Posts Tagged ‘custom builders’

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.

Many times we come across home owners who plan the remodeling extensively and are very scrupulous about what changes they want and what kind of a contractor they’re looking for. However, the important part that most overlook is the actual ‘remodeling’ process. Remodeling can become quite inconvenient, because you’re still living in the house, while it is being torn down and built up simultaneously. A lot of families, especially the large ones, feel like they’ve been hit by a hurricane and eventually get very tired and irritated with the entire process. Here’s what you can do to make things easier:

1. With your contractor, chalk out areas of the house that the family can use and ones that will be worked on, phase by phase. Explain these areas to the family.
2. Keep essential items that your family will need in these areas, and move all other items, including furniture out – in your basement or garage.
3. A few days, or weeks before the remodeling begins, ask friends and relatives if you could use their basement or garage to store all the furniture that you will need to move out. Arrange for packers and movers or some neighborhood help.
4. Make sure the contractor explains to his workers which areas are off limits. Also make sure that the workers know if you want them not to smoke, drink, blare music or swear when they’re working in your house.
5. Try and get someone to watch toddlers full-time, if you cannot. If you have a dog, leash train them, so that they won’t disturb the workers and harm themselves.

When you finally meet a few green remodeling contractors who fit your bill, you need to discuss certain things with them in order to know which one of them you would want to trust your house to. This is a crucial junction, at which you can do a lot to ensure that the remodeling project goes off smoothly, and you get exactly the house you want. Asking the right kind of questions will help you make this possible.

1. Can he provide References: Always check a contractor’s past clients. If possible, check out the homes he has remodeled. This will give you an idea about his style and also directly get to meet with the clients. It is also important that this past project happened in the near past.
2. Is he a member of any trade association: This will ensure that your contractor has a verifiable and authentic background.
3. Why he is in this business: Green building requires a certain type of contractor. He’s got to have some environmentalist streak in him, in order to be a genuine green builder. From his answer you will be able to judge if he seems to be the genuine type.
4. Will he also get permits if required: Almost always remodeling projects require permits from local authorities. If your contractor can offer this, then it’s a huge task taken off your shoulders.
The NARI website also provides a good list of questions that you could ask contractors before selecting one.

Remodeling – An Introduction

When it comes to going green, remodeling your home is your best bet. Remodeling is a little more intensive that renovating, which just means changing the look of the house; and a little less intensive than rebuilding, which changes the house altogether. Remodeling essentially changes the way the house works. This could also include changing the way the house looks or at times even changing the build of the house. Largely, however, the focus is on changing (for the better) the functioning of the house. And because the house is changing for the better, green is the only way to go!

Remodeling has efficiency and efficacy as its goal. Thus, the purpose of remodeling could be better utilization of space, better lighting, lowering consumption of electricity or better insulation. While trying to achieve these, remodeling pays careful attention to the prevalent weather conditions, the needs and comfort of the homeowners and the current plan of the house. A full fledged remodeling will change the heating and cooling system, the lighting and electric system, insulation, the plumbing system and if required, will also change the current plan of the house.

Green remodeling incorporates green building practices while introducing all these changes and is one of the best ways to ensure the home is entirely green. For green remodeling make sure your designer/builder is well-versed with green building techniques, preferably someone who has hands on experience with green building.

Using solar energy in any form in your house contributes in many ways to preserving and bettering the environment, and also the quality of indoor air and the home itself. With the way the environment is going down and fossil fuel prices are going up, energy efficient homes are the only kind of homes that can sustain in the 21st century and beyond.
Therefore, be it solar water heaters, lamps or an entire solar electric system – solar energy is an important step and consideration in making your home energy efficient.

Often though, creating a completely energy efficient requires extensive remodeling, in order to take care of heating, cooling, lighting, plumbing, insulation, electrical appliances and other things. This may not be feasible for everyone, and sure enough, isn’t, for many of our customers. Therefore we generally suggest homeowners who want to shift to an energy efficient to start by just adding solar panels, and a simple solar electric system. This takes a lot of burden off the environment and also your own budget in a threefold manner:

1. You are no longer using electricity produced fossil fuels to power your home (which is not very energy efficient either)
2. Although your home is still inefficient when it comes to energy, at least you’re using clean, renewable and home-made energy to power it.
3. You’re taking some measures to introduce energy efficiency without burning a hole in your pocket.