Builder Bob Sense-Builders build themselves Green Homes!
December 16, 2009
Checking the Duct Work
- Green Dean and Associated Contractors
Continuing with the thought processes of building Green as it applies to Home Builders, let us look quickly at a highly publicized, commercially successful Green Building Program, LEED. Why do builders, owners and tenants subject themselves to LEED’s burdensome program documentation requirements? The answer is long term ownership or occupancy. Home Builders build Homes and sell them. Commercial Builders build buildings for owners who are interested in return on investment and cost savings over a long haul. The owners or tenants themselves demand the LEED certification(Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). Why? They are investing substantial dollars in the building or space and are going to own or occupy that space/building for years to come. They must consider initial cost and future costs into their ownership/occupancy/investment equation and weigh the advantages and cost effectiveness over the long haul. A long term investment concerns itself with more than initial cost, it considers occupancy, maintenance and future worth.
Commercially and multi-family projects have another issue to address, one that gets a lot of negative publicity for a building when it rears its ugly head–indoor air quality(think mold). Occupants, lessee’s, and a litigious society demand the work/rental environment be healthy. Green building programs address not only energy conservation and sustainable building practices, but healthy indoor air concerns.
Ironically what holds true for commercial buildings, has long held true for home builders building their own home. What home builder do you know, who builds their own home, the one they are going to live in, without putting in the systems they know to work and work well? Visit a home builders own home and they brag about their HVAC efficiencies, the long lasting flooring, the good windows, the Solar Hot Water, etc., etc? They don’t skimp on anything that is going to cause them maintenance or replacement issues. And they do it cost effectively–they know good value from bad? How about a healthy indoor environment for their family? If they know it works and it is cost justifiable–they put it in their own home. Did you ever visit a builders home where they told you how cheap they did it?That they just built it to code? Remember code is the lowest standard you can build a house to and get a Certificate of Occupancy. In their own home, Builders put in the stuff they know is right. They understand that cost to value equation. That is their house and their investment and they are going to do it right. When they sell a home to another individual, there can be a callous lack of concern for occupancy and maintenance costs beyond the initial warranty. It ain’t the Builders Problem! That paradigm is rapidly changing.
Why haven’t builders put the smart, cost effective stuff in every home they build? One is they can’t explain the benefits to a potential buyer. Two is they don’t want to be bothered, as if a house sells by the same old methods, why change. Well it is changing. Consumers are demanding healthier, sustainable, energy efficient homes every day and it is the builder who incorporates this and explains the benefits well, that reaps the profit now and into the future. The concept and the demand is not going away.
Builder Bob Sense
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