Method Homes Prefab Green Modular Homes

The foundation has been completed and forms stripped. We’ll be spraying the emulsion shortly and prepping the walls with drain mat to protect the house from water intrusion. After that and all drain lines around the footings have been installed we will begin back filling. Check back for updates on site work. It should be buttoning up a week or so prior to the home arriving.

The GluLam beams are now up on the Lake Whatcom cabin, cantilevering out from the building 3′ and up to 6′ in places. Here are some pics as the majority of the exterior walls are complete. We should have framing buttoned up by mid next week, with MEP (mechanical, electric, plumbing) coming in to start on their work.

Every wall in the Method Cabin has a different height. Balance Associates designed the Cabin to have a 1:12 rake or angle running through the entire cabin, across three modules and 38′. The great room wall is framed around 11′ tall with the back wall of the house around 8′. Here are some pictures of the walls on the Lake Whatcom project at the end of today, and one picture of the original Method Cabin up in Glacier, WA that shows the 1:12 rake that I am referring to. Look at where the wall meets the ceiling on the far wall.

Just as framing on the Lake Whatcom project kicks into full tilt boogie in the Method facility, the foundation walls are scheduled to be poured today. Here are some pics of the formed walls. Remember to click on small pics to enlarge, and double click for an even larger image.

Washington State Labor and Industries signed off on the floor framing on Tuesday and then yesterday the floor sheathing. Within a few hours the Warmboard sub floor was down and ready to except the wall framing. If you are not yet familiar with Warmboard, you can check them out at warmboard.com. Basically, Warmboard doubles as the structural subfloor and application for the radiant tubing. The main thing is since there is no thermal mass, such as concrete involved, the floor heats up much faster with more efficiency. There is a thin layer of aircraft grade aluminum on top, with grooves built in for the radiant tubing, which your

finish floor sits directly on top of.

The floor inspection has been scheduled for 11am tomorrow. So for today’s post check out the blocking that was added to the floor today per engineering. This was the last thing needed to be done to the floor prior inspection, and this extra detail is called out by the engineer to help with sheer as the mods get delivered and set into position. Also, I took a picture of the waste left over from the floor framing. The drops from most of the engineered lumber can be used for blocking in the ceiling. What can’t be used and must be recycled fit into a trash can. I will also include a picture of the OSI Green Series sub floor adhesive. It has WAY less VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds) and chemicals than your normal sub floor glues while still maintaining a high bonding level. Note the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) block that it is sitting on….some left over FSC framing material from our last project.

This Model 2 Method Cabin floor takes just over a day to frame. The rim is a double LVL with TJI floor joists hung down inside. Both the LVL and the TJI’s are engineered lumber. Once complete and set on the foundation, this floor will be a stronger floor diaphragm than your typical site built home. We secure the three modular floors together treating them as one, and will build these mods together until they are complete, which then we can pull them apart and move them off the shop floor. We will be installing Warmboard on Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning, pending framing inspection Monday morning. Click on any pictures below to enlarge.

Here are some photos of the steel rebar that the foundation crew will form the walls around. The two back walls double as foundation and retaining walls, hence the height. Once poured, these two walls will finish out at 9′ with the front two walls facing the view being flush with grade. This foundation is identical to a site built home style foundation. Because we are already framing in the factory at this point, there is no reason to rush through the foundation. These guys are good!

Being as this project is right in our own backyard, it should make it pretty easy to blog about. I get to be part of the site work and factory work daily on this project which should allow us to post pictures regularly. Be sure to check back frequently to check that we are staying on schedule….shooting for a late Sept. set on this one, with a late Oct. finish just in time for a local Built Green tour of homes. The footings were just poured yesterday. They are pretty significant due to 10′ tall basement walls that double as retaining walls being poured on top of them. This home sits on the hillside at a 45 degree angle, allowing us to open up two sides of the daylight basement to the view of the lake. Framing on this project will start Monday in the factory. Here are some pictures of the footings….they are beautiful.

We are excited to share that our next project will be for a local Seattle family, who will be using their new Method Cabin as a lake front vacation home just outside of Bellingham, WA on the shores of Lake Whatcom. They chose to go with a 1200 sf, two bedroom one bath Method Cabin, that will sit atop a site built daylight basement with an additional 1200 sf of unfinished space below. We are planning to certify this project through the new local Built Green 4 or 5 Star pilot program. Attached are some elevation drawings by our architect partner Balance Associates of this new project. Completion is scheduled for late Summer. We will continue to update the progress of this project.

Lake Whatcom Method Cabin model 2