Nov 19, 2010 | Green Home Building/Remodeling, LEED Certification
For “Innovative Design,” I had a long list of possibilities of what we thought might be worthy of extra consideration. Let’s revisit my original list with the filter or knowing what has/not been rewarded already in the LEED credit system:...
Nov 11, 2010 | Green Home Building/Remodeling, LEED Certification
As I have finished tallying up the points of all of the sub-sections in LEED for Homes, we can now go back to Innovation & Design Process to see if we can earn any more points. I had written about this possibility in an earlier post as a place to come back to in...
Nov 10, 2010 | Green Home Building/Remodeling, LEED Certification
Hooray! This is the LAST credit in the LAST section of the entire LEED for Homes Reference Manual. (I should qualify this: there is one more section – AE 2: Education of Building Manager. But it only applies to multifamily buildings with more than five units,...
Nov 9, 2010 | Green Home Building/Remodeling, LEED Certification
In addition to the training provided in the prerequisite (see previous post), we can get one point if we are provided with two hours of training. Examples include an additional walk-through, training held in another home that has s imilar green measures and...
Nov 8, 2010 | Green Home Building/Remodeling, LEED Certification
I am now beginning the eighth and final section of the LEED for Homes Reference Manual. Whew – this has been a long process! Here, the USGBC addresses an ongoing theme of my commentary: that while LEED focuses on the design and construction of new homes,...
Oct 12, 2010 | Green Home Building/Remodeling, LEED Certification
In my effort to track down which of our home’s materials can be classified as “local,” I have been speaking on the phone to many, many of the subcontractors that helped build our house. I tell them we are going for LEED certification, and they have...
Jul 20, 2010 | Green Home Building/Remodeling, LEED Certification
This is the last part of the Innovation & Design Process section, and I am not yet sure if we will be getting any points. It really should be left to the end, as it fits more into the “other” category. I really like this section because it allows for...
Jul 19, 2010 | Green Home Building/Remodeling, LEED Certification
This credit requires that the “Green Rater” (who is hired by the builder and visually verifies that everything is, indeed, built to LEED standards) inspect and verify each measure listed in the durability checklist. This is worth 3 whole points! Since...
Jul 15, 2010 | Green Home Building/Remodeling, LEED Certification
This is the second prerequisite in this section (third overall). During construction, the builder shall have a quality management process in place to ensure installation of the durability measures. This can be satisfied by having the builder inspect and check off...
Jul 14, 2010 | Green Home Building/Remodeling, LEED Certification
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....
Jul 13, 2010 | Green Home Building/Remodeling, LEED Certification
Worth one point, this credit requires that the home be designed to maximize solar potential — for heat in the winter and for solar collection panels. This is a pretty tough requirement, I think. It really is site-dependent. There are four pieces to this point,...
Jul 12, 2010 | Green Home Building/Remodeling, LEED Certification
What in the world is a Design Charrette? That definitely sounds like a word made up by an architect. Indeed, according to Wikipedia, a design charrette “consists of an intense period of design activity.” The origin of the term “charrette,”...
