Green Building

Hello all!

I am excited to see so many 'green leafs' on the side of builder's trucks and trailers! I am excited to see each company making a name for themselves in green building. Remember back in 2006 when there was so much resistance to the change? Exciting to watch the change unfold before our eyes!

It is basic economics to see a company change with the times, to adjust their approach to meet the needs of customers, and that was part of the plan for change from the beginning. Regardless of the motivation, I am happy to see more houses being built that are energy efficient.

I am curious thou, if those that are now building 'green' understand that building green does not just mean that you are building an energy efficient home. It is much more than that. I remember being invited to a 'high performance' building group to discuss how we can make houses more efficient. It was neat at the time to share my research and discuss how to save a few buck here and there on energy costs, but even I was missing the boat.

I will give you an example of other areas that green building encompasses. Trees. Did you know that one big shade tree has the cooling effect of 20 window sized air conditioners? Or, did you know that it takes several acres of trees to filter out the air pollutants that a family of four puts out in just one day?

I hear people talk about Global warming, and I hear what they say about it. This blog post is not about global warming, but consider how much warmer a building site becomes once the trees are removed. As designers and builders, we try to compensate for the increased sun exposure by building larger overhangs to shade the house. This is common practice of someone savy in Passive Solar Design.

We have a project that just started that has a large, almost ancient Maple Tree that we are saving. It currently casts a nice shadow over where the house will sit. How will this tree, minus the leaves in the Winter time, hamper/compliment the passive solar design of the house? We will show you! Stay tuned for more information on that.

So, I ask again, do builders and people who now call themselves builders now understand fully what green building is?

Green building is much more than an energy efficient house...what about safe household cleaners? Even with a constant air exchange, if you store (not to mention use) deadly cleaning compounds in your super tight energy efficient home, you will no doubt start experiencing symptoms in your home that will make you ill. Can you imagine building a home that you trust someone to build, and then getting sick in that home because no one was aware that for every thing you do in a home, you have to expect something to happen in return.

Again, I am very happy to see so many companies stepping up to build green in our industry. Be careful though! It may not take a degree to build a house, but it does take a broad knowledge and vast experience to build a safe house that will take care of its owner...

The Puddingstone Cottage

Hello everyone!

I am excited to announce that we will be starting our next project on August 18th! This project will be built in Southwest Michigan and we will once again be filming this project for weekly web-i-sodes and also as part of a pilot for television that showcases underground homes.

The project's name is: The Puddingstone Cottage Project, and the house is a true flat terrain earth shelter, with full berms on three of the four sides of the house. This is a system that I have designed and is part of a series of homes that we are designing and building that feature an earth shelter design in one way or another.

The Puddingstone Cottage Project will use Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs) for all exterior walls and the retaining walls. There will be an entrance door and windows on the south facing wall of the house, which will be the only wall that does not have a full berm.

What is a Puddingstone? Is it possible to build a house from start to finish in just a few months? Can anyone install ICFs? Stay tuned to our videos and I will answer these questions and more each week...

I will post more information soon on this interesting and exciting project, stay tuned!

There are rumors going around that I am enrolled in a Masters Degree Program for Green Building...well, the rumors are true! I was accepted into the San Francisco Institute of Architecture earlier this year and have worked very efficiently to achieve one of my life goals. I will be finished with the program this week. What will I plan to do with my Masters of Science in Green Building Degree? For now, I will hang it on the wall.

The Masters Degree education has been a great compliment to my practical experience. I look forward to teaching soon and also to take my career to the next level..

More on the new project and degree coming soon.

All the best!

Adam