Green Building and Remodeling Starts with Thoughtful Design

Green Building starts with thoughtful design by Kevin Holdridge
    A good home design should take into account the most efficient use of space and be fit to the lifestyle of the end-user as well as having a great proportional aesthetic exterior.  Many of our custom home design clients get hung up on price per square foot numbers when building a house. The theory is that if a house is too expensive then the natural reaction would be to make the home smaller. I can agree with this theory to a point and then I think it's just hooey. I used to say that there are two ways to save money on building a house, square footage and specification levels, but now I have learned a few more ways to save money while building a new home.
    This is where having a good design firm pays off. Designing a custom home should be just that, custom. A potential client should be prepared to tell their designer not only what style home they are looking for but how they plan to use the space. If the residential designer doesn't ask you questions about your family size, whether you like to entertain large gatherings, how many vehicles you have, is this a primary residence, and the most important question how long do you plan to live at this residence, then you will not get a custom home. With these basic questions left unanswered the design process can be disastrous. A good design firm should get to know their client's personality and offer up traffic patterns in the floor plan that match the client's lifestyle. When thinking about designing a home a client should begin by taking pictures or finding items in magazines as to convey their tastes to a designer. I personally never design a home unless I can walk the lot with the client first. I also like to see the home that they are currently living in and how they use the space. This holds key pieces of information as we are creatures of habit. If a client tells me that they saw a picture of a fireplace in a Master Bedroom that they liked but they currently don't have this in their house now. Chances are this feature will never be used so I feel that it is my responsibility to discuss the pros and cons of these type features. I personally do not promote that my clients or even the builders that I work with, ever tell a client to go find an on-line or magazine plan to get started. This is an exercise in futility for a custom home client. This process can consume a tremendous amount of time and leave the client feeling overwhelmed and frustrated. On-line or magazine plan books are designed to appeal to masses of people that want to build a nice house, but not a custom house. As there are many great plans and designers to choose from in this avenue of the home design business, this is not a custom home. These may be used for a client to try to hone their likes and dislikes but don't bring a magazine plan to a custom designer and ask them to fix it to fit your needs. One, that would be copyright infringement to the plan book designer and two, it would be handcuffing your custom home designer's creativeness. An analogy that fits is that a person that would like a custom motorcycle is not going to shop at the local Harley Davidson dealership. Though the Harley Davidson dealership has plenty of great bikes, that person is going to find a custom fabrication shop and is going to tell the bike designer exactly what they want and have the bike fit to thier personality.
   When a home is custom designed to fit a clients needs you will find that there is very little wasted space, maximizing the the use of the square footage is a huge plus. Next the plan must be designed in a way to maximize the building materials to prevent waste. Your designer will have to have a good knowledge of construction practices to achieve the maximum use of the building materials. This is where I differ on the just reduce the square footage thoery. Say the house comes in a little too big and the builder suggests taking 6"-12" out of each room to bring the square footage down. This sounds like a great idea but did it save you any money? That all depends on the floor plan dimensions. More than likely this will just result in more cutting and wasting of building material. Remember the home owner is paying for the material so if  I told you that you could have a room that was sixteen feet wide or fifteen feet wide for the same amount of material, which would you want?
   If you are in the market for a custom built home or if you are living in a home that has rooms that you never use call KDH Residential Designs and we can help you end your frustrations. Maximize your custom home purchase by creating a knowledgable team around your project. Whether you have a builder or need to meet a few builders give us a call. 704-909-2755 to set up a consultation. We are also looking for builders that would like to bring thier building costs down in order to be more competitive in thier markets by working smarter rather than harder.

Evolved Home Collection Launch

The launch of our Evolved Home Plan prototype at the Southern Ideal Home Show was a huge success. We won the People's Choice Award and the live model home was toured and admired by thousands of attendees. Furthering the momentum of the Home Show prototype, in October we are launching the second home design in this collection, Evolved Home Plan 2000. Follow this link to veiw all of the homes in the Evolved Home Collection

The Evolved Home Collection brings to life the passion Cobalt DBS has to provide affordable, sustainable housing that never compromises on style. Our designer, Kevin Holdridge at KDH Residential Home Designs
brings a unique vision to the partnership.

