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Building One Of The First LEED^® Homes in Massachusetts

About a-year-and-a-half ago, I was contacted by a potential customer, Margie Lynch, who wanted to build a new home for herself on family property. To be more specific, she wanted to build a “green” home and for it to be LEED^® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified. She asked if I, as a design builder, was interested in attempting to guide her through the arduous LEED-certification process while building her home.

I told her I was interested in being her builder for several reasons: first, she was referred to us by a friend, and referrals often lead to the best customers; second, she wanted to build a custom home, which is our forte; and third, she wanted to build it “green,” which we care deeply about. I also knew the challenge would lead to much learning, growth, and an opportunity to differentiate our company.

We were to be participating in the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED for Homes Pilot Demonstration. The USGBC is the nation’s foremost coalition of leaders from across the building industry, working to promote buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable, and healthy places to live and work. The LEED Green Building Rating System is a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance sustainable buildings.

Over several meetings and discussions about what Margie wanted and how she defined a “green” home, we came to a mutual point of trust and comfort. Margie hired Two Storey Building prior to the design and estimating stages. As a builder, this was the best time to get involved in the full spectrum of learning and knowledge to be gained from this project.

Margie’s concerns included wanting to minimize the impact on the environment and her building lot, to build a small home, to make careful product and material selections, to minimize waste generated by the construction of the home to obtain ENERGY STAR® qualification as a minimum recognition of energy efficiency, and to ultimately achieve LEED certification for the home. She had a simple two-story layout that she wanted incorporated into a finished Georgian-style home. We reviewed the layout and encouraged her to make some design changes that would maximize efficiency of the small floor plan. We suggested that she move the stairs to a center location to ensure an efficient use of space and a smooth flow from one floor to the others. She decided on an open floor plan of an entry foyer, dining room, living room, kitchen, and powder room on the first floor, and two bedrooms, a full bath, and a large walk-in closet that could later be converted to a third bedroom on the second floor. The attic had a pull-down stair and room for much storage and a heat recovery ventilation unit (HRV). The full basement would have a conditioned mechanical room, a laundry area, a bulkhead exit, and more room for storage or future growth. The footprint was 24 x 26 feet, or 624 square feet per floor. It is pretty small by today’s standards. In fact, it is less than half of the typical home built in 2006. This would be a critical component of the LEED certification. Building a home that is smaller than the national average is one of the criteria for collecting points in the rating system. Not only was she willing to go smaller, but she also felt strongly that she didn’t need some of the other features of a typical home, such as an attached garage, air conditioning, and an irrigation system. These too are features that must be addressed in the LEED certification process. Attached garages can lead to indoor air quality issues, air conditioning uses much energy and must be efficient, and irrigation uses much water. Margie eliminated these concerns right at the onset by choosing to forego them. Once we had the interior layout set, we began adding features to the exterior profile to achieve the Georgian style she sought. We incorporated large overhangs in the soffits, which also lessens solar heat gain in the summer months, built-out trim to allow for a rain screen behind the siding, a simple rear entry, and a more formal covered front entry with multiple layers of moldings. She took pictures of details she liked on houses she had seen, and we tried to simulate some of those looks through our own design process. We carefully evaluated different framing options for the house. Margie was interested in looking into Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) for framing. The panels are two layers of oriented strand boards (OSB) laminated to a core of expanded polystyrene (EPS) insulation. These panels provide an effective thermal resistance through increased R values of the panels (R 24 for a 6-inch wall), reduced air leakage due to its closed cavity design and sealing of all seams, and long-term structural integrity. The panels are manufactured in a factory setting and are installed much more quickly than traditional stick framing, with substantially less job site waste. Our LEED/ENERGY STAR provider, Conservation Services Group of Westborough, was very enthusiastic about the SIPs option and ran the two framing scenarios through their energy-modeling software. The SIPs’ design was more energy efficient under the model, but not substantially so. Margie’s ultimate decision to go with SIPs was primarily based on the reduced job site waste, despite the extra cost to go this route (27 percent, see below).

Once the design concept was formulated, we sent it to Panel Pros of Keene, New Hampshire. After a review of several Structural Insulated Panel (SIPs) manufacturers, we had selected Panel Pros as our SIP partner. In addition to producing our frame, they did all of the structure engineering necessary to transform our design into plans that could be built out of their product. This also allowed us to avoid the use of an architect at a substantial additional cost. We would use 6-inch thick panels for the walls and 8-inch thick panels for the roof.

Having finalized the design, we moved on to educating ourselves about the LEED rating system and the process by which it would be implemented. The LEED certification process was started by our geeting with Conservation Services Group, Inc., the local consulting and review nonprofit partner for the LEED program and a review of LEED guidelines. A Project Checklist was filled out to determine categories in the development process for inclusion in the program rating system. This checklist includes eight categories: Location and Linkages, Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Indoor Environmental Quality, Materials and Resources, Energy and Atmosphere, Homeowner Awareness, and Innovation and Design Process. The builder must also fill out a detailed Durability Checklist to determine building practices that will work toward the program goals.

Our home was to be built in a relatively rural area, so some of the checklist items that relate to more urban construction were not applicable. We could not achieve points for compact housing density or even being close to existing municipal sewer and water. We were sited within one-half mile of green spaces, and we did minimize the disturbed area of the site, despite having to put in a septic system and well. We installed fencing clearly demarking “no disturb areas.” We did not touch over 66 percent of the site.

Landscaping requires limiting turf and water demand. Our site was a former apple orchard, and we decided to leave the wild field grass, install a permeable gravel driveway with no pavement, and not install any sprinkler systems. We also would install a rainwater barrel for harvesting precipitation for any necessary irrigation.

