How green brings in the remodeling contracts

Last year, Don Ferrier of Ferrier Custom Homes and Ferrier Builders, the remodeling arm of his company, had his second best year on record in his 32 years of business. He attributes this success to green building and remodeling. Ferrier also received Best Green Home of the Year from the Dallas Builders Best Of awards. There were 52 companies being honored at the awards ceremony for various accomplishments, but between the time the winners were chosen and the time the awards were given out, seven of the evening’s winners had gone out of business. Not one of those seven companies was involved in green building; Ferrier doesn’t think this is a coincidence.

But with the building market hurting as it has been the past few years, and with a large inventory of new homes awaiting the return of buyers, more builders are finding work in remodeling. And more of these builders turned remodelers have found that people are deciding to stay in their homes and work on making them more comfortable, rather than selling for a loss.

More comfortable, in many cases, means going green. “We’re seeing an increase in the past two years of people wanting to remodel and stay in their homes,” Ferrier said. “It’s a very sustainable thing to do.”

A recent poll on BNmag.com showed that more than 31% of homebuilders believe that the green retrofit of existing homes will be one of the best bets for pulling builders out of the recession. The No.1 choice for what builders believed would help pull themselves up with their own bootstraps, with 51% of the votes, was highend remodeling. But now, more than ever, homeowners have the option of paying a builder for a high-end remodel and still have all the benefits of green. And with government incentives in the form of tax breaks for retrofitting homes with more energy-efficient materials, now is a better time than ever before to get into the green remodeling game.

Sealing the envelope

One of the key features in a green home is a tight building envelope. Not only will this help customers save money on energy bills, but it is essential to creating a comfortable living space.

When facing a remodel, often a customer is not looking to tear their home down to the studs and start over. For these customers, spray foam insulation is a good option. Spray foam will help add insulation, especially in attic or crawl spaces where heat is often lost, without having to completely tear down the walls.

It your customer is adding on to a home, SIPs are a great option. Not only do they provide a tight building envelope and high R-value, but they are quick and easy to work with, minus a small learning curve. In our February story on ICFs and SIPs (“Alt Build”) one builder we spoke with said due to code he had to make one of the four walls of a house he was working on a 2x6 wall. He added blown-in foam and closed-cell insulation, and then put on OSB sheeting and a 1/2-inch of foam with taped seams to try and re-create the same tight building envelope he gets with SIPs. In the end, the wall took twice as long, cost more, and didn’t perform nearly as well as the other three SIP walls he had put in place.

“SIPs are one of the best choices for air tightness,” said Ferrier. “If they have a roof line that’s going to change, put in a SIP roof. Roof insulation is four times more important that wall insulation. If they’re not moving any walls, spray foam is the second-best choice.” To continue with your task of building a tight envelope and a more comfortable living environment for your client, think windows and doors. When it comes to windows, the more panes the better. For doors, look into option with a high blower door rating.

Outside looking in

Paying attention to indoor air quality, which can include the choices for wall and floor coverings in living spaces such as family rooms and bedrooms, is an easy way to score some green points. We all know the tighter the building envelope, the harder it is to get fresh air into the home and stale air out. HVAC systems and heat recovery ventilators (HRVs) are great options to ensure fresh air is brought into the home as efficiently as possible. But while your customers may know how important it is to bring fresh air into the home, they may not know how important it is to get rid of the air trapped inside the home, and how toxic the air could be. Take the time to explain to them the benefits of an efficient HVAC system. “Focus a lot on energy efficiency because that is what hits people in the pockets,” said Ferrier. “Once you start making a house tight and efficient, you have to choose your products carefully or you’re polluting the indoor air.”

If your customer isn’t too sure how important indoor air quality is, ask them if they can imagine the smell of freshly painted walls or laid carpet. Those are two smells that stick with people—why? Those smells are incredibly toxic. Even after the smell begins to fade, the paints and carpet will continue to off-gas. If your customers are looking to change the colors of the walls in their home, suggest low- to no-VOC paints. Carpeting is another area to go green. There are plenty of low to no-VOC carpets. Not only will these carpets not off-gas, but many are made out of recycled plastic bottles.

If your customers are looking for a unique wall covering, there are plenty of green plasters and wall coverings that can add a lot of character to a room without adding toxins into the air.

