Construction Details – Waterhouse
Walls on Water Level
Stone Walls are 28” thick: 18” on the outside, then 2” of Pearl-board insulation, wire tied to the inside 10” thick wall. The interior wall becomes part of the heat sink or cool sink in the summer. It moderates the fluctuating outside temperatures.
Floor on Water Level
The concrete base floor is 16 tons of cast concrete with yellow Iron oxide machine polished into the surface. There are three heat zones embedded in this mass, heated by gas-fired hot water.
Fireplace on Water Level
The fireplace is designed after Count Rumford, a famous fireplace designer. It maximizes the radiant heat from the flame through its height and angles. The lintel is approximately 1000lbs hand-split Granite.
Chimney
The chimney has three flues. The mass of the chimney is also designed as part of the heat sink. It is approximately 32tons. It also acts as the central support column for the upper floors, as it steps in on each level to support the floor beams. This allows all the interior walls to be non-supporting walls; therefore they can be re-configured if desired.
Beam structure
Because of its strength, the beam structure is predominantly spruce. Each beam was custom cut and then planed on site. The structure itself is based on the French method of post and beam of the 17hundreds. This differs significantly from the English system in that it employs birds mouth connection of roof beams on wall and each beam is independently attached as opposed to the English bent method.
The ceiling beams are shoulder jointed as well as dovetailed into the central structure.
The bottom lower corners have a full round bead planing. This detail counteracts the visual distortion of the drying spruce. This was a common practice for exposed ceiling beams in the 18th Century.
Wood
There are four types of wood in the house construction:
The sills are composed of parallel hemlock beams, set in masonry. Hemlock is used as it is strong and water resistant.
The frames that are inset for the windows are made of Hakamatack (Tamarack) and wire-tied into the masonry. This wood has the greatest water resistance of any wood in Nova Scotia.
All the structural beaming is of Spruce.
The wood lock pins are imported southern Cypress, a very hard and strong wood.
The wood floor and ceiling are of pine.
Walls and Insulation
The wood wall sheathing is true 1” groove and tongue spruce, diagonally nailed with hot-dipped, galvanized nails. This eliminated the need for any stud framing on the exterior walls, so as to maximize the view of the post and beam structure.
4” of foam insulation was applied to the outside of the sheathing. There is also a wiring chase buried under the foam on the outside of the house. This allows for the plasterboard to be attached directly to the sheathing over the vapor barrier.
Plug boxes, etc. are flush with the wall so that you can see the 6” of beam exposed.
Roof
The roof is composed of 1” pine sheathing nailed to spruce purlins. The pine and the spruce purlins are visible on the inside of the structure. On top of the pine there is 6” of foam insulation and 1” of spruce sheathing on top of that underneath the shingles.
February 2010