This Old (green) House

• As Posted On www.thisoldhouse.com
  The architecture may be old at This Old House's new project in Austin, Texas, but the thinking is thoroughly modern. For the first time, the show is going totally "green"—using as many environmentally friendly building products and methods as possible—and creating a functional home for a contemporary blended family.
  
  The subject of the renovation is a 1926 Craftsman bungalow that owners Michael Klug, 38, co-founder of a hologram company, and Michele Grieshaber, 41, a marketing executive, are turning from a two-bedroom, one-bathroom house into one with four bedrooms and two baths. Michele has owned the house for the past decade, but the couple married this past April and need more room to accommodate their new family, which includes Michael's two sons, Sam, 13, and David, 11. Add in the possibility of another child in the future, and it becomes clear that a house built for the lifestyle of a 1920s family won't cut it for this 21st-century clan.
  
  That said, there are many things about the house's original design that the couple plans to preserve and honor. Built before the days of hulking McMansions with 24/7 air-conditioning, the compact house was built to use natural air flow, high rooflines, and deep overhanging eaves to keep the heat at bay. It was efficient and green, and Michael and Michele have no intention of turning it into a oversized, over-cooled monstrosity devoid of its original Arts and Crafts details. In fact, their second-floor addition will only bump up the roofline by 6 feet. "We don't want a big house; we're not going to gold-plate everything," says Michele. "We don't need fancy—we need functional."
  Along with the added bedrooms, the couple's other wish-list item is an updated kitchen that opens up onto an entertaining area. Walls will move or come down entirely to allow the couple to interact with friends and family while preparing food. "I love to cook, and I'm at the stove while I'm socializing," says Michael. They also plan to spend as much time outside in the mild weather, so they'll create a screened-in porch and make sure that the entertaining areas connect easily to the outdoors. "We like to live outside more than the average Texan," explains Michael. "We're fine not having the AC on."
  
  That energy-saving mentality is one reason for their desire for a green renovation, but it may be the local way of life that truly influenced them. Austin, a young, tech-company town and one of the fastest growing cities in America, is at the forefront of the green movement. The Austin Green Building Program, one of the oldest in the country, will rate the project for its use of eco-friendly materials. Photovoltaic cells on the roof, rainwater collection for irrigation, spray-foam insulation, recycled-glass tile and countertops, and formaldehyde-free wood composites are just some of the resource-saving strategies and eco-friendly materials planned for the project.
  
  Overseeing it all will be architect David Webber and veteran green builder Bill Moore. With a budget of $250,000, they'll be working hard to incorporate the right materials and still accomplish the changes the couple need. The project will take less than five months overall, but when it's finished, Michael and Michele will have an updated version of their classic house, which they loved so much they couldn't part with it. "We did look at other, renovated houses in the neighborhood," says Michele. "But I feel responsible for this house. Houses have souls, and I need to take care of this one."
  
  
  Find Eco-Friendly Building Materials and Grass Seed at World Class Supply

So Many Ways to Build Low Cost Green homes

 


Want to build green?  There are loads of possibilities for everything from natural building like Cob and Straw Bale to re-purposed materials such as shipping containers.  One design-build provider, Blu-Homes offers pre-fabrication as part of their solution for green and affordable.


Blu-Homes factory-crafted prefab homes use Blu’s proprietary steel frame technology to create homes that are strong, durable and more spacious and light-filled than traditional homes.

This process—combined with sophisticated 3-D technology to design, engineer, build and finish a  home—enables Blu to complete a prefab home in less than nine months all at a fixed and transparent cost.

Click here for full article and photo gallery of Blu home samples.


Find Green Materials for construction, lawn and garden at World Class Supply

Scottsdale's ideas for Green Remodeling

Here are some thoughts from Scottsdale Arizona about everything from water conservation to flooring to heating sources.

Contact World Class Supply for a variety of sustainable building supply

Who Needs 3-D Design? 5 Reasons You Do

Whether you're remodeling or building new, 3-D renderings can help you save money and get exactly what you want on your home project

As Posted on Houzz

 

Dylan Chappell

Houzz Contributor and California Architect (http://dylanchappell.com/)

 

As a client, how can you avoid paying for design work you don’t want? Making sure you know what you're getting before you have it built helps.

Today there is no better way to understand and have a feel for new design than to see it in 3-D. Rather than your having rely on imagination to see if the bathroom door will be far enough away from the kitchen, 3-D allows you to virtually walk through your home before even approving any specs or designs. Want to see that living room wall with bay windows? No problem. Want to check out the view from the window? Step right up. Changed your mind and now want no windows? Hold on a sec.
Three-D design is a fast and efficient way to get involved in every part of the design process. When architects actually design with you, the client — and present other, different or better options — you'll be better equipped to make informed decisions on a design that's perfect for you.

How do you know if your architect works in 3-D? It's always a good idea to ask when you're interviewing potential candidates, and to take a look at their examples of drawings and 3-D presentations. Three-D design is becoming an industry standard, and finding a great architect who offers it should not be hard. The good news is, most firms don't charge more for 3-D; they either have it or they don't.

Here are five reasons 3-D design can work for you.

 

by Dylan Chappell Architects

1. Understanding traditional 2-D floor plans and elevations can be difficult. Many people can get the general idea from a floor plan but have trouble visualizing how the design is going to look. Being able to see and experience your design in 3-D will help you understand how it is going to work. The more you understand the look and feel of your design, the more comfortable you'll be at making decisions.

