Special Project:  Green Building Initiative

Introduction:

In the summer of 2007, while planning to build a new home for myself, I was invited to attend a meeting to explore the formation of a Green building committee for the Greater Columbia Homebuilders.  The builder heading up the meeting had discovered some new way of building, vastly more energy efficient, considerably more environmentally friendly, and generally a more superior product compared with standard building technology.  Well, I had been complaining about my power bills, and I was going to build a house this year, better check it out.  

Wow, what I learned that day, although not completely understood, was certainly eye opening.  Houses really could be built more efficiently, built to be more comfortable, and to consume considerably less energy, and in a way to help preserve the environment.  And most eye opening, it wasn't going to take a huge pile of money to be able to accomplish this task.  Even I might be able to afford it.

The Green building committee became Green Building Council of Greater Columbia, and through some strange set of circumstances, I became its chairman.  I decided to attempt the construction of my own "Green residence" and construction is currently underway.  I think this ongoing article will be chronicling both the construction of my home and the ongoing efforts of the council.

 Step 1:  Learning to be Green.

After endless hours of seminars, books, magazines, and working with my peers I am starting to get a handle on this green stuff.  As the Green council has progressed we've had green experts from all over the country come to us and show us all about green: what it is, how to do it, how not to do it, and more importantly why to do it.  I've learned about new ways to design and construct homes.  How to make the insulation work better, how to make them comfortable using far less energy, how to make them hold up to the elements better, and ways to use less of our precious resources to construct them, and operate them.  I've also learned that there are many shades of green, and no one way to go green.  Through the construction of my family's new home I'll be able to demonstrate the path that I'm taking to becoming green.  As a green convert I am occasionally viewed with some skepticism, the same kind that I had before I was exposed to this new kind of science.  I assure you that as you become exposed; you will see the benefits as rational common sense alternatives to standard construction techniques and practices, not some wild outlandish environmental scheme to separate you from your hard earned dollars "for the sake of the planet".  We have a cute term in our group for those who have seen the light of green building so to speak; we call ourselves "kool-aid drinkers", or "those that have tasted the green kool-aid."

Step 2: Choosing your path to Green.

If you want to become green you have to choose a path to follow.  There are many.  Some of the participants use Earthcraft, some go the way of SIPS ( wall panels made of osb or plywood around a foam shell.)  Some go the way of LEEDS, a current leader in commercial development.  For our group we wanted a path that was flexible enough to be rapidly learned by and integrated by local builders, and stringent enough to ensure the integrity of our program and constructed units.  After much investigation and deliberation we chose the program from the NAHB or National Association of Homebuilders.  We started by adopting the guidelines for the program and soon will switch over to the Green Building Standards, which will roll out in February at the national homebuilder convention.  Our program is dedicated to and requires compliance in the seven areas of green construction.  We use a point system to certify compliance, along with a rigorous inspection and onsite testing of the product including blower door testing to ensure sealing of the envelope as well as duct blaster and other testing.

The Seven areas of our program are outlined below:

1.  Lot Design, Preparation, and Development:

As Architects and designers know site analysis is crucial to good building design.  Where are the views, where does the sun come up and go down, where are the deciduous trees located, etc. Our program shows developers and builders how to properly choose and develop the site in a green manner, which enhances and protects the site and the neighboring environment.  At this stage we also select our green team that will help our endeavor become a success.  This team includes the designer, project manager, the energy rater, and specific subcontractors needed to make the project a success.  Goals are identified by the team and a written plan of action is devised that includes the mission, the goals and the tem member roles.  Did you know that trees removed from the site don't have to go to the landfill?  They can be ground into mulch that is used onsite for erosion control and landscaping needs.

2.  Resource efficiency:

Plans are implemented to reduce the quantity of materials needed to build a house and also how much waste is generated from its construction.  Steps are taken to ensure the durability of the structure and components.  Recycled and renewable content materials are identified and specified. Recycling plans are implemented for onsite waste and for construction demolition.  You'd be surprised to find out that sheetrock waste is a good soil additive.  Also the way a home is designed can have a huge effect on the amount of waste generated by its construction.  I have always been a believer in efficient use of framing materials, and have designed my homes accordingly for years.  Lumber comes in two-foot increments so your overall home dimensions at two-foot intervals promote more efficient construction.  Production builders use these techniques daily, along with pre-built trusses for roofs and floors, and also pre-framed wall panels.

