Builder George Rodgers affectionately calls his friend Fred Nowicki, a masonry contractor, “a real tree-hugger” and there is evidence of that philosophy in the two houses on which they are collaborating in a modest neighborhood of northwest Indiana.
Aiming to build “environmentally correct” houses, the duo is using reinforced masonry construction–a special face brick with a core that allows for steel rebar reinforcement–to make a durable building shell that eliminates the need for wood framing common in a typical brick home.
Inside the house the builders have opted for engineered wood products where possible and are using steel studs and floor tiles of recycled glass. The front porch has a decking material made of recycled wood fibers and plastic bottles.
The result, say the builders, is a durable, energy-efficient abode which will require minimal exterior maintenance for years.
The Hoosiers are not the only ones looking to build “green,” a broadly defined term that includes innovations in energy efficiency, landscaping practices, the use of recycled and recyclable building materials, and materials and methods that improve the quality of the indoor environment.
Builders in the Chicago area and elsewhere are adopting “green” measures thanks to consumer demand, nudging from government and a winter of sky-high energy costs.
Professional Builder magazine found in a recent survey that energy efficiency is the No. 1 upgrade buyers want in a new house. And at the recent 2001 International Homebuilders Show in Atlanta, Palatine-based Bigelow Homes was honored by the National Association of Home Builders Research Center for the company’s work in energy-efficient home design.
Bigelow began giving homeowners a guarantee on annual heating costs 20 years ago, one of the first builders in the country do so. Currently, new home buyers are promised that annual heating costs will not exceed $400 for the first three years they own the home.
President Perry Bigelow concedes the jump in energy prices may mean the company will have to make good that guarantee to some homeowners this year. Still the company claims most homeowners in the early winter months recorded monthly heating bills of $100 to $150 for two-story homes averaging 2,000 square feet.
Other builders are following suit. Cambridge Homes, based in Libertyville, is offering Energy Star homes in two active adult communities–Carillon Lakes in Crest Hill and Forest Glen in Carol Stream–and at Cambridge in the Glen in Glenview.
The Energy Star program, introduced in 1992 by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, promises homes at least 30 percent more energy efficient than the typical home complying with the National Model Energy Code. Each home is tested by a third party and given a 1 (poor) to 5 (very efficient) rating for its energy efficiency.
To achieve this, Cambridge started with several new designs and re-thought how the house is put together, says David Smith, vice-president of marketing and product development.
“We look at the house as a system rather than a number of pieces put together,” he explains.
Before any home is sold, it is tested for energy efficiency by an independent third-party.
Home buyers, he said, are given a “detailed analysis . . . which will include estimated (energy) cost.”
The company started the program in its active adult communities because “the comfort in the home is a big deal” to older people and energy costs are important to those living on fixed incomes, he notes.
It will be standard for all homes built at Cambridge in the Glen in Glenview and will be expanded to other Cambridge projects in the future.
William Ryan Homes, based in Schaumburg, is introducing a new program called Certified PLUS Home, which also promises to reduce energy use and bills by up to 30 percent compared to standard built homes.
Ryan’s program, available in eight of the builder’s communities, was developed by CertainTeed Corp., a leading insulation manufacturer that provides materials to numerous Chicago area builders.
During construction, representatives of E.I.C., an energy engineering firm which has teamed with CertainTeed, conduct tests for each living area. The builder then follows specifications to complete each living space.
A guarantee on energy
Tests are conducted again after the home is complete and the buyer receives an estimate of the residence’s heating and cooling costs for the first three years. If more energy is used during that time, the home owner will be reimbursed.
The interest in energy efficiency is no surprise to David Johnston, a former builder whose Boulder, Colo., company called What’s Working, consults with building suppliers and municipalities, including Chicago, on “green” building.
“Energy tends to be the second largest cost of a home” after the mortgage, says Johnston, a self-described “bird dog” of green building who got a solar engineering degree from Southern Illinois University in the 1970s and once worked for the U. S. Department of Energy.
