Sustainable Builders Yak
For Australian construction professionals building high-performing, sustainable homes and homeowners looking to create their own sustainable, high-performing home.
Sustainable Builders Yak
Ep #4 - Jesse's Passive House
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One of Builders Declare's founding members Jesse Glascott of G-Lux Builders has just finished building what will be a certified Passive House for himself and his family.
Listen as we review the incredible products, materials and techniques Jesse used to build his home, and wait till you hear how incredibly low Jesse got his ACH... IMPRESSIVE!
A huge thanks to our sponsors BINQ High-performing Windows & Doors & ASC Tanks
Welcome back to the Sustainable Builders Yak Podcast, the podcast that gives you the confidence to build high-performing, sustainable homes. We first like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today and pay our respects to Alders past, present, and emerging. First of all, welcome to my coast as always, Brian of iSmart Builders over there in Perth WA. Now, today we're joined by Jesse Glasgott of G Lux Builders, based out there in the beautiful bushlands of Warrandy. Jesse's also a founder of Builders Declare. And today we'll be talking about this incredible home that Jesse's building. Now I'm a big advocate for practicing what you preach, and all of us at Bills Declare try to do that to the best of our ability. But there's no clearer example than this home that Jesse's built. As I've mentioned, Jesse's building companies G-Lux builders, and they pride themselves on keeping up with the latest products and technologies from all across the world and applying them in their construction. And I can tell you that they've done that and some on this one. Just to kick things off, I'll name a few of the epic products that uh Jesse's got in his home. First of all, Jesse's installed Bink's triple glazed black butt windows and doors. These are passive house standard, and they meet the Bell 29 bushfire rating. Now Bink's high performance windows and doors have been uh kind enough to support the Sustainable Builders Jack podcast, and we thank them for that. I think we're established in 2009 and a 100% Australian-owned company and BINC really up the game since they're uh since they were established in 2009, bringing the most advanced windows and outdoor techniques and systems over from Europe and applying them in Australia. They've got a 2,000 square meter state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Melbourne and our showroom there. And I'd encourage anybody listening to check that out, given the opportunity. Now, another incredible item Jesse has installed in his home is he's got 30,000 litres of water storage for his home. Now, 5,000 of that granted is for the bushfire management. That leaves him 25,000 uh uh water supply for his home. He's also used a pure tech UV filtration system uh to ensure his water is healthy to drink. Now he's got all that from ASC tanks who have been also been kind enough uh to sponsor the Sustainable Builders Yaku podcast. And we also thank them. Now, these guys they do the lot, right? When it comes to rainwater, they've got it all covered. And I'd encourage anyone listening to check out their website, they've got tanks, pumps, pits, filtration, you name it, they've got it. Since 2007, fully Australian-owned. Uh sustainable builders yak recommends them highly. It's all right, gents. Let's kick things off and talk about this epic home that Jesse's built.
SPEAKER_03Hey Samuel, hello, everyone.
SPEAKER_00Thanks, thanks for having me, guys.
SPEAKER_03Looking forward to it. I am super, super excited about this one, Jesse. My goodness, you have the house every passive house builder dreams of. This is what we get wet about.
SPEAKER_00It's uh it's it's bloody exciting. When you sent across those plans and that spec list, yes, like geez, you know, we build homes. Obviously, yeah, we we all build homes here, we're all builders, aren't we? But if we get 20 a quarter of what you get in one of our homes, we're doing pretty well. This home you've built, it's gotta be you know, I can't wait. Is it finished yet?
SPEAKER_01Tell us, is it finished yet? No, it's not quite finished. We're we're on the home straight trying to get in by Christmas. So we've got well, four weeks up our sleeve to try and get those one percenters done. So but it's been a long time in the making this house, Simon. Yeah, we bought the land back in in 2017, and that was the year that I got introduced to passive house as well. Done the um the passive house tradesman's course with yourself, Brian, here in Melbourne. And um, yeah, I guess the the design sort of took off back then. Um, the more I learned about passive, the more I sort of incorporate it and you know had to have it in my build. So that was where it started.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, gotta commend you. It's incredible. So for everyone out there that's listening, um, we spoke about bringing Jesse on a few weeks back and he was a bit busy. So he sent us an email. We couldn't sit down and have a chat about his house. So he sent us an email and it's got somebody information um about how he was building what he's included. And I don't know about you, Simon, but my goodness, when we talk about ticking boxes, Jesse, you've invented boxes for people.
SPEAKER_00This is a shopping list.
SPEAKER_03Oh my goodness, there is so much in here to to take on. Um, I think today, Simon, you're in charge, man. If you kick it off, I reckon yeah, I don't know if we're even gonna get through this, to be honest. There is so much in here, but let's get some information out to the folks so they can you know get back to us in comments. But yeah, let's let's get into it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, let's dive in. So I'm gonna start real. I'm gonna I'm gonna realize this this shopping list, and you blokes tell me where to stop. All right, because this is pretty epic. I've obvious obviously mentioned two items out of the you know dozens that you've you've got in there. So obviously, big triple glaze windows, big sponsor of the podcast. Awesome, thank you guys. And now you've used mass timber glue lamp panels for your structural floor.
