I broke the steam generator before we had even used it once.

I haven’t told D, because I was so ashamed.

It happened like this:

In an effort to have a welcoming guest suite in time for Christmas (and, let’s face it – I wanted to have a steam shower myself in this inhospitable season), I ordered and picked up a steam generator in November. With plenty of coaxing, I managed to get our recalcitrant plumber to install the little unit under the stairs. Then, our electrician came by to bring power up to it. The plumber stayed around over the next day, preparing to finally hook up our toilets to the rainwater cistern, after many false starts and re-doing over the last year-and-a-half. And, that’s the last we saw of our plumber, in spite of many (successively angrier) phone calls and emails. Here’s what the yard looks like (and why the plumber has created a safety hazard on our walkway for the past two months):

The full-height glass shower door was installed a few days before guests arrived. I thought that, even though the shower itself wasn’t hooked up, we could at least sweat it out in the steam room and pour water over ourselves. So, I checked that the breakers on the electrical panel were on, then turned on the timer. One minute… Two minutes… No evidence of steam. And then I heard a clunk and smelled a smell. (You know that smelling a smell is a scientific way of identifying problems, don’t you?)

I immediately turned off the unit, and a shot of adrenalin blew into my head. I just knew that I had done something wrong. Then, I read the instructions. (I know, I know, you don’t need to say it.) The instructions said that warranty is void if the unit is turned on before the water supply tap is opened. Sure enough, the water supply wasn’t turned on.

I waited a few minutes for any heating element to cool down, THEN I turned on the water supply. Turned on the timer/switch again, and, happily, listened to the steam vent hiss. But, no steam, then “clunk!” It turned itself off.

Lucky I was alone at the time, because I wouldn’t have wanted anyone to know what I’d done.

I shoved the problem to the back of my mind, where it has niggled at me for more than a month. Today, I called the supplier, Leisure Baths in Burnaby, and confessed what I had done. I needed to know what to do to fix the problem, and assumed I would have to remove the unit and bring it to town to have the element replaced at my expense.

Jonathan, the technician, was as good as those gods who walk me through internet problems: patient, calm, appearing to be able to see exactly what I was seeing, and not talking down to me.

First, we took a look at the electrical. At one point he asked if I had a volt-meter. I said we had one somewhere, and I would find it. When I finally found it and opened its case, a feeling of “I can’t do this” washed over me.

It was a complicated-looking gadget that I have always let D handle. After all, he wired our first home all by himself (and it passed inspection). I am nervous about anything electrical. But, Jonathan told me exactly how to use it, and when I tested the contacts, no circuit appeared to be functioning, thus validating my assumption that I had blown an element. But, he said that there is an over-ride switch that turns off the power if no water is getting in, so unless some wire is fried (which it isn’t), electrical should be fine! Then, I noticed that I hadn’t pushed the black plug all the way in on the multimeter. When I did that, it proved that the unit was still getting power! (Happy Dance.)

But, when I turned on the water again, and then the timer/switch, no steam. Jonathan just kept on calmly trouble-shooting with me. “See that blue water connector with the brass hose bib? Unscrew the bib. BUT, first turn off the water supply! What kind of washer is in there?” “Well,” said I, “It doesn’t look like a washer at all, but a flat disk with a tiny hole in the middle.”

“I think that’s our problem,” said Jonathan. “There were two different washers included. The plumber was supposed to use the ring-shaped one that is just like a regular hose washer. Take that one out and replace it with a regular washer.”

The round black washer with the tiny hole in it is the wrong one. A regular hose washer is now inside the hose fitting.

I did that (only 1 small soaking when I had it on crooked.) Turned on the water and THEN the switch/timer.

And, glory be, the steam head hissed, AND real-live steam came out!!! Look:

So, I learned some valuable lessons:

1. Read instructions thoroughly.

2. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

3. Don’t be afraid to try new tools, especially after getting a tutorial and/or reading instructions. Read about the last time I learned to use a tool that I was afraid of, here.

