Posts tagged "building"

Building A Self Build Green Home

More Britons are now being encouraged to build their own homes, Housing Minister Grant Schapps has promised us that he will make it easier for us to build as planning constraints will not be as severe.  On average about 10,000 of us self build every year and it requires tenacity and a drive to complete the project.  Of course the end result is your dream home which is everything that you want in a home.  All fixtures and fittings are to your taste and you can make your home as green as you want it to be because it is a new build.  All of the green credentials can be incorporated into the design from the beginning stages of the drawings.  Best of all is that at the project you will have probably made a profit if you have not gone overboard with your designs.

Later this year The Localism Bill is likely to come into effect which will give communities greater powers and take away the powers from the councils in regards to how our neighbourhoods are formed.  Neighbourhood groups will be able to approve developments without having to go through the usual channels of gaining planning consent from the council.  So it looks as though next year more and more of us will decided to venture into self builds as planning laws will be more lenient, well that it what self builders hope.

Marcus Copeland is a mortgage broker from Cwm in North Wales.  He built a five storey, six bedroom house which has panoramic views of the valley stretching down to the coast and the house is only a 30 minute drive from Chester.  The house is fabulous and costs Mr Copeland around £1million to complete which includes land value and build costs.    He admits that if could do it all again he would curb his spending.  He used a stone for the exterior walls from Scotland when he could have settled for a cheaper option but he admits that this house was going to be his dream home and so he spared no expense.  He has now decided to put the house on the market for £1.5million, so he is still in profit.

It took 18 months for him to complete the build.  He has included highly insulated windows, two mechanical ventilation and heat recovery (MhVr) systems and of course under floor heating on each of the five floors of the house.  He grew up in the area and managed to persuade a local farmer to sell him a plot of his land.  Once this was agreed then obtaining the planning permission was very straight forward.  The land that he had purchased already had planning for a small house and so the revised plans that Mr Copeland submitted had all the necessary eco-credentials that planners like and he also communicated with all of the neighbours.  This meant that there were no objections to the plans and the planning permission was granted.  The plans included rainwater recycling, solar panels, green roofs and ground source heat pumps.  So it seems that the more green credentials in your proposed home the better.  In June self builders can also earn an income via Feed-in tariffs whereby you sell surplus electricity back to the National Grid.

Many believe that green homes are a better quality because they are built with extra care.  The finish of the houses tends to be superior to traditional builds and of course because they are much more energy efficient the energy bills of these houses is much lower.  So for self builders beginning at the design stage, the more green credentials included in your new home the cheaper it will be to run in the long term.

http://www.buildingplotsforsale.org

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Green Home Building Kits – Which One Is Best For You?

As the economy is getting tougher and we are all trying to save money as well as help out our planet we are looking into ways that these few things can be achieved. With a Green home building kits you can make an initial investment and then sit back and reap the rewards of saving each month on home costs.

We all can agree that with the economy getting bad it is hard to just pay a lot of money up front for something that you don’t know much about once you sit down and add up over a period of time all of the money that can be saved from a green home you may be ready to go ahead and make that purchase.

There are many types of home kits and models to choose from it is up to you and your family to decide which one is best for you all. After all being the home owner you must be able to know how much is allowed in your budget, what style of home you want and how large you want it to be. Once you have completed all of these questions you are ready to make your initial purchase.

By purchasing a green home building kit it comes equipped with everything that you need in order to complete your home such as solar insulated panels, irrigation systems, prefabricated wall panels and a rainwater collection system. Everything is all in one package.

Most of the green homes come with prefabricated walls that are ready to set it up if you know what you are doing or you can purchase the home kit and contact a contractor so they can install it for you the choice is up to you as the home owner.

There are many things that can be done with green homes and money that can be saved such as by using solar panels to heat your home you are using no electricity which saves you on a power bill. With the rainwater collection system you can now collect rainwater and reuse it in a variety of different ways such as toilets, dishes and showers. Your collection system collects the water and circulates it back through a filtration system and purifies it so it can be used for these variety of things it is up to you as the homeowner to determine how you use it.

By having a green home building kit everything in your home is eco-friendly so you are helping the environment instead of harming it. What a great concept.

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Building A Green Home Requires Teamwork

Green home building and remodeling requires a different approach than the traditional, established way of building.

Traditionally the homeowner, you, approaches an architect who designs the home, based on your descriptions, ideas, dreams and wishes.

The finished design is then distributed to several general contractors for bid.

The general contractor in turn contacts his/her subcontractors to get bids from them for framing, roofing, plumbing, heating, air conditioning, excavating and foundation work, landscaping, interior finishes.

The bid prices are based on the interpretation of the drawings by each contractor. Rarely do the subcontractors talk to each other during the bid process. Rarely is the architect contacted with questions. Almost never is the homeowner, you, contacted.

The contractorrs’ final bids usually include a list of exceptions and/or a contingency allowance, which might never be used, but is paid for by you anyway.

Homeowners most often accept the lowest bid. Why not? Unless you are familiar with and know the construction business, know the contractor’s quality of work, what other criteria could you apply?