SPEAKER_01I have, yeah, yeah. So we got we got these um these glue lamp panels. So that's it's it's like a uh floorboard on steroid, these things. They got like a tongue and groove system in it, and we've got yeah, they're 160 mil uh thick for the floor panels. And um, I mean the the benefit of these is they they got huge spans on them. So over uh you know, an eight-meter wide room, we've just got that one bearer running through the middle, and um, and then we got the speed of putting them down too. You get the whole floor down in a couple of hours.
SPEAKER_03And then you get these out of um X Lam.
SPEAKER_01No, no, unfortunately, X Lam uh weren't making glue lambs at the time. Okay, could be possibly on their cards now, but no, we had to get these from Germany. So oh wow, okay. Yeah, so we've got like a a big structural wall. There they're that's only a hundred mil thick, but that sort of runs right through the guts of the house and sort of acts as like the the spine of the house.
SPEAKER_03So how much you call it wetter, um Jesse, when you had when you were putting the panels in.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was uh it was a three-week task, and we're one week in, and then it just flogged down for a week and it was just I was bloody devastated, you know. I'm like didn't didn't even have the time to to wrap the job up in you know, some waterproof plastic or you know, anything like that. So it just got drenched, and um like with these panels, they're they're only 550 mil wide, so you you've got to leave like a three mil um expansion gap in between each panel, obviously, for um for to allow the timber to get some movement in it, and um, yeah, a lot of those timber timbers like took up that three mil straight away. Like, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Is that something you can leave as a finished floor, Jesse, or no?
SPEAKER_01No, it's too soft because it's a spruce. So we've we've left it as a finished ceiling and we've left it as a finished wall as well. Yeah, the architectural wall, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, it's awesome stuff. I'd love to work with it again.
SPEAKER_03So so for everyone out there listening, um, might be hard for you guys to visualize this, but uh, we've had pictures, and yeah, it looks absolutely incredible. Maybe we'll speak later, Jesse. You might be able to share some of them pictures with everyone, yeah, absolutely. Because the the glue lambs are they're absolutely super, they look so good.
SPEAKER_00So what's the height of that wall that you've used them on?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's about eight meters.
SPEAKER_00Eight meter high wall.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. That's in one panel. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, right. Yeah, we we had them come in a 40-foot container, so pretty much the length of the container, and you you know, trim them down on site to suit.
SPEAKER_03I think we've skipped over a really important part though. You went straight to um the CLT panels because we're chippies, we love timber. But I think um maybe we might just go back and touch on what's underneath them because for me that is real special. You want to tell us about your foundations?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, we're in a um a huge flood zone, right? So so our property backs onto a creek, and uh, I guess over you know a couple of hundred years the the creek was probably a lot wider than what it is now. So we've we've had to actually go down to like three and a half to four meters to hit solid ground for the whole house. So I've got 90 piers under my foundations, unfortunately. And um, and we've gone we went with concrete um instead of screw piles pretty much because we've got the machinery to do it, plus we wanted to use um the boral envirocrete concrete with the helix microbar. So we managed to um ditch a lot of the cages that were supposed to be in the piers for this um for the the helix microbar, which was you know, on site it was so good, such an easy solution instead of trying to lift up a you know a four-meter cage and try and put it in when you're pouring. And yeah, um, but it was it was pretty hectic to um try and get it at the plant and try and get it coordinated and get it on site, and there was um a fair bit of mucking around on that end, but I'd I'd definitely use it again, yeah.
SPEAKER_03The envirocrete's quite quite a good product.
SPEAKER_01It is, yeah, yeah. Use recycled water, recycled sand. I think it's 40% less Portland cement than a general mix. So um it's got a specifically designed in the borough lab for each sort of project. Yeah. So they give you like a mix number so that then you can you know keep using that for the project.
SPEAKER_03So and did you have there was one thing I read about the the the product? I don't think it's a big Achilles heel, but um they have certain requirements when it comes to drying time. Um, because there's less portal and cement in it, I don't think it meets uh structural stability for a little bit longer, it's it's got a longer drying time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I guess that wasn't that wasn't an issue for our foundation while we were sort of in a bit of cruise control, we weren't out to pump it out because we had sort of panels that we were going to be waiting for. Oh, yeah. Um, so so yeah, drying time, we had a fair bit of time up our sleeve. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And and the it and the Helix microbar in replacing of those big cages, so they're just like a fine file, they're almost like hair.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's like a little twisted sort of stainless steel bar. So um I think they're yeah, they're not, they may be only 25 to 30 mil long. They're they're they're quite short, and about a mil, about a mil radius. Yeah, yeah. So just gotta get the um get the engineer to get the okay on that. Um, they do they tell you the amount of dose, the amount of kilos per cubic meter that you'll require. Um purchase them, they take them to the plant, put them in at the plant, and then it comes out all ready to go.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so they're done at the plant. So that obviously removes a lot of fuss on site. You just put them straight in. It's not like a fiber mesh concrete.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, okay. It's the same, it's just yeah, similar to the the fibers, the fiberglass fibers. So yeah, tell you one thing I didn't think of is getting a pumpy that was happy to use it. So yeah, uh so yeah, a few of the pumpies we use, they're like, nah, mate, I'm not not putting that in my pump. Really? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00They can certain the fibers get stuck in the pipes, perhaps.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yep. Oh inches. So yeah, you we did get a couple of blockages. Um but I mean you kind of get that with just your standard concrete anyway, sometimes. So but um the fellow who we ended up using, yeah, he he was great. He was had no problems with it, happy to use it. He said he'd used it a few times, so I think a few times just a bit scared.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, pumpies can be temperamental, I reckon.
