Page 46 - Green Builder Magazine May-June 2019 Issue

“ADUs are the

wave of the future

for our single-

family home
COURTESY OF STEVE SNYDER§JACKIE ELLEN neighborhoods.”

—Steve Snyder

An outdoor for more. The ADU, top rear, actually improves the backyard’s overall shape, helping transform the now-rounded region into a courtyard.
in addition to the blown-in foam insulation in the interior wall, for a total of he and Ellenz would have wanted to evoke the main house in their ADU design.
R-43. The walls are 12 inches thick, including the sheathing, drywall and siding. However, they also added a few extra flourishes to make the space special. For
■ There are solar panels on the roof. instance, they used plaster over wallboard with a Venetian finish.
■ Heat recovery ventilation brings fresh air into the super-tight building. The only regulatory barriers they encountered related to the challenges of
■ There are LED lights throughout the ADU. building an extra-small home—in this case, one that was a mere 800 square
Snyder’s biggest disappointment with the ADU is that despite all efforts feet. For example, Snyder and Ellenz were required to have at least a 36-inch-
to make it energy efficient and use passive solar heating, it requires more diameter floor in the shower and had to redo it since it wasn’t large enough
energy than anticipated. “I had it in my head that I wouldn’t have to heat the the first time. “Headroom at the stairs was also a challenge because we didn’t
place because it’s so well insulated, but that was naïve on my part,” he says. have adequate clearance, so we had to mess around with that,” Snyder says.
“It does require heat—not a lot, but it’s not something you can live in with just Another drag was the city’s required five-foot setback. “We had to move
body heat, cooking and a light bulb. the ADU five feet from the property line while the old garage was only a foot
“We had foam on the outside and we taped the seams,” Snyder adds. “On away,” Snyder notes. “In some ways it feels like wasted space, but it’s a lot
the inside, after we foamed it, we used gasketed drywall, so that was two more better than I thought it would be.”
layers of air sealing. [Yet] we still had a heck of a time getting it down to 0.6 Storage is a bit of an issue, and Snyder notes that they would probably want
air changes per hour (ACH). It’s hard to get Passivhaus air tightness numbers to increase the storage if the ADU was used on a more-formal basis such
on a small building because you’re amortizing door and window space over as a rental. “We didn’t really design it for storage,” he admits. The unit lacks
less building volume.” sufficient closet space, since the closet on the first floor is mostly occupied

A multi-purpose project
As they were building the ADU, Snyder and Ellenz imagined that it could serve
a variety of functions. They saw it as a place they could offer to friends or
acquaintances for a short or long-term stay. It’s also a possible source of
income, depending on the economy and whether they’d like to rent it out.
Aging-in-place was also a design consideration for Snyder and Ellenz. They
discussed the possibility that at some point as they get older one of them
might need assistance. They realized that they could offer the ADU as a living
space for someone in exchange for help.
Thus far, the structure has served as a part-time art studio, and a longer-
term but temporary home for family members. “We never thought about
Airbnb—that’s not interesting to me,” Snyder says. “If we had someone living
in the backyard it would have to be someone we’re comfortable with. Everybody COURTESY OF STEVE SNYDER§JACKIE ELLEN
who has stayed here is someone we’re pretty close to.”

Regulatory barriers and breakthroughs
Until December 2015, Portland required detached ADUs to match the primary Well blended. The kitchen, consisting of energy-efficient appliances and
house, which was just fine by Snyder. He says that even if it wasn’t required, lighting, transitions cleanly into the home’s central living area

44 GREEN BUILDER May/June 2019 www.greenbuildermedia.com

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