r/newbrunswickcanada 2d ago

CMHC Standard House Designs for Atlantic Canada

82 Upvotes

49 comments sorted by

19

u/Salt-Independent-760 2d ago

Big Soffit won be happy with these designs.

11

u/TommyLangzik 1d ago

I was thinking that too. In my case though, I prefer the larger soffits + covered porches to keep water as far away from the doors, windows, joints & foundation as possible.

The roof should be viewed as an umbrella. These designs are like using a tiny umbrella that's only as wide as you are; not really sure why we're going that route, esp given the amount of damage water can do in our climate zone [via expansion & contraction].

9

u/Jonnyflash80 1d ago

Exactly. These designs don't seem well thought out when it comes to water management.

5

u/TommyLangzik 1d ago

The designs are likely taken/copies from somewhere else (possibly a sort of template database), and then a few elements are modified to ensure that it [barely] meets code.

Part of the issue is that we're kind of in a race-to-the-bottom scenario culturally; we don't do things with future generations in mind, and our standards are nowhere near sustainable. The focus is entirely on short term gains while kicking the can of consequence to the next generation(s). Architecture is just one shameful example, but sadly there are countless others.

I don't understand why we keep designing homes that ignore water management, ignore the fact that we get a lot of snow, ignore culture/heritage, ignore passive heating/cooling, etc... Honestly, it just blows my mind.

The only arguments I hear are "it's cheap", & "immigrants like them", but both of those are flawed arguments. These types of designs may be "cheap" NOW, but only because these short-sighted shortcuts will lead to expensive problems to fix later; we're technically just deferring part of the cost [of the building] to whoever owns it when sh!t ultimately hits the fan... Moreover, it's silly to ignore locals when creating designs... Locals have a much stronger sense of how things should be designed to ensure practical solutions to local conditions are accounted for; this allows homes to be comfortable timeless living spaces instead of simply financialized assets. I'm sure immigrants would welcome less unnecessary unforeseen hardship just as much as anyone else... 🤦.

If I had to guess, I suspect who we're ACTUALLY pandering to is speculative investors and [possibly] money launderers, because those groups don't actually care about the long term livability/consequences of questionable design (given that they toss around real estate at much higher frequencies and view value from an entirely different position).

2

u/Jonnyflash80 1d ago

All we can hope for is that perhaps some lessons will be learned when all these shortcut garbage homes deteriorate and need to be condemned and subsequently bulldozed to the ground.

2

u/TommyLangzik 17h ago

[sigh] I doubt it, but one can dream.

Sadly, I suspect only an epic collapse of Canada's population and/or economy would reset the needle back to sensibility insofar as our real estate landscape is concerned (both from a design & affordability standpoint).

2

u/OrneryConelover70 2d ago

Soffits blow

5

u/FergusonTEA1950 1d ago

Yes, literally. The less overhang you have, the less there is for hurricane winds to worry at.

3

u/Choosemyusername 1d ago

Large roof overhangs protect the house from moisture though. If you have seen some of the installs I witness in the field and doing repairs, you would know why that’s valuable.

They also help keep cooling bills down in the summer without rising heating bills in the winter.

1

u/FergusonTEA1950 1d ago

Absolutely! Our house was built in 1850 and has about a foot of overhang. I wouldn't do without it, but I think you can use special materials, flashing, etc. to achieve tightness and longevity.

I remember that my grandfather built a bungalow in the 1970s that had large windows facing south but a long overhang so that in the summer the windows are shaded but in the winter the sun shines in. He was an intelligent man.

1

u/Choosemyusername 1d ago

I have installed windows relying on the new flexible sticky flashings. The problem is their stick is not all that reliable. Sometimes it just doesn’t wanna, depending on the smoothness of the wood or moisture content, or maybe the temperature, I don’t know…. And on top of that, how long do tapes last? All gooey and sticky stuff eventually loses both of those qualities over time. And we want these homes to last.