3.  Energy Efficiency:

I like saving energy mostly because I like saving money.  It's good to know that I can get a more comfortable home and save a ton of money on energy costs at the same time.  This part of the program teaches builders to build homes, which are many times more efficient than they are now.  They are taught to properly seal the envelope, locate heating and air units inside the building envelope for maximum efficiency, and stop the energy from leaking into or out of your home.  Where you put the windows makes a difference.  The kind of windows makes a difference.  Did you know that insulation works vastly better when it's sealed inside a wall cavity.  Did you know how many places this doesn't happen in the everyday world when nobody thinks about it?  Did you know that when you turn on your HVAC some of the rooms become pressurized and the air leaks out of your can lights, unsealed outlets, and plumbing penetrations like under the sink and behind the tub.  Builders enlist the aid of a trained energy rater who can identify problem areas, and analyze the performance of the home on the site before construction even begins.  Through a detailed plan analysis with my HVAC supplier we were able to determine that my heating equipment could be resized from six tons to three tons for a savings of 50%.  I'll be able to afford the most energy efficient equipment available, because I'll only need half as much.  I can use some of that money to implement other areas of the program, like energy star appliances, or tankless water heating.

4.  Water Efficiency:  

Water is a precious resource.  These days, depending on where you live, it can be downright scarce and also rather expensive.  They charge you to get it and also to get rid of it (sewer fees).  There are ways to use less.  On demand water heaters, Energy Star appliances.  Better toilets that use less water.  You can design your landscape plan to consume less water.  You can make changes in your irrigation system to use less water.  Moisture meters that only allow watering when necessary, and drip irrigation instead of spray irrigation all are ways to save this precious resource.  Water can be collected through a gutter system in sisterns and reused for irrigation, and in some locals even used to flush the toilet.

5.      Indoor Environmental Quality: 

Studies show that we spend close to 80% of our time indoors.  That’s a lot!  What is inside your home with you is more important than ever.  In older homes, gases produced from objects and furnishings in the home could escape the home more easily.  Now, special care must be taken to enhance indoor air quality.  Green building  incorporates ways to address these potential problems.  Look for carpets and paints that don’t outgas harmful vapors into your home.  Look for other building materials and sealants that address this problem.  Green homes incorporate a mechanical fresh air induction system to provide the necessary ventilation that you and your family need to be safe.  All combustion devices are sealed and use air from the outside to operate.  New filtration systems have been devised that are much more efficient than what you may have now.

6.      Operation, Maintenance, and Homeowner Education:

A green home can better perform correctly when the homeowner understands and properly operates in harmony with the new home.  Customers can enhance the experience by learning to recycle trash.  They need to be educated on the operation and periodic maintenance schedules for the homes equipment and systems.  Air filters, keeping gutters clean, checking for termites, where to get those light bulbs, things like that.  Your builder should go to extra lengths to make sure you are educated to get the most out of your new home or remodel.

7.      Global Impact:

This can be addressed by using products and materials from companies that are ISO 14001 certified.  This means that they have taken the time and resources to create an environmental management system that conforms to the ISO 14001 standard.  Also points are awarded for those low or no VOC paints talked about earlier.

 

Getting started:

You’re still reading, and probably wondering,  “How do I get started?”  Well the first things you need besides a building site and some plans, which we’ll cover later, is a Green building team.  That consists of your builder, (get one already converted, or committed to learning the program, that’s essential), your home designer if you’ve got one, an energy rater, and your major subs and suppliers.  Your heating and air guy and your insulator are vital to this process so I would include them on the “team” also.  All of your suppliers will want to know that you are looking for green options for your material needs.  Things like energy star bath fans, appliances, lighting, and other energy star items.   Things like low formaldehyde building products, low VOC paints, sealants, and floor coverings.

Set up a meeting with your builder and other elements of the team, especially the rater.  What your rater will do is look over your plans and site drawings, and construct an energy model that analyzes the sun’s rays, and other climactic elements on your particular structure.  He will look at the window specs and their placement, along with porches, and overhangs, and wall structural components and calculate the exact energy needs of your structure in its proposed environment.  Then you and your rater can change options, like the amount of insulation, the kind, size and location of heating equipment, inclusion of solar devices (maybe), and develop a plan of attack for you to follow in constructing your green home.  He will also show other members of the team how to properly seal up the home for maximum energy efficiency.  Later on he will field inspect the product and perform various leakage tests to make sure that the home performs as planned.

