About Green Building: Construction Techniques

What does 'green building' really mean? There are certifications that describe this in more detail: LEED is a common one, though early on it was more targeted towards commercial buildings; BuiltGreen is a standard aimed at residences in Western Washington. But what does green building entail, and what does it mean for the home owner?

Green building aims to reduce the impact of a house on the planet through construction techniques, material choices, and building design (particularly related to energy usage).

Not everything described here is applicable to every development; in particular, not everything listed will be used for the Taltree development. This is more a general overview of the types of things available for green building.

Each area will be considered over the next several posts.

Construction Techniques

Green construction techniques try to cause the least possible disruption of the site and avoid wasted materials. For example, for the Taltree site, the builder wants to save as many of the existing trees as possible, especially the important trees and tree groups. In today's standard development practice, the land is cleared entirely, then completely replanted with grass and a few new trees. The Taltree site has a lot of really nice, older trees. When possible, these trees will be left in place. If there are mature, healthy trees in planned building areas, the trees will be carefully moved to a new location to keep them alive. This avoids throwing away a lot of cut-down trees, avoids the need to buy a bunch of new trees that will take years to grow, keeps around trees that are comfortable in the native climate and so don't need a whole lot of work to keep them healthy, and provides much nicer surroundings from the very beginning for the residents.

There are a variety of techniques for cutting down on wasted materials during construction. One example is using pre-fabricated panels called SIPs (structural insulated panels). These are used for the wall, and are fabricated to spec in a warehouse; so they are manufactured to the correct size, and they are assembled just like a puzzle on site. This means no cutting boards down to size or anything like that, which results in very little waste.

Advanced Framing is an an alternative to SIPs. This framing technique reduces the amount of lumber used, achieves the same strength as standard framing techniques, and increases the thermal efficiency of the home.