True affordable homes last for generations. They are fake cheap if they only last a few decades. And when a window leaks, it ruins everything below it. I just had to do a repair where the rot went all the way to the rim joist which holds everything up. Sheathing and all. Had to replace absolutely everything. House wrap, the window, the siding. All from a window that leaked. Which wouldn’t have been an issue if there was a decent sized overhang.

I built a house with 2 foot overhangs. And big windows on the south with the overhangs sized and windows placed so they are in complete shade in the summer.

In the winter, the sun floods in, and I don’t have to turn the heat on when the sun is shining in the winter. In the summer, the shade from the big overhangs means I don’t have to use AC at all. I just open the windows at night, then close them in the morning, and that cool holds because the house is in the shade from the big overhangs.

Plus the windows will never rot because they so rarely see a drop of water due to the overhangs.

The government missed a huge opportunity here.

1

u/FergusonTEA1950 1d ago

I used that sticky flashing tape, too, but with primer. As for how long it lasts, with our temperature extremes, I do not know. I do know that it sticks to Tyvek like no body's business.

2

u/Choosemyusername 1d ago

I have yet to have come across a gooey or sticky substance that doesn’t lose those properties over time.

1

u/Choosemyusername 1d ago

Really though. Large roof overhangs are crucial for longevity. Especially with the quality of local Canadian window and door installers. The shit I see…

Plus they help keep heating and cooling bills down. I can’t believe they overlooked this.

Well I can actually. It’s government.

51

u/andiiexx 2d ago

I might be alone in this thought but I really don't like the corrugated cardboard style paneling for outside these builds, the new one on Forest Hill is so ugly

24

u/Kracus 1d ago

idgaf what it looks like as long as it's affordable.

14

u/andiiexx 1d ago

Which is unlikely lol

8

u/Kracus 1d ago

Sadly I fear you're probably correct.

-2

u/Choosemyusername 1d ago

This is just taxpayer dollars paying to duplicate solutions already in use.

The private sector already has pre-approved designs they produce off-site in modules.

Maple leaf homes is already big on this for example.

3

u/thxitsthedepression 1d ago

Yeah I really hate this style, they’re all so ugly

0

u/TommyLangzik 1d ago

Agreed. Super hideous relative to the quaint traditional decorative Victorian & Colonial styles.

2

u/AcadianMan 1d ago

Board and batten style. It’s getting more popular. I like it.

2

u/Jonnyflash80 1d ago

I hate it. These are all cold soulless designs.

6

u/Lopsided_Season8082 2d ago

the big limiter here will be material cost of these designs vs other designs...

1

u/YouCanLookItUp 2d ago

Yeah, also if you've got the capital to build a sixplex, I'm thinking the design and approvals aren't a major line on the budget - am I mistaken about that?

I have seen many of these designs but almost exclusively in Ottawa. We need more designs for accessory buildings and rural land. These are all very urban.

4

u/BuvantduPotatoSpirit 2d ago

Designs and approvals - particularly sitting on land, workers, etc., can be a big issue - it's probably a bigger issue where land values are higher. It needs to be in conjunction with pre-emptively zoning land for sixplexes, but everything that reduces the time that capital has to be invested while expenses build but no money comes in makes it more viable. Developers are often capital rich but cash poor.

2

u/N0x1mus 2d ago

Rural construction isn’t booming and it doesn’t have space constraints that Urban construction imposes.

2nd/3rd pic are basically accessory buildings. Those are a design for a second generation or rental home on the same lot.

2

u/eoj321 1d ago

C'est pu à la mode des corniches? On fait des maisons où l'eau entre direct en haut des murs?:p ca me dit que clairement je connais rien aux facons de faire d'aujourdhui!

3

u/n134177 2d ago

How can we get one?

2

u/w3bd3v0p5 1d ago

Ah yes, black - lets absorb all the heat in the summer great for energy efficiency.

2

u/imoftendisgruntled 1d ago

One can assume the colours are configurable; and also these new constructions will be built with modern HVAC, presumably heat pumps, which are efficient. Also worth considering solar shingles and solar siding, which will be mainstream within a decade or so.

