Vancouver's Real Estate Market

[GLOW]

PH will save on energy costs over time and should have a better carbon footprint/greenhouse gas reduction.

it is a diff standard than LEED (prescriptive) and step code (performance based). PH is a higher standard than both.

like LEED, it focuses on a good building envelope first, to prevent air leakage and energy loss, and minimal mechanical complexity. to have a well done holistic home, that's usually the balance between building envelope vs mechanical system, but builders often cheap out on BE and try to make up on mechanical.

yes the perfect energy efficient home is a cube with zero articulation & zero building penetrations, which isn't realistic but the idea is to minimize thermal bridging and air leakage for heat loss.

builders need to know what they're doing for the proper details and to not compromise the building details during install, which is tested for air tightness, so if it fails it's because someone messed up and has to correct it.

[whitev70r]

Originally Posted by Euro7r

Maybe it's just me, what is up with these new builds having the dryer/washer not on the ground floor? Dryer/washers that shit breaks down easily these days, imagine having to lug that down to the ground floor if needing replacement.

I actually think that a W/D up in the floor where the bedrooms are makes a lot of day to day practical sense. I find myself having to go up 2 flights of stairs every time I do laundry cuz it's on the lowest level of my TH. As for repair or lugging it up if you need replacement, let the delivery guys or repair guys figure that out.

[Great68]

Originally Posted by Euro7r

Maybe it's just me, what is up with these new builds having the dryer/washer not on the ground floor? Dryer/washers that shit breaks down easily these days, imagine having to lug that down to the ground floor if needing replacement.

They make special hand trucks for this :P

Source: Worked a summer job delivering appliances for Coast Wholesale when I was 18, and humped appliances up narrow townhouse stairs more times than I can count
Ugh, flashbacks to contract jobs, pulling up 50 washer/dryer stacker up stairs like that in a day. Man was I in the best shape of my life though.

[Gerbs]

I ain't lugging the dryer and washer lol

[6thGear.]

Originally Posted by whitev70r

I actually think that a W/D up in the floor where the bedrooms are makes a lot of day to day practical sense. I find myself having to go up 2 flights of stairs every time I do laundry cuz it's on the lowest level of my TH. As for repair or lugging it up if you need replacement, let the delivery guys or repair guys figure that out.

Because convenience sells these days. We had a Richmond TH recently sell and buyers were asking how to relocate W/D from ground floor to 3rd floor.

[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by whitev70r

Anybody looked into a 'Passive' house? Friend just mentioned this concept, described it as energy efficient, maybe LEED standard for homes? The Tesla of homes.

I think they are usually custom or high end builds as it asks for beyond what the build code specs, and Vancouver's building code already sets the bar quite high.

Echo what someone said about no gas in the house, and also minimal ventilation fans as it's a source of waste heating/cooling. No gas because of the lack of ventilation fans as well as you have to have an exhaust for the gas.

Originally Posted by Euro7r

Maybe it's just me, what is up with these new builds having the dryer/washer not on the ground floor? Dryer/washers that shit breaks down easily these days, imagine having to lug that down to the ground floor if needing replacement.

Originally Posted by whitev70r

I actually think that a W/D up in the floor where the bedrooms are makes a lot of day to day practical sense. I find myself having to go up 2 flights of stairs every time I do laundry cuz it's on the lowest level of my TH. As for repair or lugging it up if you need replacement, let the delivery guys or repair guys figure that out.

What whitev70r said, makes a lot of sense compared to the older builds that have the W/D in the basement. Lugging your basket of clothes up and down 2 floors gets old real quick whereas you typically aren't the one hauling the W/D up and down. The delivery and haul away charge is well worth the price.

Our house has it on the main floor and it works for us because we can run the laundry during nap time for the kid. Otherwise I'd prefer it upstairs as well as typically all our clothes stay upstairs.

[Tapioca]

In our old townhouse, we had the laundry closet on the same floor as our bedrooms. It was convenient for sure, but I always had a nagging fear of a pipe bursting or a flood which would be a pain to clean up and remediate.

In our current mid 90s house, we have a dedicated laundry room in our basement, right next to our utility room. Lugging clothes up and down 2 flights of stairs is a bit of a hassle, but I also like being able to run laundry late at night with minimal noise in our bedrooms. Also, if the hoses burst or if there's a flood, the damage is minimized to our basement.

