Design & build: Through a glass, lightly

The Block NZ 2012 winner Ben Crawford and his girlfriend Kylie are building their dream home. Share their proud moments and pitfalls here every week.

During one of our first visits to the section, Kylie and I mapped out the house's footprint in the overgrowth, trying to figure out whether the multi-pod lay-out we'd designed would fit. Luckily it did. We put in our offer and the rest, as they say, is history.

While marking out where our en suite would eventually be, I looked into the bush and thought "wouldn't it be amazing to shower among these trees every morning?" I never let go of that thought and Kylie has embraced it too, so much so that in the building consent plans we submitted to council, one entire wall of our shower will be full-height glass.

Ben with a selection of glass samples at Rylock Albany. Photo /Ben Crawford

Creating this seamless connection to the outdoors by using massive windows and doors is key to our design philosophy. We'll execute this theme throughout the house, so our selection of joinery and glass is incredibly important. We have already locked in our high-performance aluminum joinery from Fletcher Window and Door Systems, but deciding on the glass we want to go with it has proved to be a tough nut to crack.

I guess now is the appropriate time to apologise to anyone who has been freaked out by a couple of nosey parkers staring into their house. That was us.

We spent weeks looking at homes across Auckland, scoping out our preferred glass colour, but even after all that field research, we still couldn't make up our minds. We also knew there's a lot more to glass than its tint, so we headed back to the Rylock showroom in Albany to seek advice once again from owner Peter Bilcich.

Watch episode 6 of Ben & Kylie's Brand New Build here:

Apart from knowing that we wanted double-glazing throughout, Bilcich had a blank canvass to recommend the most appropriate glass options. His first questions related to privacy and the amount of direct sunlight we'd be receiving through each window. Because of our bush setting, we're particularly private, which also means we're not swamped with direct sunlight, either.

Bilcich immediately cautioned us against selecting a dark tint as it could make our outlook unnecessarily dull when we don't have to shield ourselves from neighbours or glaring sunlight and reflections. He then pulled out a case of glass samples from his supplier Viridian Glass for us to look through.

We liked some of the blue/green options but were worried about them dating or how well they would complement our dark joinery, cedar cladding and bush setting. After a lot of discussion and deliberation, Kylie and I settled on a clear glass. Which sounds kind of boring, but once double-glazed, a very slight tint is created, adding interest without going overboard.

Kylie testing out the Planitherm glass. Photo /Ben Crawford

With one decision made, Bilcich then explained that a common assumption was that all double-glazing is equally efficient. We quickly learned this isn't the case. More than a quarter of a home's warmth escapes through its windows and doors so the glass is the most important element in optimising the energy efficiency of these openings.

Because our house will have huge expanses of glass, we pricked up our ears at this information, surprised by the volume of heat that can be lost. So if we made the wrong decision, we could loose all of the energy efficiency we are creating by building our house with Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs).

Bilcich recommended we use Viridian Glass' Planitherm technology. As he explained, Planitherm is a high performance, thermally insulating glass, also known as low-E glass. It has a transparent metallic coating on one side of the inner pane of a double-glazed unit. This coating reflects the heat generated inside your house back into the room instead of it escaping outside.

Kylie with a box of glass samples at Rylock Albany. Photo /Ben Crawford

To illustrate his point, Bilcich took us to a display of two types of glass set up over identical light bulbs. One was Planitherm and one wasn't. We placed our hands on top of the glass and the difference was immediately obvious. The Planitherm glass was cold, while the other one was particularly warm, indicating significant heat loss.

After feeling that first hand, our decision was a no-brainer. A clear Planitherm glass
all the way. And before we knew it, another integral piece to our dream home puzzle was in place.

• Find out more about Ben and Kylie's dream home at ourdreamhome.co.nz

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For more information on the Kiwibank First Home Buyer's Guide visit: kiwibank.co.nz and search for "first home".