Our four home project (of 15 total units) at Clearwater Commons, a deep green co-housing community, is being featured this month as part of the EcoBuilding Guild’s Green Home Tour, which will feature green-built new homes, multi-family, remodels, cottages, energy retrofits, and more.

Located on North Creek near Bothell, WA, Clearwater Commons is an intentional, ecologically-responsible residential community on a 7.4 acre site which includes wetlands, forest, garden space, salmon-supporting creek habitat.

The Clearwater Commons’ properties are a blend of single family and multi-family townhomes with a contemporary design. All homes (even those that will be constructed in the future) use advanced framing to minimize material use and allow for greater insulation, low-toxin materials, a heat recovery ventilation system, and a unique pin pile foundation in place of a poured concrete foundation to allow shallow ground water to move unhindered through the site, preserving ground water flow paths on the wetlands.

Lots are currently available for purchase. Prices for lots + custom built green homes start at $400,000.

Check out this in depth article on ‘Life at the Commons’. http://neighborhoodlife.net/features/index.php?id=118

We look forward to seeing you on the tour!

Evergreen homes: Alley House 2

When describing March’s featured ‘Evergreen home,’ resisting alliteration is futile: A magnificent, modern modular home in Madison Valley that’s currently on the market for over half a million.

Tue, Mar 06 2012 at 3:20 PM EST

For this month’s installment of “Evergreen homes” — a monthly series of posts in which I break out the geographical bias and spotlight green residential building projects from my home state of Washington — I’m doing some legitimate valley-hopping as I move north from southeast Seattle’s Rainer Valley, home to February’s featured project, Columbia Station, to Madison Valle , a French restaurant-heavy nabe located east of Capitol Hill. Like the homes that comprise Columbia Station, today’s featured home, Alley House 2  from Cascade Built, is targeting LEED Platinum, is an urban in-fill project, boasts a not-too-shabby-for-Seattle WalkScore (69 out of 100), and is within proximity to a killer bakery. It also just hit the market for $599,000.

Here’s what you’ll get for the price: an eye-catching, butterfly-roofed prefab abode with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Measuring 1,687-square-feet, the David Foster Architects -designed home is packed full of sustainable features: Advanced framing, EPA WaterSense fixtures and appliances, “way beyond code” insulation and windows, a heat recovery ventilator, ample natural light, FSC-certified bamboo hardwood flooring, a mini-split heat pump, no-VOC paints and finishes, rainscreen siding, and recycled content countertops. The modules themselves were factory-built by Method Homes .

Outside of the solar PV- and green roof-ready home, you’ll find drought-tolerant landscaping and permeable paving. There’s also a one-car garage that can be converted into a home office, workshop, or mother-in-law apartment. And while we’re on the topic of  mother-in-law apartments, it’s worth noting that Cascade Built founder Sloan Ritchie is also behind Backyard Boxes, a line of eco-friendly accessory dwelling units that I featured back in May 2010.

And, of course, there’s the matter of neighbors. Alley House 2 is located right next door to Cascade Built’s original Alley House, one of the first LEED Platinum (non-modular) homes in all of Seattle. That said, Alley House 2 is only the second modular home in Washington to target LEED Platinum certification (Greenfab ’s 1300 Series model home in Jackson Place was very recently awarded  with LEED Platinum certification making it the first). I guess the home’s “Platinum Alley” address is totally justified (the actual street address is 216-B 26th Ave. E).

For more, check out Alley House 2’s official listing as well as this photo walk-through over at Curbed Seattle. It’s also worth checking out a series of photos of the home’s installation over at the Cascade Built Facebook page if you’ve never seen photos of a factory-built modular home be “dropped” before. Beyond LEED Platinum prefabs, Sloan Ritchie and the CB team also have some interesting homes in the works including a Passive House project  in nearby Madison Park and four homes  for the Clearwater Commons green co-housing development near Bothell.

When we started building green projects more than five years ago, the approved product selection for meeting standards by third party rating systems, such as LEED and Built Green, was extremely limited – paint being one.  An early conversation with a painter on a townhome project had us concerned about paint quality and longevity, not to mention justifying to someone who’s been painting with the ‘good stuff’ for twenty years the cost differential. READ: “why are you paying more for a product that is has less in it.”

Now, no-VOC or low-VOC paints have become widely available – even Home Depot offers a line of Glidden paints that have low or no VOCs. And as a result, it should be a no brainer selection for everyone painting or repainting homes and buildings.

Periodically, we are still asked – do low or no VOC paints really matter? The short answer is yes.