Shaylee Oleson, owner of Eco Shaylee, LLC, and a building biologist and Green Startrained professional, claims that not only are green plasters great for IAQ, but they also help regulate the temperature in the house.

Cooking green

The kitchen is another great area of the home to do quick and easy green changes. One simple option is to add all Energy Star appliances. This will drastically cut down on your customer’s energy and water bills, and this is a saving they will start to see right away. Energy Star washers and dryers are another great choice. Low-flow faucets in the kitchen and bathroom will help cut down on water waste and costs.

For countertops, a lot of customers like the look of granite, but the process of mining granite and then turning it into a countertop is far from a green process. Many companies have begun making recycled-glass countertops that offer the same look and feel as granite. These countertops come in a variety of different colors and styles and are a great green option. Recycled concrete and/or aluminum countertops are also growing in popularity.

When it comes to flooring, recycled concrete makes a solid pick. Not only does concrete look great as flooring, but it is a great passive solar option, especially if there are south-facing windows.

If your customers are looking for wood flooring, talk to them about bamboo. Not only does bamboo look better than manufactured wood products, but it is also an incredibly sustainable option. Cork is another flooring that is growing in popularity. “Cork is soft and warm underfoot,” said Oleson. “It grows quite fast, and they don’t need to cut down the tree to use it.” With cabinets, the most important thing to look out for, in Oleson’s opinion, is formaldehyde. Formaldehyde-free cabinets will cut down on the toxins in your client’s air.

The emerald shower

The bathroom offers many of the same green options as the kitchen in the way of flooring, countertops and low-flow faucets.

Toilets bring a few more green options to the table. Dual-flush toilets are a smart choice for those looking to replace an old toilet, but if the customer isn’t in the market to buy an entirely new toilet, there are products on the market that convert most toilets made after the early ’90s into a dual-flush toilet.

Bathrooms also have the potential to cause some serious indoor air quality problems, and if a customer is looking to remodel their bathroom, most likely they are trying to remedy a mold problem. If they are not, help them prevent a mold problem by adding a ceiling or exhaust fan. Make sure the fan is properly vented; it must take the moisture out of the house to prevent mold issues in an attic space. Multiple-choice green Like any home remodeling project, there are endless add-ons that a customer could choose to make their home more energy efficient.

“The list of what can be done to a house to make it green is very long,” said Ferrier. “There have been a lot of advancements in the efficiency of air-conditioners and solar hot water.” Not only has the quality and efficiency gotten better, according to Ferrier, but so has the price. Thanks to rebates, customers can now afford some of the high-end green products, such as tankless hot water heaters or photovoltaic solar. And while these are still far from cheap addons to a remodel, they are sure to save the homeowner money in energy and water costs. Lighting is another area of the home to save on energy costs. Breakthroughs in LEDs have allowed for greater energy efficiency. “You save much more energy with LEDs over compact fluorescents, and they don’t have mercury in them,” said Oleson.

Home automation systems are another good way to place your entire home on an energy-saving schedule. This will not only allow you customers to program when and where their lights will run, and at what brightness, but it will also allow them to program heating and cooling schedules.

Back to the basics

The old rule of reduce, reuse, recycle is also a great mantra for green remodeling. Any remodel is going to have materials that are torn out. Try finding a place for those materials in different spots of the house. Old wood floors could make a great outdoor fence. Old ceiling beams could make great new wood floors.

Stefan Cafiso of Cafiso Designs, based in New York City, does a lot of remodels using reclaimed materials. “I get old rafters from buildings, Cafiso said. “They’re huge, so you can make tables out of them or countertops, and they make a really interesting material to work with. I oftentimes get 3x6 beams, and you only need three-quarters of an inch for a hardwood floor, so you can get three strips from one beam. They look great, and it’s very cost-effective. I’m buying one beam, but I’m using it three times.”

Whether your client is looking to renovate a home that is a 100 years old or simply to retrofit a drafty home they bought brand-new just a few years ago, there are plenty of options to make their remodel a green remodel. While surveying your customer’s house, don’t hesitate to show areas of their house where green materials can be plugged in. While your customer may not be looking to remodel their entire home, you’ll be delightfully surprised just how much they decide to remodel once you show them the long-term savings involved in going green.