SPEAKER_03You had a lot of um what looked like EPS or XPS insulation on those um knew as well.
SPEAKER_01We've got a heap of PIR uh under the floor. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So we've got uh 100 mil PIR under our floor. So I mean our floor's 160 plus the um the 100 mil gives us, yeah, like five and a half, I think something, something five and a half, six value. Where under your walls, under your floor, sorry? Under our floor, yeah. So that's that was like a speed thing too, because you know, we're laying the panels pretty quickly. So we had all the had all the um 24 by 1200 sheets of PIR pretty much sitting on the water tanks ready to go. So as soon as we laid the panels, we had guys under there screwing them up.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, and you had um the the water tanks were the ASC, was it the you had some under deck water tanks, did you?
SPEAKER_01We did, yeah, yeah. We uh we were weren't fortunate enough to have a water main connection due to the the water authority wanted us to extend the water main down the street and was gonna cost us an absolute bomb. So I was like, you know what, you guys can get stuffed. I'm gonna I'm gonna spend half the money it's gonna cost for that on water tanks. So we um I I didn't have much room under the house, so we had to sort of um get ASC to sort of help us with what tanks is suitable, but we managed to fit 13 2,000 litre tanks under the house. So we've got 26 under the house, and then yeah, we've got um 5,000 for firefighting under the deck, and we've got a fair bit of room under the deck still, so we could we could have easily put you know maybe another three, so maybe another 6,000 under there if we need it. So let's have a good plumber, yeah. We it actually took them, yeah, two guys, probably three days just to interconnect all them. It was a fair bit of work, actually.
SPEAKER_00Like like uh like Lego blocks just connecting them all together, yeah. So yeah, we sound incredible though.
SPEAKER_01Through a um threw a few meters of crushed rock under the house and got a little machine in there, spread it all out. So it's all all the tanks are all at exactly the same level. So nice.
SPEAKER_00So let's keep moving through this list. So I'll we'll probably just stop at each one, but so you got sips. What's that for your walls? And yeah, we gotcha.
SPEAKER_01We got one six five sips for the walls and two six five for the roof panels. Um, so I went for this method for for speed, really, because um, because this is my house, I don't really have the manpower to sort of get get a lot of guys there um because we've working on our other jobs. So I thought, you know, I wanted to, it's it's quite a complex build in terms of um there's nothing that's quite square and level, and you know, there's all these different angles. Um, so we decided to panelise the job. Um, we sort of got the design done off like a 1220 grid, which is your typical um panel width. So we've got 1220 wide grid lines running everywhere throughout our drawings. 1220. What do you what do you mean by that? Uh 1220 millimeters is like your typical um SIP panel width. Um, and so you try and keep to those widths when you can to try to, you know, less wastage. So yeah, we we we managed to to make it work pretty well. Uh unfortunately, we needed a few big steel beams in there to get some spans. Um, we couldn't quite get the spans we wanted with some glue lambs. Um, but yeah, it worked out really well. Everything there was a uh a ready-cut sort of sip system with everything, all the splines included, and it yeah, it went to it fit together like a glove. It's great. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So so you you're you're you've done a lot of panel homes, haven't you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we've we've done a few the last few years, and we've yeah, we seem to be getting a few more coming up. How do you find them compared to the old stick build? Look, we're still stick building all our internal walls, so there's definitely an element to it. And I think it depends on each job, really. Like we're see, we're still stick building homes, you know, this you know, as we speak, really. And we're doing combinations as well. So stick build walls and SIP roofs.
SPEAKER_03So do you have um counterbatten system on the inside, uh, Jesse, or how do you work that for services, etc.?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we've just got an internal um cavity service baton on the SIP walls, yeah. Okay, yeah, yeah, we're just sticking with a 35mm, and some places like in the bathrooms, we've got a mixer or something like that. We might go to a 45mm. Yep.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, okay. Now you've got to tell me about this famous wall with the uh wood fiber insulation.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so because good friends, like because we've gone for um the mass timber wall. So I mean, majority of all our external walls are sips, but we've gone for the the mass timber wall in in one section of the house, which is exposed on the inside. So we've actually got our air tightness layer on the outside of that, and then we've got our obviously we have to have an insulation externally for that. So we've got our 180mm thick wood fiber, and then we've got our um I didn't get that.
SPEAKER_02Could you try again?
SPEAKER_01Siri, yeah. Siri.
SPEAKER_02Siri once in on the podcast.
SPEAKER_01Uh so they uh then we've got our 180 mil thick wood fiber, uh, and then we've got our vapor 180 mil thick wood fiber, 180, yeah, and that's a rigid board. So what's your R value on that? Yeah, that's four and a half, yeah. Wow, yeah. So it's pretty it's it's funny, it's pretty similar to the 100 mil PIR. It's about the same as the 180mm wood fiber in terms of our value.
SPEAKER_03So did you put a uh WRB outside of that again?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I did.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so you've and you have an air tightness layer behind the CLT. CLT then is just an architectural feature wall. Yes. Yeah, okay. So one other thing I noticed um was uh you have a green roof and a green wall. So we'll talk about that later. But when you decided that you were going to use SIPs, um uh the first thing that came into my head was wow, there's gonna be some structural challenges here with this green roof. Like, how how did you work your way through that?
