How Green Can You Go: The Many Shades of Certification

A LEED for Homes project can achieve one of four different levels of recognition under the current rating system: Certified, Silver, Gold, or Platinum. The point threshold for each level changes slightly based on a ratio of the number of bedrooms you have compared to your home's overall square footage. The idea is to reward more compact living spaces.

We are aiming for Silver. Of course, Mr. Grovewood would like to get to Platinum, but Mrs. Grovewood (who is also the project team's Professional Credentialed with Respect to LEED for Homes) is more of an under-promise, over-deliver kind of lady.

LEED for Homes Process

1. Decide you want to build a LEED for Homes Certified Home.

2. Locate a local LEED for Homes Provider and a LEED for Homes Green Rater. They will work together the ensure that your project team is, in fact, designing and building a LEED for Homes Certified project.

3. Register your project. (Then you get to use the cool LEED for Homes logo.)

4. Identify a project team, including an architect or designer, a landscape architect, a general contractor, and key subcontractors. If one of your team members is a LEED for Homes AP (Accredited Professional), then congratulations! You've already earned a point.

5. Build the home to the stated goals. That should be easy enough, right?

6. Certify the project as a LEED home.

7. Move in and enjoy!

House Demolition by Habitat for Humanity NWHC

LEED for Homes

Deciding to build a new home was a very difficult decision for us. We have loved our first home together and explored a lot of options for updating and renovating it to suit us for the longer term. However after several years of agonizing, we realized that no matter what we did to our house, it was still old on the inside. There was no insulation in the walls. The air conditioning ducts were lined with mold-growing fiber glass.The wiring was aluminum in a number of places. The pipes were rusted on the way in and clogged and broken on the way out.

Before we began to design a new house, we made plans for our old one - investigating the best way to recycle all the best parts of our beloved brick bungalow. We determined that partnering with Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Harris County was the best way to go, and we handed the keys over to them on November 1st. They will reuse, resell, or recycle 90-95% of the materials in the house, from the air conditioning refrigerant to the concrete slab.

We have also decided to design our house for certification under the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED for Homes rating system. In the coming months we'll fill you in on what that means, theoretically and practically. But for now let me tease by saying that our decision is based on our goal to construct a home that is healthier for us and our family, consumes fewer fossil fuels, is more durable, and will have a lesser impact on the environment as compared to a conventionally built home.

Original House

photo taken in August 1954

The Grovewood

The Grovewood has boasted a 1,600 square foot, brick ranchette since the summer of 1954. Follow along as we take her on a journey through deconstruction and reconstruction.