Our sustainability approach - making your new home more efficient without breaking the bank.
Let's discuss what we mean by "sustainable". Although the term is vague, our approach and details are not. For each of our plan sets, we've established a framework and created building details to provide you and your builder with a path towards an efficient home. We believe that you don't have to sacrifice your priorities or values to build a house that you're proud of and comfortable in. We’ve followed closely with The Pretty Good House guide, which also has a book that is excellent for the homeowner and contractor alike. Outside of our experience and knowledge, we lean on resources such as Green Building Advisor, Journal of Light Construction, and Fine Homebuilding. We continually encourage conversation with homeowners and contractors to make our approach to energy efficient design better.
We approach sustainability in three parts:
Design (and decide) for the long-term.
Design for low-waste and affordable construction.
Design and details for an insulated, waterproof, and well-sealed home.
Design (and decide) for the long-term.
If you're going to build it, then build it right. Define your priorities for your new home, so that you’re happy in it when it’s built - this can mean choosing a house design that you truly love or deciding to make a little extra investment on products that you’ll still love in 10 years. It’s all about planning ahead, being thoughtful, and designing with intention.
We design for human-scaled living, because size does matter. Our goal is to create beautiful spaces that function appropriately, rather than spaces that are overly big or too small to function well.
Design for low-waste and affordable construction.
Low-waste... low what? Did you know that 500 million tons of construction and demolition debris is generated in the U.S. annually? That's crazy! We've established a low-waste design strategy that helps create less waste during your build by:
We design using standard dimensions of building materials. Let's get creative with standard sizes. In turn, this also saves on labor costs!
We design with basic (but not boring) building shapes. It's our style and it saves money. The most affordable homes are simple rectangles and squares. This applies to roofs as well. We prefer simple roof forms over complex rooflines to reduce cost and maintain performance over the long haul.
We design for advanced framing practices - using 2x6 framing at 24” on center, instead of 16” on center. This saves on framing costs by more than 40% and creates more room for insulation, which lowers heating and cooling costs.
Design and details for an insulated, waterproof, and well-sealed home.
Think of your home’s building envelope (roof, walls, floor/foundation) as your all-weather jacket. In the simplest terms, you want to build a house whose "jacket" helps the home:
Stay Warm (and cool in the summer!)
Stay Dry (but not sweaty… hell no thick rubber rain jacket)
Stay wind-proof (because if your jacket has holes, you'll be sad)
We want each part of the building envelope to reach a certain R-Value, which is the effectiveness of a building material to resist heat flow. In other words, how well is your home insulated? Are you wearing an awesome temperature regulating wool jacket that keeps you feeling great or a windbreaker that couldn’t keep you warm if it tried?
We refer to each part of the building envelope as an "assembly" because it's a buildup of materials in a specific arrangement that protects against cold, wind, and rain. Sure, you can build a house without considering any of this, but it won't last as long, you'll be cold and grumpy, and you'll spend a lot more money heating and cooling it.
All of the details included in our plan sets provide suggestions to make your home insulated (warm), waterproof (dry), and well-sealed (wind-proof).
Our framework and detail aim for R-Values of:
Roof Assembly = Goal R-60
Exterior Wall Assembly = Goal R-35
Foundation Assembly = Goal R-10
By keeping your house warm, dry, and wind-proof, you save money. You also use less energy and the home is way more comfortable.
How about the sun? It provides natural daylight and warmth, and we design our homes to have an ideal “south facing” direction.
What's up to you - but you're not alone.
We don’t provide specifications for a brand of windows, mechanical systems (heating/cooling), or exact finish selections (tile, paint color, etc) - but we do include suggestions for how to choose materials that perform well and contribute to a healthy home. Throughout your drawing set, we've included suggestions to help you choose products and materials wisely.
Questions? Comments? We’d love to hear what you think! Feel free to email us at hello@hereabouthome.com.