What is Green Construction?

What is Green, Anyway?

Sustainable construction is nothing mysterious. Its most important aspects are some of the same things that define a quality remodeling contractor.

Green, or sustainable, remodeling is more popular and more affordable than ever. Last year, for instance, a nationwide McGraw Hill study of builders and remodelers projected that 65 percent of remodeling projects will have a "green" element this year, with that number increasing to 77 percent in over the next three years.

The same study also found that the price tag is coming down: going green adds an average of just 7% in cost to a project, compared to 11% six years previously.

Part of the reason for this growth is that there's more widespread agreement on what makes a project truly sustainable. It turns out that you don't need organic concrete or a $40,000 solar electric roof array. The most important qualities of sustainable construction – those that offer the most positive environmental impact – are the same qualities most people look for in a new car: low maintenance and maximum efficiency.

Achieving this isn't brain surgery; instead, it's a matter of good, basic design and detailing. The areas that provide the biggest bang for the buck are design, materials choice, good management, durability, and the efficient use of water and energy.

• Thoughtful Design: A thoughtfully designed project uses the floor plan in a very efficient way, with elements such as cleverly designed spaces that serve multiple purposes. It's also efficient to heat and cool. For example South-facing glass helps reduce heating and lighting bills by bringing ample daylight and solar energy into the home.

• Wise Materials Choice: Seemingly every manufacturer wants to label its products as green, but look for third party verification from a reputable organization – GreenGuard, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), or ENERGY STAR, for example. Also consider maintenance; for instance a decking product that has to be refinished every year may use materials over time that are potentially harmful to the environment and require time, energy and dollars to maintain.

• Minimal Waste: In some parts of the country, 40% of landfill volume is from construction and demolition debris. Much of this can be avoided. A well-managed project minimizes the amount of waste sent to the landfill, and saves you money in the process.

• Long-Term Durability: This is a huge part of sustainability: a project that can stand for years without the need for rebuilding or repairing will use fewer resources over time. When it comes to durability, Job Number 1 is keeping water out of the structure. That's why, when doing exterior work on your home, we make sure our crews understand proper flashing details, use quality building wrap beneath the siding, carefully seal penetrations like plumbing vents, and inspect everything before installing the siding.

• Water Efficiency: Reducing water bills is easier than ever. For instance today's WaterSense rated plumbing fixtures are rated for water savings as well as performance. That means a quality low-flow showerhead can now deliver the same experience as the old full-flow models.

• Energy Efficiency: The most oft-cited benefit of green construction is the promise of energy savings (the equivalent of higher gas mileage). But while homes have gotten more efficient on paper, many aren't performing better than the average home built a decade ago.

The key to getting high performance is to hire a remodeling contractor who pays attention to detail. For instance, thicker insulation will only deliver its benefits if properly installed. The contractor has to make sure that there are no gaps in the insulation, that it fills the entire cavity and the surrounding structure is properly sealed against drafts.

None of these systems and strategies is very sexy, but good design and detailing have a big payoff: a home that's more efficient, more durable, and less costly to run. And of course it's also a more pleasant place to live.

Warm Regards,

Doug Abbott
Village Builders

This is an excerpt from a newsletter that is distributed to all former, current and future clients of Village Builders Inc.  If you would like to receive this newsletter feel free to email me at www.robabbott@villagebuilders.ca

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc

Renovating the green way

Practical Green

Green building and remodeling is certainly a hot topic these days. By improving an existing home rather than using resources to build a new one, we see remodeling as inherently green. Still, some remodelers who strive to reduce the environmental impact of their work struggle to communicate the practical value to homeowners.

The question is, does green remodeling really mean anything to you? Sure, you may recognize and perhaps even appreciate seeing the Energy Star label on windows and appliances, but what's the tangible benefit of recycled-content drywall or certified wood doors to your daily life ... and pocketbook?

As a professional remodeling contractor who is ready and able to respond to what our homebuyers want -- including making improvements that result in better energy efficiency and indoor air quality -- we also recognize that clients need to see how those efforts impact them personally.

To that end, we strive to communicate "green remodeling" options to our clients in a way that extends their interest in earth-friendliness to their remodeled home.

