Construction Informer

This is the final in a series of posts featuring an interview with Frank Dalene, chief financial officer of Hamptons Luxury Homes Inc.

In your editorial in Builder/Architect you mentioned manufacturers using deceptive marketing practices to represent their products for improper uses. Can you share any specifics about that so people can get an idea of the ways this sort of thing happens?

On a certain house wrap if you look at the manufacturer’s specifications it says bulk water hold out. What does that mean? Does it mean that some of the water is let through, but the bulk is not? I don’t know and that is part of the problem. I went to a trade show and a distributor of that same house wrap had a sign on an easel that said the Western Red Cedar Bureau endorsed that particular house wrap. But in reality that house wrap has been known to have problems with extractives from wood breaking it down and a University of Massachusetts study pointed to cedar products being the biggest culprits. So even though the sign said the Western Red Cedar Bureau endorsed this product what they failed to mention to you is that the Western Red Cedar Bureau said you could use cedar with this product as long as you seal it on all sides. And if you go to the manufacturer’s specifications it also says that in the small print. That is deceptive in my mind. But that is just one example. There are plenty of products out there with green labels and you know they’re not green, and so I think the movement has to start policing itself.

After an owner makes a conscious choice to build green how can they know their builder is using truly green materials and practices without having to spend a lot of time overseeing and checking on things?

They have to hire a builder with integrity and honesty. We build homes for the vacation home market so there are times we are building homes for people in England or Switzerland. They sign a contract with us and they have a date set when they are coming back and the house will be done. Nobody needs to oversee us or check on us. We are all self motivated and when we make a commitment we keep it. So they should try to hire that kind of builder. There are also more and more green building verifiers and certifiers being trained so that is another way to do it. I think it is also good to bring a consultant in for a home owner.

On a side topic, do you have any advice for builders in weathering challenging economic times?

We have been out in the Hamptons for 30 years we have been through three economic down cycles and the best advice I have is to cut the fat out. We as builders during the good times tend to get fat. A lot of times as we build our companies we have a tendency to delegate more and not work as hard as we should. It is remembering where we came from and being willing to go back.

This is the third in a series of posts featuring an interview with Frank Dalene, chief financial officer of Hamptons Luxury Homes Inc.

Besides the two web sites that are planned to be launched by Hamptons Green Alliance what other initiatives will the group undertake to help reveal to the general public what building green really means?

We are already building cooperative and collaborative relationships with other groups, and we are not a competing group. We also want to be politically active. So for example in New York state we can currently only do 10kw photovoltaics and so we want to work on increasing that. I sat on the committee in East Hampton to develop the East Hampton energy savings program which passed unanimously. That was really neat because I got the Long Island Builders Institute to come out and support it. The East Hamptons have always been very environmentally conscious and we have had some radical environmental groups. So it was really refreshing to see the environmental activists stand up in the public hearings to praise the builders for supporting an environmental issue.

Do you see the Hamptons Green Alliance becoming a model for other communities? Is there a possibility Hamptons Green Alliance might license/franchise itself to other locations?

We don’t see ourselves licensing or franchising this since we are a non-profit organization. We can see us forming chapters in other communities. That is a very good possibility along with simply collaborating with groups in other communities. We are going to be an open educational forum with the purpose to educate the public and what we would love to see is collaboration with other communities around the country.

There have been some builder groups struggling with the growing tendency for regulatory bodies to mandate green. From a builder’s perspective what is it about mandated green building requirements that doesn’t sit well with you?

We have several townships that have mandated it and that’s the reason we developed the East Hampton energy savings program. One of the issues was that Energy Star and  the green building requirements are voluntary programs and they were designed as voluntary programs. When you mandate them you are making them mandatory in order to get a certificate of occupancy and so you will most likely have an outside third-party inspector inspecting the same house that a municipal building inspector also inspected. I believe this is a conflict of interest. Here is an example. I went to a trade show and an insulation contractor said to me that if I used his sealing system that since he was a Home Energy Rating System (HERS) inspector he could guarantee the home would pass the floor and door tests. So if the HERS rater is also the installing contractor, then there is a potential conflict of interest.

What would be great is if the building inspectors would get certified. They are already inspecting for license and safety issues, so they are already taking that responsibility. This is just some additional training and I think it would be a much smarter way to proceed. Especially if it is going to become mandated and I believe it eventually will.

Stop by tomorrow for the final installment of this interview with Frank Dalene.

In this second in a series of posts featuring an interview with Frank Dalene, chief financial officer of Hamptons Luxury Homes Inc., we begin with a description of two different approaches to geothermal systems the company has installed. 

We have been doing geothermal since the late 80s and in this area we have a lot of sand and gravel and we have a water table that is very high, so most of ours are open loop geothermal. So we are taking water out of a well and then putting it into a dispersion well. We did a 17,000 square foot house on the ocean in the early 90s and we were going to put in a well until we found that we had salt water intrusion. Since we had a four-inch public water main that ended right there at the property we did all the calculations and it turned out it did pay to use public water as a water source for cooling that house. It also made a lot of sense because with salt water there would be some impact to the equipment.

