Welcome to Our Blog

We are all moved in and awaiting the final paperwork to learn our home's official rating under the LEED for Homes system. If you are just finding your way to our blog, we hope you'll scroll back to the beginning to learn about our process and the features that help make our home green.

As Viewed from Above

Courtesy of Google Maps

Homeowner Manuals

Operations and Maintenance Binders

 

Building an energy-efficient and otherwise green home is all well and good, but to realize the benefits of your investment over the long run, proper operation and maintenance of the home's major systems are critical. Among the prerequisites for LEED for Homes is that the project team provide the homeowner with a binder of all user guides and manuals as well as general information about sustainable home decisions, the LEED features in this house, and all LEED for Homes paperwork. Not only is this better than the typical "drawer-full-of random-manuals" buyers of new homes usually get stuck with, it is also helpful as a tool for future owners of our LEED for Homes project. 

Facebook

Be sure to "Like" us on Facebook. Search for The Grovewood.

Landscaping & Pest Management

24" rock border around perimeter of home

 

Among the steps we took to implement a green pest management system was not planting any shrubs or trees within two feet of the home's slab. Keeping what is more or less an air barrier between the habitats of insects and other pests and our building envelope helps make it more difficult and less inviting for those outsiders to venture inside.

Landscaping

Rock, decomposed granite, and turf

 

Native and drought-tolerant plant species

 

 Vegetable garden

 

There are a number of strategies for sustainability that manifest themselves through landscape design. For example, by minimizing the percentage of your lot that is covered in conventional turf, you should reduce your water consumption, provided that your irrigation system is well-designed. By minimizing impervious paving (such as concrete driveways, patios, or paths) you assist with both flood prevention - since water gets held in your beds and lawn rather than washing into a storm drain - and reduction of the heat island effect.

 

LEED for Homes (and common sense) prohibits the introduction of invasive plant species onto the site. It also encourages native and drought tolerant vegetation through points for the number of plants installed that meet those criteria.

 

There aren't any LEED for Homes points available directly for our raised vegetable and herb garden, but they do afford us the opportunity for some bragging rights. :)

Public Awareness

Our sign - six square feet, per spec!

 

 One of the biggest challenges for LEED for Homes has been getting the word out. Commercial property owners have embraced LEED. The federal government and many state and local governments have mandated LEED certification for certain project types. School districts love LEED, and the new(ish) LEED for Healthcare rating system has also begun to be widely adopted by hospitals and clinics. But residential projects - both single family and multifamily - have been behind the curve. So in addition to homeowner awareness and education, LEED for Homes encourages public education and awareness through certain points available. This sign outside our home (along with this blog) help us let our neighbors and other passersby that our home is unconventionally and sustainably built.

Paint

Paint Samples in Mrs. Grovewood's trunk

We've spent the last week with our design consultant buying out the pint and quart samples at The Green Painter. Literally - they are out of pint and quart sample sizes of Mythic interior paint. Using low or no VOC paints, caulks, and primers contributes a half point under credit MR 2.2 Environmentally Preferable Products. It also helps us comply with the goals of the EPA's Indoor airPLUS program, which earns us several points for credit EQ 1, aptly labeled EPA Indoor airPLUS. The colors we've chosen have pretty great names, like Into the Garden and Lady Vanessa.

Water Heater

Gas-powered tankless water heater

 

We've installed a tankless water heater as an energy-saving measure. Tankless water heaters use less energy than conventional heaters because they only heat water when hot water is demanded. Conventional tank heaters are always on, boiling the entire tank of water.

Cabinet Plywood

Upside down photo of the plywood used for our cabinets

 

The plywood we required our cabinet makers to use is formaldehyde-free. This allowed us to achieve half a point under the Materials and Resources category (using an Environmentally Preferred Product, or EPP) and also assured compliance with the EPA's Indoor airPLUS.

Doors, Baseboards, and Trim

Our interior doors, waiting to be hung

 

Since we are painting (rather than staining) our baseboards and trim, we elected to go with a very basic paint-grade, finger-jointed board. Finger-jointed wood is an Environmentally Preferred Product (EPP) because scraps that would otherwise have been discarded are knitted together to make long, lovely, perfectly acceptable pieces of wood trim. Our interior doors are solid core with a wood veneer, all formaldehyde free.

Metal Roof

Archzilla!
 

Extruder - elevated up to the carport roof, in action 



Coil of metal roofing material, in Bright White

 

The Archzilla pulled up to the house today with  several giant coils of bright white metal roofing (SRI of over 90) and a mobile extruder to deliver our standing-seam metal roof panels. Selecting a metal roof was part of our Durability Plan (credits ID 2.1 Durability Planning and ID 2.2 Durability Management), and the choice of color - with its high SRI - contributes greatly to our energy performance (EA 1.1 Performance of ENERGY STAR for Homes and EA 1.2 Exceptional Energy Performance) and hopefully helps to lower our utility bills over the life of the home.