KDH Residential Designs and builder Cobalt DBS have team together to create a series of homes that are sustainable, green certified ready and affordable. If you or any of your clients are looking for land or currently own land and are looking to build an energy efficient green home, please check out these sustainable house plans from 1,000 sf to 2,500 sf. These plans are perfect for small infill lots. The feedback that we have received from the Southern Ideal Home Show proved that we reached a large demographic from empty nesters to first time home buyers. These are high performing homes with a tremendous amount of green features designed into the plans and specifications. Designing the home to use less material and have less waste is important but working with a builder to pull everything together is key. Cobalt DBS has teamed up with our firm to come up with a specification level that addresses water efficiency, indoor air quality, high performance windows, high perforamnce HVAC and insulation systems and the use of low maintenance veneers while staying on a very strict budget.
  
As a mainly custom home design firm, we can also offer any of these green design features to our custom clients that have specific needs. Please feel free to contact KDH Residential Designs at 704.909.2755 or Cobalt DBS at 704.365.3038 if you have any specific needs, comments or questions.

Evolved Home Collection

Recently KDH Residential Design was asked to come up with what we are calling "The Evovled Home Collection". The first plan in the series was recently built inside The Plaza during the Fall Ideal Home Show in Charlotte. This was a two bedroom / two bath house that was 920 square feet. It featured many luxury upgrades such as granite countertops and bamboo flooring and because of fore thinking and value engineering we were able to keep the price per square foot below $100. The home was designed to have a very high insulation value based on the way we designed the framing and the windows. We will be launching the rest of the series of homes soon to include plans in many different styles and sizes from 1000sf-2500sf. All of the homes will be designed to receive a green ceritifcation and all will have similar specifications. Over the week-end long show we received a tremendous amount of feedback from potential home buyers on this product line. Keep an eye on our website www.kdhdesign.com and the builders website www.cobaltdbs.com for more details.

Southern Ideal Home Show

Kevin Holdridge at KDH Residential Designs has designed a 1000 sf house for the Southern Ideal Home Show. The homoe uses advanced framing techniques to reduce the amount of wood used during construction. The home is designed on a 24" grid system to reduce the amount of waste and was framed in 9 hours using these techniques. Scrap wood pieces were used as blocking and even for header supports to further reduce the amount of waste generated. The most expensive part of a home is the energy it consumes and the maintenance of the home. We have greatly exceeded the insulation values of this home and have used low maintenance products and sustainable products throughout the home. We have 2x6 exterior walls and the studs are all 24" on centers. This will allow us to install more insulation and by reducing the amount of studs we reduce the amount of cold spots. Wood has very little insulation value so taking wood out of the walls is the key to better insulating the walls. Many of the green features in this home will be on display this week-end Aug 27-29 in Charlotte NC at the Southern Ideal Home Show. After the show the home is designed to be taken apart in three modules and shipped to its final build site as a donation for low income housing. We have designed a fourth module to be added to the home at that time making it a three bedroom 1,200sf home.

http://www.wcnc.com/video?id=101295394&sec=552547

Green Certified Home

Currently under construction. We are expecting a gold NAHB green certification on this house. It will feature advanced framing techniques, high levels of insulation, and high efficiency windows, HVAC and plumbing systems. It was designed on a 48" grid system to reduce the amount of waste during construction. We will also be using an site recycle program to reduce our on-site construction debris. This home is being built on an infill lot near uptown Charlotte and will become one of four house plans offered in a "Sustainable Home - Designer Series" to be unveiled at the Fall Home Show in August.

Will an Eco-Firendly Home Be More Expensive to Build?

