about green
building

Carolina Country Builders stays abreast of developing green product information, has a wealth of experience from past project material use, and considers budget limitations in making suggestions and recommendations to its clients.

The construction of buildings (all types) has a tremendous impact on the environment. The green building movement began in the early 1990’s and in the last years since 2002 (the USGBC’s Austin, Texas. Green Build Conference) to the present has now achieved a societal tipping point within the construction industry. Green building consists of 5 major areas of focus. They are Community and Site Planning, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Indoor Environmental Quality, Efficient Water Use, and Materials.

We encourage a full discussion of these issues during the design, pricing and construction phase of our projects. We find that this conversation helps to provide clients with a better understanding of what is practical for their particular project and helps to build a good working relationship.

Carolina Country Builders (CCB) has been a leader in solar home design, construction, and training since the late 1980’s, and made the transition to green building in the early 1990’s. With that experience in mind, we hope you find the following comments on the five major topic areas of green building helpful.

Community & Site Planning

Green Building program site concerns for single family homes are designed to include conservation of natural resources, solar orientation, protection from slope disturbance and soil loss, storm water management, resource efficiency, and protection of existing vegetation. Initial lot design work can have impacts on the house construction and energy performance.

Some sites may have trees that need to be removed that could be mulched for construction or landscape uses or may be used as flooring or trim. Orientation for solar access should be evaluated at this early phase and trees as possible should be saved that can provide shading to the homes east/west/or north elevations that would promote summertime cooling. Job-site waste is an important principle of improving resource efficiency. Minimizing waste starts at the design phase of the project and includes recycling construction waste. Carolina Country Builders marks off trees for protection, designs for material efficiency, and works with subcontractors that recycle our construction waste.

Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy

Buildings have a tremendous impact in the use of energy. Over 70% of electric consumption occurs in buildings of all types and nearly 50% of all U.S. energy consumption occurs via building energy use. Approximately two thirds of a homes energy use is for heating and cooling. Carolina Country Builders is working within the residential field to do its part in mitigating the impact of this energy use on the environment. Our work enables us to drastically minimize the carbon emissions of the homes we design and build.

The first step for both design and construction is to utilize cost effective energy efficient strategies. These include sealed crawl spaces, advanced framing techniques, energy star doors and windows, high levels of insulation, sealed/downsized/zoned as possible HVAC systems, and energy star appliances and lighting. Using these and other methods can eliminate between 20% -60%. These and other techniques are common in homes built by Carolina Country Builder’s.

Passive solar design strategies will optimize a home’s design even further. Solar hot water systems can cut residential hot water heating requirements by 70%. All of our new home projects include passive solar energy techniques, domestic solar hot water systems and recently, they are built either as solar electric ready or with photovoltaics installed. For additions and renovations, CCB include these strategies as much as possible too.

Alternative exterior envelope materials with higher insulation levels and geothermal HVAC systems with high efficiency will contribute to bring a home’s energy efficiency, to its highest possible level. Depending upon budget, these strategies are incorporated into our projects.

Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ)

Many people are concerned about air pollutants present in their living spaces. The first step to resolving this concern is to choose materials that are less likely to have contaminants or materials with high off-gassing potential. Masonry and tile floors, common elements in Carolina Country Builders homes, are not only an important element in solar design, but allow for better indoor air quality by not providing surfaces that encourage dust and dust mites. Wood floors are also used frequently and are typically finished with water-based products that are low in volatile organic compounds (VOC’s). When installing combustion appliances like kitchen ranges, we provide ventilation fans that exhaust directly to the exterior of the home. Fireplaces and wood stoves when part of a project are provided with combustion air from the outside and bathroom fans are high quality, quiet, and ducted directly to the exterior. Conventional crawl spaces are another potential source of unwanted pollutants as well as humidity that can enter a homes interior living space and contribute to poor IEQ. When crawl spaces are constructed as part of our homes, we build sealed (un-vented) crawl spaces. This technique isolates the crawl space from the exterior environment, the ground from the homes interior, and enables duct work located within the crawl space to perform more efficiently.

Efficient Water Use

As population in North Carolina continues to increase, and water resources become more strained, water conservation as an issue is hitting a little closer to home these days. Recent droughts will hopefully encourage our local counties and towns to understand that regulations must change in the near future in order to allow a greater opportunity for gray-water use in homes and rain water collection for exterior irrigation.

There are many varieties of dual flush toilets on the market that can dramatically cut water usage even when compared to the low flow toilets that became part of the building code in the early 1990’s. Horizontal access washing machines are another product that allows a household to cut its water use. Low flow faucets and shower heads will further reduce home water use.

Many people waste water at sinks running the hot water until it arrives at the faucet.
Carolina Country Builders introduced a product to our area that not only brings hot water to those distant home faucets when you want it but does this in a manner that does not waste cold water by letting it run down the drain or use excessive energy to have hot water continually circulate in the pipes.

Materials

The products incorporated into a home ideally should be evaluated for their life expectancy, recycled content, how they impact the home's durability, and how they were made and what happens to them when no longer useful. Careful consideration of products should also be made as material choices affect both indoor environmental quality and energy use.

Some common green materials used in CCB projects include recycled content masonry block, Superior Wall foundation systems, Perform Guard EPS (termite resistant insulation board), radiant barrier roof sheathing, metal roofing, composite decking, clad windows, decorative concrete flooring (wood and tile floors as well), energy efficient attic stairs, non formaldehyde fiberglass blown-in insulation, plywood cabinet boxes, American Clay stucco, no/low VOC paints and sealers, and many other items.

Carolina Country Builders stays abreast of developing green product information, has a wealth of experience from past project material use, and considers budget limitations in making suggestions and recommendations to its clients.