Hidden Gems. The bulk of a comprehensive green remodeling effort happens behind the finishes, making it tough to articulate its value. But instead of touting the R-value of the attic insulation or the solar heat gain coefficient of the windows, we talk about comfort: no more drafty feeling by windows and doors; no more temperature differences between floors or rooms; the ability to walk around in your bare feet. Those benefits seem to resonate far better than anything technical.

Easy Recycling. We want to encourage and help facilitate recycling household waste. So we increasingly plan for and provide convenient bins within a remodeled kitchen to make it easier to collect those items and get them to the curb and out of the landfill.

In that same vein, we have also installed handy compost bins in a new kitchen to collect vegetable clippings and other organic matter than can be added to a larger compost pile or collector outside and used to improve soil for a vegetable or flower garden -- allowing our clients to extend an interest in local produce and organic foods to their home lives.

Breathe Easier. Whenever possible and practical we utilize materials and methods that help save energy and boost indoor comfort. Green remodeling often includes the use of non-toxic paints, flooring, and other interior finishes -- as well as ventilation systems -- that improve the quality of the indoor air.

But because vent fans and semi-gloss paint aren't very sexy, we often explain the value in terms that respect allergies, respiratory problems, and other sensitivities that our clients might suffer ... and appreciate not having in their remodeled homes.

Into the Future: Monitors and Electric Cars. While certainly not mainstream, in-home computer programs that allow homeowners to see and adjust their use of energy and water are great visual reminders of green remodeling efforts.
Similarly, we've seen electric car chargers that run on the home's electrical service (or even solar energy) that can accommodate all-electric or hybrid cars, allowing homeowners to conveniently serve that investment in sustainable living.

It is easy for remodelers to get caught up in the details and technical specs of green remodeling; professional contractors understand that to be truly beneficial, those efforts have to relate to everyday life.

Warm Regards,

Doug Abbott
Village Builders

 This is an exert from a newsletter that is distributed to all former, current and future clients of Village Builders Inc. It is written by the President Doug Abbott. If you would like to receive this newsletter feel free to email me at www.robabbott@villagebuilders.ca

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

Tips to make your custom home environmentally friendly

Green building in the modern world

In today’s world everyone wants to be green or at least greener.
This usually means that making smarter decisions when you are building your custom home. The one thing that everyone needs to understand is that it costs money to go green. Green products are sold as a luxury item because they are not completely main stream yet. Here are some simple things that you can do when you’re having your house built that will help you go green and not blow the budget right out of the water.

• Start with insulation. The more insulation that you have installed into your new home the better the energy efficiency will be. Energy efficiency will help you limit your carbon footprint, lower the cost of operating your home and will help keep the value of your home over time. Adding insulation is not that costly compared to the entire budget for your home. Adding the right amount of insulation will pay for itself in energy savings in the long run. Insulation can be added to outside walls, attics, the under slab of concrete and the rim joist.

• Energy efficient heating. If you have access to natural gas then the best and most economical way to go greener is too install the highest efficiency furnace that is on the market. You can also do in-floor radiant heating which is a wonderful way to heat your home evenly. It’s a more pricey option but will save you a lot of money in the long run.
If you are in an area that doesn’t have gas available you have the option of doing Geothermal heating. This is by far the most efficient heating that you can have in a home, but it is also the most expensive. Geothermal heating is piping installed underground; it is full of a liquid compound that is circulated through the pipes. The liquid absorbs the heat or cold that is already in the ground, this is then circulated back to the house and it flows through the furnace. The furnace passes air over these lines; this is then circulated through the house with a conventional ducting system. The only electricity that is used in this system is used to run a pump that circulates the liquid and the fan that pushes the air around the house.

• Instant hot water. One plus if you do go for in-floor radiant heat is that it is run by a flash boiler. The flash boiler also will heat all the water in the house. What this does is allow a house to have on-demand hot water. Instead of a hot water tank being heated all the time until it is needed, a flash boiler instantly starts boiling water as soon as the tap is turned on. This reduces energy consumption lowering your electrical bills.
If you have geothermal heating then you have the bonus of having your water pre-heated by your furnace. The way it works is the lines that run from the ground into the furnace then run into a hot water tank. This hot water tank receives the well water or city water and raises the temperature of the water to 90 degrees. This is basically free hot water, the more air conditioning you use the more free hot water you receive.