And, the long answer is yes. Conventional paints and coatings contain and emit Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) that contribute to smog outdoors and pollute the indoors (some even have known carcinogens). The result is not completely clear, however early indications of respiratory problems have been disclosed. And, when paints without such ingredients are available – it begs the question, why put yourself and your family at risk.

Here’s a couple of our favorites:

Goal: Passivhaus! (also known as passive house) offers a well-proven, predictable, cost-effective way to reduce the heating demand of buildings by up to ninety per cent (90%!) and overall energy use by up to seventy per cent (70%).

How does it work? A Passive House building is a very well-insulated, virtually air-tight building that is primarily heated by passive solar gain and by internal gains from people, electrical equipment, etc. Energy losses are minimized. Any remaining heat demand is provided by an extremely small source. Avoidance of heat gain through shading and window orientation also helps to limit any cooling load, which is similarly minimized. An energy/heat recovery ventilator provides a constant, balanced fresh air supply. The result is an impressive system that not only saves up to 90% of space heating costs, but also provides uniquely terrific indoor air quality.

Passive house is now required by code in several countries in northern Europe.

Proposed Design in Madison Park: For this house to meet the strict energy standards, we need an additional 12” of insulation on the outside of the structural walls and a minimum of 26” insulation in the roof.  The opportunity to eliminate the furnace in this home has significant community and occupant benefits to be sure.

Stay tuned as details emerge…

Niagara has a 0.8 GPF model!  How does it score, you ask?  800!

Currently 4 homes are under construction at Clearwater Commons, a duplex and 2 single family homes.  Recently, the Mini-B Passive House modular home was also delivered to the site, to serve as a guest house.

Last week, blown-in dense pack fiberglass insulation was installed.

On Friday, sheetrock was delivered to the duplex.

This construction milestone marks the end of systems and beginning of finish work.

The siding on the duplex is complete also as of now.

Some of the features installed to date include:

• 2″ poly iso rigid roof deck insulation, installed under the metal standing seam metal roof

• Blown-in dense pack fiberglass insulation
• 1″ rigid foam insulation on all exterior walls, taped seams for air-tightness
• HRV – Heat recovery ventilation systems
• 24″ OC advanced framing

The week of snow caused some delays for us, as there was a foot of snow at the Commons!

We are in the midst of getting the 2 single family homes ready for insulation and sheet rock.  The larger single family unit (pictured above) is almost ready for Framing inspection in order to move to the finish phase.

New house being built now, right next door to the original Alley House, completion fall 2011. It’s an exceptional home, take a look:

• LEED Platinum (3rd party very green certification)
• Modular Prefab (built offsite in a factory, and delivered to the site 90% complete)
• Super energy efficient, high-end windows, extra insulation, heat recovery, heat pump
• Radiant heated bathroom floors
• Hip urban design (David Foster Architects)
• Healthy indoor air quality (filtered mechanical ventilation, HRV, low or no VOCs)
• Pre-wired for PV, solar hot H20, Polk Audio system, data, coax…
• 1 car garage, that is fully conditioned and can be readily converted into office or ADU (extra living unit) legally in this zone
• Rainscreen siding
• Optional Green roof
• Xeriscape landscaping to simplify your life, no grass to mow

Here is a window sill with WAY TOO MUCH wood in it.  This will be a cold spot, and will leak energy for this owner, maybe even host condensation.  I will try to take thermal images this winter to show my point graphically.  But structurally speaking, only 1 stud is needed here, not six!

From a buyer’s perspective, what are the main advantages of going modular versus traditional building?
The benefits of modular are fixed costs, shortened build time, minimized disturbance to the site, the fact that the home does not have any exposure to the elements while being built and the precision that is achieved while building in a controlled environment.

What are some of the sustainable features included in Method’s prefab homes?
The most sustainable feature and point of differentiation from site building is that we dramatically minimize the waste that is generated. By building in one place we’re able to reuse scraps and throw very little away. Our production facility only has a small residential size roll-out trashcan for actual waste and that is all that is not recycled. In addition to minimizing waste our focus is on indoor air quality, efficiency, and using durable and sustainable materials. To this end we use no products with formaldehyde, and only low VOC adhesives and stains, we use a minimum of blown in insulation rather than batts, and we seek out materials that last.

Explain the production and installation process of a Method home.
Generally site work and factory production happen concurrently, after 2 months the pieces of the home are trucked to the site and installed in one day with a crane. It takes 1 week –2 months to finish a home onsite depending on the number of pieces and complexity so the total build time can vary from 2-4 months

Here’s a time lapse video of one of Method’s homes being installed by crane in Quilcene, WA:

If you’re interested in learning more about the Alley House 2 pre-sale, get in touch !