Construction Informer

As builders and remodelers run into resistance related to higher costs associated with energy efficiency improvements, there is a little used tool available to help assuage home owners and buyers reluctant to invest in energy saving features.

Known as a “green mortgage” or Energy Efficient Mortgages, HUD is getting the word out about their availability. These mortgages can be used to buy a new home, upgrade an existing one or to refinance an FHA loan. Borrowers can finance up to 97 percent of the cost of improvements that include insulation, high-efficiency appliances and furnaces, replacement windows, and solar hot water heaters, just to name a few. So when buying a home buyers don’t have to get a separate mortgage for these kinds of improvements, the interest becomes tax deductible, and they also end up with the energy expense savings. And that can come out to a significant amount of money.

HUD says that since 1980 the amount of energy used by the average American home has doubled. On top of that, the cost of energy has risen dramatically. Estimates are that energy efficiency improvements can cut home energy costs by 10 to 50 percent. So far, about 30,000 of these mortgages are issued every year.

There is more information at HUD.

During the depression in the 1930s people discovered their green thumbs. Now that we are facing higher food costs, and undoubtedly less food in general, it might not be a bad time to put some effort into growing our own. Of course you need a space and people who live in densely populated places like cities and apartment buildings often don’t have much space for gardening.

Of course, every building has a roof and I can see a time when entire apartment building roofs might be converted to garden space. The residents would share the space and the bounty. There are some side benefits to greening the roof. For one it cuts down on the heat buildup inside the building. That will be great for those times when we begin to experience power outages during peak periods. During the colder seasons the vegetation provides insulation and helps to hold in the heat. The roof absorbs and uses rainwater. So as the climate continues to change and rainfall becomes more unpredictable that would be a good thing. Plus, because it holds the moisture it eliminates much of the runoff that falls from building roofs. That in turn reduces erosion of not only soils but also of hard surfaces.

There are many more advantages to green roofs and you can find out a lot more at the HUD site. The costs are high, for intensive gardening perhaps as much as $25 per square foot and perhaps additional costs to retrofit the roof so it can bear the new load. So these projects have to be considered very carefully but should definitely be considered whenever existing structures need re-roofing and when new structures are in the planning stages.

This roof scape by Conran & Partners in association with Dan Pearson sits atop the residential Roppongi Hills in Tokyo.

What do you do if you have taken the process of insulating a home from science to art?  Well, you might try entering a competition. That’s what Ray Blackwater with Durango, Colorado-based San Juan Insulation & Drywall did and he is now the “Best Insulation Installer in America” for 2008.

According to Insulate America, Blackwater defeated last year’s champ Salvador Hererra from Insulating Inc. in Raleigh, NC. This year’s three other regional winners who competed for the crown included:

Jesus Campanero from Chico, CA

Matt Fletcher from West Boylston, MA

Martin Sanchez Soto from Charlotte, NC

The competitors had to install insulation of various types in a mock up of a building that included all the usual things that get in the way or make the job difficult, like electrical boxes, wires, pipes, headers and even a vaulted ceiling. Judging criteria included quality of workmanship, adherence to safety, and speed and productivity. New this year, the sixth year of the competition, was the amount of scrap they each generated.

October is Energy Awareness Month so Johns Manville in association with Insulate America sponsors the competition to draw attention to the professionals that give their all to help make sure buildings achieve their maximum energy efficiency.

To me these are great initiatives. There really aren’t enough efforts that showcase the day-to-day work construction people do. Especially with the slant of showing it in a professional sense. You can find all kinds of people showcasing the negative actions of people in construction, so these kinds of things help to balance the picture for those who are willing to look a little deeper.

Ray Blackwater of Durango, CO. (Photo: Business Wire)

Fire safety is in the news and it reminded me of all the various ways fires can get started at construction sites. Some of the obvious include containers of gasoline, diesel fuel and other liquid fuels stored in unmarked locations. Without the proper signage people may not be aware they just lit up their cigarette next to a gas can. Electrical equipment can cause sparks at times so once again being aware of where to store the gas is important. Here are some other examples from recent news reports.

