Eco Construction Week — Recycla’s home

All this week, the Eco Women will be investigating eco construction in the U.S. and abroad. How hard or easy is it to build green? What are some of the materials and techniques available?

Part 1 of 5

Recycla and her family live in a college town in Virginia.  They recently broke ground on their dream home. This is something they have been planning for years and they still can’t believe it’s finally happening.

Recycla and her husband had three requirements for their home:

1. It had to be modern — they prefer sleek, edgy design — but also comfortable. After all, it will be a family home.
2. It had to be built on a reasonable budget. Anyone can build a house on an unlimited budget. It takes real creativity to build well while still sticking to a budget.
3. It had to be as green as they could manage, but not break the bank.  Surprisingly, this is turning out to be easier than they had thought it would be.

The house was designed specifically for its lot and the layout is based on the direction of the sun, so as to take advantage of passive solar heating.  Large windows face south, east, and west and the light should stream in during the cold months.  During the warm months, the roof overhang will partially protect the interior from direct light and therefore keep the house cooler.

Recycla and her husband considered solar power and water for their house, but ultimately did not choose it, as it was outside of their budget.  Maybe in the future…

For the construction of the house, they (okay, really it was Mr. Recycla) chose Superior Walls for the basement and structural insulated panels (SIP’s) for the first and second floors.  You can read about Superior Walls here and see the actual construction of the basement here.  In short, the resulting basement is solid, well-constructed, and very energy efficient.  For the SIP’s, Recycla doesn’t have any photos of the process to add here, as the walls won’t go up until next week.  Like the basement, the rest of the house should be solidly-built and energy efficient.

All of the joists and other structural beams are made from engineered woods that are produced from scraps and not old-growth forests.  The joists are constructed in such a way that they use less wood in general.  The house will have one steel structural beam, which will include some recycled metal.

Inside the house, the family is trying to be as green as they can.

The walls will be rated R-24 for insulation and the roof will be R-40.  The windows will be low-E insulated windows.  For heating and cooling, the house will have a very efficient heat pump.  They are anticipating that, because the house will be insulated so well, their actual heating and cooling costs will be low.

All paints, sealants, glues, etc. used in the house will be low- or no-VOC.  VOC’s are volatile organic compounds and they release vapors into the atmosphere.  You know that new paint smell around construction sites?  Those are VOC’s and they are not good.  Recycla doesn’t want VOC’s in her house and, luckily, her builder feels the same way and has actively sought out more environmentally friendly products.

All light fixtures in the house will be either fluorescent or LED.  It has been a challenge for Recycla to find great lights that don’t use halogen bulbs, but she has found them and they’ll look fabulous.

All appliances will be Energy Star rated.  Toilets and faucets will be low-flow.

The house itself will be well under 3,000 s.f. including the garage and basement.  The bedrooms and bathrooms will be on the small side, so that the bulk of the square footage could be given over to communal spaces, like the living room and kitchen.  There will be no unused rooms or large, wasteful hallways.

One final thing that Recycla should mention is that the builder has made the construction site as green as possible.  There’s no dumpster for trash, as the builder believes that dumpsters encourage waste; all so-called trash is sorted first to remove anything that can be recycled or reused in some way.  What is left has thus far been a very small pile of debris.  Also, the builder has two guys working for him and both of them bike to work — and the builder is planning to start doing so soon.

Recycla and her husband recognize that some of their choices are not the absolutely most environmentally friendly options, but they’re trying to find that balance between green (eco) and green (budget).

Tune in tomorrow, when the Eco Women will look at what it’s like to build in Wisconsin!