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Planning a new green office and shopIt is a daunting
job to design and build a new manufacturing facility or beamery
with the necessary features to work well. Our business, Cabin
Creek Timber Frames, had been in business since 1996. It was
2005 and we had been renting a 6000 square foot metal building
in Franklin for the past two years. We wanted to build our own
building for a number of reasons. Problems with the rented
building and its location were rent, less than adequate heating
and insulation, nauseous gases from propane tank businesses on
two sides, obscure location, size of office and shop, limited
parking and truck access, limited storage space for timbers.
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We began looking for acceptable property. Criteria included,
in approximate order, affordability, easy large truck access, space
for building and storage, three phase power, and a relatively level
property. We expected that given these features, we could make the
other factors a reality.
We found two acres with excellent
road access, level, on US 441, a major highway from Atlanta to the
WNC area, a heavily traveled tourist route. The placement on US 441
cost significantly more, but brought many advantages, mostly
exposure, and some problems, mostly noise. Before committing to the
purchase, I checked on restrictions (none), power (available with
upfront $6000), water (none- have to drill well), septic-two
possibilities. One, a 5 bedroom equivalent septic tank and drain
field was present unused partially on this tract and on the
adjoining Little Tennessee Land Trust property. I offered $8000 to
them to use this existing unused system. They refused. There was no
way to place a drain field on our property. So I had little choice
other than go with the second option, which came with the right to
purchase a hook up (for $3500) to the private sewer treatment plant
across US 441 and to pay a monthly fee for this privilege, and we
proceeded with the purchase.
We planned a timber frame
office with 1750 square feet to provide office space, meeting rooms,
storage, a break/lunch room, and toilets. The shop or manufacturing
area was to be a steel building-50x120 ft. It would include tool
storage, wood storage, and work area.
After the shop was
partially built, a recent change in the building code forced us to
either install a sprinkler system (very expensive) to handle the
fire danger from wet sawdust from green timbers at 70% moisture
content or to build a separate building, less than 2500 square feet,
to house the band saw, radial arm saw and planer. Apparently no fire
danger from green sawdust exists in smaller buildings. So we built a
smaller machine shop, 30x50 ft., to house the machine tools.
We
wished to have certain features in the office and others in the
shops. We had begun to accumulate a good bit of waste wood from cut
offs in our manufacturing process. Disposing of this waste meant
hauling it to the county landfill (haul bill and dump fee), selling
it (unlikely), or giving it away (unlikely). We elected to keep it
for fuel and accomplish two things. First, there would be no haul
and dump bill, and no fuel bills (hopefully). After much thought the
choice was made to purchase a detached furnace to reduce fire
danger, and use it to heat hot water to be pumped to the three
buildings for a radiant heat floor system for heat in the entire
complex, 9256 square feet. The water pipe for this system is buried
in concrete-a 6"polished slab in the shops (smooth and easy to
clean), and a 3" lightweight slab with slate tiles above a
crawlspace in the office. Programmable thermostats control various
zones to adjust temperature.
The radiant heat system works as
follows. One full furnace load lasts a cold night, and another the
following day lasts until evening. Thermostats keep the office at 72
degrees, and the shop at 55-60. This is ideal for vigorous work in
the shop, and our men are usually down to t-shirts by 10 am. There
is a heat pump backup for the office, but it rarely engages. The
warm floor acts as a large heat sink and keeps feet and legs warm.
This is particularly welcome to those of us with some age and
accompanying arthritis. This is much more comfortable than overhead
blower units, and no space is required for the equipment. Even when
doors are opened and cold air enters, the floor remains warm, and
the air above quickly rewarms when the doors are closed.
The
metal buildings have halogen lamps overhead, but often these are not
needed due to the sidelights interspersed along the upper walls of
the building. The sidelights are translucent fiberglass panels which
supply very adequate light on bright days. We elected to use
sidelights rather than overhead skylights for two reasons. One,
there would be less chance of roof leakage, and there would be no
condensation and subsequent dripping of water on tools and
machinery. The metal buildings have fiberglass roll insulation on
walls and ceiling. To protect the walls, plywood sheets were mounted
on the lower 8 feet of the walls around the entire building to avoid
timber and forklift damage or blight. The 24' wide doors of the shop
can be easily rolled up by one man. They are wide so that 30'or
longer timbers can be brought in by forklift with some maneuvering.
The metal roll up doors came with no insulation, but we decided to
insulate them with ¾" pink foam board for warmth and décor.
Even this lightweight covering changed the weight on the springs of
these massive 20x24' doors, and the spring tension had to be
adjusted. The results were good. The shop was noticeably warmer
early on cold mornings.
The office is insulated with
structural insulated panels or SIPS, with R-17 walls and an R-38
roof. It is tightly sealed between panels and between walls and
roof. This system is almost twice as efficient as an equally R-rated
fiberglass/studwall system. It costs more initially, but usually
pays for the increased cost over 5-6 years. Outside walls are
painted board and batten, yellow pine.
Timber frame
buildings go back many centuries, and as a tribute to our past, a
12th century timber frame design was used for the office frame. It
is similar to a Wealden Hall built in Southeastern England in the
12th-14th centuries. The frame is white pine.
A recent
engineering study compared our complex, using energy use data over
the past two years, with an imaginary complex, same size, minimum
code requirements, using an all electric heating system. The results
show our actual complex using 43% of the energy used by the standard
building. The other 57% is not being spent on Middle Eastern Oil.
This translates to a yearly savings of $9000.
CABIN CREEK
TIMBER FRAMES
828-369-5899
6624 Georgia Road Franklin, NC
28734
www.cabincreektimberframes.com
jbell@cabincreektimberframes.com
Sips.org
Suretight.com
Hers or Home Energy Rating System
www.energy.ca.gov/HERS/index.html
www.healthybuilthomes.org
Energy Star www.energystar.gov
LEED www.usgbc.org
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