Posts Tagged ‘custom builders’

The Eco Builders Guild \ South Sound Chapter has announced it will host the South Sound Green Tour on April 17th and 18th, 2010
The theme of the event will be Innovation – Education – Inspiration

It will be a community event to celebrate green innovations through education in sustainable building and inspired living.
This year’s tour will showcase the greenest homes and buildings in our area that incorporate significant use of solar or other renewable energies, new and reclaimed materials, low energy consumption and water conservation technologies, and sustainable design techniques.
Educational sessions will be held at various locations and feature real life topics on how to build and live greener. See our website for more details – www.SouthSoundGreenTour.com ( The site should be up and running by January 1, 2010

South Sound Green Tour is looking for participants and sponsors. If you are interested in either contact me at info@laupenhomes.com. After January we you will be able to contact us directly at SouthSoundGreenTour.com

We had been looking for some beams to use on the living room and dining room ceilings and finally found some old growth beams in Seattle. The beams were originally installed in the Packard building, which was built in 1910, to house a Packard Auto dealership. From what we have learned, the building had at least two businesses occupy it during it’s 98 year life., the Packard car dealership and the Foley sign company. The building was torn down in 2008 to make way for new multi-use retail and residential building. A demolition company salvaged the lumber from the building and we were able to purchase a few of them.

As you might imagine, the beams needed a little work. We took them to Quality Solutions, a carpentry shop owned by Mike Anderson here in Olympia. Mike has the right equipment for cutting and planning large lumber like this. We started by cutting the beams down to the size we wanted, which was 8″ X 8” We then ran them through a planner to get all four sides smooth. From there we took them back to the house to finishes prepping them.

Using a hand power planner with a special curved blade, we proceeded to cut gouges into three sides of the beams. After that was completed, we sanded the beams with 60 grit and then again with 120 grit sandpaper. Then we coated them with a dark stain to contrast with the pine T&G boards we had already installed on the ceilings. After cutting the beams to fit between the walls and wedged them into place we crawled into the attic and secure them. We did this by laying 4X4’s across the top of the trusses bottom cords and then screwed ten inch long lags into the beams.

The end result is beautiful. It also fills good to know the beams have been given a new life ready to go for another 100 years.

Quite frankly, it is not to much effort. Building technology has developed to a great extent since the passivhaus standard came into existence, and it is quite a bit easier to build a passive house now than it was 10 years ago. Most of the building material that you require are easily available. Passive houses are as comfortable to live in as any other homes and in fact are healthier and safer because of the building design.

Passive houses are more expensive to build than conventional homes because of the materials required between five and ten percent depending on size. However, over the long run, they have proven to be much cheaper. When you look at how much a conventional home costs in terms of heating, cooling, ventilating, electricity, and air conditioning – a passive house turns out to be a cheaper bargain.

Passive homes are not that uncommon either. Although it is difficult to find a completely passive house in the US – they’re common in the UK and across Europe. Closer to home, we have green homes that make use of some of the principles of passivhaus and add their own two bits to create an energy efficient green home. In Washington DC, we have architect and green builder Travis Price’s four story green home, just about 10 minutes from the White House. His house was featured on the Discovery channel’s World’s Greenest Homes – which, by the way, is a great show to see how much and how easily people can build green homes for themselves.

Passivhaus – The Origin

It might surprise you to know that Passivhaus is not a latest trend in green building. IT’s been around for quite some time, since 1988, to be precise. However, green building, sustainability and the environmental awareness is a relatively new concept, which is why many are hearing about Passive Houses only lately.

The technique and principles actually emerged in Sweden in 1988 and the first ‘passive house’ was built in Germany 2 years later and 6 years after that, the Passivahus-Institut was founded in Germany. After that, over 15,000 houses have been built, largely in Europe and particularly in Scandinavia using the passivhaus technique. Closer home, the first passive house was constructed in Illinois in 2003. In the US, passivhaus is looked at as a relatively new concept, but one that architects and builders will be quick to embrace, given its potential and possibilities.

The first principles of passivhaus required homes to have a space heating requirement which was 90% less than other houses. To this, other engineers, builders, and architects added their own innovations which made achieving this standard easier and economical. Eventually, building products like construction materials, window and door frames, glass came to be designed specifically for passive houses. Of special mention is a software program called the Passivhaus Planning Package developed and sold by the Passivhaus-Institut that helps architects design and create passive houses. The European Union in 2008 called for a binding requirement that from 2011, all houses built requiring heating and cooling should be built by the passivhaus standard.

One can’t have a green home without actual greenery, can one? Open spaces, gardens and green areas are quite important in a house, not just for aesthetic appeal, but also because they help largely in maintaining fresh air indoors and keeping a steady temperature. If you’re few of the lucky homeowners whose homes have backyards then there’s nothing like it. We strongly suggest that you make use of the backyard to have your own compost pit or recycling plant. This is not difficult or messy. You’ll get helpful tips on how easily you can make compost at http://www.helpfulgardener.com/.

If you don’t have the advantage of a backyard, you can still do a lot. For starters, depending on the kind of walls you have, you could speak to your contractor about having a controlled ivy growing on the outside wall – but do this with a professional gardener’s advice only. If you have a terrace you could go about converting it into a terrace garden. It’s not too technical and it can keep your roof quite cool during summers.

Indoor plants are an excellent idea. A better idea is to create space outside windows by installing racks for keeping potted plants – They’re an excellent way of providing privacy. Many homeowners will also create indoor gardens – complete with waterfalls. Although these are expensive, you could speak to your contractor about the possibilities.