SPEAKER_01Like, geez Louise. Well, there's no uh there's no uh sip walls under the green roof at all. It's um stick building masonry because the green roof's just over the garage, which isn't part of the thing that way.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, because I was trying to get my head around it. I was like, how did he do that? Yeah, obviously now it now it makes sense. Yeah, okay. Danger, danger.
SPEAKER_01Still it still worries me the green roof, I tell you.
SPEAKER_00I just is it worth it for the look?
SPEAKER_01Oh, I hope so. We'll see.
SPEAKER_00The rebuilders' anxiety. So so so what the the garage obviously sits a floor below, so you know you've got your living because you you've you've built into the side of a hill, so you'll be able to look out onto that green roof, won't you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so that yeah, the garage sort of is sort of because we're on a we're on a busy roundabout, so the the um garage sort of faces one end of the roundabout where we're gonna be coming in. Um, so it's the green roof um is like more of an aesthetics kind of thing. It's gonna it's gonna look quite appealing coming from the roundabout. And um, yeah, definitely didn't want it over any of our um, you know, internal envelope, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_03So did you um did you have any influence? Um, because you mentioned the bow rating area. What was that? What was your bowel?
SPEAKER_01So we got bowel 29. So, which is yeah, it's pretty high. It's not too bad in terms of you know, all our external um timber has to be, you know, um um bushfire rating timber. So yeah, your black butts, your spotted gums, you, you know, your real dense stuff. Yep. And um our windows externally, the external glazing, the outside piece of glass is gonna be six mil toughened. Um, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Can you explain what a bar rating is for those people that don't know?
SPEAKER_00I always forget what it stands for. What's the stand? Bushfire, let me guess.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I mean, it's so we've what do we got? We've got um 12.5. Um, so there's not too much involved in a 12.5, then it goes up to not 19.5, and then we're at 29, yep. Um, which is it's starting to introduce some some bushfire timbers that you you have to use and non-combustible materials.
SPEAKER_03That's when your budget starts to feel it.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yes, when it starts, yes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So is that why you went with the triple glazed windows from pink, not double glazed, or you you no the that was purely performance wise, yeah, for the triple.
SPEAKER_01Yep. Um, so yeah, whether it was Um triple or double, it doesn't matter. We still have to have that six mil toughened on the outside. Yeah. Yeah. And then obviously you get into bell 40, which is what our assessor was trying to push. And I'm like, mate, I think you're yeah, you're overcooking it here. I think you better resit and evaluate. And um, yeah, he managed to say, All right, yeah, I think you're just gonna scrape into the the 29. So because 20 40 is just another ball game, isn't it?
SPEAKER_03You can't have we've got an FZ at the moment, and it's just oh, what is it? FZ. So it's in a fire zone. Is that you've got that, Brian? Yeah, we've got one at the moment, yeah. And it is, oh my goodness, there's lots of gray hairs on that one. Yeah, yeah. Challenges, lots of challenges. Everything goes up in price, everything. It's just there's so much detail involved when you get into FZ. Like it's something that we'll touch on. We we maybe we'll do a podcast on um ball ratings and try and go into it a bit more so people know what they're getting into when they're buying a block. Yeah, but when it gets to FZ, like everything from the ground to the ridge cap, it's changes. Everything changes, there's so much involved. For me, it's it's huge impact on budget. Huge impact. Yep, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So just tell us, yeah, are you going are you gonna get certified as a passive house?
SPEAKER_01Yes, yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_00Wow, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Certifications in process. We're going for passive plus for this because we've got a big system on the roof. So yeah. What's passive plus? Uh it's where the uh the uh the home generates as much um energy as the consumers use, so it's uh technically classic plus and platinum.
SPEAKER_03There's there's well, there's actually five, I think, now, but uh the main four are uh classic plus and platinum in your passive house, and then you've got Enerfit, which is um an existing building which you retrofit the passive host standards, um, and now there's um uh low energy building, which can be a certified process too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so there's low energy building, and that's that's is that a passive house rating as well?
SPEAKER_03Uh so it's basically you can build the passive host standards, but you don't meet the 15 kilowatt hours per square meter per annum. You're you're over the allowable uh energy use, so it's it can be deemed as a certified or a low-energy building, certified low energy building, but not necessarily certified passive.
SPEAKER_00Interesting. We we maybe we should cover that on another podcast. Yeah, we can do, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yep, we can do.
SPEAKER_00So, Jess, you've got the the Zender HR V system.
SPEAKER_01Yep. Yeah, I love the Zender. We've put that in a few homes now. And um, good old Joel at Fantech, he's a ripper, gives us gives us some good deals, and service is great. So couldn't go past that, putting that in my house. So it's it's uh it's in and it's ready to go. We've just got some external grills to put up.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03Can I ask a silly question? Um you in your opinion, so you've been building past the post and you know, uh, I thought that where you are you would have had a bit more humidity. So nobody's ever mentioned ERV versus HRV, or no?
SPEAKER_01No, we don't tend to use the ERVs down here in Melbourne. Yeah, we're the same here, but yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, we've yeah, I've never never had one spec in a in a house of mine at all. So yeah, same as that. I think it's um on the eastern side of Australia, it's more once you get to Sydney, then it becomes borderline, and then anything above Sydney, then you're probably gonna want one, yeah.