4. Professional tradespeople make mistakes, too.

5. The Relax-A-Mist steam generator is well-designed, to withstand the abuse of incompetent users and tradespeople.

Now, if you’re still reading, you may be asking yourself “What does all this have to do with building green?”

Truth is, not so much. But, consider this: I am just an ordinary person who is building a green home. I’m not formally trained in anything except Home Economics and design. I am organized and persistent and can do some pretty good research.

The purpose of this blog is to help anyone who is interested in building green gain insight into the mechanics, technicalities, philosophy, costs, and processes involved. I want to make it easier for people to build the way we all should be building (OK, preachy, I know.) I wish I had such a blog to read before we started this project 2.5 years ago. I have approached this massive task as an ignorant person who can be stubborn and get things done, sometimes by myself. In these pages you can read about all my relevant research and far too many mistakes. I hope it will encourage anyone to be courageous and try new things.

And, by the way, I looked up the current Hydro rates and calculated how much it costs to run the steam shower for 30 minutes. $0.29! (and that’s at the higher BC Hydro “step.”) So, not such an energy hog as you might expect.

One day, while dropping off items at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, my eyes spied this interesting chest/cabinet. It’s made of oak, has a gently-bowed front, and was in the process of either being stripped or painted shabby-chic. Almost karma-like: the messy paint job was butter yellow with gold detailing, closely paralleling the colours of my wooden Chinese tiles. AND, it was exactly 36″ wide – the same as the loft powder room! I couldn’t leave it there, could I?

I lightly sanded it down, including the yellow/gold shabby-chic bits. Re-painted those bits my “Wheat” colour, with some Behr gold highlights. Then sanded it to make my own shabby-chic interpretation. Paste wax over top of the paint.

The bare wood was coated with three coats of Varathane.

Holes drilled in the back to accommodate the water and drain.

Dragged upstairs to check the fit. It fits!!

Pulled it out again to install baseboards.

Amazingly, I found a 3-way mirror/medicine cabinet 36″ wide by the road, so I re-finished it, shabby-chic style.

When we tried it out above the vanity, it didn’t work, style-wise or proportionately. The “safari” lights I bought many months ago needed space to shine down onto the bathroom occupant, but the medicine cabinet stuck out too far.  We installed it above the toilet, where it offers much-needed storage in this tiny space.

My sister and I “auditioned” a few mirrors that she has on hand:

Then I found this one at my local thrift store for $10:

I refinished it in my colours, and here it hangs:

The backsplash here is made of 3 of the tiles, with the blue border trimmed off. It has been varathaned to help with water-repellency.

We installed the toilet ourselves. Got tired of chasing the plumber, who I will review in due course.

And, arduously, the vessel sink:

Finally, the drawers had to be rebuilt to accommodate the plumbing inside the cabinet. Here’s the professional drawing for the drawer renos!

I used the table saw to get nice straight cuts

Used glue, finishing nails and staples, with clamps, to rebuild the drawers

A bit of sanding

And a bit of painting

It’s an unusual powder room, but I like it! I hope I will still like it in 20 years.

Regular readers will wonder how many posts about tiling Gail can possibly write.

We’ve had a few guests lately, so the demand on our one shower has been high. We decided to prioritize the guest bathroom on our still-two-pages-long job list. I’m doing a post on this bathroom because its design raised some questions about how I might proceed, and I hope it might help someone else with some of these decisions.

Because it’s designed to be a wheelchair-accessible steam shower, the access and water-proofing had to be thoroughly thought out. There is a concrete base, installed by the plumbers, covered by a rubber film, then another layer of relatively dry concrete, sloped to the drain and to the rest of the floor outside the shower.

The second layer of concrete over the rubber dam. You can see how "dry" the mix is.

Two coats of RedGard waterproofing were applied on top of the second concrete and onto the cement-board walls and ceiling, which had been prepared with taping and cement.

The lighter pink is the third coat of RedGard which is still wet.

In corners and whenever air bubbles developed, a third layer of RedGard was applied.

The white bubble-holes had to be re-coated

If this shower leaks, it will be a miracle.

I chose to use mosaic glass and marble tiles to accommodate the sloped shower pan, and large white tiles for the walls and ceiling.

