Posts Tagged ‘Climate-Block’

The New Charlestown Package Store will be beautiful and green –  with a dramatic interior framed by Douglas Fir timbers, a highly efficient envelope built out of Climate-Block panels, a geothermal heating-cooling-dehumidification system, and very cool lighting.

Dramatic and cool, YES.  Easy to run electric wires, NO!  All of the wires are run in either the chases built into the wall panels, under the concrete floor in conduit, or in channels cut in the exterior of the roof panels.   All of this requires a lot of thought and often it’s best to get together at the construction site and go over the plan.  Below our lighting designer, Evelyn Audet, and electrician, Len Capizzano of Century Electric, meet to work out the details.

The entire building will be slab on grade with the exception of the wine storage room which has a full basement that will house the geothermal and electrical equipment.   The wine storage room will hold up to 900 cases of wine and the floor system had to be designed to carry all the weight.  Our structural engineer, Ernie George, consulted old design manuals for ships carrying rum (he also calculated the weight of the wine) and figured on a floor load of 200 lbs per square foot.

Two 7″ x 14″ beams support 12″ I-joists on 16″ centers.   To the right Tim Van Wormer and Breck Tully, of T and J Construction, are finishing the floor and laying out the basement stairs.

In the background Ca-Gin Concrete gets ready to pour the footing for the bearing wall in the beer cooler.

The walls and roof of the wine storage room, beer cooler, stair tower, and service entrance will be built entirely of Climate-Block panels and structural beams made of engineered lumber.  Below Ryan Gallant, Ed Joanis, and Traves Ogilvie meet with architect Megan Moynihan and engineer Ernie George to go over the details.

A bird’s eye view of the emerging NEW Charlestown Package Store!  Kurt McCormick, of Delta H, attaches a panel to the timber frame.

This morning we are working from the top to the bottom and pretty much everywhere in between.  In the big picture below the first of the upper roof panels is being set into place while the concrete truck pours the basement slab.

Meanwhile, on the lower part of the roof we are running the electrical wires and wires for the security and alarm systems.  We don’t want any exposed wiremold or electrical conduit so all ceiling mounted fixtures are being wired from the outside. This requires careful planning and skilled hands. To the left Sam Joslin, of Century Electric, confers with Dave Vinick, of Home Electronics.  To the right Len Capizanno locates the overhead fixtures.

And, while all this is going on up above, Ca-Gin Concrete pours the basement slab.  The blue foam blocks mark the location of the footings for the steel columns that will support the floor and roof structure.  Once the floor hardens the foam will be removed. And after the columns are set the diamond shapes will be patched and the concrete will secure the base of the columns.

For a quick history of the project scroll down to go back through Older Entries.

The new store is located at 4625 Old Post Road (right next to the existing store).

Earlier today we set the first of the Climate-Block roof panels.  The roof panels are more than 11″ thick, with 10″ of expanded polystrene (EPS) insulation – R40 and no thermal bridging.

We  applied 5/8″ Type X drywall, which is both moisture  and fire resistant, to the underside of the roof panels before we installed them.  Navigating the beams and drywalling the cathedral ceiling would have been difficult and we think that we will have a better job by applying the drywall before we set the panels.

The structural members of the panels are made of engineered lumber and extend beyond the outside face of the EPS by 3/4″.   When the roof sheathing is applied we will have a 3/4″ air space and a cool, well-ventilated roof, resulting in lower energy costs and longer lasting roofing.

Pictured below are the completed wall panels which are in the process of being sheathed with water proof 11/16″ Zip-Wall (the green panels with black borders).  The exposed horizontal beam will support the roof of the farmer’s porch entry-way. And the three window openings above the beam will provide natural light to the retail space.  Traves Ogilvie, Tom Alexander, Jr., and Derek Lemire are installing the panels while Kurt McCormick sets them in place with the Lull.