SPEAKER_03So that'll be climate zone four and above, or below, sorry. Four and below, you would be ERV, and then five and above you would be no ERV. Are you guys five or six? Oh, I'm not too sure, Brian. Okay, I don't think we're one of them, Brian.
SPEAKER_00I think we're six. I'll check if you're gonna be Matt.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_00Jess, this next one interested me. This Xypho, is that how you say it? Yep. Zypho drain water heat recovery, yes, reduces the energy demand required to heat the water for showers. Yeah, I've never heard of this. Please, please enlighten me.
SPEAKER_01Well, I I've taken a bit of a gamble on this because we we did put it in the in the Grand Designs house that we did, and I was like, you know, I knew nothing about it at the time, and I was like, wow, this is pretty cool. And then um I was at the I was at the same time where I had to make a decision, am I gonna put this in my house? And I'm like, all right, well, I've got the two showers, so I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna put it in and see what it's like. Obviously, I I haven't I haven't actually used them yet, so I can't give you any feedback on on what they're like. But yeah, so what happens with these um these xipho uh drain water recovery systems is you've got the waste water coming out of your shower, um, which is warm, right? That goes through this xipho unit, and that's the xipho unit has got a copper pipe that coils around and around and around the waste pipe. So when the hot water's coming through this drain, you've got cold water feeding the mixer that's going through this copper pipe, and the warm water is heating up this cold water that's going to your mixer, right? So that uses less energy to temper your water going into your shower.
SPEAKER_03So it's energy transfer through the conduction of the the copper. Yes, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So it's like that they use that on wood fires and what are they around the chimney flu? What are they for like a flu jacket? Like a back boiler, yeah, uh wet back, yeah. That's that's the one.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, it's a I think it's got uh passive house certification to it as well.
SPEAKER_02That was my next question. I was gonna be like, is this something you can put in the PHP? Yeah, yeah, that'll be awesome.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so um I'll let you know how it goes. Yeah, I mean we've got a we've got a heat pump going in anyway, which you know doesn't use much energy at all anyway. But this is kind of just stepping it up a little bit more.
SPEAKER_00What make is that, Jesse? Your heat pump. Yeah, that's always a contentious one. Who are you going with?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think I think we're gonna go with the reclaim. Yeah, uh-huh. Yeah, good on you. That's a good product.
SPEAKER_00Well, I think there's uh at the uh currently, you know, we're recording this end of November 2021. There's some delays we're facing on heat pumps. I don't know about you guys.
SPEAKER_03Uh there's murmurs, but we haven't seen it. So we we tend to use we've got a very good relationship with Stebel Eltron. Um, we tend to use them quite a bit, and we haven't heard anything just yet. We just got a Stebel a few weeks ago and it was all sweet. So yeah. Uh Jesse, when you put indoors iphones, um, you don't have any installation photos by any chance. I do, yeah. Because it's awesome, yeah.
SPEAKER_01If we could get them up to uh the listeners, it's a European product, so their actual pipe sizes are like no good for here in Australia. So the plumbers were scratching their heads for a while and how the hell are we gonna hook this bloody drain up? But um, yeah, we managed to metric as well, aren't they? That's a bit strange, but okay. Yeah, the drain pipe. It was, yeah, obviously.
SPEAKER_03Oh, the drain, yeah, not the copper. Okay, sorry, yeah, right. Yep.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but anyway, they got it to work, so I can send some photos.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah. And this next one got me too. This I I love the idea of this. I don't know whether it's my spiritual side, but the circadian light system can automatically explain to people what that is.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so your circle rhythm, I don't want to touch on it too much because it's a bit of RD going on, and I'm trying to figure out exactly how good this thing's gonna be and whether we're gonna sort of introduce it into our homes. But um, so your circadian rhythm um obviously goes off um the light um that you get during the day. So um at when when the blue light depletes at night, you want to um that will trigger your melatonin. So when you're using um lighting inside the house, the last thing you want to do is have lights on at night that's got that blue light in it. So you want to have that warm color light. So you can get all these um special lights these days. I it's it's generally a lot of um hospitals and hotels and stuff have started using this technology for a while now as sort of more of a commercial base. And we tried to introduce it into uh an apartment renovation we did a couple years ago, and it was quite expensive and it was quite I don't know, technical and a bit of mucking around. And I don't think the client didn't end up using it for what it was worth in the end. So I thought I wanted to try and do something similar, but just bring it bring the the scale of it right down and just make it simple for domestic. So so we've yeah, we've we've got a few things that we're experimenting with, and it's gonna be like a smart system so that in the morning the lights will come on and the the colour temperature of the lights will change throughout the day. So then at night time there'll be no blue left in the light, and then that will trigger melatonin's more for like the uh for your like your living air at night and you're definitely in your bedroom. So hopefully you can yeah, make the kids go to sleep earlier. So yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03So you're gonna tell us which one you're using, or are you gonna keep that card close to your chest? I'll I'll keep it close to my chest for now until I figure out we're we're using one at the moment as well. We're experimenting with uh Phillips Hue.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, that's uh it's too expensive, I think. So you put 80 of those globes in your house, and yeah, it's pretty versatile though.