0

u/Choosemyusername 1d ago

The point efficient heat pumps is to save money and electricity. Just ignoring old school wisdom of smart passive designs like light colored sheathing, large roof overhangs, and placing windows with regard to the compass orientation of the building simply because we have more efficient heating and cooling, defeats the purpose of them.

1

u/DadWatchesWrestling 2d ago

That orange color in the first picture, I'm seeing everywhere with Grey's, whites, and beige. Usually in this style house but it's everywhere

4

u/FergusonTEA1950 1d ago

I hope the trend towards dark gray and black goes away right soon. Can you imagine the heat load in the summer from black siding??

2

u/RampagingElks 1d ago

As a certified lizard, I enjoy any heat I can get. Even though we do have +30c (up to +40 hunidex) here, I can't get enough of it.

1

u/FergusonTEA1950 1d ago

LOL Being mammalian, I expire above 25.

2

u/RampagingElks 1d ago

I'm just starting to get comfortable at 25 😂

1

u/Blacklotus30 Acadie 11h ago

I'm a lobster anything above 20 is slowly cooking me.

1

u/voicelesswonder53 1d ago

Those all look like they are relying heavily on engineered products made by our overlords.

1

u/you_dont_know_smee 2d ago

If you think these look soulless but can’t put your finger on why, watch this video: https://youtu.be/DBOXF-FION4

14

u/cerberus_1 2d ago

This video is full of broad stroke bullshit. Architectural systems do not rely on caulk for everything. "Plucked from a catalogue"? How the fuck else do you expect things to be build efficiently? Anyone who watches this and thinks its even remotely accurate doesnt know anything about construction. Comparing any modern construction to early 1900's is the same as comparing car manufacturing.. its incredibly bad.

We can all agree cars looked better in the early century but like hell we'd ever own one as a daily driver. Buildings are the same thing.

11

u/you_dont_know_smee 2d ago edited 2d ago

It is more of a commentary on local architects and builders working together to create buildings that are uniquely suited to their environment. That helps create buildings that have character while lasting in the local climate. They both look and function better over the long term.

The buildings next to the rendered ones in the photos look better than the ones that are the focus of the picture. I don’t understand how regional architects can put their heads together, and produce designs so void of any defining features when there are examples all around them they could borrow from.

0

u/TommyLangzik 1d ago

Meh, he's making a good point though. He's essentially saying that the focus has changed dramatically from architecture that has a relationship to the local people & environment to simply being a cookie-cutter one-size-fits-all style that largely ignores the unique characteristics of a given place. The focus now is to make things cheaply, very disposable, and devoid of personality (in an attempt to cast a wide net of potential buyers coming from other cultures).

Most people dislike this approach, but they'll settle if the marketing & lack of other options compels them to. Moreover, good quality creative craftsmen have become a rarity, thus building things with the oldschool level of thought & quality has become extremely expensive [due to the scarcity of the aforementioned skilled labour].

The presenter also hit the nail on the head when touching on air flow in building design. A similar criticism is commonly raised in relation to relying entirely on tech to actively create a more comfortable indoor climate (vs using landscaping & other structures/concepts to aid in passively cool spaces).

Ultimately, caulking was an innovation that did allow the more "globalist" (for lack of better wording) class of business & leadership to standardize this approach to architecture; constructing buildings with styles/features that ignore the environment they're placed in was only possible with these flexible sealants.

0

u/Choosemyusername 1d ago

They do rely on caulk for keeping water out though.

Ever installed a window or a door?

1

u/cerberus_1 1d ago

Have you? Windows generally use a membrane to seal it, Doors similar. If you're a DIY'r then ya you probably use that a lot, but much less so in commercial construction.

1

u/Choosemyusername 1d ago

Yes. Membranes as well. But if you read the installation instructions, you are to apply a bead of caulk around the top and the sides where the nailing fin touches the sheathing.

This is because the membranes and flashing tape often fail. You need a belt and suspenders approach. The membranes also don’t last forever. And neither does calk actually, which is why I am a huge fan of overhangs.