Kevin Holdridge June 1, 2010

Kevin Holdridge is a residential designer who was accepted as a professional member of the American Institute of Building Designers in 2007. That same year, he founded his own business, KDH Residential Designs, in Charlotte, North Carolina. In this article, he tells us what people need to know about cost before starting construction on a “green” home.

There is no doubt that some aspects or items involved in the construction of an “green” home will be more expensive. However, cost itself usually is not the main reason why most people decide to build an environmentally friendly home in the first place.
The concept of a green home is slightly different for everyone, so the amount that a green home will cost above and beyond a non-green home will depend on how far the builder went with the process and how many different types of technologies were included in the design.
I have a feeling that sometimes people get too caught up in simply buying cool gadgets and other things that are supposed to help us all save a little money, energy, and water. But the products themselves won’t be nearly as effective if people don’t decide to change their lifestyle at the same time.
In order to get the full effect from any energy-efficient product for the home, you have to be open to changing your behaviors and habits. If not, the product can’t take on its full effect.
For instance, one example that I frequently use is water-saving showerheads. Some of these claim to save as much as 20% of the water that you would normally waste in a typical shower, and that is great. But if you don’t change your behavior, and you continue to take showers that are a half hour, then you are still wasting a lot more water than is necessary.
So being eco-conscious or “green” is as much a state of mind as it is a product of buying certain things or building your home in a certain way. People do not just need to buy new gadgets and pieces of technology. They need to learn how to use them properly in order to maximize their efficiency.
Some gadgets and appliances that we can install in new homes are expensive. But the majority of those expensive things are focused on a small market of consumers who are more interested in having the new technology than they are in actually getting the payback of using less energy or water.
As an example, doing a complete solar house and getting that home completely off the grid can be expensive. If a person hopes to get enough solar power that he can then turn around and sell the wattage back to the electric company, then that will be even more expensive. And in doing a project like that, it will take the homeowners a long time before they begin to see a payback or even before they break even. In the case of someone installing enough solar panels on their home to go entirely off the grid, they would have to be willing to stay in that home for many years before they would see a financial payback.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t smaller and cheaper ways to make a difference. Putting in a solar hot water system, for example, is a lot cheaper than installing solar panels for the entire house electrical system. And the installation of a solar hot water heater will pay you back a lot more quickly, too. Putting energy-efficient lights all around your house is another example of something that is quick and easy to do. As something as simple as unplugging the television in your spare bedroom that never gets used is another example of something that’s free and easy. “Voltage vampires” is what all of those types of things are called. So those small differences probably save the average homeowner just as much money in the long run as a lot of the technology-heavy things that people purchase.
When people are looking for ways to obtain actual green certification for their homes without spending quite as much, we here at KDH Residential Designs have the mindset to tell people to pick the low hanging fruit, so to speak.
Although the specific items that people get points toward certification may vary based on the organization, we typically advise clients to get as many as possible of the small things that don’t cost a lot included in their home. Because those items all add points that can help a homeowner obtain green certification — even without spending a bundle.

Does Building a Green Home Impact It's Resale Value?