SPEAKER_03Like it, you know, when it comes to a system like this with smart wiring uh capabilities, I don't I don't think it's that expensive. Um, but everyone has their own opinions, I guess.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you expect it would be one of those one percenters, you know, like you know, don't take your phone in your room at night. And some people would be more sensitive to it than others, but I think people are more and more prioritizing the health in their home, you know. This this whole industry that's emerged, you know, building biology and all the rest, you know, it's all about uh getting rid of toxins in the home and you know, toxins from light, toxins from from the air, toxins from everything. 100%, yeah. Yeah, I'm uh I'm into it. I mean, if you could do, I mean, because how much time especially raising kids in a home, and especially you know, for those people that potentially have kids that are like me, a bit like towards H A D H D or whatever it is. Um, yeah, maybe maybe it would have maybe it would have helped me sleep better at night. Oh well.
SPEAKER_01My daughter doesn't sit still for a second, so we'll soon see if it works or not.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, too right. Yeah, it tells about this fresh water mineral pool.
SPEAKER_01I mean, it's it's just a swimming pool um with just the mineral-based um salts in it. So um right, yeah, it's it's just meant to be, I guess it's it's probably something I probably shouldn't explain because it's more coming from my wife's end. She knows more about it than me. Um, but we've gone, we've gone for some pretty cool Balinese tiles, which is called these Sukhabumi tiles. Suka Boomy. Suka Boomies, yeah. And they're they're a natural tile that are supposed to um offer you know some sort of um benefit to the water itself as well. So what what are they made out of? It's just a natural stone from Indonesia.
SPEAKER_00Oh, right, right. Wow. Did you ever did you ever see those tiles that juiced Bacca? I hope I'm saying his name right, um installed in uh Fed Square? No, uh like uh I think he was it was took uh some conic conductivity it had and sort of connected you with the earth. Really? It was uh yeah, it was fascinating, but we'll leave that for another time. I don't know enough about it.
SPEAKER_03So can you walk us through your stairs again? For those at home, you need to see this.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, this is stairs, uh one of me one of my favorite ticket items in the house. Oh my god, this is just Australian made too, which is good. So we got we got the they're called air stairs, we got it from Xlam, and so it's a a piece of CLT, so cross-laminated timber that's 300 mil thick, and it's probably uh I think it's probably four and a half meters long overall by a 900 um staircase wide, and uh yeah, CNC the um the rises and the treads out of it, and then comes on a tray truck already, a couple of holes in it with slings, and um yeah, pick it up with a crane and put it in. So we actually um routed out an LED strip in one side of it because we got like a 30 mil um cavity between the staircase and the the mass timber wall. Oh yeah, and yeah, just craned it in and just fit like a glove. It was bloody awesome.
SPEAKER_03So it looks absolutely sensational.
SPEAKER_01So it was like you know, usually you've got a stair void and a ladder going up and down for the you know, while the house is getting built throughout lockup stage. Well, this is like frame stage, stairs are in, so it was pretty sweet.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so I'm gonna be the pessimist that I always am. How do you go because it's CLT and it's a softwood, how do you go with the stairs? It's made from softwood.
SPEAKER_01What do you put on it? We're wrapping it with um some oak flooring over. Ah, so it's the side, it's the side of the staircase, which looks awesome, you know. The cross section, yeah, it looks yeah, yeah, it looks incredible. Yeah, and then underneath is exposed to, yeah.
SPEAKER_03I'd love to know if you could put like um a low VOC polyuretane, you know, like you have on a on the on the top of a bar, yeah. Something like that. I'm wondering if you could put something like that on it, but it'd be absolutely lethal if it got wet. Harden it a bit, you mean yeah, so you could walk on it, but there's no way you could get it wet, or you're ending up at the bottom in a heap.
SPEAKER_01Goodness, I wouldn't like that one, probably.
SPEAKER_03It's it's it seems like such a shame to cover up such beauty. Yeah, but you have to, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I had to, yeah. I mean, you still see the side of it and you still see underneath a bit, so yeah.
SPEAKER_03The junction of it where it meets your CLT wall panel. So do they join together? Do you or are they freestanding from one another?
SPEAKER_01The between the stairs and the and the um glue lamb wall panels, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, now they're completely separated. Yeah, there's a 30 mil void straight in between it.
SPEAKER_03There's a complete gap between the two, yeah. Yeah, right, okay. Yeah, it's hard to see from the picture, but it looks when you look at it in the picture, it looks incredible. Absolutely incredible.
SPEAKER_01We actually left one panel out um in the hallway that goes to our master bedroom because when we were building it, we're like, well, like it's just it's epic how high these panels are. We're like, as soon as we put this um panel in, it'll divide that into two sections. So we just said, you know what, we're gonna leave this panel out. So now we've got like this void which goes from floor to ceiling, eight meters high, like in our corridor to go to our master. So it was we just happened to wing it at the time, like it definitely wasn't a design bit of DNC there.
SPEAKER_00And that doesn't come compromise the structure at all. There's no engineering solution you need to provide for that.
SPEAKER_01No, no, because it was spanning the other way, so it was sweet. Ah, yes, yeah. So sorry, in your floor, yeah, in the floor, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh-huh. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Incredible. So, can you talk us through some claddings? Because again, yeah, like there's no you you didn't cheap out here at all.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so so north facing that's gonna cop, you know, all our weather, all our sun. We've just gone for like a a cement-based um cladding. Uh, it's uh it's actually from Portugal. I'm just trying to think of the uh I'll get back to the actual um product. I can't remember the name of that one. It's it's just like a polished concrete board with express joints, so it's pretty basic, pretty like clean, you know, just concrete seal it and it's um and it's pretty much low maintenance, really.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Uh and then we've got we've got some nice um looks actually a bit like the cement bear stone.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's pretty much the same stuff, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh Verrock. I think it is. Verrock.
