Knowing how well Viega products work in the commercial sector, a British Columbian business owner decided that they’d also be a perfect fit for his new custom-built home.
Chris Ceraldi is CEO of AARC West Mechanical Insulation and installs commercial insulation. He said through the years he has insulated a lot of Viega products, particularly in places like high-rise hotels and hospitals, and knew of its quality.
“I was insulating all these things and hearing great things about Viega from my customers,” Ceraldi said. “I heard so much from my customers that I knew this was what I wanted for my home. If it’s good enough for commercial use, imagine how good it’s going to be in my home.”
Ceraldi and his wife have three adult children and two grandchildren, and decided instead of downsizing they wanted to build their retirement dream home and upsize instead. They crafted a home big enough to have the whole family come and stay.
They pulled out all the stops. Their home in British Columbia is more than 8,000 square feet and has been nominated for five Georgie Awards by the Provincial Homebuilders Association. Living on the West Coast, the weather is mostly mild but Ceraldi said they get a decent amount of rain, so the house has large covered-yet-open areas for family get- togethers and entertaining.
“This way we can live indoor/outdoor all year round,” he said. “We’re all about family and we get together with our family a lot.”
The home has a pool and pool house, an indoor golf simulator, a small green in the backyard, a large garage, wine cellar and more. Ceraldi laughed that they built the house to be “enticing so that people will not want to leave!”
In an effort to make the home as comfortable as possible, it’s outfitted with an intricate radiant system. There are air temperature sensors throughout the house and in the bathroom floors. A control system allows Ceraldi to monitor and adjust more than 20 zones throughout the house.
A high-efficiency boiler system was installed and everything is tied together to create the perfect temperatures throughout the house. Ceraldi can control it all at his fingertips through a home automation app, tweaking anything needed based on sensor readings.
All of the domestic water in the home is supplied via a Viega system, with ProPress bringing the line into the house. There are thousands of feet of Viega PureFlow PEX products, connected to multiple ManaBlocs, to provide the hot and cold water, and Viega Barrier tubing is also used in the radiant systems. The pool, hot tub and pool house are also plumbed with Viega.
Barry Hart, with Geo-Tech Geothermal Heating and Air Conditioning, created the heating system’s design and layout. It was the first time he’d used Viega and he said it went together well in Ceraldi’s home.
He talked about the thousands of feet of pipe needed for the radiant systems. For example, the house is plumbed so that even when the air conditioning is being run, the bathroom floors remain warm. He estimated more than 25,000 feet of piping was used for the house and cabana.
The Viega Design Team lent expertise to the project, and plumbers DJ McCullough from Reds Plumbing and Ken Good of Good Systems Mechanical helped with installation.
As to be expected, the Ceraldis’ home is well-insulated, and he made sure all of the Viega products received proper insulation to make them as energy efficient as possible.
“The floors are all done with radiant heat tubing. Those, plus all the other pipes in the house, are fully insulated to the standard,” he said. “We used Viega, and then insulated the tubing so things stay hot and the heat loss is minimal. That way the boiler has to work even less. I’ve seen some people use high-quality materials like Viega but then leave the tubing exposed in the mechanical room, which doesn’t help to maintain the temperature. I wanted it to be as efficient as possible.”
