Oct 19, 2010 | Green Home Building/Remodeling, Healthy Home
The intent of this credit is to control indoor moisture levels to provide comfort, reduce the risk of mold, and increase the durability of the home. That would be three very important objectives! Who would want a moldy, uncomfortable home that falls apart? Not I. ...
Oct 14, 2010 | Green Home Building/Remodeling, Healthy Home
There are two sections to combustion venting: a prerequisite, which almost got us kicked out of the LEED for Homes program, and EQ 2.2 Enhanced Combustion Venting Measures, worth a maximum of two points. The prerequisite for basic combustion venting measures is as...
Oct 13, 2010 | Green Home Building/Remodeling, Healthy Home
Ahhh….I definitely have a sense of satisfaction from moving on to the next, big, penultimate section. Indoor Environmental Quality encompasses the healthy home piece that was, and continues to be, our number one priority. While it does not address everything...
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...
Oct 12, 2010 | Green Home Building/Remodeling, Materials
This third and final component of the Materials & Resources section attempts to ensure that homes generate less waste than the industry norm. Reducing construction waste is just like trying to reduce waste as we live in our home. It has two components: planning...
Oct 7, 2010 | Green Home Building/Remodeling, Materials
This, the third piece of the credit that tackles material choices, awards points for choosing products that have been extracted, harvested, recovered or manufactured locally. What is local? For LEED purposes, it means within 500 miles of the project site —...
Oct 6, 2010 | Green Home Building/Remodeling, Materials
Continuing with the same credit from my previous post, LEED for Homes awards points for selecting materials with low emissions. You know that new home or office smell? It’s not good for you! Many people report head aches or respiratory illnesses after moving...
Oct 5, 2010 | Green Home Building/Remodeling, Materials
This credit by itself could put an interior designer to work for a while. It incorporates the showier, meatier essence of green homes. We spent a majority of our time on these decisions, and most questions I get from friends revolve around materials choices....
Oct 4, 2010 | Green Home Building/Remodeling, Materials
This LEED for Homes credit is a prerequisite, requiring that if any tropical wood is used, it must be FSC-Certified. Wood is considered tropical, in the LEED for Homes definition, if it is grown in a country that lies between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. ...
Sep 30, 2010 | Green Home Building/Remodeling, Materials
I am grouping the next 4 sub-sections into one post because they are all about the same thing: efficient framing; each one does not warrant a separate discussion. For 1.2 Detailed Framing Documents, we need to have detailed framing plans or scopes of work and...
Sep 29, 2010 | Green Home Building/Remodeling, Materials
The credit is a prerequisite, and requires that we limit the overall estimated waste factor to 10% or less. Waste factor is defined as the percentage of framing material ordered in excess of the estimated material needed for construction. I have had to re-read this...
Sep 28, 2010 | Green Home Building/Remodeling, Materials
The choice of building materials entered almost every discussion during the design and construction of our home. From LEED for Homes standpoint, material choices can have a huge impact on the environment due to the extraction, processing, and transportation they...