Home heating and cooling efficiency is achieved through a combination of tight building construction, efficient and well-insulated mechanical systems and appliances.
Also critical to such efficiency is wise window selection and following a host of insulating details.
Energy efficiency, uppermost in many minds because of the recent spike in costs, is not enough to make a home “green,” Johnston points out.
“Green” housing is energy-efficient, resource-efficient– using products that are recycled or renewable–and has high indoor environmental quality. All three criteria must work in harmony.
” There is a guy in New Mexico who had the concept of recycling tires into homes, ” Johnston notes. “Right idea, wrong solution because vulcanized rubber off-gases for the life of the tire.” In other words, indoor air quality suffers.
Interest in green building is exploding, he says, and not just from buyers.
New York City, Los Angeles and Boulder, Colo. are among the cities which have developed municipal green rules.
Chicago seeks guidelines
Chicago’s Departments of Housing and Environments are funding a Green Homes for Chicago pilot project to underwrite the building of five affordable houses this year. Some of what is learned in this project will be incorporated into guidelines for future housing.
“We should be doinggreen because it is the logical step for the future,” says Karen J. Gordon, environmental engineer and project manager for the Department of Environment. “It will minimize (building) impact on the environment. Our resources are dwindling . . . Every year the costs for maintaining our homes is increasing. It just makes common sense.”
Definitions of what constitutes green building vary, however.
The most stringent standard is for commercial buildings from the United States Green Building Council, a trade association based in Washington, D.C., according to Johnston.
Dubbed the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) system, it is “like getting a UL (Underwriters Laboratories) seal,” says the consultant. “It’s a long and expensive process.” A LEED system for residential building is now being developed.
With interest burgeoning, builders groups and individual builders have undertaken their own projects, in some cases, to highlight “green” practices and products they already use or are adopting.
The Denver Metro Homebuilders Association has the country’s biggest program. The plan lists 130 features of a “green” home. Put together any combination of at least 38 elements in a house and it qualifies for “Built Green” certification. About 3,000 Denver-area homes , built by some of the nation’s largest production builders, won that designation last year.
Glen Ellyn Health House
In the Chicago area, Palatine-based Sevvonco Inc. Builders and Remodelers is constructing the Millennium II home in Glen Ellyn.
Begun in August 2000, the 14,500-square-foot residence will be a designated Health House when completed this summer.
The Health House is a national education program created by the American Lung Association of Minnesota to raise standards and awareness for better indoor environments.
The Millennium II–the first Health House built in Illinois–is to demonstrate materials and building products that are less toxic and environmentally friendly as well the latest in energy efficiency.
The residence, which has a buyer and is being sold for more than $2.5 million, is expected to be open for a limited time to the public as a showcase after completion this summer.
On a more modest scale, builders Rodgers and Nowicki in Indiana have collaborated with the Lake County (Ind.) Solid Waste Management District to find and highlight recycled products in the two houses they are building in Highland.
The agency has had an award-winning resource conservation and recycling program for the last decade. It now has begun promoting the purchase of products made of recycled materials to the public.
From August through December, 2000, for example, any Lake County homeowner who showed receipts for building a deck, at least 10-by-10 feet, with a product made of recycled materials, would get a $500 check .
The first of the two houses Rodgers and Nowicki are building has won a 5-star Energy Star energy efficiency rating, reports Rodgers.
Nowicki says his masonry method’s durability, ease of maintenance and lumber savings provide a viable alternative to the wood frame housing so common in the Chicago area.
The houses, each with 1,750 square feet of living space and priced about at $175,000 including lot, may lack some “green” features, Nowicki concedes.
The contractor is a partner in Dunes Country at Furnessville, a 300-home and commercial development expected to break ground shortly near the Indiana Dunes State Park.
Lessons learned in building the Highland houses will be used “extensively” there, says Nowicki.
