OCTOBER 29, 2009 ISSUE
Green to the Extreme
Local Contractor Builds Home Meeting Strictest Green Standards
(Top image) A banner appearing on the outside of Constructive Solutions’ nearly completed model home lists the features of the house, which meets LEED Platinum certification—the strictest green building code in the country. Photo by Corinne Saunders (Bottom image) The model home, located at 207 Eastbrook Drive, near downtown Boone, boasts four bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, a mother-in-law apartment and a two-car garage. Photo submitted
David King, proprietor of Constructive Solutions, is a few weeks away from finishing a home that is built to meet LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum criteria.
LEED Platinum is “the most detailed and strict green certification in the country,” King said, adding that platinum denotes the highest standard—above gold, silver and certified—and translates into fulfilling the highest percentage of the requirements.
The certification takes into account such factors as erosion control, native species, considerations about square footage, lighting and electricity usage, energy consumption as a whole and more, King said.
The house is also Energy Star certified.
“Energy Star is the base requirement of LEED,” King explained. “If you can’t get Energy Star, you’re not even considered for LEED.”
Energy Star certification takes consideration of the use of energy-efficient appliances and the structure and the tightness of the house, which includes insulation and weatherization—limiting airflow from outside, King said.
“I’m trying to be a contractor above and beyond green certification,” King said. “There are a variety of green certifications to get yourself certified.”
While some contractors opt for enrolling in a two-hour class to become ‘certified,’ King and his employees have spent hundreds of hours in classes to become comprehensive home performance experts, he said.
King’s company is HERS (Home Energy Rating System) certified and nationally certified building performance analysts, certified through the BPI (Building Performance Institute), located in New York.
The HERS certification, allowing the company to offer Energy Star rating, was an eight- to 10-day class, and the BPI required seven days of class plus two to three days in the field, where participants learned to use tests to prove the efficiency of the building and how to accurately predict the energy usage of a building per month, King said.
The company is “one of about two groups in the county that offer these services,” King said of its ability to give Energy Star ratings. “We can take the contractor or homeowner from the design stages all the way to implementation.”
In the future, King said, “We see ourselves…being the foremost resource for other contractors.”
King will also be a LEED certified professional once the house is completed, he said. “Those are all nationally recognized certifications,” he added.
A Model Home
Local contractor David King of Constructive Solutions stands on the stairs in the model home. The stairs are made of red oak harvested from a tree that grew on the property before construction began—a practice the company has implemented for a while now, King said. Photo by Corinne Saunders
The nearly completed model home, located at 207 Eastbrook Drive, near downtown Boone, will demonstrate that the company is capable of meeting the strictest code in existence for green building.
“Lots of builders claim they’re green, [but] we’re building green—not just placing a green ribbon on a regular house,” he said. “We wanted to prove we could build the strictest [code-meeting], tightest building.”
Adrian Tate of Green Man Studios and King designed the four-bedroom 3.5-bath house, which includes a mother-in-law suite and a two-car garage. The house offers design flexibility that could be adjusted depending on the desires of the family that bought the house, King said, explaining that on the lower level, a wall could be taken out to reveal a door connecting the mother-in-law suite with the other side of the level—or the wall could remain.
The outside walls of the house, King said, are built out of insulated concrete forms—two walls of rigid foam with concrete poured in between the layers. These walls are 100 percent airtight, soundproof and bulletproof, he added.
King’s parents, Wayne and Carol King, have been directly involved with the model home. Wayne worked as the electrical contractor for the project and Carol chose the color scheme for the house and also contributed artwork, such as a tile mirror in the main-floor bathroom.
All interior staircases and some woodwork in the house are made from a red oak tree that formerly existed on the property.
“We harvested red oak, cherry and birch on this property,” King said, adding that utilizing the trees taken down on the property for the house to be built is “something we’ve been doing as contractors for a while now. People like to feel good about the tree they just killed.”
The house’s metal roofs and concrete exterior, which are “super-low maintenance [and] should last forever,” earned extra points for the LEED certification because of their longevity and durability, King said.
Beyond energy-efficient measures, LEED certification also takes into account how the building affects the environment, how it affects the neighborhood, its proximity to public transportation, ensuring that no formaldehyde is in any of the products and other factors, King said.
“I have to keep track of every pound of garbage that leaves this site,” he said. “My job is to recycle as much as possible. Woodchips and sawdust end up getting put back on the property.”
The house features a rainwater catchment—an underground tank that stores rainwater, which can then be used for outdoor purposes such as watering plants. The tank simply overflows if filled with water that goes unused, slowing down the erosion on the property, which would be greater if runoff from the house hit the ground directly, King said.
Another environmentally friendly feature of the home is gray water recycling. Boxes under the three bathroom sinks filter and store water used for handwashing or brushing teeth, and that water then fills up the toilet.
“You’re flushing water that has already been used once,” King explained.
The house features bamboo floors throughout, plenty of natural light allowed into every room, a computer program monitoring the energy usage per room—which potential owners could reference as often as desired for their benefit—and solar panels on the roof that heat water used in the home on sunny days. For cloudy days, a backup water-heating system is in place, King said.
The building is oriented to face due east and west, and windows on the south side have an overhang that allows the light in during the summer, without the heat from direct sunlight, King said. In the winter, because the sun is lower on the horizon, he said, the sun’s rays are able to penetrate the windows to provide both light and some warmth for the home.
An air HRV (Heating Recovery Ventilator) draws in air from outside every 1.5 hours but changes the temperature and humidity of air before sending it into the house, King said.
“It’s fresh, clean air, but it’s not dirty or wet,” he said. “It’s a good house for people with allergies or asthma over and above a standard home.”
Company goals for Constructive Solutions, which has been in existence for seven years, include continuing to utilize green construction practices and performing analyses of existing buildings in the form of energy audits, King said.
King gives the owners a report detailing what they can do to improve efficiency after the audits, he added.
King also works with W.A.M.Y. (Watauga, Avery, Mitchell and Yancey) Community Action to provide weatherization assistance to community members who cannot afford it. The service is provided at no cost to the customer; King is compensated by federal stimulus money.
This work is “helping on a grand scale to [decrease] the energy consumption of the community [and] get us less connected with the foreign oil and coal industries.”
King encourages people to call and schedule a time to take a tour of the house, he said.
To set up a time to tour the model home, call 828-719-9255.
For more information about LEED, click to www.usgbc.org.
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