Turns out the glass tiles are very challenging to cut because they crack and splinter. The Home Depot staff had no suggestions on how I might cut them. I took some to the local glass shop, but they couldn’t help me. They did cut a 4″ circle for the drain, which was the biggest hole they could cut, but it wasn’t  big enough, so I had to re-cut as best I could with my wet-saw and angle grinder. I used the electric grinder to smooth the cut edges of the glass. Frustrating indeed. I bought a 1.5″ diamond hole saw for the numerous pipe holes.

So, do I tile the walls first or the floor? In the last shower job, I did the floor first, then slopped the mortar all over, even though I had covered it with cardboard. This time, I decided to start with the second row of wall tiles, and tile up.

Then the floor, then the bottom row of wall tiles to cover the floor tiles.

I’m always thinking of where the water will go: it will slide down the wall and onto the floor, then, obviously, to the drain. I sloped the “floor” of the little shampoo nooks so they won’t collect water.

I had to make oodles of decisions about aesthetics, too – what do we see when we enter the room? On the diagonally-tiled main floor of the bathroom, do I center the floor tiles to the door?

Do I have a flat-cut tile presenting first, or the point of the 12″ tile (bad Feng Shui)?

In the cases where partial tiles must be cut, do I put the partials in the corners, equally divided on each side? Where the tiles’ edges will be exposed, I put the one white-glazed edge facing out. Do I allow any cut edges to be seen, or must they always be concealed by another tile?

When applying the diagonal floor tiles, I  drew a straight line from the center of the door to the shower, then lined up the corners of the tiles along this axis.

Then I drew in the placement for each tile and row of mosaic accents. This took a lot of figuring and careful measuring and squaring, but it still has flaws. Hopefully, our guests will not nit-pick!

I used the white thin-set mortar, because I like the way it keeps the tiles in place and doesn’t allow slippage. (Two 30-lb bags of MegaLite, for 250 sq ft of tile.) Also, the glass tiles are translucent, so a dark mortar would produce a darker effect.

I won’t bore you with a photo after the grouting and sealing is done. But, expect another guest bathroom post when it’s all finished, because I will be re-using some old building materials, and this is, after all, a blog about building green!

Hoping for another hot summer for the garden and valuing my time, I planned and ordered a drip irrigation system from Northern Garden Supply in Smithers, British Columbia. Their web site has instructional videos and case studies that are very helpful.

Drip irrigation can save at least 50% of your water, because it waters where it’s needed, and because it’s shaded by the plants so evaporation is minimal.

You’re supposed to install the system before planting, but I just finished installing it yesterday. It was reasonably easy to do. Required strength and very hot water to get the pipe into the compression fittings, and required patience to straighten the pipe, which just wanted to curl, even in the hot sun.

Our goal is to use the collected rainwater for the garden. The plumbers and I are having some difficulties getting that working. I have finally cleaned up the collected water in the cistern (It was collecting dark-coloured water draining from the roof garden, with its rich black compost soil, creating an unattractive water flow in the waterfall and a rich medium for unattractive algae bloom. We’ve diverted the rooftop drain so it doesn’t flow into the cistern.)

How to create the required 25 lbs pressure for the drip irrigation faucet to work? The plumber cut into the big 2″ pipe that recycles the pumped water to the waterfall, but it wouldn’t pump up to the garden faucet.

So a stop-cock was installed, which would require turning off the waterfall while watering the garden (not an ideal solution.) Surprisingly, even that was not enough pressure to create a low-pressure flow through the garden hose.

Now, I’m thinking that we’ll have to pump the water out of the biofalls filter bottom, setting its own pump up on our timer.

The Biofalls filter is quite deep. A pump could be installed below the filter pads.

I will talk to the plumber again, and update this post when we finally have a solution.

My family and my other two blog followers are always badgering me (yes, badgering me, I tell you) to keep the posts coming. We’re well-occupied working on the house still, but this blog is called “This Green House”. To stay true to the theme of the blog, I feel it’s best to only post when I have something green to report.

Algae is green. There’s too much of it in our pond, especially the notorious string algae.

