Durable and sustainable exterior cladding

The exterior cladding at the Neuhaus is Resysta, a durable and environmentally-friendly product that serves as a great alternative to wood. Unlike wood, it does not fade over time, absorb moisture, or allow pest infestations. It's fiber-reinforced hybrid material produced of approximately 60% rice husks, 22% common salt and 18% mineral oil. These are rapidly renewable materials and therefore will earn the project 0.5 LEED points in the Environmentally Preferable Products category. 

Neuhaus, New Year - Update & Features

Things are moving along well. The Standing Seam Metal Roof installation is almost complete. This roofing color has a high Solar Reflective Index to reduce solar heat gain for the home, keeping it more comfortable in summer months and reducing any need for air conditioning (think "cool roof".) The metal is composed of recycled material, and in itself the roof is recyclable. Metal roofs also have a much longer lifetime than other types of roofs, such as composite shingles.

The second phase of stucco, "Brown Coat", has been completed and we are waiting the minimum 28-days of curing before we apply the final "color coat."

The shotcrete phase of the pool construction will be starting this week. This pool is being constructed by New Era Pools and will feature technology by Wellspring Water Technologies. The pool equipment uses around 30% of the energy used by other efficient pool systems, and best of all the pool will be chemical and salt free. The water in this pool is so clean and pure that it will be drinkable, and of far better quality than most people's indoor water in San Diego (due to the revolutionary technology by Wellspring.) Wellspring will also provide the treatment of both indoor water and landscaping water.

Landscaping water requirements will primarily come from recycled greywater from the home. We are finalizing the design for this system, and intend on sharing that design with others to make approvals through city jurisdictions much simpler. The backbone of the system will be constructed with materials from ReWater. The greywater reclamation/irrigation system is being designed and installed by our AGB Team member, Bill Wilson.

Inside the home, we have completed drywall installation and sprayed the drywall with Low-VOC oil-based primer by Zinnser. We have also painted the wood windows with ultra-low Dunn-Edwards "Evershield" premium paint which resists sun-fade (thus will not need repainting for many years).

We are currently moving into "finishes" phase with installation of cabinetry and tile. On target to complete the home by late March, 2017.

LEED Awareness & Education

Creating public awareness of the features and benefits of a LEED project is an integral part of the LEED for Homes process. It invites the public to learn more about the residential green building movement and possibly to make positive changes in their homes or workplaces.

In the Awareness & Education category, we will achieve 1 point for Public Awareness by choosing to complete at least 3 out of the 4 options:

• Publish a website that provides detailed information about features and benefits of a LEED home. (You're reading it now!)
• Display LEED for Homes signage. (Check out the sign below)
• Generate a newspaper article for LEED for Homes (Please check back in closer to final)
• Hold a public open house or participate in a green building exhibition or tour (We will see!)

Here is our LEED for Homes signage (Wave Crest is AGB's parent company):

Locations and Linkages

Today we are going to talk about the second of eight LEED categories within the certification system - Location & Linkages. The complete list of 8 categories is:

1. Innovation & Design
2. Location & Linkages
3. Sustainable Sites
4. Water Efficiency
5. Energy & Atmosphere
6. Materials & Resources
7. Indoor Environmental Quality
8. Awareness & Education

The Location & Linkages credits reward builders and homeowners for selecting sites that have more sustainable land-use patterns and offer environmental advantages over conventional developments. The idea is to minimize construction on undeveloped land, increase walkability, and utilize existing infrastructure. There are 10 credits available in this category and they are all intrinsic to the project site - and the Neuhaus project qualifies for all 10! Some of these points include:

• Walkable distance to community resources such as convenience stores, schools, medical centers, restaurants, etc.
• Building on a site that is previously developed and is close to existing water and sewer lines
• Access to open spaces such as public parks

In "green building" we often think of materials used and building techniques but forget about the elements inherent site. However, improving existing sites instead of building on undeveloped land as well as reducing the need for cars as transportation are two important ways that buildings can greatly reduce their environmental impact!

Framing progress

The Neuhaus framing is coming along and scheduled to finish next week. Next up - Water main, plumbing, electrical, and HVAC!

The Benefits of Deconstruction

We are pursuing "Deconstruction" on this project, rather than "Demolition", with our friends at The ReUse People of America. 

Deconstruction is a Win-Win-Win: 1) Where possible, materials will be re-used, and that means less material going to the landfill;  2) Re-Used materials go to both partner organizations such as Habitat For Humanity, and to a retail sales outlet where folks can buy used materials at great prices; 3) The homeowner gets a great Tax Deduction as a "Non-Cash Charitable Contribution" which greatly offsets the entire cost of deconstruction.

Remaining materials from deconstruction primarily go to recycling centers, such as the EDCO transfer station in Escondido, or to Moody's where demolished concrete gets recycled.  Very little is transported to a conventional landfill. 

This holds true also for materials generated from the construction portion of the project: We stockpile construction waste materials for hauling to the recycling centers.  We even keep conventional weekly trash pickup service to recycle smaller materials generated from worker's lunches and that sort of thing.

Blower Door Test Results for "Before" Remodel

We thought it would be a great idea to see just how "leaky" the home is before we began the process of remodeling the home.  A Blower Door Test pressurizes, and depressurizes, a home to see how much air infiltration there is ("leakiness" of a home to air.)  In our temperate, coastal San Diego climate zone we find that adding a higher level of thermal efficiency to a home is not going to make nearly as much difference to the thermal comfort and energy efficiency as making the home more airtight.  By improving thermal efficiency, think more insulation, thicker walls, and higher performance doors and windows.  Think expensive, also.

Well, the existing structure is so leaky that we couldn't even pressurize the home to the required standard of 50 Pascals in order to do the test (a Pascal is a unit of pressure.)  We could only get it up to 43 Pascals at the highest airflow rate that the Blower Door could provide, 3,175 cfm.  That means that we were blowing 3,175 cubic feet of air into the home and that same air was leaking out of the "envelope" (floors, walls, and ceiling/roof.)  Not up the chimney, not through the bathroom ventilation, etc., we sealed those areas off.  This home was like swiss cheese.  

All that air infiltration would have made for a far less comfortable home than we will be rebuilding it into.  And to make up for that lack of comfort in the heating season, a lot of heating was probably required.  And all that heat would have kept going out the holes of the swiss cheese structure. Wasted energy, wasted money.

We will be performing additional Blower Door Testing during certain phases of construction to see how much we improve the efficiency of the envelope.  Stay tuned!

Positive pressurization attempt results