Wood Flooring

Reclaimed wood flooring from Mrs. Grovewood's grandparents' house

Construction Waste

 Pile of debris from construction - awaiting removal to <sigh> a landfill

 

Waste management has been difficult on our project, both because of a fairly tight site (we don't have  a lot of space that isn't being built on or needed to access other parts of the property for construction) and because of standard operating procedure in the residential construction industry.

 

We initially targeted points for credit MR 3.2 Construction Waste Reduction hoping we could recycle or otherwise divert wood, cardboard, and other construction waste, however our investigation of the local options (MR 3.1 Construction Waste Management Planning) revealed that the smallest recycling dumpster available for residential projects is 20' long. This doesn't sound like much, but on a 1/5 acre site with trees and where a one-story house is being built, there are many places a container that large will fit. In addition, for construction of a single family home, it takes a while to fill that thing up. So here's my plea to local waste management companies: offer smaller recycling containers for residential construction!

 

So the alternative to diverting waste is attempting to minimize it. The point thresholds under MR 3.2 Option A are pretty stringent, and even with proper planning and take offs, most subcontractors (in our area, anyway) are used to approaching their trade a certain way - often one that both presumes and results in a lot of rework and repair and therefore generates waste. We are on track to get no points for the MR 3.2 credit and have been for awhile now.

Brick House: Mighty Mighty

Brick going up over rigid foam insulation

 

Our building envelope is getting its outer coat - the brick. The brick was manufactured within 500 miles of our house (plants in central Texas and southwest Arkansas.) The overall wall assembly is OSB sheathing against the studs, with house-wrap, 1/2" rigid foam insulation board, an air gap, and the brick veneer. With the interior CelBar insulation, we have a very good R-value for improved energy efficiency.

Drywall

Hypo-allergenic joint compound

Drywall hung and being taped and floated

CelBar

CelBar insulation in our wall cavities

 

We've got our wall insulation blown in place now. We elected to use CelBar, a spray-on insulation that completely fills the space between the studs, is pest-resistant, doesn't release smoke when it burns, and is hypo-allergenic. The insulation contains up to 85% recycled material, including recycled paper. I think I see a Sharper Image catalog in there.

Ceiling Insulation

Icynene Spray Foam Insulation under the roof deck

 

Perfection Supply sprayed Icynene insulation up under the roof deck. The expanding foam is easier to work with than cellulose insulation on the ceiling, especially since it seals better around our light fixtures. 

Sealants and Adhesives

Low VOC products

 

It takes pretty constant policing to make sure that products complying with our low VOC specifications are actually getting used on this job. Because we are pursuing the EPA's Indoor airPLUS certification (and because we want to minimize the nasty chemicals in our house) every adhesive, caulk, solvent, foam, spray, paint, stain, and glue must comply with the current guidelines. We are having to check every day to make sure the team complies - apparently it's easy to forget the specifications if you happen to have a tube or can of something else in the back of your truck...

Super Tuff R

Super Tuff R rigid insulation ("robot suit")

 

The insulation board is up on the exterior of the house. More on the total wall assembly later, but we have chosen this insulation for its durability as well as its R-value contribution.

Joists and Sheathing

Roof joists and attic floor

 

The lumber we used for framing, for sheathing, and for decking all qualify as Environmentally Preferred Products (EPP.) The plywoods are certified to have no added urea formaldehyde and are from a plant within 500 miles of the project site. Our contractor had a consultant prepare a detailed take off for purchasing the framing lumber in an effort to minimize waste.

Wood You Believe...?

Walls getting framed, along with large laminated beams for the main room

 

The lumber we're using for framing is all southern yellow pine that is sustainably harvested. We have also spaced certain framing members a few inches further apart and implemented ladder blocking and two-stud corners for a more materials-efficient frame. Increased spacing has the added benefit of leaving more of a gap for insulation, whereas the wood studs are typically a point of thermal loss.

Beneath the Sill Plate

Foam Sealer

 

This pink bad-boy goes beneath the sole plate of every wall. It helps keep moisture from the slab from being wicked up by the wood frame and also helps insulate any air gaps between the two.

Slab

The littlest Grovewood inspects the slab

 

Most of the finished floors in our home will be polished concrete, which is an Environmentally Preferred Product (EPP) both because of its recycled content - flyash, a byproduct of coal combustion that can replace some of the high-embodied-energy Portland cement in concrete - and because it is a hard flooring surface that doesn't trap or absorb pollutants the way some flooring treatments can.

Under the Slab

Moisture barrier beneath the slab