When Endless Rain installed our rainwater collection system, we got a water feature built to take advantage of the many benefits of flowing water, not least of which is for flushing toilets and watering the garden.

We ran the pump for our lovely waterfall June to December, until the plumbers came to do some toilet-flushing work and the electrician to install an outdoor plug for it. They left the pump off during the freezing weather, and the pipe to the pump burst. The water feature was turned off for 5 months, during which the 6″ deep top pond stayed full of water.

The plumbers came a couple of weeks ago, and hooked up the pump. After only a week of running waterfall, it became obvious we had an algae problem. Green slimy algae covered the rocks and obscured the pond bottom. Why did the algae bloom so fervently in one week, when there didn’t seem to be a problem for the first 6 months of the pond’s existence?

When Allan installed the system, he told me that pond plants would help keep the pond clean. In addition, because the water would be continuously flowing, there shouldn’t be an algae problem. After a bit of research, this is what I think has happened:

As it turns out, the water is only flowing on the surface of the pond. Below the surface, the water can be quite still. (Had I known then what I know now, I would not have had them build a pond at all, just a series of plateaux for the water to run over.) Shortly after the system was completed, I did buy a few water plants, and they flourished, particularly the water hyacinth, which was planted in the filter basin (to control its growth – It can take over like a bad weed.)

Biofalls Filter with dormant water plants

Over the winter all the plants died back, but water and organic material still collected in the pond. And, horror-of-horrors, the new garden, with its rich composted soil, was draining its dark, nutrient-rich water into the storage tank. So when the system was turned on again, the plants couldn’t do their job of using /filtering the nutrients that collected.  The goop fed the algae very nicely. It was happy. I was not.

I spent several hours today cleaning it out. We diverted the garden drainage so that it didn’t enter the system. I drained the pond into the “wild” with my neat new Lee Valley siphon pump. Then I took out as many rocks/gravel as I could, setting them out in the sun to bake away the algae.

Sun baking the algae-covered gravel

I scrubbed all the boulders, rocks and gravel with a brush (and cloth in the tight spots), spraying them down with a water hose. There was still lots of sludge, so I pain-stakingly used my masonry sponge to sop up the dirt and wring it into a bucket.

Cleaned (top), sludge (bottom)

Basin cleaned: just clean sand and a bit of gravel left to dry

The pond is drying out thoroughly before I put the gravel back and plant more water plants. I will also use a product called EcoBlast, which purports to add beneficial nutrients and enzymes and remove pond debris. I hope this does the trick, or it will be a running battle for the life of the water feature.

We’ll see if it returns to its former beauty. Will report.

Update, July 14: I was so optimistic when I wrote this post, but in fact, the algae came back and I had to do the whole cleaning routine again.This time, I used the shop vac (wet and dry vac) to vacuum up the gungy water.

I purchase more pond plants, mostly iris and water hyacinth.

And, I don’t know if this has helped, but I read that algae, like most plants, don’t like copper. I could throw a bunch of pennies into the pond, but I decided to try wrapping copper wire around a flat stone at the top of the waterfall, right after the biofalls filter.

The danger is I could kill all the beneficial plants with it, too.

Whatever the reason, the water feature is behaving itself. It’s been running for about 5 weeks, through sunny and cloudy weather, and the water looks clear.

What a relief!

Endless Rain Review – Victoria/New Westminster

(This review is a repeat from an earlier post. I have decided to have each review on its own post. Also, I have done some editing.)

Gord Szolnyanszky – Director Endless Rain

e: gord@endlessrain.ca

w: www.endlessrain.ca

p: 778 678-7246

Endless Rain is a relatively newly-formed company that installs rainwater collection systems, together with water features if the customer wishes.

Based on a very attractive web site and phone and email conversations with Gord, I engaged Endless Rain to install a 2000 gallon rainwater collection system with a 30’ long water feature. Gord’s partner Allan is the head installer. Allan worked with our excavator over 7 days, ordered materials (rock, sand, and gravel) locally, and ended up installing a longer stream than was quoted for. The final invoice was more than the quote by about 13%, because of very legitimate extra costs to build stone steps and a retaining wall to support the water feature. In fact, Allan showed me where we could trim costs, and was conscientious about providing value.

