This is what our finished High Performance Home Solution looked like from our original Drainage to Daylight post:

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Typically when building a home, a drainage system is necessary around the perimiter, in order to move ground water away from where the footings meet the foundation, in order to to stop water from coming in the house.

When we began excavating one of our projects, The Brody Spa, we ran into more water than usual. In this situation there were two reasons for so much ground water;

1) We were at the bottom of a mountain

2) We hit ledge at 8 ft and most of the hole was inside of a big rock with no where for it to drain so it filled with water.

We realized if we didn’t come up with a solution we would not be able to pour our footings, and consequently the foundation and rest of the house.

Our in house design team quickly came up with a fix:  A two layer sub drainage system consisting of; an underslab drainage system, and a sub footing drainage system. The upper layer consists of perforated pipes at the footing level in a bed of gravel to drain the water and protect the under slab.  The second and lower layer has a perforated pipe running below the footings and out to drainage to day light.  This was neccessary to clear the water away and keep it out of the way so that we could pour the footings.   Between both systems we made sure there would be no capillary effect or wicking of water into our slab.  You can see both layers below (designed in sketch up by Glenn Callahan and Gabe Solberg):

The diagram below shows the sub footing drainage system at a pitch which takes the ground water to drainage to daylight:

This diagram shows the under slab drainage which is at the level of the footings in a bed of gravel:

There are perforated pipes running at a pitch to drainage to daylight.

After this system is installed, we then used EPDM (a type of synthetic rubber) combined with butyl tape to create a water proof barrier underneath the slab to stop wicking and any other chance of ground water getting in:

When all is said and done the water drains away from the hole and clears into drainage to daylight:

Check out part 2 to see what the drainage system looks like: Click here

During the home building process there are decisions that need to be made, and when building green there are many challenges that arise.  When we began building The Montagnaro house in Ghent, NY we were faced with the challenge of heating a large pool and doing it in an eco-friendly, and cost effective way.   After bouncing ideas around and brainstorming a few options we decided that Solar Thermal Heating would be the best way to go.

We had already planned to use Photovoltaic solar panels on the house, and decided that we would get the most out of this system, not only using it for the energy but to heat the pool as well.  Underneath the solar panels we install coils which are filled with water.  This water is heated by the rays from the sun and the heat from the solar panels.  This hot water is then used to heat the pool as well as supply heat to the home when it is unoccupied.

You can see the coils on the right

The Solar Panels we used were BIPV or Building Integrated Photovoltaic.  This is done with thin, rolled out solar panels that sit inside the standing seam of the roof so that you don’t have unattractive panels sticking out, as you can see below.

PV Laminants inside standing seams

We love a good challenge, and coming up with working solutions is very exciting. We were able to heat the pool in a sustainable way, as well as preserve the beauty of the green home we designed.  Tell us about some green solutions you have come up with or problems you may be facing.