• When you are picking your finishing’s an eye toward being green will cost you more money but it shouldn't be a budget buster. A little investigating will go a long way in telling you which companies are doing business in an environmentally responsibility way and producing a greener product.
For example; you can have your trim bought from companies that have their trim cut from a responsible forest plan. These plans insure that any trees that are removed are replaced with new saplings to take their place.
Your floor coverings are also a big way to stay environmentally friendly.  What your carpet is made from can also affect your health. Buying a natural fibre carpet will help reduce the chance that you or your family will be allergic to it. Hardwood flooring should be bought from a company that enforces an environmentally friendly position.
Even paint can be environmental choice. There are higher quality paints that are called Lovo which stands for Low Volatile Organic Compounds. This paint is made in an environmentally friendly way using mostly organic material and will not off gas in your home after it has dried.

These are some of the easier choices that you can make to stay green; most of them will not blow your budget. Some of the more expensive options will save you money well into the future and probably for the entire time that you own the home. They will also raise the value of resale for your home.

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

Insulated Concrete Forms the better way to build a wall!

Twenty years ago we started installing what are called ICF homes. ICF stands for Insulated Concrete Forms. The basic premise of these homes are that you assembly polystyrene blocks that fit together like Lego. Then you pour concrete down the middle of them and that forms your outer walls. What you end up with is 2.5 inch’s of foam on the inside and 2.5 inch’s of foam on the outside with a 6 inch concrete core. There are plastic webs that hold the foam block together and become your fastening points for all interior walls, drywall and anything that you want to hang like cabinets or pictures. This creates an ultra air tight house to the point were most people do not require air conditioners depending on how often you use the doors and windows.

If you heavily insulate the ceilings your heating/cooling costs will be miniscule.

Because ICF forms have a concrete core, the concrete does not allow wind chill's outside to affect the inside of the house. Your furnace does not have to work significantly harder to keep the house warm. The concrete core does not fluctuate in temperature as much as wood walls. A concrete wall with insulation on both sides only changes temperature a couple of degrees no matter if is winter or summer. Compare that to a conventional wood wall, when the temperature outside goes down the temperature in the wall drops with it and a windchill cools the wall down even more. The point of fibreglass insulation is to slow the air penetrating through the wall enough so that the furnace can warm it up to the desired temperature. An ICF wall does not allow any air to penetrate it, those the furnace is only warming the air that comes through the HRV.

Let's dispel some of the myths associated with ICF construction

• Myth 1: ICF restricts the design of your house to square boxes.
  Actually ICF can give you some advantages over conventional wood construction like cathedral ceilings with no collar ties.
  They can be installed in any shape or height of wall you require, angled walls to rounded walls.
• Myth 2: ICF is only used for basements.
  ICF makes for a wonderful basement that is dry and warm, but that isn't the limit to the product. You can build your whole house out of it, right up to the roof. You can build a three or four story house if you really want too. A house is more energy efficient if you do every floor.
• Myth 3: ICF limits your exterior finishing to stucco
  You can actually put anything you want on the outside of an ICF form, from wood or vinyl siding to brick or stone.

If you are like me and you are worried about the rapid rise of electricity, the ever rising cost of gas and oil, then an ICF house is for you.

If the extreme weather that seams to be the norm in North America is worrying you, then an ICF house is for you. ICF houses have been known to be the only house still standing in Hurricane zones, also ICF houses have been known to be the only house's left standing after tornadoes rip through the country side.

ICF houses are used to help meet the high standards in earthquake zones.

Insulated Concrete Forms are used in more then just residential construction. Here are some benefits to using ICF for houses and other projects.

• Used in Potato barns to keep the temperature within a fee degrees so that the potato's do not sprout in storage.
• They are used for high rise condo's that are trying to achieve maximum R value and comfort for the condo owners.
• Used on houses in high traffic area's to cut the noise to almost nothing.
• Used in area's with high winds to keep energy costs down because of high wind chill.
• Used in areas where there is a limited building window for the speed in which they can be constructed.
• Used in areas where people are worried about the noise from inside the house affecting people or animals outside the house.
• Used in areas were there are rodent and bug problems. With concrete and polystyrene foam there is no nutritional value for rodents or bugs to eat or live on. Plus with a concrete core no animal or rodent would ever be able to eat or borrow there way inside the house.
• With webs in ICF every 8” there are double the screw points in your interior or exterior walls.
• ICF construction does not require a vapour barrier, reducing costs and speeding up of construction.
• ICF houses have a longer life expectancy then wood walls. Even if a house has a fire or a flood, or loses it's roof in extreme weather the walls do not move and do not grow mold. Simply remove the drywall, clean up the mess and start building without changing the exterior walls.
• ICF are self extinguishing so they do not burn like wood walls, they will extinguish a fire and not feed it.
• ICF walls can be installed even if the house plans are drawn with wood walls, there is almost no change to your house plans.

