My First "Green" Client

Bone Saw

picked up a good book a few years ago, may want to check it out

The good house book
by
clarke snell

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reed

Laura, I'm in a similiar boat being on the learning curve with the customers but I have recently decided to not to pertent to know it all but to through things theor way and let them see the decision making process. After the Green thing is a pretty elusive thing. know that by far I know much more than the client and having them in on what's being decided the more vested they are in the process and with me. comunicate via email as much as i can.

As for the movment itself: if we don't get away from oil and the domination of the utilitie companies we are never going to be FREE as it's written in the Declaration of Independence. Back then they were not beholden to these factors. Now we are. andour freedoms have been lost to them and the credit mongers like banks and insurence companies. Believe in Globbal warming or not. "Freedoms just another word for nothing left to loose". and we're loosing with these overwelming institutions. Let's get out from under them.

TooledUp

A lot of the 'green' building work is pure hype. I agree that there can be a lot of thought put into a building to make it greener but some of it (imho) is just a bit OTT and purely a money making angle to sell to the people who are into the green factor.

I had a job last year ( a home extension). The architect had specified that it was to be painted with a specific brand paint which was low VOC. The paint involved cost about 5x normal emulsion (which is mostly low VOC nowdays anyway), but this manufacturer uses the green issue as a major selling point. The amount involved was only 7 gallon so we aren't talking major emissions from it anyway.

There I was painting away using this very expensive emulsion, that had to be shipped to me from 350 miles away by a courier that probably left a carbon footprint bigger than Bigfoot's feet, whilst outside of the building the gas-hungry digger was emmitting more polution with one turn of its ignition key than this paint would emit in its entire lifetime.

People will pay premium prices for this sort of thing. It's all down to the sales pitch you use. I'm not so sure that the contractors can make any more money from the green angle but the manufacturers/suppliers sure do.

LaurieC

I've been doing my research and this is my opinion. I agree that a lot of the "green" products out there are a bunch of hype. Just the big companies trying to catch the wave. Kind of like the "all natural" of the 90's. Fortunately, there are some really great things that can be done during the building process that are sound practices.

Blow in insulation is not that much more $$, no reason not to do it. So it's in.

Low VOC paint isn't that much more $$, and I can get it at Vista. So it's in.

Client is an electrical engineer- so lighting will be 90% LED. CA Title 24 requires us to install dimmers, motion sensors, and fluorescence. Solar panels are going on both the main house and the seperate garage.

The best choice they've made...they reduced the size of the house to 2100 sf (it started out much larger).

7 skylights

Recycled glass tile is the same price as non recycled, and I can get it from the same company I've used many times. So it's in. (the company uses the scraps and dust from the non recycled glass tiles they make, love the idea.)

On this project some things are green, some things are not. I'm never going to talk my framer into buying/useing precision cutting machines, and he when I asked if he would recycling the lumber scraps. Overall I think we've got a good compromise going.

milancole

If you want to go green on the lumber, then consider using FSC certified lumber. That means it came from a sustainably managed forest instead of clear cut.

For energy efficiency you might consider the high R-value spray-in foam.

There are also low VOC carpets, FSC certified wood flooring products, bamboo flooring (not so good for high traffic areas). We have a local green building supply store that has a good list of products online.

ecohaus dot com

BTW- making the house smaller is one of the best choices they can make from an eco/green perspective.

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Portland General Contractor | Portland Remodel | Portland Real Estate

jmgrahamjr

So what if being green is a trend...if someone is willing to pay you to build green, well then show me the money. I do feel that going green is not a bad thing. Yea i do agree allot of it is hype, but so what. At lease people are starting to look at the effect that humans have on the earth. We also are creating jobs for others when we invent greener products. The green movement strengthens our economy, hype or no hype. I think the biggest issue is when we are taxed on our pollution. That is a crime and those politicians’ should be fired, but politics is a money game. What will line my pockets today? Not only that but they are willing to lie to the American people about Global warming. What a crock. Scientists don’t know the actual effects of greenhouse gasses. In order to understand these effects we have to have a full understanding of our weather, ocean currents, and understand how space itself plays a part. Scientists don’t know enough about these factors. They don’t even know if greenhouse gasses will cause global warming or global cooling. I’m still willing to sell green products because I know that in my field that the quality of wood has been declining. The young growth trees have more spaces between the rings therefore not as dense. The less density the wood has the weaker it becomes.

