We regularly get great questions about how our passive homes feel. Here we address a great question about sound.
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Client defined design near North Bay
In 2021 we supplied our weathertight material package to a couple wishing to build a small passive home near North Bay, Ontario.
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Your Most Frequently Asked Questions!
Your FAQs Answered
Interested in building a super energy efficient new home that you love? Start here!
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EkoBuilt is looking to hire General Laborers
Our sustainable home building business continues to grow rapidly, and we need to add to our team.
We’re looking for a couple of general laborers to help on home construction projects in West Ottawa and the Ottawa Valley. Students are welcome to apply. Looking for responsible, motivated individuals.
If you’re interested or know someone who might be, please get in touch or share our details:
Paul Kealey, EkoBuilt
Toll-Free: (855) 890-1222 | Local: (613) 227-4663
E-mail: info@ekobuilt.com
New house build in Kazabazua
A modified version of EkoBuilt’s Primrose house plan is currently being built on Danford Lake near Kazabazua, about an hour north of Ottawa. This is a great illustration of the process that we find works the best with the great majority of homeowners: take on one of our 13 house plans and then modify or customize to best suit your needs.
This homeowner is working with us for the design and construction process, and will implement finishes themselves – another great example of the myriad of ways it’s possible to realize the build and finishing of a new home.
When to Include a Basement
We often get asked the question, can we have a basement? This project is a good example of when you can.
The inclusion of a basement in house design comes down to the property and its slope. Some properties will easily support a basement, as with this project, which is situated on natural sloped ground leading down to a lake. A walkout basement was cost-effective to include in this case.
Other properties may not easily support a basement and our demonstration home is a good example of this, being on a clay-based soil with a high water table. A basement in this case would be a bad idea so we instead installed a super-insulated slab on grade foundation over top of an elevated gravel pad. Basement design should always be dictated by the ground on which the home will be constructed.
The Primrose
The Primrose bungalow, on which this home in Kazabazua is based, encompasses just under 1,600 square feet of living space, and features 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.
Click to view full size images. You can also download the Primrose plans.
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- Primrose: floorplans
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- Primrose: elevations
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- Primrose: south elevation
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- Primrose: north elevation
Kazabazua Home’s Modified Plans
This project takes the Primrose plan as its basis, and introduces changes to best suit the lifestyle of the homeowners. The ground floor grew to 1,955 square feet and features the addition of a sunroom. The sloping ground on which the home is being built also supports the inclusion of a walkout basement, and the storage/mechanical room is situated on this lower level.
Click to view full size images.
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- Ground floor layout
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- Unfinished basement layout
Construction Gallery
Ottawa Infill House Project
One of the projects currently underway with EkoBuilt is an infill home in central Ottawa. This house is being built to Code Plus standard and is currently being insulated; drywall to start this week.
EkoBuilt’s Code Plus framework designs to the projected building code standard of 2030 when it’s estimated that minimum exterior wall insulation will be R32 (currently R22), and roof insulation will be a minimum of R50 (currently R32).
The house also has a 10 kW solar array attached to the Ontario Micro fit program. Watch for more updates this winter.
The EkoModel Home: What it Cost
The Trillium model used for the EkoModel Home has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.
We’re nearing the end of construction on the EkoModel Home, our demonstration passive house just west of Ottawa.
Note: for older blog posts with cost analyses in them, like this one, please be aware the pricing will no longer be applicable.
Having recently shared our revised approach and pricing for EkoBuilt’s passive house materials kits, we thought it made sense to share the final price tag for the EkoModel Home.
While many homeowners understand that estimating the cost per square foot of a new build is an exercise with a lot of contributing factors (site considerations, build complexity, grade of finishes chosen, etc.), certain numbers provide a common reference point.
A commonly heard figure is $200 per square foot for a custom home, when in reality some homes are done more affordably, while many others cost a good deal more.
The EkoModel Home, with 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, rings in at $194 per square foot, based on 2,509 interior square footage, or just $155 per square foot, based on 3,141 exterior square footage. In either case, these figures indicate a smart build that allows for quality construction and material at a more economical price point.
Of course, the story gets even more interesting when you understand how much you stand to save on annual energy costs with one of our passive house models.
We’ve provided a complete breakdown of costs for the EkoModel Home in a new 3-page document. This shows that you can build a PassiveHouse at the same price point or even below a standard custom build budget.
The Evolution of the Home
We believe strongly that any home built today should be designed for the 21st century – cost effective and sustainable. Our focus is on providing the most comfortable and sustainable home possible, and by ensuring that:
- the homeowner will be protected from rising energy prices
- interior materials contribute to healthy indoor air quality and comfort
- materials used have high renewable and recycled content, minimal manufacturing, and are locally sourced as much as possible
- construction waste is minimized and an appropriate recycling facilities are identified for responsible waste management
PassiveHouse and R2000: A comparison
The R2000 building standard has gained profile in recent years as an energy efficient approach to home building. The formalized program, which has seen thousands of building professionals trained and many R2000 homes constructed, resulted in a great deal of awareness across Canada.
At EkoBuilt, we believe that the PassiveHouse model is the superior choice for the 21st Century Home, and it matters to us that our customers understand how different the R2000 and PassiveHouse concepts are.
We’ve prepared a new page on our website comparing R2000 and PassiveHouse and invite you to read it if you’re considering a home building project or are wondering about the future for building codes and the energy efficiency of different home building methods. What better way to head into the future?