In your estimation what should be a builder’s overriding reason for building with green practices?

I think number one it should be about the builder being an environmentalist and having a positive impact on the environment. The second reason would be that it does increase the quality of the home.

When you talk about the green building movement coming like an "out-of-control freight train" what are the out-of-control aspects?

As products come to the market it takes time for those products to be proven. We are right now adopting means and methods and we are accepting products very quickly before they have the benefit of being tested over time. I believe there are going to be some product liability issues.

Anyone who has been building long enough has seen products come and go and maybe has been stung by certain products and had to go back and replace them. I think we have all been there. In this green movement everybody is putting green labels on everything and not everything is good. It is coming on us very quickly. This is that freight train. I saw your web site and you are doing a great job informing people and that is what our purpose is with the Hamptons Green Alliance. To educate and inform people so we can get this train under control.

I also believe there are going to be side effects. For example, we are building thermos bottles for homes today. They are really air-tight. Here in the Northeast we are building homes out of wood frame construction. Wood needs to breathe and depending on what the climate is, based upon where it is located in the country, there are going to be different effects.

We have a program on Long Island called the Energy Star program and it was was being supported by the local power authority. I went to their training and they explained to us how we could use the bathroom fans on timers for the air exchange. That’s leaving a lot to chance. What if homeowners don’t maintain their homes? Who is making sure that these systems are continuing to operate? What if a homeowner doesn’t like the sound and disconnects it? When it breaks are they going to fix it? Now you have a thermos bottle with no air exchange. I don’t think that is wise. There is nothing wrong with having a controlled indoor environment, however ventilation has got to be part of the permanent system.

The things we went through with the mold issues are another example. We have been dealing with mold since we were in the cave and all of a sudden it became a toxic killer. But really for most people it is an allergen. So a lot of that was blown out of proportion and it affected a lot of builders. and a big part of the issue was that we were building the houses too tight. Now without the proper ventilation there are all of these potential liability issues. 

Stop by tomorrow to read more of this interview with Frank Dalene.

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Listen in now to an interview (13 minutes) with Dr. George Elvin, director of the Green Technology Forum, to hear about some amazing nanotechnology items that are ripe for the construction industry. The super-insulating material at the left is called Aerogel and is claimed to be the world’s lightest solid since it is 99.95 percent air. The material offers high insulating value along with translucency.

George also talks about photovoltaics that become integral parts of buildings and carbon chains, a new way to add strength to metals and to create self-healing concrete.

You can order the report “Nanotechnology for Green Building” here.

There are indicators that the construction industry is challenged with not only having enough people but also with having the right people with the right training and experience. Construction Education points out there is a continuing shortage of qualified people and that because of the aging workforce there is anticipated to be more jobs than there are students graduating, both now and into the future.

In its efforts to provide industry perspectives the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) has added an interview with Bob Vila, host of television shows “Bob Vila” and “This Old House,” to its “Career Tech Talk” podcast series, which features interviews with leaders and innovators in Career and Technical Education. Vila describes the current state of the construction industry, and he provides advice on how to increase the number of talented workers. He suggests making more apprenticeships available and encouraging students to obtain certifications. In the past 20 years, the construction industry has experienced many changes, and Vila reveals the top innovations in construction.

“Career and Technical Education plays a vital role in addressing the skilled worker needs in the construction industry,” says Bryan Albrecht, president of Gateway Technical College in Kenosha, WI, and president-elect of ACTE. “From career awareness through skill training including industry and apprenticeship programs, ACTE and CTE provide the teacher support to build America’s workforce. In a highly skilled profession like construction, students must be as well prepared in math and science as they are in the tools of the trade. It is that awareness and experience that CTE provides to students.”

The ACTE is the nation’s largest not-for-profit education association dedicated to preparing young people and adults for successful careers. It provides advocacy, public awareness and access to information, professional development and tools that enable members to be successful and effective leaders. Founded in 1926, ACTE has more than 29,000 members including teachers, counselors and administrators at the middle school, high school and postsecondary levels.

There are other efforts underway to help tame construction labor issues. The National Center for Construction Education and Research created an entry-level assessment so employers can quantify and qualify the skill levels of new employees. Oftentimes construction workers show up at the job without any formal training documentation. These assessments mean an employer can not only ascertain the employee’s level of proficiency but can also discover the best prescription for further training.Many states and localities have organizations that focus on training for people in the construction sector and there are also private entities that offer specialized training. The Construction Education Foundation of North Texas for example offers accredited courses in crafts and trades, safety and supervision, to name just a few.

Often you find that people in construction learn how to do what’s necessary for the job and then they just quit learning. In order for the industry to really begin solving its most pressing issues continuing education has to move to the forefront.

Do you have learning opportunities built into your human resources plan?