Naturally Green

Green building is an approach to building that guides the design and construction of a home to provide energy efficiency, conservation of natural resources and high indoor air quality. Many conventional building techniques are wasteful and haphazard with too little forethought given to the comfort and efficiency of a house. We begin working with our customers at the design stage and endeavor to incorporate as many green building principles as they desire. This begins with siting the new house on their property to take full advantage of the sun and other environmental factors specific to the building site. We then look at the materials available for construction and strive to use as many energy- efficient, healthy, durable and sustainable products as possible. Here are a few of the components we will suggest when constructing a green home:

• Insulation products that are healthy and formaldehyde-free and exceed minimum code requirements in the walls and roof.
• Structural insulated panels.
• Low-E windows that use wood from Sustainable Forestry Initiative certified mills and exceed code requirements on window U-values.
• Design with the sun in mind, including roughing-in plumbing and electric for solar panels (or future solar panels).
• High-efficiency condensing boilers and furnaces with variable speed blowers. We can also install ground source heat pumps for heating and cooling, if desired (Geothermal).
• Whole house air-exchangers and heat recovery systems.
• Recycled roofing products.
• Healthy paints and finishes.
• Energy star appliances.

These are a few of the items in a green building approach that can be used in the construction of a new home that will and insure that the house will reach its full potential for durability, efficiency and comfort and be very rewarding for the homeowner.