AN ADDITION ON the west side of the Weybridge house required installation of a new steel-frame staircase, above, lit by a masterfully installed “bent window” (pic below) that follows the wall up above the roofline.
Independent photo/John S. McCright

WEYBRIDGE — When it comes to the details, Silver Maple Construction has a lot of experience getting them right.

The New Haven company runs its own custom woodshop that creates custom cabinetry and woodworking elements that combines artistry and craftsmanship. The results are reflected in the home building and renovation projects that they undertake.

Co-owner Sean Flynn and his crew are also committed to the newest technologies that result in homes that are not just beautiful but also energy-efficient.

Recently Silver Maple finished a very big renovation of a home in Weybridge that touched on all of its strengths. There were lots of custom elements that looked beautiful and many green elements that made the place much more energy efficient. The old heating system made way for a by-today’s-standards conventional heat pump, plus geothermal and solar power.

“It was a 1986 fixer-upper,” Flynn explained. “It was a typical drafty 1980s house, now it costs next to nothing to heat it.”

A key element of that improved energy efficiency is the insulation.

“We spent a lot of years trying to figure out the perfect insulation,” Flynn explained.

What they landed on for the Weybridge house is cork.

Cork is not only a natural, sustainable product, but also an effective insulator. It also resists moisture, rot and pests.

“And cork insulation is carbon negative,” Flynn said.

It’s also what Flynn called “vapor open,” meaning it lets vapor into and out so the house can breathe. This helps prevent moisture build up and the growth of mold.

“We were for a long time making houses tighter and tighter with spray foam,” Flynn said. But they came to realize that “there is not a house that we don’t introduce leaks into.” So it ended up that some parts of the house had vapor coming in, but where the vapor could not leave there was a chance for mold to grow.

THE BENT WINDOW
Independent photo/John S. McCright

And the movement of vapor did not mean that heat could move in and out.

“It’s the same R-value (as fiberglass insulation),” Flynn said. And a good value, he added.

Silver Maple complemented the cork insulation with wood fiber insulation, which comes in rolls like typical fiberglass, and fits tightly between studs in a wall or attic.

To do such extensive insulation installation required a major commitment.

“We gutted it to the studs,” Flynn said.

But starting with such an extreme makeover also gave them a chance to transform the home in other ways.

NEW ELEMENTS

The design for the rehab was collaboration between Silver Maple and Joan Heaton Architects of Bristol. The transformation was pretty substantial. Standing out front, you can see that they added a two-car garage and increased the floorspace in a big way — it went from 3,000 to 5,500 square feet.

Within that larger footprint many things were moved around or added.

The builders transformed the entry way, changing the orientation of the main stairway and opening up the space through to the kitchen in back. This gave the Silver Maple woodshop the job of creating a beautiful wooden staircase that includes the beauty of wood but doesn’t look like a doughty, Victorian staircase. The vertical wooden strips on the wall under the stairs are not only attractive, but they feature a cleverly disguised entrance to the basement.

Opening up the foyer created the space for light to stream in from the big kitchen windows, making the space more inviting and comfortable on a recent winter day.

Just off the foyer, the living room was given a  new fireplace with a glass door on the front that replaced the drafty, inefficient old fireplace.

Wandering around the back of the house, one can see another big change. One large dormer on the roof was traded for three smaller dormers that actually let more light into the house because there was more space for windows.

Off the end of the house it becomes clear where all the new square footage comes in. A two-story addition there provides space for a new master bedroom with an accompanying bath. Upstairs are his and hers home offices. An unused mechanicals room on the end of the old house was turned into a little sauna in the addition.

The second floor in the new space necessitated the installation of a second stairway. A beautiful piece of work with wooden treads, the risers could remain open since the steps where attached on the outside to the walls and on the inside to a steel frame that doubled as a railing.

SILVER MAPLE OPERATES its own woodshop that enables it to create beautiful wooden detail, like this
stairway railing, that are custom made for each project.
Independent photo/John S. McCright

“It was actually easier to build than the front stairs,” Flynn noted.

Tucked in below the stairs was a cat-fancier’s dream — a circular hole in the bottom of the wall that gives the homeowner’s cats access to a private space for their litterbox.

The new garage is under one of the new offices in the addition.

Outside in the back, the addition created a little niche that, when connected to the kitchen, was the perfect spot for a screened in porch.

One good element that came from the partnership with Joan Heaton was three stunning bent windows. Basically, the design calls for tall windows to stretch up a wall and then fold and continue up the metal roof. The result is airy, sun-filled rooms that invite the outside world inside the house — visually.

A key to the success of the windows is that they are all triple-pane Marvin windows that keep the cold out in the winter and the heat out in the summer. Plus, Silver Maple took care to make sure that the window casing was waterproof, like they would with a skylight.

As with other Silver Maple projects, Flynn and his crew did the plumbing and heating as well as the detailed work on the cabinetry. Some of the things like electrical and driveway construction was performed by subcontractors.

Sounds like a big job, doesn’t it.

The work took a little more than a year to complete — demolition work began just after Thanksgiving in 2023, and the family, who rented a home during reconstruction, moved into their “new” dream home shortly before Christmas 2024.

Flynn is happy to display the place and hopes to soon have photographs to show others the incredible design, craftsmanship and attention to detail that the Weybridge home boasts.

“It’s going to be a real show piece,” he said.