Allan is a genius designer, honest and a hard worker who pays attention to detail (e.g. the irregular stone steps are level and the height of the risers is consistent.) He posted photos of the progress on a daily basis, so that we could follow it while we were on holiday. Both partners are excellent communicators. Allan came back to the site to explain the system to me when we returned from holiday.

We are very pleased with the results, and have plumbed the house to use the rainwater for flushing toilets. I highly recommend Endless Rain.

(Note: since I first posted this review, I understand that Allan has left the partnership. Please contact Endless Rain for their current status.)

The kitchen is not totally finished yet, but the dishwasher was installed today.

Leigh spent several hours in this cupboard, dealing with an awkward sink installation and, today, the dishwasher was finished. Photo is out of focus, sorry.

I waited until the appliances were all installed to uncover the floor. It seems all the damage on the refinished floor occurs when the tradespeople are on site.

Here are a couple of photos.

Because we have a sink. I have read that it’s more energy-efficient to use a dishwasher, but our sink is connected, but the 2-drawer dishwasher is not.

Bring your dishes over!

This is one of a series of reviews of our trades’ work. You can see them all here.

Update, October 3, 2011:

I called Action Spray Foam to get their WCB number for our Homeowner Protection Office requirements. Joe Pinder returned my call, but when I told him which job it was for, he said, “Oh yes, you wrote that nice blog post,” and hung up. So, my negative review of his company just got worse. Not only did he decline to respond to my complaints at the time I gave them the courtesy of a letter outlining the issues, but he also rudely hung up on me when I asked him for their WCB number. No apology was ever offered.

I have to say that, as spray foam insulation gets more popular, in spite of its heavy cost, I would really like these “green” companies to succeed. But, first, they need to have good customer service, and if there are issues, then they need to address them. If Action Spray Foam had addressed them with me, I would not have written a bad review. The old adages apply: “If you are happy with our service, tell your friends. If you have complaints, tell us.” And: “Bad news travels fast.”

1) Action Spray Foam Review – Vancouver/Surrey

Action Spray Foam Insulation
7591 – 150A Street
Surrey, BC  V3S 6P2
Phone: 778-593-7115
Fax: 778-593-7116
Cell: 778-628-0123
Email: actionsprayfoam@yahoo.com

The company sprays 2-lb soy-based closed-cell foam insulation into walls and ceilings.

The short review: Action Spray Foam does good foam work, but failed to adequately clean up after themselves, nor did they complete the whole insulation job to make it inspection-ready, as promised. Internal problems in the company and a mistake in their quotation affected the crews’ work habits. They did not complete the job on the promised schedule. When I wrote them a follow-up letter, giving them an opportunity to respond, they did not, indicating that they don’t care about good customer relations or feedback.

A more detailed review, if the reader is interested:

I picked up a business card for Action Spray Foam from a home show, possibly the sustainability-focused home show in Vancouver.

When I called the name, Andrew, on the card, he said that he no longer worked there, and gave me owner Joe Pinder’s contact information. Joe referred me to his salesperson, Jeff.

When I called Jeff, he answered his phone with a simple “Hello,” rather than a business-like response such as “Action Spray Foam.” Throughout our continuing communication, he answered his phone this way.

I asked Jeff if Action Spray Foam was willing to work on the Sunshine Coast. He expressed considerable enthusiasm to break into the market here. I asked him for a job quote and told him the square footage of our home, and the size of the crawl space, and emailed him the house plans. He responded quite quickly with an estimate that was quite low, about 1/3 the cost of the only other quote I received for the product.

I asked him if he would prefer to come up to take measurements to help him prepare a more realistic quote. He did eventually come to measure, after missing two appointments.

Jeff then prepared a quote that was twice the cost of his first quote. This quote included a 10% “discount” which Jeff indicated was a marketing/goodwill effort – if they did a job here, perhaps it would lead to other jobs.

