Going green has become common place in the marketing world. From light bulbs, clothing, to homes and cars – companies are telling you how they have gone green. If you do a little research on the claims, you will quickly find out that a lot of people have entered the “green world” with no knowledge of actual sustainable practices or concepts. Green Washing is a problem, as it causes the consumer to be confused and some give up after using a product that is not really green.Green washing is a form of spin where the marketing department tweaks reality to show their companies aims and policies towards environmentally friendly policies. Be careful when taking green claims at face value. Recycled content may not be the most important factor if you are really looking for the green alternative, you may be more interested in the off-gassing. Local content may be more important than FSC certification. Durability of a product may be more important than renewable resource (how fast it can be produced). There are many factors when selecting green products for your home – the best solution is to consult an experienced green building professional that can help you understand the pros and cons. Look for someone that has a track record with successful green projects, has certifications such as LEED AP, EarthCraft, or Certified Green Professional. Ask questions about how many green projects have been done and what considerations were taken. For instance, there are some green projects that are mainly focused on indoor air quality, energy conservation, or local products alone. Your goals may be all of those factors or any number of other concerns.
If your home has a crawl space with plastic laying loosely on the floor and insulation above your head inside the floor joists – you are wasting energy, have poor indoor-air-quality, and could be growing mold.
In our mixed-humid climate, we should seal and condition our crawl spaces. There should not be insulation inside of the floor joist, but should be on the walls and on the floor if possible. There should be a small supply from your heating and cooling system to create positive pressure. These strategies reduce your annual energy use, protect your indoor-air-quality pushing moisture and radon out, and protects against critters getting into your home.
There seems to be a new kind of man cave popping up all around our area; the detached garage. It protects indoor air quality, offers flexible work space, and extra storage. The detached garage is making a comeback!
These structures used to be fairly standard in residential design, but fell in popularity to the attached garage for convenience. However, these attached garage structures are usually limited in size to maintain proportions to the rest of the home. They also are usually on the front of the home dominating the architecture – better purchase a nice garage door. The detached garage offers a place for a guest apartment, can vary in size and aesthetics, and is a place to store all those chemicals (paint, gas, oil) that you don’t want sneaking into your home. The detached garage can take on a form to compliment the home, look like a barn, or blend into the background.
Design is a subjective topic, a symphony frozen in time. Some clients want traditional details and others want modern clean lines. There is no universal solution, real beauty in any custom home design lies in the customization for a particular client’s needs, desires, and preferences.
A custom home design cannot be found in a magazine or a spec home, true beauty can only be found through a specific solution for the particular client, climate, site, time, and culture. A home can look great in a magazine, but on the particular site would be out-of-place. The best architecture is a result of the client’s sharing their ideas and the architect’s ability to transform those into a shape that is functional, efficient, proportional, and balanced. The beauty of a Custom Home Design, the one’s that are successful, are filled with details that have meaning, thought, and provoke an emotional response from the client.
We see it in sports all the time, if there is a weak link on the team, they cannot win the championship. It takes everyone operating at their top level and working together to achieve success and win it all. The same holds true in home construction. You have to build a complete and balanced team to actually get a green home.
There are many aspects that go into achieving your dream green home. It has to fit your budget, provide healthy indoor air, operate efficiently, be economical to build, and conserve water (just to name a few). The appropriate team depends on the complexity of the design. As I have written many times, just purchasing a plan from a magazine does not take into account the site, the climate, or locally available materials and expertise. A builder is not an expert at selecting materials that are the most efficient and affordable option to achieve your goal. Many times they will send you to a supply house to make your selections – this puts all the burden on you to determine the most economical and appropriate option. Unless you frequently build homes yourself, you should not be expected to know the best solutions.
If you don’t have a builder that understands efficient home construction, you will be paying someone to learn how to build efficiently. While it seems simple, just changing to advanced framing to be able to upgrade your insulation package, for instance, requires some understanding of all the impacts this change will have on other aspects of the home. If you don’t have an insulator that understand efficient insulation installation, you will undoubtedly pay more than you should for an insulation that does not perform as well as possible. If you hire an architect that does not understand specifications and building science, you will likely have a moisture problem in your conditioned attic. There are many considerations that need to be made. You should have a team that knows building science, design, construction, material selection, and installation.
NEST Rebuild, 2010
Don’t fall for the old trap of purchasing a plan that does not address the site, materials, your functional needs, or the climate. Don’t hire a builder that does not know and understand building science. Don’t allow installers to learn by their mistakes on your project. Don’t let a designer with little experience in efficient homes learn how to design your green home. Find a balanced team of experts and pay a little more up front if that is needed to get the best team; it will save you everyday with a job done right.
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We see it in sports all the time, if there is a weak link on the team, they cannot win the championship. It takes everyone operating at their top level and working together to achieve success and win it all. The same holds true in home construction. You have to build a complete and balanced team to actually get a green home.
If you don’t have a builder that understands efficient home construction, you will be paying someone to learn how to build efficiently. While it seems simple, just changing to advanced framing to be able to upgrade your insulation package, for instance, requires some understanding of all the impacts this change will have on other aspects of the home. If you don’t have an insulator that understand efficient insulation installation, you will undoubtedly pay more than you should for an insulation that does not perform as well as possible. If you hire an architect that does not understand specifications and building science, you will likely have a moisture problem in your conditioned attic. There are many considerations that need to be made. You should have a team that knows building science, design, construction, material selection, and installation. 