Kevin Holdridge is a residential designer in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is a member of the American Institute of Building Designers, among other organizations, and owns his own residential design firm, KDH Residential Designs. Here, he shares his knowledge about how having a certified green home will impact your resale price.
Building a home that receives green certification will often be more expensive in upfront costs, but that same certification can also boost the home’s value if the owners ever decide to sell. So there are some definite pros and cons to going in that direction with a new construction home.
With the way that the housing market is there right now, a lot of unsold inventory is on the market. So if you are a homeowner who wants to build a house and sell it faster, then having a green certification is going to put you heads and tails in front of everyone else trying to sell a similarly priced home without any green technology.
If I was a potential buyer in the market to purchase a new house, and two similar properties were for sale, I would definitely check to see if either one was built with any energy-efficient materials. And so, and if I discovered that one of the two homes was built normally and one was built with a green certification, then I personally would definitely go with the home that came with the certification. This is especially true if the homeowner was able to prove that energy-efficient materials and appliances would actually be able to save me money on my electrical bills or my water bill every month. In that case, I would definitely choose the green house above the non-green one, even if it was a little more expensive.
Not only does buying an environmentally conscious home with green certification become a moral issue for some people, but it can also be a financial issue. If people think they can do something good for the environment — like buying a “green” home — while also saving money on utilities and home maintenance fees at the same time, then there is a major bonus which will make it much easier to sell your home to a buyer.
What oftentimes happens when people are building a home is that they get caught up in how much their mortgage will cost each month and how much they are going to be paying. But when you look at the actual figures that make up a monthly budget, the amount you pay in maintenance and utilities is actually quite a bit more than most people expect, especially during the hot summer or cold winter months.
The biggest investment a homeowner is making in his house, then, is actually in agreeing to pay for the maintenance of it. Utility bills, yard maintenance costs, irrigation systems, water bills — these things all add up when you look at them over a 50-year period. In fact, over a period of 50 years or more, the costs that a person has paid in maintenance fees and bills on a regular home is outstanding. If you add those numbers up, it will make your mortgage look small in comparison.
That is why it can be such a benefit to buy a high performing house. If your house costs less to maintain — thanks to the installation of energy efficient materials and energy-efficient building techniques that were used — then that will greatly boost the value in the long run and reduce the costs that you pay in maintenance and bills each month.
Despite that fact, though, the main reason people still get green homes built right now is as a way to do something good for the environment. But at the very least, the good news is that these homeowners also have the peace of mind in knowing that they are not wasting their money by installing a few slightly more costly fixtures and materials during the construction phase of their home. Because in the long run, doing so can definitely boost the overall value of their house.

Green Building Starts with Lifestyle Change

Green Building means something different to everyone you ask about the subject. I have listened to a lot of people that perceive themselves as the foremost experts in the field. I have spent countless hours in Green Building classes and Green Builder Council meetings. I have read a number of books on Green Building and related subjects. I have received my Certified Green Professional certificate. There is now a television station devoted to Green Building on my satellite provider called Planet Green TV. There are infinite websites on the subject, countless discussion groups on professional networking websites, various companies selling green this and green that. The green buzz has become overwhelming. People are acting as if this is something new. Green Building practices have been utilized since the energy crisis in the 1970’s. Don’t believe me. Have you ever seen an old big bulky solar panel on a small bungalow house? Have you ever heard of a geo-thermal heat pump or double paned low-e windows? We have been using engineered floor systems (wood I-Joists) for over 10 years now in my southeast market. This gets back to Einstein’s theory of relativity. Green building has always been around us. Building science is not new; we just never realized it was there. It was never brought to the forefront until the world was hit with a struggling economy and outrageous fuel prices. Everything is relative. If you were building quality, tight, energy efficient homes you just called it a quality home. Granted this Green Building push has increased the quality of homes built by companies that prior only abided by the local building codes. For the most part quality builders have to change what they are doing very little to get a gold certified green home, besides the additional paperwork, third party inspections and the fees associated with both. To me the most important thing to consider when building a green home is framing the home as tight as possible. This will allow the HVAC contractor to better efficiently control the indoor air quality. After all in the whole scheme of things it is the next fifty years of energy usage after your home is built that matter the most. Energy consumption is the most expensive and can be the sole greenest item in the house. I’ll take a solar hot water tank over bamboo floors any day of the week. Not to discredit green building materials because there are a plethora of new things on the market today. Technology for building materials only keeps getting better, faster, and more ecological, but being green starts with personal strides to reduce energy consumption.
Think about easy things you can do to save energy. Things that may seem small and trivial will have a snowball effect and accumulate over time. Simple things like unplugging televisions and alarm clocks in rooms that get seldom use or unplugging phone chargers when not in use can lower electrical usage. Changing out all of your light bulbs to compact fluorescent lights will save energy. Turning off lights or installing dimmer switches are good ways to save energy. Walking or riding a bike to the park instead of driving and recycling bottles, cans and paper save energy. Creating compost for organic waste and reducing the amount of garbage you create all save energy in some way. Before you start thinking about green building you need to alter your lifestyle ever so slightly and start thinking about how you can consume less energy and create less waste.
Create a snowball effect. Think about ways to consume less to enhance your green technology. For example, save 10% less water by consciously taking a shorter shower now. When you build your house install a low flow shower head that will reduce 20% of your water usage on top of 10% you are accustomed to saving by taking shorter showers. Being green is a lifestyle change. It’s not just purchasing green technology or building an energy efficient home. The house is a system. The people living in the house are part of the system, consuming energy, using the HVAC, turning on lights, opening doors and windows. Does it make sense to build an air tight house and keep all of the windows and doors open while the air conditioner is running? No. Truly being green means using the new technology, building science and energy systems to the best and most efficient ability possible.

