Mountain Gable
Healthy green design
September/October 2004
By Natural Home magazine editorial staff
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A large gabled porch on the home’s west side provides protection from the setting summer sun. Its wood ceiling is the same as the interior and makes the transition from outside to inside seamless
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Natural Home is collaborating with Healthy Home Designs to offer home plans to our readers, enabling you to build a healthy, environmentally responsible home from the ground up. Healthy Home Designs has been providing detailed construction drawings for healthy and green homes since 1994. In each issue we’ll feature a different plan, created by an award-winning architect, available for purchase at NaturalHomePlans.com. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this plan supports natural building research.
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Because it was designed for the demanding climate of northern Idaho, energy efficiency and durability are hallmarks of this beautiful 2,525-square-foot home. With its passive solar design, Mountain Gable takes advantage of a southern exposure that fills each room with natural light. The floor plan is simple, compact, and exciting. Interior spaces can be adapted to meet changing family needs. The home office, open loft, multi-use bathing facilities, large porches, and separate garage create a home that’s spatially efficient, flexible, and healthy.
Twelve-inch-thick walls encase large double-hung windows that fill the open gable rooms with light, while the interior windows, open staircase, and open loft provide natural summer ventilation. The home features an entry porch that opens into a slate-tiled foyer, and the island kitchen features natural stone counters, a pantry, and a laundry room. The western porch off the kitchen and dining areas provides a protected outdoor room while blocking the western sun.
Mountain Gable was built using recycled timbers, wood ceilings, and trim; forged steel railings; and healthy finishes. The tinted gypsum plaster applied to interior walls eliminated the need for paint.
Exterior walls are constructed of Rastra (recycled foam) and insulating concrete forms (ICFs) made from 85 percent recycled material. This green building system combines efficient insulation with a high degree of thermal mass and sound protection. The exterior finish is cement stucco applied directly to the ICFs, and because it’s half the thickness of normal stucco, without reinforcing, this method also minimizes construction materials. Reused timbers protect the house from the demanding northern climate and support the gable porches and large overhangs.
The roof is made from structural insulated panels (SIPs), which have high thermal values and are now widely available using polystyrene and natural borate-based insect treatments. Additionally, the prefabricated roof system and the leave-in-place concrete wall forms decrease construction waste and on-site labor time.