SPEAKER_00Um, do you choose that one over like the bear stone that's quite available?
SPEAKER_01Well, you know, the the bare stone I've used before, which is awesome. Um, but they've decided that the darker shade you go, the more they're gonna charge her. You're right. So really, yeah, yeah. So and we wanted the darker shade, and the price is just ridiculous. So I'm like, you know what, we'll we'll see what else is out there. And this is yeah, this other product we found's, yeah, it's pretty, pretty nice looking. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Is that available in Australia, Jesse, or did you purposely import it?
SPEAKER_01It is, yeah, yeah. It's it's stocked up in Queensland, so we have to wait for it to come down. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Who's who did all the research for you know all these products? Because you you've you know you did some legwork.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean some late nights on Google. I just love looking at new new products, and um, if I've got the opportunity to have have a go, you know, for sure. So I mean, there's there's so many that we looked at, and you know, there's a few that we changed our mind on. Like we've got um we've got some copper going um on our garage roof, which go we've got like the kids' rumpus room, which is on our top of our garage roof, and the the green roof goes around it, and we've got the copper cladding on that. And that wasn't supposed to be copper, that was going to be core 10 cladding. And we um one of my um best mates, he does um metal cladding, all the um all the nice fancy claddings, and he said, you know, I I've never done copper before. If you if you get copper, I'll do it for you. So I'm like, all right, sweet. Yeah, yeah. So we installed it freebie.
SPEAKER_03When I saw that picture, I was like, What? That's like the most expensive wall in Australia.
SPEAKER_01I tell you what, I wish I bought it bloody three months earlier because it was right when the copper prices were because you know what copper's like with gold, you know, it goes up and down and stuff.
SPEAKER_03So I was just about to say it'd be cheaper to clad it in gold.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and unfortunately, I was waiting for it to drop again and drop again, and nah, it didn't, so I just had to buy. But anyway, I I lucked out and got the labor for free, so it was all right. So it looks absolutely out of this world, and it's it's finally changed. Yeah, it's finally changed, it's got that patina look to it now, and it's not quite green yet, but it's getting there, it's looking pretty cool now. It was it was so bloody bright when we first put it up.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what you're supposed to do. When I was in New York with similar standing scene cladding with copper, and wow, yeah.
SPEAKER_00You're supposed to wee on it, you we on it, and that takes off the that that shine.
SPEAKER_03That's a big water we on.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's a bit scaffold to do.
SPEAKER_01I'm not with a few guys up there to wee on it.
SPEAKER_03All right for for what it's worth, Jesse. It's like it's little details like that, little architectural features that absolutely put this project way above anything else. I gotta give it to you. It's it's everywhere you look, there's a feature and there's perfection everywhere. Like for me personally, as a builder, I look at that and I go, geez, this guy's got some gray hairs, but man, is there so much perfection in there?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, thanks, man.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, it's incredible.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we need a YouTube. This, yeah.
SPEAKER_03We we got we got it. Maybe we'll get um Jeremy up there to do a uh um a webinar.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, yeah, maybe when it's finished.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, man. AFA are gonna be knocking your door down to get that thing open.
unknownOh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03There's a couple of awards coming your way, too, I reckon, Jesse.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I hope so. Yeah, I haven't thought about that. We've got some we've got some um some some chard chip cladding as well. Um that's i love the chard cladding, looks awesome. Good. So which one did you go for?
SPEAKER_03Sugie or no?
SPEAKER_01What was that, sorry?
SPEAKER_03Which which one did you go for?
SPEAKER_01It's a Hurfords product. So yeah, I think uh I think yeah, they use uh spotted gum from Queensland chard. So it comes all pre-chard oiled, everything.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. So there's the Shugi Ban, and then there's the Vulcan as well that have their versions, but I didn't hear that one. What was the name again?
SPEAKER_01Oh, it's it's the Hurfords, it's just the wholesaler, so it is the Shugi Ban.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, oh it's the Shugi Ban, yeah, okay. Yeah, all right, yeah, yeah, it's an incredible product, but it it can be expensive. Yeah, yeah. There's a general team going here, isn't there, with money? I think we're in the wrong business, Simon. Yeah, I reckon so either that or really bad at it, and he's really good at it.
SPEAKER_01I've got a hole in my pocket now, I'll tell you.
SPEAKER_00Oh, you'll have the next couple of decades to to live in this beautiful, bloody comfortable home, it's gonna be. Unreal. And so you you just just to cap things off, we've we've just about covered it all, but this the list goes on. So we've got low VOC finishes. So have you used low VOC paint?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So we've used um we've used wattle, so they've got a really good range of low VOC. Uh and all our flooring um has got and it's been cured by an LED light, so it's got no VOC whatsoever.