Green Building Starts with a Lifestyle Change

Green Building means something different to everyone you ask about the subject. I have listened to a lot of people that perceive themselves as the foremost experts in the field. I have spent countless hours in Green Building classes and Green Builder Council meetings. I have read a number of books on Green Building and related subjects. I have received my Certified Green Professional certificate. There is now a television station devoted to Green Building on my satellite provider called Planet Green TV. There are infinite websites on the subject, countless discussion groups on professional networking websites, various companies selling green this and green that. The green buzz has become overwhelming. People are acting as if this is something new. Green Building practices have been utilized since the energy crisis in the 1970’s. Don’t believe me. Have you ever seen an old big bulky solar panel on a small bungalow house? Have you ever heard of a geo-thermal heat pump or double paned low-e windows? We have been using engineered floor systems (wood I-Joists) for over 10 years now in my southeast market. This gets back to Einstein’s theory of relativity. Green building has always been around us. Building science is not new; we just never realized it was there. It was never brought to the forefront until the world was hit with a struggling economy and outrageous fuel prices. Everything is relative. If you were building quality, tight, energy efficient homes you just called it a quality home. Granted this Green Building push has increased the quality of homes built by companies that prior only abided by the local building codes. For the most part quality builders have to change what they are doing very little to get a gold certified green home, besides the additional paperwork, third party inspections and the fees associated with both. To me the most important thing to consider when building a green home is framing the home as tight as possible. This will allow the HVAC contractor to better efficiently control the indoor air quality. After all in the whole scheme of things it is the next fifty years of energy usage after your home is built that matter the most. Energy consumption is the most expensive and can be the sole greenest item in the house. I’ll take a solar hot water tank over bamboo floors any day of the week. Not to discredit green building materials because there are a plethora of new things on the market today. Technology for building materials only keeps getting better, faster, and more ecological, but being green starts with personal strides to reduce energy consumption.
Think about easy things you can do to save energy. Things that may seem small and trivial will have a snowball effect and accumulate over time. Simple things like unplugging televisions and alarm clocks in rooms that get seldom use or unplugging phone chargers when not in use can lower electrical usage. Changing out all of your light bulbs to compact fluorescent lights will save energy. Turning off lights or installing dimmer switches are good ways to save energy. Walking or riding a bike to the park instead of driving and recycling bottles, cans and paper save energy. Creating compost for organic waste and reducing the amount of garbage you create all save energy in some way. Before you start thinking about green building you need to alter your lifestyle ever so slightly and start thinking about how you can consume less energy and create less waste.
Create a snowball effect. Think about ways to consume less to enhance your green technology. For example, save 10% less water by consciously taking a shorter shower now. When you build your house install a low flow shower head that will reduce 20% of your water usage on top of 10% you are accustomed to saving by taking shorter showers. Being green is a lifestyle change. It’s not just purchasing green technology or building an energy efficient home. The house is a system. The people living in the house are part of the system, consuming energy, using the HVAC, turning on lights, opening doors and windows. Does it make sense to build an air tight house and keep all of the windows and doors open while the air conditioner is running? No. Truly being green means using the new technology, building science and energy systems to the best and most efficient ability possible.