In part, Jeff’s email stated, “Note that Action has never failed an inspection, we show up on time and we take pride in our craftsmanship. We believe that your project is an example of a perfect showcase for our product and service. There is no greener and more efficient method of insulating, most prominently due to seasonal wind conditions in your area. We would really appreciate the job. Please let me know for scheduling.”

Jeff gave me contact info for 3 references. I followed up on these references, which were very positive. Some of the comments from these referees suggested that Action Spray Foam showed up when they promised, that they came back quickly when changes or incomplete work needed to be touched up (even taking 45 minutes to heat up the equipment for a job that lasted a few minutes), that they left the work site in very clean condition, and that the product was very effective in preventing heat loss, especially in high wind areas. Jeff also repeatedly mentioned how thorough the clean-up was, and how their jobs always passed inspections. I told him in an email:

“Your references check out beautifully. You’re hired! Please find out whether the ventilation in the roof above the insulation is required (vaulted spaces – we have metal roof.)”

We had several phone conversations about whether roof ventilation was required. Action asserted that none was required, and used a letter from their building envelope engineer to support this assertion. Eventually, I understand that Joe’s business partner, Jeremy, asked a building envelope engineer to make a site visit to confirm that no ventilation would be required. She provided her opinion at the site. This advice resulted in a full day’s labour by our framing crew of 3 people, at a cost of $800 to us, to insert plywood rafter ends at the soffits. Although the engineer was not retained by us, I agreed to pay the $600 billed for this site visit, after talking with Jeff while the crew was applying the foam. We would have to get an engineer’s inspection anyway for the Regional District.

The engineer observed the work that had been done already by the two crews. She said that the work was very good, and took several measurements. She and her associate poked holes into the foam in hundreds of spots (I wondered if those spot holes then allowed air leaks? They were never filled.)

Action’s two crews completed part of our job, then left to work on other jobs in the Vancouver area. They returned 3 days later than Jeremy promised. They “finished” their work here, and left in a hurry to catch a ferry. They took away approximately 9 large bags of foam popcorn and sawcut trimmings, plus 2 of our other styrofoam block-filled garbage bags. Although they cleaned up 2 outdoor vents that got a lot of spray on them, they did not do a thorough job of cleaning. Our metal roof, electrical boxes, pipes, and exterior walls have several areas with foam on them. Nor did they trim off anywhere near all the areas that required cleaning up.

We and our building crew ended up putting in 6 man-days of cutting/cleaning up the spray foam work for the drywallers and to pass the insulation inspection. The engineer would not provide the B1B2s to pass the inspection until we completed all the window and multiple stud and plate moisture barriers and insulation (“rod and caulk”). According to our SCRD inspector, some spray foam crews cover the whole wall/ceiling/windows with moisture barrier BEFORE spraying, then trim between the studs/rafters and seal it with the spray foam. That would have saved us a huge amount of effort and mess, plus protecting the windows from the foam and dust. Although Jeff boasted that Action’s jobs always pass inspections, we had to go over the whole house to fill holes and seal windows that most insulation businesses complete as part of their insulation jobs. Subsequent cutting off of the foam produced 6 more large garbage bags of foam, and required several cleaning sessions by me and by our crew, and even the drywallers.

When the engineer did a second site visit and eventually passed the insulation and provided the B1B2s, we were billed the second site visit. Engineers from the Sunshine Coast area engineers  provide this service for about 1/2 the cost, because they don’t have to take 4 hours of travel time.

I feel we have not been well-served by Action Spray Foam. We were misled about the level of completion, the engineer’s inspection, and the cleanup.

I should have insisted on a clear and detailed quotation, rather than the simple listing of measurements and price. The best quotations indicate exactly what is provided. If they claim to provide a service that is inspection-ready, then they need to specify exactly what the standard of completion is.

According to the Action crews that were on site, Action’s salesperson seriously underestimated on their quote. Although the crews were unfailingly polite to me, it was clear that they were angry about the situation and in a hurry to get the job done. It was much bigger than they had been told, even though the quote included quite accurate measurements. They got sloppy and just left before the cleanup was completed.