SPEAKER_00And all cured, sorry, sorry, it's been cured by an LED light.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. So um so it's your your typical finishes have always got a bit of solvent in it to make it cure, right? So um their product, um, it's a it's a I'm pretty sure it's a a German-based product. Um it it gets applied, um, like brushed on, brush, brush off sort of effect, and then goes through uh a special LED light that's got a certain frequency, and that cures the product instantly. So it comes out and it's ready to go. Yeah. So it's it's and they do that on site. No, they do that in the factory. So yeah. So wow, so all all the like it's an engineered board that we've gone for, which is um sustainably sourced, and you you know, you go and select what finish. So we had ours um wire brushed as much as we could to try and give it as much feature as we could, and then um it's called a ghost finish, which is like a double, double invincible finish, so it's got that still that nice raw timber look to it, yeah. And then yeah, it just goes through a conveyor belt with the LED light and instantly gets cured. That's unreal.
SPEAKER_00So that's the engineered board from Oslec floor one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Wow, yeah, can you talk us through your fittings and fixtures as well? Because now uh there's so much going on here. I'm sure that you didn't go into the bondings and pick them up either.
SPEAKER_01Uh no. So yeah, we actually have gone uh we lashed out on these these guys, uh, which which you know we got surprised. We got them the other day. Bloody, bloody amazing. So we got the um concrete nation, so the concrete um basins and bath throughout the house, and they're um they're all um sustainably sourced and made up in Queensland. Um, you know, the the factory um is I don't think it's completely off-grid yet, but they're getting towards it. Um recycle everything. Um, yeah, it's just a beautiful product. And we've got gone for Sussex Tapware, which they're they're in the same situation. They recycle everything and they've got huge panels on there, they're almost um off-grid as well. Um, going for some brass tapware. And uh, yeah, both of those guys have been awesome to deal with.
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah, that it's so good to see companies, you know, these big companies taking responsibility and moving in the right direction, you know, yeah, being truly sustainable and putting their money where their mouth is. Yeah, I mean we're gonna have to this is gonna be there's gonna be a hell of a lot of show notes, Brian, in this one. We've got to link to all these companies because they are highly credible, and I mean uh it's a testament to Jesse's home. Um obviously a huge, huge, just huge.
SPEAKER_03I have one other question here, um, and then you can kick me off. Uh your front door, what's going on there, Matt?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, she's a monster, isn't it? Oh we um yeah, um, I think with Bink that you know we sort of went through our um window sketch window and door schedule. Um, and we got to the the front door and um and it wasn't as big as our actual door schedule on our drawings. And I'm like, Well, what's going on here? And he's like, Well, I don't think we can make it work to to meet passive house standards. I'm like, well, like give it a go. I reckon you can do it. And he's like, All right, we'll put it put an extra hinge on it, and we'll we'll max it out. And he's like, Yeah, all right, we'll we'll give it a go. And we did it, and yeah, it passed the blower door test, and it's a bloody monster at the door. It's all it's all black butt ship lab. Um, so they just provided that the door itself and the rails, and then yeah, we um we insulated it, and then we got the vapor permeable membrane. We're gonna wrap the outside and then clad the outside of it.
SPEAKER_03So there's there's one other thing on this project, right? And I'm I'm gonna say it at the risk of getting in trouble, but I got a bit of a stiffy when I saw this. Yeah, your garage doors have to be the sexiest I've ever seen.
SPEAKER_01Oh mate, they were a mission, I tell you. So what are they clad with? Oh my god, they're they're raw black butt, just ship black raw black buttons. So I'm a I'm a black butt fan. Like my last house, black butt, this house. I'll just love it. It's awesome. So yeah, and that's you know, all the all the raw black butt on the house, most of it's all south facing, so yeah, I won't have to get up there and bloody oil it every year.
SPEAKER_03So I want those details. I got a project where I have to do that. So for everybody out there listening, it's two garage doors that are clad in timber and they close onto a timber clad wall, and it's seamless. It is absolutely incredible to watch this. He's got a video. You gotta share that video, man. Put it on the builders to clay Instagram, will you? It's it's just uh yeah, it's like when it comes to building, it there's not much shit that's on in building that's sexy, but that's sexy. It gets me going.
SPEAKER_00I've got to agree, Brian. Well, Jess, yeah, yeah, this home it's epic. I cannot wait to visit it. We must do an excursion. Founding members, open it for us. When when's it gonna be finished? When what when's the the date of open completion?
SPEAKER_01I don't have a date it's gonna be finished because it's gonna be next year, but uh, I'm gonna get in this year. Yes, we'll be living empty, and then we'll be I'll be chipping away on the the one percenters for who knows, probably another six months afterwards. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Builders never finish their homes. It's the old no story.
SPEAKER_03Can I ask what was your blow order result, Jesse? Uh 0.36, we got fucking show off. Yeah, I was that complexity of a build. That's uh I was shocked myself, Brian.
SPEAKER_01I was like, I was actually nervous because of all the gaps in the HBE panels. That's what I was like, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03That like that is that's incredible for the complexity of that build, and everybody that's listening, you you don't know you haven't seen it, but when you see the pictures of this thing, that is an incredible feat in itself. Well done, that's incredible, well done. Yeah, that's tight. Jeez, yeah, that is tight.
SPEAKER_01All right, Jims. All right, guys. Well, thanks for having me, boys. Appreciate it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it was an absolute pleasure. We need more guys like you here.
SPEAKER_00Awesome, Jess. Yes, we need more more builders building these epic homes. So thank you, Jess. Thank you, Brian, again. We'll see you all on the next Sustainable Builders Yak podcast.
SPEAKER_01Over an hour. Thanks, Alan. Cheers, guys.