It has been a long time since I registered our Twinsprings project for LEED. Seven years ago I contacted EnergyLogic about contracting with them to be the energy rater and certification liaison for LEED. We drew up a contract on February 27th, 2012. Now that we have finally passed our building permit inspection it is time to focus on what is left to do to pass our LEED inspection.
Unfortunately there are several areas that still need work. I can think of some big ones off the top of my head. And some on this list came from studying the LEED Project Checklist.
- All bathrooms must have paperless construction board around the bathtub/shower area. We need to remodel one bathroom to complete.
- The trombe wall needs to be reassembled.
- All windows need to be sealed to pass the air intrusion test but both of our skylights leak air.
- The mini-split air conditioner install needs to be completed and certified.
- The hot water pipes in the utility room need to be insulated.
- The LEED home user manual needs to be updated and conform to samples.
- All accountability forms need to be printed and signed, mostly by me.
- A diagram of the areas that were not altered by construction access has to be drawn.
- The durability checklist needs to be inspected following a quality checklist guide for each durability technique.
- The old part of the house needs an inspection by a level II certified infrared thermograph technician.
Our old bathroom will need a complete remodel including a new energy star exhaust fan. It will take at least a summer season to complete the trombe wall glass installation. I have a rebuild kit for the skylight vents that are leaking air. I may have to seal these vents to improve the leakage. The mini-split has been a splitting headache. It has a leak in the piping so it does not hold air pressure. I have not decided how to fix it. A repairman refused to work on the system because it was too old and not on a concrete pad.
I have plenty of insulation to take care of the hot water pipes I just have not made that task a priority. Winter is a good time to work on the manual. It is close to finished as the house is now close to being finished. The energy rater from Energy Logic reminded me of the need to designate protected areas at the site as well as completing the accountability forms, most of which I have been in charge of overseeing. I am less certain about how the durability checklist is completed and I have yet to find a Level II thermographer to analyze the insulation in the old part of the house.
The tasks still seem a bit overwhelming and that is after having followed the process now for seven years. This has been a huge project. I sure hope we reach the goal of certification in 2019.