This second section of Innovation and Design Process has two prerequisites and one additional credit worth up to three points. They all revolve around durability planning, management, and verification. The first prerequisite is as follows:
2.1 Durability Planning. Prior to construction, the project team needs to (a) complete the Durability Risk Evaluation Form to identify all moderate and high-risk durability issues for the building enclosure; (b) develop specific measures to respond to those issues; (c) identify and incorporate all applicable indoor moisture control measures listed in Table 1 (below); (d) incorporate those measures into the project documents; and (e) list all the durability measures in a durability checklist, for use in verification.
Section (c) references indoor moisture control measures. Being someone that is severely allergic to mold and mildew, this part is hugely important to me. Since I can’t figure out how to put a table into a Wordpress blog, I will just list the requirements:
- For tubs, showers, and spa areas: Use nonpaper-faced backer board on walls.
- For kitchen, bathroom, laundry rooms, spa areas, as well as an entryway within 3 feet of an exterior door: Use water-resistant flooring; do not install carpet
- For tank water heaters and clothes washers in or over living space: Install drain and drain pan.
- For conventional clothes dryers: Exhaust directly to the outdoors.
Whew! Since this was a prerequisite, we obviously had to do all of it. Our Builder’s project manager, Ben, actually filled out the entire form. It took him a few hours, at least. And a few requests by me. Our builders I’m sure knew all of these things; they just normally do not have to write them down. As the LEED Project Manager, I would not have been able to fill out the form, as it was too technical for me. But as I became more familiar with this credit, these are extremely important in building a house! After all, we want it to last, right?
So far, then, two out of two prerequisites have been met, and we still only have one point…onward!