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What are builders in your area doing about building green?

By Charlie Hamilton

Home Builder with Suncrest Homes

September 09, 2011 09:48 AM

What are builders in your area doing about building green? dirt

In Southern Oregon, Suncrest Homes follows the green building standards of Earth Advantage®, the 3rd largest independent certification program. We have to do about 50 different things to our homes in order for them to be certified--for example, higher insulation values, better windows, tighter construction, products with lower toxicity, and lower moisture content in the wood used.

All of this is verified through a series of additional inspections, including a blower door test in which they pressurize the house to confirm how tight and well insulated it is.

Our Earth Advantage program costs between $4-6K we decided to wrap this cost into our sales price instead of making building green and optional item.

In the last three years we have sold over 30 homes, I believe building green has been one of the factors.

What are builders in your area doing?

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Andrew Herren

Craig Massee Real Estate - Milledgeville, GA

It is moving slow in the deep south. In Georgia we are not even enforcing the 2009 energy codes yet. I do testing for The University of Georgia as a BPI building analyst and HERS rater, but if I didn't have that job I would starve. I personally own a blower door (to depressurize) and other testing equipment and I can't give the tests away. My personal home is only four years old, but since working in this program I have cut my power bill almost in half by simply tightening up and air sealing. I am currently working on LEED Green Associate now and I will say that I wish there were more builders like you! Glad to know you are doing well with your business!

Sep 09, 2011 09:57 AM

Barbara Todaro

Keller Williams Elite - Franklin, MA

"connecting land with builders"

Hi Charlie....welcome to ActiveRain.....my team and I market new construction in Franklin MA....our builders, unfortunately, are not focused on building green.....they use some sustainable products, but not enough in my opinion.....after the market crashed, the goal was to sell the remaining product as quickly as possible with the help and patience of the bank....they're all taking a loss on their communities....we are marketing 4 of them at this time and another one is on the way....after the slate is clean, I hope to see more building green from our builders....first steps first!!!

Sep 09, 2011 09:58 AM

Charlie Hamilton

Suncrest Homes - Ashland, OR

Suncrest Homes, Custom Home Builder - Southern Oregon

Thanks Andrew, hopefully the LEED assciate will start paying off for you, thank goodness for U of G in the meantime!

Charlie

Sep 09, 2011 12:26 PM

Barbara, I get it when you are trying to clean the slate it's hard to try new things. On the next round I'm sure we will all start to see it more.

Sep 09, 2011 12:29 PM

Edward D. Nikles

Ed Nikles Custom Builder , Inc. / Nikles Realty , Inc. - Milford, PA

Charlie , here in Northeast PA we are one of the few builders who have built any Green Homes . I've built 3 through NAHB Green Building Guidelines ( 2 Gold & 1 Silver ) & we're building our 1st one underneath the ICC-700 now . Our market has been devasted by the economic downturn & Green Building is how we try to differentiate between new homes & used homes , which are priced much less . Most Realtors push used homes on price , while we can only sell the benefits of new Energy Efficient Green Homes . Ed

Dec 17, 2011 09:56 AM

Ed, I agree it has helped set us apart as well, there is enough variety in the program to appeal to almost everyone: monthly energy savings, healthier home to live in, using less wood and materials or the recycling program.

Glad to hear you are having some success with it as well.

Dec 17, 2011 10:05 AM

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Charlie Hamilton

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