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.