2. Designs can change and evolve in real time, during meetings with your architect. Meetings are the best way to be included in the design process and to make sure nothing is overlooked. What does a design presentation in 3-D look like? It could be a fly-through video or multiple perspective views of your project. I’ve found that the most efficient and productive 3-D design meetings are in the conference room with everyone sitting around the flat-screen, walking through the project room by room. This usually always brings up design questions, and changes can be made to the model during the meeting for instant results.

3. Design review boards generally respond positively to presentations that include 3-D. Three-D to show how a building relates to the existing environment or to a neighbor’s home is a very powerful tool when you're seeking design approval. I’ve had great success by rallying the support of neighbors when they can understand clearly how a building is going to look and feel compared to theirs. 4. Three-D design can help cut down on changes after construction has begun. Reducing the amount of changes during construction can help save time and money. But it can be hard to do until you really understand what the space will look and feel like, which is where 3-D design comes in.   World Class Supply carries eco-friendly building, cleaning and lawn products!

Know Your House: Components of Efficient Walls

Learn about studs, rough openings and more in traditional platform-frame exterior walls — and why thermal efficiency might not be a priority

Posted from Houzz

Bud Dietrich, AIA

Houzz Contributor. My name is Bud Dietrich and I am an architect located in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. I am licensed to practice architecture in Illinois, Florida, New Jersey & Wisconsin and I am a certificate holder from the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB). Since 1996 I have worked from my home office and provide full architectural services exclusively to the single family residential market. My passion is to transform my clients' houses into their homes.

Two of the biggest developments of the industrial revolution were the mass production of dimensional lumber for framing, and the nail. Not only did these two products allow for homes to be built by the thousands, but they contributed to a uniquely American style of architecture. Houses were built of smaller, lighter sticks, rather than heavy timbers or masonry.

In the early 19th century, with the onset of stick-built homes, balloon framing became the norm. With this type of framing, the exterior walls are built of continuous wood studs that start at the foundation's sill plate and stop at the highest top plate. The wood studs that make up these walls can therefore easily be 18 or more feet in length. Balloon framing died out simply because of the unavailability of wood studs of such long lengths.

What came about is platform framing, the method used to build wood-frame houses today. It relies on each story of a house being built as a platform so that the exterior walls are built of wood studs no more than about 10 or 12 feet long.

Here's a look at a basic and traditional platform-frame exterior wall, as well as a variant of this system that uses far less material.

by Bud Dietrich, AIA » Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »

Basic 2-by-4 framing. The most common method of building a wood-frame exterior wall is to use 2-by-4 wood studs spaced 16 inches from the center of one stud to the center of another. These studs are then fastened to a 2-by-4 bottom plate and a double 2-by-4 top plate. Corners have three studs so that there's always a surface to fasten the next material (drywall, sheathing etc.) onto. Wood-frame walls such as these can be easily built on the wood floor deck and then tilted into place. Once tilted into place and made plumb (straight up and down), even and square (the corners are at 90 degrees or another angle, depending on the design), these walls are securely fastened to the floor structure. Other than the framing needed for openings, such as for doors and windows, the final structural element of a wood-frame wall is the exterior sheathing. Sheathing, usually OSB (oriented strand board) or plywood, is used in most homes to help make the structure rigid so the house doesn't twist or rack. This type of sheathing also provides a surface that siding can be attached to. There are other materials, such as rigid insulation, that can be used in lieu of OSB or plywood. When these materials, which will increase energy efficiency, are used, structural rigidity will be accomplished through bracing or special fasteners or other.

by Bud Dietrich, AIA » Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »

Openings for doors and windows. To accommodate doors and windows, the framings of walls have framed rough openings. In fact, most manufacturers produce windows and doors that fit within a specific rough opening. Knowing the exact window and manufacturer is important in the planning stage so that the carpenters build the walls as needed. The parts that form a rough opening are the king stud, jack stud (I'd love to know the origin of these terms), header, sill and cripple. Each piece has a job to do. For example, the jack studs support the header, and the header is used to span the opening. And it should be noted that with a typical 8-foot ceiling, the standard 80-inch-high door fits neatly into a rough opening made with a double 2-by-12 header. With the header placed tightly against the underside of the double top plate, the rough opening measures about 82 inches high. While this isn't the most efficient use of material (the header is often much larger than required), it has become the norm because of its simplicity.

by Bud Dietrich, AIA » Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »

Optimized framing. Wood framing began when wood was abundant and inexpensive, and a home's thermal efficiency wasn't a consideration. As a result, traditional wood framing uses far more material than it needs to, and the typical 3.5-inch wall thickness doesn't allow for as much insulation as is required for a thermally efficient house. More advanced framing techniques now use 2-by-6 wood studs in lieu of 2-by-4s, a single top plate and two studs in lieu of three stud corners. The benefits of using 2-by-6s include: Increased cavity space to accommodate more insulation Stud spacing that's 24 inches instead of 16 inches on center, resulting in less overall material To ensure structural integrity and accommodate the installation of materials such as drywall and sheathing, special clips and connectors have been developed for this framing method. For example, metal splice plates can seam together the single top plate. Optimized framing also uses headers that are sized as needed to span door and window openings. While this has the benefit of reducing material costs, it also achieves a distinct architectural look, as taller windows and doors can be had. Find unique and eco-friendly building supply at World Class Supply.