More Snow

We got about five inches of snow over the weekend and may get more tonight and tomorrow. While I am not getting my hopes up, next week is supposed to be dry with temperatures in the 60's. No work since the roofer put down the felt on the sunroom last week.

Yesterday, Mike forwarded the quote from the roofer. Not surprisingly, the quote for the main house was about twice what I had been led to believe. I am not too surprised since the number that Mike gave me verbally was absurdly low. This quote was more reasonable while still be a little better than those I had received last summer from several other companies. I called Mike to ensure he had reviewed the quote and found it acceptable. Subsequently, I signed off on the quote which included installation of ridge vents on the main house and garage, and arranged for the down payment to be made.

I asked Mike about the status of the ventilation issue. He said he had talked with Frank (HVAC) and Frank had agreed with Mike's assessment that a couple of bath room ventilators would be sufficient. I suggested that I call Frank to discuss it with him, which I subsequently did. After a very convoluted discussion, it became obvious that Frank did not know how the ventilation requirements were going to be impacted by the existence of the hot tub. I tried to keep it simple and suggested, as a starting point that Frank forget about the hot tub and give me his minimum and maximum fan capacity for a room of this size. Frank said that Mike had sent to him my drawings with the room volume calculations. Frank said he would not install anything less than 170 cfm or more than 500 cfm. Based on my volumetric calculations, this range would equate to air turnover rates between 1.2/hr and 3.5/hr. He did not elaborate on why he specified these particular rates. Frank said he would suggest a fan made by Broan. Frank agreed with me that it would be far worse to install too little capacity than too much, assuming we could include some turn down capability. Frank shared my concern that too little capacity could/would result in mold and condensation issues. Frank suggested I contact the hot tub manufacturer to see if they had any recommendations concerning the ventilation requirements.

After talking with Frank, I sent a note to both Mike and Tyler, telling them that Frank (our expert) essentially punted on the ventilation question, but suggested a capacity range (without a hot tub) above what Mike was suggesting.

Today, I called the hot tub store. Our salesperson (Bobbi) is off today but I was assured she would call me back tomorrow. I also did more internet research, focusing on the question of ventilation of enclosed pools and spas. I have found recommendations ranging from 1 air turnover per hour to 20 per hour. There was a broad consensus that this ventilation is critical and must be done correctly. I also found some guidance on fans themselves. The guidance was to not to just go down to the local Home Depot and pickup a bathroom exhaust fan which can be expected to be cheap, short lived, noisy and prone to rust. The rust issue could lead to staining of adjacent surfaces. I our application, those adjacent surfaces would be our stained pine ceiling panels.

I also sent a note to a mechanical engineer (Bob) who worked with me when I was with an engineering firm several years ago. Bob specializes in commercial and industrial HVAC design. If he responds, he might at least point me to someone who could advise us on our residential application.

We got an invoice from Tyler (architect) today for the second 25% payment of the construction phase consulting support they are providing. I will respond that since the last invoice for the first 25%, only about one week of work has been accomplished and I do not believe we are anywhere near 50% complete. I will suggest that we agree upon a 50% point being the point at which all of the windows and doors (including the glass roof) have been installed. Except for the glass roof, all the windows and doors are in town awaiting installation. I sent a note to Jim (glass roof) to find out if he has an estimate on fabrication of the glass roof. Once I get a response, I will send my response to Tyler.