[Gumby]

I was gonna say what Tapioca said.

[Scotsman]

Originally Posted by Tapioca

It pretty much has all of the features that a millennial ish household would want, but I can also see people nitpicking various things because it's basically a 1100 sqft condo over 3 floors. I can see many new mothers not wanting kids' bedrooms on a separate floor, for example. I'm actually seeing more and more new apartment units with side by side laundry closets, so it's not as premium of a feature as it once was. Premium to me is a laundry set with a separate sink.

But ground oriented housing is where it's at, especially for dog owners and households with young kids.

Not only separate floor for the kids but look at those stairs. They look very nice but glass partition with no end posts...

Try to install baby gates on them when the kid starts crawling and toddling

[6thGear.]

Spoken like a new parent lol

[Matsuda]

Originally Posted by whitev70r

Anybody looked into a 'Passive' house? Friend just mentioned this concept, described it as energy efficient, maybe LEED standard for homes? The Tesla of homes.

when I got my house built, our house passed with a 0.34 ACH (max is 0.6 in Canada). It did so well that BC Hydro wanted to come check out the house. We got some money back too along with our builder.

We've noticed our hydro bills are much lower in the winter than the previous house

[Eff-1]

Originally Posted by Tapioca

It pretty much has all of the features that a millennial ish household would want, but I can also see people nitpicking various things because it's basically a 1100 sqft condo over 3 floors. I can see many new mothers not wanting kids' bedrooms on a separate floor, for example. I'm actually seeing more and more new apartment units with side by side laundry closets, so it's not as premium of a feature as it once was. Premium to me is a laundry set with a separate sink.

But ground oriented housing is where it's at, especially for dog owners and households with young kids.

That master bedroom closet is a joke! Ditto the master bathroom.

The buyer is paying for a "townhouse" but everyday will feel like living in a 1 bedroom shoebox.

-edit- I take it back, looking at the photos again, there are a lot more built-in storage solutions than the floor plan shows. It could be the kind of place you have to see in person to get a sense of how practical it truly is.

[Hehe]

Originally Posted by supafamous

I wouldn't call it the Tesla of homes since passive houses are usually well made....

I talked to the folks at Lanefab who do passive/low energy homes and to a friend of mine who had a passive house made. They cost a bit more to build (5-10% more assuming you're comparing a like to like quality builder) and are quieter homes due to how thick the walls have to be and are super energy efficient. Design styles can be more limiting as building for passive standards usually require a square box style home for the most part. My friend really likes his passive house - they compromised a bit with a vented dryer (hole in the wall) and I think they couldn't use gas inside the house - but otherwise it's worked out great for them.

It's very rare to find one for sale on the market - usually they are custom builds.

want to add a bit on passive house

I did some research into this when looking to build an off-grid cabin.

It costs more if you want to have it certified as "Net-zero" or "Passive" houses as there are some specific requirements. Nevertheless, unless you are looking to achieve that feat specifically, you could totally build a passive/netzero house (or darn close to it) while saving some money by not certifying as such.

The concept is quite simple... instead of wasting money on energy to heat/cool the home, you just spend the money first to build it as airtight as possible. They are usually extremely well-insulated by working with the materials from the start. You'd see many built with ICF (insulated concrete foam) or something like that where you have R20+ to begin with (vs. wood frame where it's R0 until you start adding insulation) to create a home that needs very little energy to heat/cool.

Then they go with something like geothermal heat pumps, solar panels, batteries, and rainwater collection to absolutely minimize their need for any resource at all. Many of the off-grid cabins that I visited are more or less passive homes as they are self-sufficient. Some of them did opt to not have heat pumps to minimize building cost, and they would have high-efficiency wood-burning stoves instead as the heat source.

[Euro7r]

Originally Posted by Tapioca

In our old townhouse, we had the laundry closet on the same floor as our bedrooms. It was convenient for sure, but I always had a nagging fear of a pipe bursting or a flood which would be a pain to clean up and remediate.

In our current mid 90s house, we have a dedicated laundry room in our basement, right next to our utility room. Lugging clothes up and down 2 flights of stairs is a bit of a hassle, but I also like being able to run laundry late at night with minimal noise in our bedrooms. Also, if the hoses burst or if there's a flood, the damage is minimized to our basement.

