Out of the ground

During the first week of November the Bulson green home began taking shape. That week, which was marked by cold, snowy weather in Utah, workers began installing the ICFs--insulated concrete forms. ICFs are quite interesting. We first learned about them at the Utah House, mentioned in an earlier entry. A friend said they look like "Legos" and, indeed, they do. They are basically insulation mounted on both sides of a plastic form that are stacked and held together by steel rebar. Concrete is then poured into the forms and, once cured, become the structural wall. In this case we are using them only for the lower level. Some ICFs can have an insulating value up to R-25. As you can see from the attached images, the walls are white. But in this case, white is green!!

In addition to the enery-saving aspect of using ICFs, there is one other green feature to mention here. The concrete that has gone into the forms consists of 25 percent flyash, which is a waste product from coal-fired power plants and a significant disposal problem for the utility industry. Thus, the lower level walls are not only highly energy efficient but have made a small dent in the waste products coming from traditional sources of energy. We are told that it may take a little longer to cure but backfilling around the lower level walls should take place this coming week. Stay tuned.

One of the things we learned early on from browsing books on green building was the importance of finding the right architect. We were helped in this regard by the fact that we had a model green home to work with. If you haven't visited the Utah House in Kaysville and are interested in green building, this would be the place to start. Utah House is a USU project and was built to showcase green building techniques, including passive solar, xeriscaping, and even a straw bale wall. For us, the house was not only an inspiration but later would serve as the model for what we are doing in S. Jordan. Given our fascination with the design of the Utah House, we thought it smart to talk to the people who designed it. That led us to Larry Hepworth with Design West in Logan, Utah. From the start, Larry was excited about our interest in duplicating what had been done at Utah House. We discussed our preliminary ideas and Larry started us on the first step of the project--finding a suitable location.

We quickly discovered that locating a lot that would be suitable for what we wanted to do was no easy task. First, our budget eliminated the possibility of acquiring land in certain parts of the Salt Lake Valley. Then, once we had located a lot with a price tag within budget, we faced the difficult task of finding one with a proper orientation for passive solar. Unfortunately, developers have given little or no consideration to the need for proper orientation of a home. Rather, it seems that most developers have sliced available plots of ground into shapes that may maximize the number of potential homes but which are not conducive to green building. We spent weeks finding possible lots and then reviewing them with Larry, only to learn that the shape of the lot did not permit a south-southeast orientation that would maximize passive solar heating. But after a long search, we eventually found one that was acceptable and within budget. The experience really underscored the need for educating future land developers on what is needed for green building to work. We settled on the S. Jordan lot not only because of its orientation but because it is within a reasonable distance of public transportation and shopping outlets. The lot is east of Daybreak just below the new S. Jordan temple which, one of my clever friends pointed out, will eliminate the need for outside lighting.

Having settled on a lot, we next started searching for a green builder. At first, the task seemed daunting, since calls to several large builders were ignored. But then with the help of Build Green Utah, we came upon PCR in Harrisville, Utah. After meeting with Scott, Bill and Dwight, we came away convinced that they were the ones who could build the house we were dreaming about. They were familiar with Utah House and were eager to help us get started on what we wanted to do. In the following months we spent a lot of time with Dwight and Bill mostly and have grown in our knowledge of green building and in our confidence that PCR was the right choice for building green in South Jordan.