A 3,000 square foot home that was nearing completion sustained a half million in damages from a fire that started in the wee hours of the morning. Apparently the owners were staying in a guest house on the property. They were not hurt.

In Las Vegas the second floor of a building under construction caught fire and electrical insulation along with some tools were destroyed.

An ambulatory care center under construction in South Carolina was the scene of a fire that started from a stack of insulation that was on the roof. Buildings under construction often don’t have all the access in place yet so firefighters who would normally have approached from interior stairs ended up using construction ladders to get to the flames. In this case there wasn’t any structural damage to the building and the $9.6 million structure is still expected to be completed on time.

Construction debris on the roof of a new baseball stadium being built in North Carolina caught fire. Again, insulation was the fuel and in this case it was identified as styrofoam. Coincidentally, a relative of styrofoam insulation made of polyisocyanurate has a high R value per square inch but it too is combustible.

In another incident involving styrofoam it only took some sparks to cause a fire. In Utah workers were cutting some steel when the sparks from that operation caught styrofoam blocks on fire. This happened at an office building under construction.

So, besides flammable liquids posing the typical dangers it appears there could be a trend toward insulation fires. A daily trip around the job site with a critical eye toward potential fire hazards can net an added measure of fire safety to any project. Of course looking around for other safety hazards at the same time should yield safer work sites overall. It’s never easy to build safely, but factoring in the additional time to accommodate safety is a lot less painless than dealing with accidents.

Where Women DIYers Are Hanging Out: With the announcement of Suzanne Horton’s appointment as BeJane’s President and CEO I clicked on over there to see what is going on with women do-it-yourselfers. Apparently, a lot. According to Horton single women own 25 percent of the homes in the US and 91 percent of women influence home purchasing decisions. She also says women initiate 80 percent of all home improvement projects. But we already knew that, didn’t we guys.

The site bills itself as the “Women’s Home Improvement Community,” and was started by Heidi Baker and Eden Jarrin. In these pages there are more then 200 projects and how-to guides arranged by room and topic. Under carpentry I found topics like:

• Building an Arbor;
• Siding Your House;
• How To Build a Pop-Up Coffee Table; and
• How To Fix A Small Drywall Hole.

In their own words:

What differentiates us from other DIY sites is our focus on home improvement from a woman’s perspective. No, that doesn’t mean that we’re all about pink. It means that we not only show you the “how-to” that gets the project done in a way that’s relatable and easy to follow, but we also focus on how that project will enhance your life—or, what we like to call the “why-to.”

For her part Horton is a former custom homebuilder, CEO of her own consulting firm, and executive for American Express, among others.

Siding Insulation Slows Down Your Studs’ Worst Habits: There is a lot of heat and cold transfer through wooden studs since they make up 25 percent of the wall surface. Even though there may be insulation between the studs up to a 40 percent heat loss occurs via the studs, according to the National Energy Assistance Director’s Association (NEADA).

So, as we would expect, there is a product called insulated siding. The product looks like vinyl siding with rigid foam attached to the back of it. The product name is Insulated Siding with Fullback Technology, just to inspire all you football fans I guess. It comes in a wide array of colors and is sold as what I’ll call a value-added to existing brands of siding. So, you can buy Alcoa, or Certainteed or Variform, just to name a few, with this attached insulation.

As a siding it has a 3.96 R value so it is pretty robust compared to a half-inch of polyisocyanurate (one inch equals R 5.30 all by itself) beneath vinyl. The advantage claimed is that it form-fits the profile of the siding and therefore gives you a better insulated wall. It also makes the siding tougher so it is less susceptible to hail damage for example, or, backing your truck into it (although the company doesn’t mention that advantage).

The “green” claims are probably stretched a bit. Not having to paint and repaint is one claim to green fame. It’s just that you get that advantage from most any vinyl siding you buy, and if you don’t, you don’t buy it. Yes the claims that it stops heat loss and therefore should reduce the energy requirements of your home are certainly valid. But how green is a product that is first of all made from petroleum and secondly gives off acid smoke and dioxin when it burns? It isn’t that these products are not valuable as weapons against the excesses of societies dependent upon fossil fuels, it’s just that the “green” claims ought to be tempered and perhaps spoken of only in relation to the benefits of a better insulated home.