The procedure outlined above often results in considerable construction cost increases, dissatisfied homeowners and sometimes lawsuits.

Huge resources are being neglected and missed when homes are remodeled and built the traditional way: Experience and trade-specific expertise, which could save you time, money and headaches.

The Green Process To Building A Home

Building a green home must be a systematic approach and done as a team. The project must be looked at as a system, in which each component is connected to and depends on the other components. For example:

- Location of the home on the property will determine the amount of soil disturbance, excavation and landscaping

- Location, size and types of windows will impact the heating and cooling requirement

- Type of heating and cooling equipment will impact space requirements for furnace, heat pump, solar collectors, piping, ductwork, etc

- Choice of exterior wall will impact first cost versus installation cost versus insulation values versus appearance

You get the idea

Teamwork is required to make it all come together. The folks who design and build your green home, will be working with you and with each other for weeks or months. These are some important questions to ask when assembling your green building team:

- Do all of the team members agree on the importance of building green and are they committed to it?

- Do architect and contractors have experience in green building and if not, are they willing to learn? The majority if the team should have some experience in designing or building green homes

- Do you like and respect them? Can you see yourself interacting with each of them frequently and maybe work through some challenges?

- Do they like and respect each other?

- Do they take pride in high quality work?

- Can they accept input about their trade from other trades?

Don’t underestimate the importance of your team getting along and working well together. There will be times during the construction when tempers flare, tensions are high, pressure is on. And this could be just when the insulator has to do some very meticulous work to seal all leaks, while the electrician is breathing down her neck to hurry up so he can get his work done.

It is important to include as many of the trades as possible during the design phase. Decisions about choices in materials or heating system can then be done by all involved parties from a fully informed perspective. For example:

Someone mentioned to you the advantages of using structurally insulated panels (SIP), and that is what you would like to use for your green home. Preliminary investigations show that these panels would have to be shipped from hundreds of miles away. The general contractor suggests using insulated concrete forms (ICF). The factory is only 50 miles away, his team is very experienced with this system and he knows that he can do it cheaper than with SIP. The architect supports this idea, because she also knows that homeowner insurance rates are sometimes lower for homes built with ICFs, due to their resistance to termites, wind and fire.

OR

General contractor, architect and HVAC contractor work closely together to determine if your green home should use solar collectors or a geothermal heat pump system for hot water and heat. They contact the wood truss manufacturer to help determine the impact of the heavy solar collectors on the roof frame. A call to the local geothermal heat pump specialists reveals that your future neighbors down the street installed a geothermal heat pump system two years ago and are very satisfied with it. With all this information, you can now make an informed decision.

When the time comes to put the final cost for your green home construction project together, you can be assured that unexpected costs will be minimal. You will know that you and your green building team are all pulling in the same direction.

Addressing and optimizing key factors up front with the whole team will result in a smoother construction process, lower costs and a much better green home for you and your family.

Design and Building Firm Alive By Going Green

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Green Home Building Seattle WA

by The Pulitzer

When people think about living green or being green there are a few cities that come to mind. Seattle is high on the list, of course. Seattle homeowners especially are into the environment and are always looking for ways to take care of the planet. As a result, when Seattle people start thinking about home building, they often think green.

Green home building is not just a Seattle thing and it’s not just a fad. Green home building isn’t just a good idea, either. Green home building is really a requirement. If we expect to be able to sustain our lifestyle without destroying the environment that we all love, green building is the only way, and people of Seattle want to be on the leading edge of the endeavor.

So what’s a green building? Whether it’s a home or a commercial building, green means several things. While doing the actual building of the structure, it’s important to make sure the materials used are in line with the concept of being green. Recycled materials can be used. In Seattle, and everywhere else for that matter, it’s important to consider if the recycled material is actually good for the environment. It is probably not a good idea to use a recycled product where the process to create it actually damages the environment more than simply disposing of the material and going with the new version.

Another consideration is the green attributes of the completed building or home. Insulation is a big thing, of course, but there is more to green building than that. One great newer technology is the tankless hot water heater. Since 30% of the typical home energy budget goes to heating hot water and a tankless system averages 22% savings over conventional gas hot water heaters, it makes sense to put that on your green building list. The heaters are more expensive and may not pay off financially for a while. But if you are truly interested in being green and doing the right thing for the planet, a tankless hot water heater is the right thing to install when building your green home. Another consideration is the water flow to the sink or tub. In Seattle, water is very expensive so using smaller hot water pipes helps prevent waste.

I was talking to Marco Kronen (UrbanMarco) of Seattle, WA the other day and he was telling me that more and more people looking to build a home in Seattle are thinking green. There is at least one Seattle based construction company focused only on building green homes. They hope to expand beyond Seattle, or at least help people building homes in other cities go green.

This article is written to get folks thinking about building green homes and not really to be the definitive document on the whole process. There are a number of great blogs and other resources to help people understand the options. One such site is http://www.urbanmarco.com. Urban Marco does not do green home building, but he is in the real estate business and is serious about preserving the environment, especially in Seattle.