeatherGuard Plus (R-8.34) Doors (available up to 20' wide!), probably in Sandstone or Brown, perhaps with Chalet Decra Glass windows...
- Clopay, appear to be the big company... and they've finally updated their website so you can review products without javascript; nice!
- Custom Wooden Doors (most beautiful, most expensive, highest maintenance):
- Designer Doors, custom garage doors with excellent R values and designed to look like other kinds of doors
- Martin Doors have a fascinating Copper door - I wonder what the cost is...
- Amarr makes Wooden Doors: the Wellington line and the Yorkshire line.
- Equal Door Industries, the amazing wooden doors!
- Cardale, British Doors - interesting developments - particularly like the Heritage and Classic lines.
- Boycott The Chamberlain Group and LiftMaster Garage Door Openers. They are farcically using DMCA (a stupid law) to prevent people from studying their garage door opener rolling code techniques. If they do not feel their system can stand the scrutiny, I feel their system is not worth purchasing.
- Raynor Aviator (Belt Drive) or FliteStar (Chain Drive) or Commander (Screw Drive)
- Wayne-Dalton DoorMaster (Torsion Drive!), no photo-eyes needed! - but how quiet is it?
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Front Door (stained wood, solid - decorative side lites) Sandstone Trim
Mudroom Door (stained wood, solid, perhaps a few lites in upper half) Sandstone Trim
Laundry Door (fiberglass or steel) Sandstone
Mudroom Door to Garage (fiberglass or steel, with fisheye peephole) White
Woodshop Door (fiberglass or steel, with lites in upper half) Sandstone
Woodshop Door to Detached Garage (double doors, fiberglass or steel) White
Back Door to Attached Garage (fiberglass or steel, with lites in upper half) Sandstone
Kitchen, Family Room, Master Bedroom, and Basement Doors are all in the Norco quote already.
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Our architect selected WeatherShield windows for most of our house, probably from the ProShield line (Vinyl clad).
We decided to go with Norco instead, because of better pricing, especially on the Simulated Devided Light (SDL) design the architects came up with for our house (Norco charges by the number of 'lites' your window is devided into - since our design was simple, we could save money with their plan over the WeatherShield pricing plan). Where the window is set in either stone or siding portions of the house, we used a Sandstone color finish (02-28-5), and where the window is set in a stucco and timber frame portion of the house we used a dark Brown finish (02-4BW-7).
Our Norco, representative is Randy Loren.
- Clad, Low-E/Argon/Intercept
Clad Casement, Clad Awning, Clad Double Hung, Clad Slide-By
French Swinging Doors - both can swing in.
Brown (02-4BW-7) against Timber and Stucco exteriors, Sandstone (02-268-5) against the Stone exteriors, and Sandstone (02-268-5) against the Lapp Siding exteriors.
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Rolled fiberglass insulation:
Radiant Barrier Insulation:
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Innovative Insualtion, Inc,
in particular: Super
R(tm) Premium either on top of the normal cieling/attic insulation or
on the outside of the house wrap and attached to the bottom of the rafters
of the roof (works best with there is open air "outside" the radiant barrier.
10-50 cents a square foot for materials alone in Radiant Barriers
Polar Ply another supplier
Installation examples
Applications examples
Solec, has LO/MIT-I/II a Spray Applied Radiant Barrier...
Insulation Materials: Environmental Comparisons, use recycled insulators? Cool!
Environmentally Safe Products, Inc. of New Oxford, Pennsylvania, also uses recycled plastic in the foam core.
Mike Fischer says to check into a spray that lines the bottom of the roof (n ot attic insulation) that reflects heat in addition to the normal rolled attic insulation...
Reflectix Radiant Barrier
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It will be poured concrete basement with 9' ceilings planned (8' under ballroom), would like a double sump in series (one sump overflows into the other) with pumps in each to drain excess water outside and down-slope away from the house. I plan to alarm the second sump.
We want active Radon protection installed as we hit bedrock while excavating the basement.
Climate Control:
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Heating:
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I am most fond of electric Radiant Cove and Radiant Wallpanel heat, I experienced it firsthand in Steve LoRusso's home in upstate New York in the 1980s, and fell in love with the comfort and quiet. I have been in phone and email contact with Jim Dawson of Radiant Systems Enterprises and he is designing a bid for the heating and cooling system now.
I am not the only person who wants this kind of heat, checkout this wanted ad from some poor souls in Europe.
Manufacturers:
Berko, CHC Series Radiant Cove and Aztec Cieling Panel
Glassheat (Japanese Radiant Heaters - legendary)
Qmark Heaters, RCC Cove, CP Ceiling Panel
Radiant Systems Inc Manufacturer of Comfort Cove Radiant Cove heaters
Solid State Heating makers of Enerjoy and Enerjoy People Heaters - nice underdesk unit, nice Bathroom Comfort Center, they also have Ceramic Radiant Coves, Portables, Panels, and Baseboards.
Suppliers:
Electric Fixture and Supply supplier of Comfort Cove
Infrared Heaters QMark (Cove, Ceiling, Panel) and Infrared Heating Panels (nice!)
Radiant Electric supplier of Enerjoy and Ceramic Heaters
Runtal Radiators Electric Towel Panel, Hydronic Baseboards and Panels
Another possibility is to use hydronic floor radiant heating or a combination of hydronic floor radiant and electric cove/panel radiant heat throughout the house. Dan Foley (dan.foley@erols.com) of Arlington Heating and Air Conditioning (703-671-2288) is helping come up with a plan for this. Some Suppliers:
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Heating Help, Dan Holohan Associates
Radiant Panel Association
Burnham gas,oil, and electric boilers
Wirsbo radiant floor plumbing
Watts-Heatway radiant heating and snowmelting
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Woody Hartsook of Cropp-Metcalf has laid out some interesting plans for multiple smaller air conditioning units each with several zone, a few with 2 speed motors to handle crowds while we entertain differently than the realtively small number of folks when we are alone.
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We are using Carrier Heat Pumps with Puron refrigerant:
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and Erci Nolan
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