We also received points for our indoor air quality. This would include automatic timer controls for the bathroom exhaust fans, and outdoor air ventilation and supply air distribution with an HRV system. A radon protection system was a mandatory element of the LEED certification for our region.

Siding would be installed over a rain screen by running vertical strapping underneath and allowing for water drainage through weep holes in the bottom.

Windows and doors would have superior U values and added Low E coatings on the Argon gasfilled double-pane glass. The windows were ENERGY STAR labeled.

Margie had asked to include in our contract that ENERGY STAR-labeled items would be selected whenever they were an option. As a result, we installed ENERGY STAR thermostats, ceiling fans, dishwasher, refrigerator, clothes washer, and compact fluorescent light bulbs.

We also would install a high-efficiency (94 percent) Buderus propane boiler for the heating system using an under-floor radiant heat distribution throughout the house, and programmable thermostats. The radiant heat industry claims this system is 25 percent more efficient than typical heating systems. A super-insulated super storage tank would supply the hot water.

Water conservation was addressed through the purchase of ultra low-flow toilets (1.1 and 1.4 gpf), an aerator on the bathroom faucet, and a low-flow showerhead (1.5 gpm).

Material selections were critical to the process. We would use materials that are Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified (all interior millwork) and locally produced white pine flooring, 100 percent recycled plastic lumber for the deck and porch (made of HDPE [high-density polyethylene] from recycled milk cartons), cellulose and formaldehydefree insulations, and low-VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) paints and finishes. The counters came from recycled bowling land material that had been stored in a barn for years and resemble maple butcher block when finished.

One of the biggest challenges facing the builder was a requirement that the waste from this project that was to be sent to a landfill not exceed three pounds per square foot of building space. This is less than half of the amount generated in a typical new house construction project. Through careful research, the Institution Recycling Network (IRN) of Concord, New Hampshire was identified as the recycling and waste removal partner for this project. Also, all subcontractors were required to recycle their applicable waste. We held planning meetings and printed recycling signage that was posted on the job site. We set up labeled recycling bins on site. We separated cardboard, metal, gypsum, wood, and other waste. The detailed waste-reduction report compiled by IRN showed that 94 percent of the construction waste on this project was recycled, including 100 percent of the gypsum waste.

Cost consideration is a hot topic in “green” building. Significant systems, such as geothermal heating and photovoltaic power, cost considerably more initially and offer a payback in energy savings over their lifetimes. Our project did not incorporate either of these systems, as the budget would not allow it, although we did consider and research photovoltaic systems and solar hot water generation, both for domestic hot water and space heating.

We did make some material selections that had added costs. I tracked the cost of the major additional costs and compared them to conventional costs. I determined the added cost was 5.7 percent more on the total cost of the home, including the LEED certification fees. I think most homeowners will gladly pay 5 to 10 percent more for a better product. It does cost more, but it doesn’t have to be an inordinate amount.

We actually built the house in our normal six-month time frame, but it took several months on the front end for planning, and several more on the back end for the approvals to come through from the rating consultants.

From the builder’s perspective, this was a rewarding and enlightening learning experience. Much time was spent gathering and reviewing information into the sustainable building procedures and sustainable material selections. Also, many of our subcontracting partners embraced this new approach.

Two Storey Building grew tremendously through the process of completing this LEED-certified home. This project has resulted in some new standard procedures for our company on all future projects. It was certified LEED Silver, the first home so certified in Massachusetts, and ENERGY STAR 5 plus with a HERS Index of 59. Margie reports that she uses approximately 175 kilowatt hours of electricity per month and an average of 34 gallons of propane per month over the course of the year. These amounts are significantly lower than the average home.

It was one of the first residential LEED-certified projects in Massachusetts, and our final checklist showed that we achieved the following points in the rating system:

• Building within one-half mile of green spaces.
• Limiting turf and water demand.
• Permeable paving materials and installing erosion controls.
• Non-toxic pest control measures.
• High-efficiency fixtures, including low-flow toilets and water-restricting devices.
• Including a heat-recovery ventilation system and automatic timers on the bathroom exhaust fans.
• Third-party testing of indoor air quality.
• No garage in contact with the home.
• Home that is smaller than national average.
• Advanced framing techniques.
• Waste reduction.
• Utilizing materials produced within 500 miles of the site.
• Third-party verification of the durability plan.
• Use of FSC-certified, reused, and ENERGY STAR home rating below national averages.
• ENERGY STAR appliances.
• No ozone depletion from AC sources.
• Comprehensive owner’s manual, walkthrough, and training on systems.

We achieved LEED Silver with 53 points, and we did it at a reasonable cost. It did cost more, but not an exorbitant amount. While many “green” building practices do cost more in the short run, many will also more than pay for themselves over time as a result of higher energy efficiency. We built the home in a normal time frame, although the rating process did take a while longer. Our customer, Margie Lynch, has the home she wanted, built using sustainable practices, and at a reasonable cost.

Most importantly, we partnered together, builder and homeowner, to do our part to build better, utilize the latest and best building technologies and practices, and create a healthy home environment that is sensitive to its impact on our community and our world. We enjoyed the process and learned to be a better builder along the way. That is what I call a win-win!

The Author

Doug Storey is the Managing Partner of Two Storey Building, a custom builder from Bolton, Massachusetts. Two Storey Building constructs custom homes and fine remodeling projects in the greater metropolitan Boston area. Doug Storey is a member of the NAHB; the Builder’s Association of Greater Boston (BAGB), the Custom Building and Remodeling Council, and the Sustainable Building Committee of BAGB and has been published in Journal Of Light Construction and Remodeling Magazine, among other publications. He is a member of the Bolton Planning Board and a founder of the Bolton Affordable Housing Partnership. Doug can be reached at 617 438 0313 or destorey@comcast.net /www.twostoreybuilding.com.