How I went about it:

I'm in the process of building a green home, so I think it would be a good thing to fill you in on how my home is progressing.  I'll start at the beginning, with design and continue from there, filling in the blanks as I progress...

During this time I set about deciding on a design for the home. I had a nice home now, but I could use more garage space, and we could use a fourth bedroom for parents or visitors. Both our cars fit in the garage okay but not my small truck or the fishing boat, and those kids toys get in the way too. I wanted a classic efficient structure, with a large garage area, and settled on a square two story plan with parking underneath and attic storage above.  The Mrs. wanted a stairway to the attic so I don't have to go up the pull down stair for her every time, so we did that.  I do lots of houses with stairs to the attic for others.  I've done some elevators too, and since they are really quite reasonable these days I opted for one also.  It's good to get the groceries up from underneath and you never know how your knees and stuff are going to be when you get older.  I mean for those who want to stay in their home forever, I think it's a good investment.  And by making a more efficient footprint and plan it's really not that expensive a tradeoff at all.  So I've got 1700 sf on the main floor, a little more upstairs, and 1700 sf of parking storage underneath which is good for the boat, a tractor, some cars, etc. In my green classes I learned that sealing your insulation in a confined space makes it much more efficient.  It mostly works that way for walls anyway, but in my home the under the floor area had to be covered with fire-rated sheetrock anyway and as a bonus that seals up the insulation under there in a box.  Should really help me on the path to green.  During design I priced several ways to carry the loading.  Usually I use floor trusses and they work great.  Also they provide space to run the ductwork inside for basement levels. They are usually a little more expensive, and with the beam loading I was using it just wasn't working for me. Lumber is really cheap right now, while trusses are less so, and I wasn't finishing underneath, so I went with 2x10's, steel beams on the center spans, and laminated beams around the exterior.  I plan to run the ductwork on the inside of the joists and seal it up underneath with the sheetrock. My rater said it would be a fine idea and give me good numbers.

Main floor	Upper floor	Lower level parking

When designing a house it's a good idea to work on a 2' grid for the outer dimensions because that's how they sell the lumber.  Houses that are more rectangular without jogs in and out are usually more efficient in terms of floor plans, but usually you can't limit yourself that way all the time.  When you study the old classics they lend themselves to this efficient use of materials, so I thought that a good classic design would be a good start.  I was able to come up with a relatively efficient 44'x44' square box.  I needed a little less downstairs so I cut a 8x30 box out of the rear for a porch, and added another on the front for a classic look.  The roof worked out as a square hip with a large cupola for ventilation.  I went with 10' ceilings on the main level and 9' upstairs. If you are working with traditional shapes and design there is a great book by Steven Mouzon called Traditional Construction Patterns, that is sort of the bible in this area of traditional design.  It helps you with the shape of the dormers, column details and stuff like that.  Anyway, in the center of the home I placed the stairways and elevator and HVAC closets and around it the rooms. Looks like it's going to work well for my needs.  When placing the home on the site I originally was going to face the road, but that was the western exposure, a really bad place to put a lot of windows.  After thinking about my site a little more I found that by rotating the house to face north-south I got better views of the pond, the front of my home is approached by the driveway, and my garage doors are on the lowest elevation of the lot.  You can't do this on every lot I guess, but my HVAC man says I saved a lot of heating load by putting two windows on the western exposure instead of the eleven that I had on the front.

Since I'm stubborn and sometimes an idiot, I cleared my own building pad with my tractor.  Took a while, but I got it done.  If you are going to waste time building a house do it in the beginning, when the construction interest is low. (Actually I was lot clearing at the same time as designing, pricing, and getting my loan in order so it wasn't so bad.)  I found an area without large trees and placed my house there.  The smaller trees I cut down, stacked for firewood, not for me, but for some of my buds that have wood burning fireplaces.  All of the limbs went in a really huge pile, and later after a long search for a deal on a wood chipper were ground up for jobsite mulch.  Man that wood chipper is the ticket.  Takes stuff up to around 6" in diameter, and wood chips are great for a construction and site drainage issues.  I have a couple of large pine trees left to get but I found a guy that will cut down your lumber and pay you for it.  I don't think I have enough to go that way, but if I can cut it to the right length he will get it processed for me for free and it will go somewhere besides the landfill.  I had a place to pile up my stumps, and I know of a land fill that grinds up all that stuff and reprocesses it so if I can get them there they won't get buried either.