Silverwood Truss & Supply Inc.
silverwoodtruss .com

RPortinga

some of the 'green' building stuff may be trend... and some is definitely hype. But some of it makes sense for the long-term no matter how you look at it.

I've been doing a lot of looking in to geothermal for heat/cooling, and if you're doing new construction... unless you have a teeny-tiny lot, where you can't even do a couple of vertical holes, it doesn't make sense to not go with geothermal.

We're even looking into geothermal options for commercial projects.

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Design/Build - General Contractor - Construction Management

LaurieC

It look like we'll be doing geothermal on this new house as well. I'm very excited to learn more (my sub knows the ends and outs, I'll be learning as we go). We're also going with solar panels. This will be my second house in a row using solar. Wow, talk about easy!

My job is to give them what they want. To make their dream come true, not mine.

builder brian

If you have specific sustainable building questions feel free to PM me. I've been building sustainably for ten years as well as installing solar. There is some major hype out there for sure. I find the most sustainable or "Green" steps come with actual design and materials used from the begining of the process. Consider- size- space- solar orientation- Heat loads- cooling loads - and customer energy usuage patterns. Green may be a trend, even a fad, but sustainability is not. Theres a lot more people on the way to planet earth and we'll have a lot less resources when they get here.

justinae

Here are some sites I've found useful:

http://www.toolbase.org/
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/

We have found that most clients that want to do green building will usually have some ideas already about what they want. Usually materials.

Check out the portfolio of one of our most energy efficient homes (LEED Platinum)

http://www.greenhammerconstruction.c...ortfolio.shtml

Hope that helps.

MALCO.New.York

Well stated and quite true.

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sawyerEd

LaurieC
You mentioned in an earlier post that you thought green countertops were ugly. You don't like granite, or sillstone, butcherblock, stainless, ceramic, or concrete. We would be interested to know what you come up with for the engineers house.

OneCall

Simply do a Google search for "LEED Standards" and you will get more information than you ever wanted. In Austin, most of our customers are very concerned with being green. It really ranges from simply using low or no VOC paint, to using the tyvec to cover the floors and then reuse it as house wrap on the next house.

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Cy Megnin
One Call Property Services
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spiral

Beautiful homes!
Do you have any large size photos or photo links?
I like the raw look. Very pleasing.

Cheers Gary

Andrew.Wright

And this is the problem with the "green" industry ... too many people thinking they can make a buck because some portion of the project is "green".

Interestingly enough, this is the primary reason people shy AWAY from green building projects ... they don't want to spend more money OR think that they are getting milked in the name of environmental stewardship.

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Andrew Wright
Sustainable Wood Products Guarantee our Future in the Timber Industry

Andrew.Wright

Take a look at Idaho's State Capital building in Boise - it uses geothermal heating exclusively.

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Andrew Wright
Sustainable Wood Products Guarantee our Future in the Timber Industry

willworkforbeer

Dead on. I did some work on a posh golf resort clubhouse, they built it "green" what a joke. Advertising and marketing gimic.

naptown CR

It appears to be outside your sphere of knowledge and therefore you reject it out of hand.

Believe me they do

Also true Green building requires less material labor and increases energy efficiency all for a lower cost.

true also

There are a lot of materials that are "green" They will be mostly local materials to reduce the transport emissions. They will contain a quantity of post consumer recycled waste example ice stone but that wouldn't meet the local standard. An ICF foundation is a great start as it is very energy efficient and can incorporate fly ash in the concrete to reduce the amount going into land fills. If natural products will come from sustainable sources. Think about adding an element of renewable energy to to the design, solar wind etc.

Good luck hope you get the job!

naptown CR

I would encourage the use of sun tunnels as opposed to traditional skylights Even the best skylight is a huge heat gainer/loser. Losses will be much less on the tunnels.

MALCO.New.York

At this point in time, the ONLY recycling that is Environmentally sound is recycling of our Waste Waters and Glass.

All others, again, at this point are not Economically and Environmentally Sound.

Post consumer pick up, transport, sorting, packaging, retransporting, re sorting, cleaning, separating, heating, re transporting, reforming is A LOT of "Carbon Footprint" as well as MANY paid hands to touch said Waste.

Recycling can be, someday, when packaging becomes more uniform and standardized, the answer.

Right now it is NO MORE THAN a Secondary Market for profiteers.

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Something to One may be Nothing to another!

Ultimate Wisdom---------
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