My exact thoughts. If shit goes south and floods, better to flood basement rather than like 2-3 floors. Also if your like 70-80 years old then I understand you want to avoid stairs.

[Great68]

I've worked on a dozen LEED projects over the years, a couple platinums (one Resi, one commercial), and a bunch of Golds in institutional buildings. Very popular over here on the island from 2008 through 2015.

Some of the requirements are absurd (like somehow trucking up wood from California is more eco-friendly just because it has an FSC certification) and the up front costs are up there and nowhere near worth it, and would likely take the life of the building to recoup. Not to mention maintenance and operation costs for the complex systems are through the roof.

It's just a big PR/marketing thing really. I absolutely hated working on those projects. Thank god the interest started to fade out. Later projects became what we call "LEED-like" which they incorporated some of the energy saving facets in their design with non of the actual certification BS.

My colleague is working on the new UVic Student Housing project, which is supposedly passive house. Should be interesting how that shakes out in the end.

[sdubfid]

I agree with great68 about the pr/marketing. I have spreadsheets of my utility costs and for places in the okanagan 5 bedroom homes built in the 70s average $81 per month for heating costs with natural gas. The summer months are $20 which would be for the hot water tank. So essentially heating would be $60 per month average. If anyone is doing this for cost savings I think the payoff time would be centuries, especially if your wife or kids leave the windows open.

[quasi]

Originally Posted by Great68

I've worked on a dozen LEED projects over the years, a couple platinums (one Resi, one commercial), and a bunch of Golds in institutional buildings. Very popular over here on the island from 2008 through 2015.

Some of the requirements are absurd (like somehow trucking up wood from California is more eco-friendly just because it has an FSC certification) and the up front costs are up there and nowhere near worth it, and would likely take the life of the building to recoup. Not to mention maintenance and operation costs for the complex systems are through the roof.

It's just a big PR/marketing thing really. I absolutely hated working on those projects. Thank god the interest started to fade out. Later projects became what we call "LEED-like" which they incorporated some of the energy saving facets in their design with non of the actual certification BS.

My colleague is working on the new UVic Student Housing project, which is supposedly passive house. Should be interesting how that shakes out in the end.

Can concur, LEED is nothing more than a points game trying to get high score and scores can be manipulated. We don't shy away from LEED projects but they are a bit more of a pain in the ass on the paperwork side.

[blkgsr]

LEED sucks

**I'm LEED AP (original version) fortunately haven't done it in years after i moved out of the office. the paper work is annoying

[GLOW]

that is why i say it's prescriptive, i'm not a fan of point chasing.
i've seen many LEED buildings where the mechanical systems are poorly designed, overly complicated, and flat out don't work - absolute nightmare

step code & PH is performance based, you model & test for air tightness.

if you think leed paperwork is annoying, try living building challenge

[Great68]

Yeah, ongoing maintenance costs for all that crazy LEED shit is a big issue too.

The resi project I worked on had all that "Living wall" and "Green roof" bullshit.

Do you think the stratas and residents wanted to pay to keep that shit maintained and alive? Nope. All of that was removed several years later.

[JDMDreams]

You know the craziest thing I've seen, washer and dryer in the fucking bedroom closet of an apartment. what if it leaks, I don't want to hear the sound of the washing machine in my bedroom.

What about solar roofs and Tesla power walls? I've always wondered if you can just slap a few panels on a roof and a power wall in the garage. I don't know if we have it here but I've heard that some places you can sell the extra electricity you generate back to the grid.

[Great68]

Actually, you can sell your solar power back to Hydro:

https://www.bchydro.com/work-with-us...-metering.html

[SumAznGuy]

Originally Posted by Great68

Actually, you can sell your solar power back to Hydro:

https://www.bchydro.com/work-with-us...-metering.html

Better question is do we get enough sun light to make it worth paying to get the solar panels installed.

I know you will need to clean them at least twice a year as the dirty and stuff will reduce their efficiency.

[lilaznviper]

i've seen some 1 br TH that have no bedroom closet, and washer and dryer in where the closet is suppose to be in their bed room, plus no door between bedroom and the rest of the house. only door is the front door and the washroom door.

[underscore]

iirc the things to watch with solar are the age of the roof (the panels have to come off to replace the shingles) and if the framing can handle the weight.