Out of Plumb!

On Thursday morning 4 UT students, research assistant Matt Lyle, and Albert Cooper, General Contractor for Johnson & Galyon eagerly arrived at the house to continue the installing rigid insulation on the ceiling, drywall on the marriage wall, and trim around the Anderson windows. Matt Lyle and Aaron Grohol had to maneuver the scaffolding throughout the kitchen and living spaces with the button cap nail gun nailing in large sheets of rigid insulation.

Katherine Dike and I worked on the trim around the Andersen window frames. The drywall will be returning on the window openings and will meet up against the trim pieces. The trim creates a consistent space between the rough opening and the actual window frame. The pieces are flushed with the interior window frame to create an extension of the frame similar to the frames that were constructed in UT wood shop. We first had to spray insulation around the frame to maintain the tight envelope of the house, but it was very difficult to cut back the insulation once it had expanded and fully dried.

Albert Cooper and Laws Nelson stayed out of the way of the large scaffolding to work on the installation of the drywall. On Monday, the dry wall man will be graciously installing what we have not completed, so our work has to be finished by Monday. Unfortunately, Al's good eye found that the marriage wall is not completely straight. We have all gotten used to the slight variations in measurement in the construction of the house, but the marriage wall curved near the connections of the vertical and horizontal members. Al and Laws and to cut 1/2" furring strips to make a vertical surface the screw in the drywall.

About the time Al and Laws were getting ready to screw in the drywall I had to leave the site to meet our professor Tricia Stuth and research assistant Samuel Mortimer. At 3:30 pm we left UTK and drove an hour and a half down to the McCallie School in Chattanooga, TN. McCallie was having their second ever Science Night, and we were invited to present conceptual and systematic aspects of A New Norris House. Although we didn't leave Chattanooga until 9:30 pm, it was great to see the enthusiasm from the middle school and high school boys and especially their parents. The program was extremely organized, welcoming and fun, and we would love to go back next year to share our progress of the project.

Save the Earth

This evening I attended the City Council Meeting in Norris with a couple of my fellow team members. They were kind enough to let us give a presentation updating them on all of our continuing progress as their newest neighbors. It’s wonderful to have the communities support and interest in all of our endeavors.

At this meeting I presented a synopsis of our endeavors in achieving LEED certification. This is an important system because it consolidates all our environmentally conscious efforts to be measured against pre-established standards. Right now, we are anticipated to obtain 97 points under the LEED for Homes rating system which will give us a LEED Platinum rating, which is the highest level available (go us!). To help us achieve our goal, we are attempting to obtain close to the highest number of points possible in several categories including Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, and Energy and Atmosphere. The majority of these points come from our pre-established design goals including limited material waste, re-use of rainwater, and efficient landscaping. Building in the Norris community also helps us attain points for the Locations and Linkages portion of the system. We get credit for building on a previously developed lot, having easy access to already established community resources, as well as for being half a mile from a publicly accessible park. While the LEED system itself is a great way to suggest goals for those looking into environmentally friendly building, it is important to concentrate on the ideals that underlie the system rather than getting bogged down with the paperwork and requirements associated with it.