We dug and poured the foundation, and I had a friend in the demolition business that gave me a bunch of rebar from a bridge somewhere. Most of it was short lengths, which we also used to reinforce my block foundation walls.  Big heavy stuff, but it was good to get to use some recycled content material in my home, and even better to save some bucks in the process.  I had a real good bunch of masons, and they hooked me up with some great framers also.  While we were framing I thought about my attic floor sealing up the attic insulation like a box.  From before you will remember that is a good thing.  So I decided to upgrade my ceiling joists to 2x10s in the other places and top my attic off with 4x8 OSB which is quite reasonable right now.  Now all of my insulation top and bottom can be sealed up and my rater sure seems excited abut it. Man that guy gets excited about the weirdest stuff, must be the engineer in him.  Also where the stairs go up into the attic you also seal those areas up with something called thermo-ply.  The green builders also use it to seal up behind your factory fireplaces on an outside wall and also tub and shower units on an outside wall.  Less air infiltration.  In fact I happen to hook up with the product distributor for thermo-ply, and got enough to do the whole exterior of my house.  He even found me 10' sheets to match my 10' walls.  It holds up to drainage plain moisture better than regular OSB and eliminates the need for house wrap.  Not that I have anything against housewrap, or greenboard either, this is just another tool in the arsenal of the green builder.  Choices are good.   Keeps prices in check too.  We wrapped the window openings with that tape flashing.  I can't remember the brand names right now, but there's one that goes in before the window is installed, and one that goes over the outside of the window after.  This helps make sure that moisture doesn't get in around or in through joints in the windows.  The philosophy is that you try to keep the moisture out, but if it does get in you have to make a way for it to escape.  That's what the drainage plain is for. That's why housewrap is designed to let moisture vapor pass thru it. So it doesn't get trapped in the structure.  OK enough of the science stuff, you can get more of that from your rater.  One other thing, my attic turned out so nice everybody talked me into putting windows in my cupola.  I kept saying "it's an attc!" but in the end I relented.  They sure do look good though.

Framing over foundation	Framing	Attic windows

After framing was complete I had a little cleanup to do. Some of the wood scraps went through the chipper, and some of it went towards a little jobsite heat in an old barrel.  I was surprised at all of the cardboard generated by the packing of my Anderson windows and sliding doors.  All of that I packed on an old trailer and took to the county recycling station.  I had heard that they might not accept waste from contractors, but they did from me no problem.  You know they have a pickup point for almost any kind of trash you may have.  I saw bins for metal, wood, glass, plastic, old limbs, cardboard, even one for carpeting.  I was able to get rid of all my trash without going to the regular landfill and that was cool.  I don't know how things will be down the road but for now I'm doing okay.  I even set up some jobsite waste barrels that seem to be working.  I have one labeled "aluminum cans", another for plastic bottles, and one for regular garbage type stuff.  My crews have been using them.

Started on trim and siding.  I went with Hardiplank.  Super durable, made with concrete.  Real stable stuff and holds paint well they tell me.  You can get it prefinished, like my HVAC contractor did, but I went with the kind that you paint so I could pick the color later.  They also have trim to go with it called Miratec.  Got some poly classic columns that will last forever.  The round ones are a tad cheaper than the square so I went with that, and they look great.  I also decided on going off budget for a metal roof.  I wanted the barn tin look in a 5 v crimp pattern.  They make an energy star white painted version that's supposed to be the deal, but I was captivated by the unfinished shiny look.  My brother suggested a friend of his to be my roofer and I had to wait a while to get scheduled, but boy was it worth the wait.  I couldn't be more pleased with it.  We went with the galvalume type that has the aluminum in it so it lasts longer.  They even removed every piece of scrap from the site so I didn't even have to clean up after them.  Then my paint crew came by and we opted on a nice green color for the exterior.  I built a retaining wall out of keystone wall blocks in the front but these aren't regular keystones, these are recycled keystones!  My brother scored them for me from Kurt Busch the race car driver.  He was working in his shop in Charlotte, and took out an old keystone wall and replaced it with a concrete one.  They were going to send it to the landfill but my brother (who is the motorcoach driver by the way) got the guys to save them for me.  After I got some guys and a buddy with a truck and a trailer and some diesel fuel and one blown tire, I finally got 'em home.  Would have been a lot easier to just order new ones I guess, but these give me recycling points and a good story to tell about my house.  After a little pressure washing I think I can get the rest of that red mud off them.

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