If an ICF house or addition sounds like what you are looking for then please do not hesitate to call at 877-866-3202 or visit our website at villagebuilders.ca.

You can also email me at robabbott@villagebuilders.ca

Rob Abbott

Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

What does it mean to be green?

Here's a question I get asked all the time by everyone. What does it mean to be green?

In an era of buzz words, there is no bigger word that causes more debate in the construction industry then “Green”.

A little back ground for you, the construction industry has always had a section that considered itself green. It was just never called that, it was referred to as “best practice”. What you need to understand is when it comes to construction you have to pay the green to get the green.

The products and practices that create your green project usually cost more and take longer to install or build. But in the long run they save you money with energy efficiency and longevity.

Here are some factors that I as a builder look for to help clients to determine if the product is to be considered green:

• If the product claims to save energy, does it save enough energy to justify the extra cost. Because money spent on this item may restrict you from buying something later.
• Spend your money on your heating/cooling system. Its the biggest cost but has the biggest impact on your monthly bills and your “carbon footprint”. If your in a rural setting installing Geothermal ground source heat pumps instead of propane or oil is one way and if your in a urban setting installing a high efficiency natural gas furnace is another.
• Insulation, Insulation, insulation. When it comes to insulation there a million different options. Adding a little insulation to the walls or the attic above the standard 5 1/2 inchs of pink in the walls and ceilings will go a long way to reducing heating and cooling costs. Foaming around windows and doors, foaming of rim joist and insulating basement floors will help. But the amount of insulation should not exceed the potential return in energy efficiency.
• Your flooring should come from a recognized green supplier. Your flooring choices are an area where you have the choice of going with a greener products. But be careful that you don't get caught up in following trends, you need to investigate the product. Flooring from the big box stores might be cheaper but can come with a cost. Hardwood flooring can come from places that don’t re-plant trees. Some flooring products like bamboo can have chemicals in it like formaldehyde or finishes that off gas for a period of time after there installed. Wood products from Canada usually come from suppliers that are by law forced to re-plant forests or use other methods like selective cutting that have less impact on the wilderness.
• In a global world were products are shipped to our shores from all over the world, a simple thing to do is buy Canadian, even buying from the United States has left of an impact. Also safety standards are higher in North America with respect to what chemicals are used and how they are produced compared to places like China and other developing country’s.
• Water conservation. The picking of your plumbing fixtures as in shower heads and toilets can be a simple way to save on water and should not cost you to much more then the conventional ones.
• Hot water. From replacing your old hot water tank to installing tank-less hot water or water on demand, you can potentially save money over many years.
• Roofing, simple fact in today’s roofing is to stay away from asphalt shingles altogether. Asphalt shingles are made from petroleum and have a limited life cycle. Products such as steel roofing or composites that are made from environmentally friendly products are a better way to go for the environment and for longevity. A steel roof will last 50 yrs or more and is completely recyclable at the end of its life.
• Something most people don't think about when they are building or renovating is where there trim comes from. If you are installing wood trim a little research goes a long way in being green. Instead of going down to the local big box store look around for a trim supplier. The good ones will be green certified, to the point were they can tell you where the wood that made the trim came from. If the place it came from has been selectively cut or if it was clear cut and replanted. Also what they do with there wood waste? Do they use it to heat the buildings? Or do they compress it into wood pucks and sell it to gardeners.

If you are truly wanting to be green a well educated and well researched contractor can help you go along way to creating a wonderful space for you to live in and is easy on the planet.

For more help in this area give me a call at 866 877 3202 or robabbott@villagebuilders.ca

Rob Abbott

Operations Manager

Village Builders Inc.