Modern. Sustainable. Atlanta. 404.303.7280

    • June

      2

      2012
    • 1650
    • 0

    Six Things LEED Consultants Do Wrong in Specs

    LEED consultants are paid to lend their expertise to achieve a project’s LEED certification goals. Their decisions focus on achieving credits and their participation is absolutely vital to the project, but some can actually work against the project’s sustainability goals. Here are the top six problems I see.

    #1 Discouraging bidding by specifying unrealistic LEED requirements

    When a specification requires a regional source, a recycled content percentage, and certain certifications for a product, the specifier has to be certain that conforming products exist. On a recent project, the only bidder

    • June

      1

      2012
    • 2064
    • 0

    Defining Undefined Loss Exposure in Green Construction

    A green heating system that doesn’t heat. LEED-certified units that meet fewer than half the requirements for certification. Clients suing construction firms because of lost tax breaks from promised green buildings.

    Welcome to green construction. Even as the green construction movement is taking wing, legal experts are warning of the dangerous territory ahead.

    Some such territory includes lawsuits like this: A builder is sued by the client because the client lost a tax break for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, because the building ultimately did not meet the LEED level asked for by the client. Other lawsuits include a luxury condominium complex in Battery Park City, N.Y., where its owners are suing developers for $1.5 million for fraud and breach of …..

    • June

      1

      2012
    • 2177
    • 0

    Passive House Training is Coming to Atlanta This Fall

    Certified Passive House Consultant Training Coming to Atlanta

    Offered in Partnership with PHAAtlanta.org, the Local Passive House Chapter.

    Phase1:October 15-19, 8:30-5:00

    Phase 2: November 5-8, 8:30-5:00

    Exam (optional) on November 8

    MD Tech Training Center, 3580 Pierce Dr, Suite 160 Chamblee, GA 30341

    Download additional training information:

    • May

      6

      2012
    • 2263
    • 0

    Bubble Deck Technology Uses Less Concrete by Filing The Slab With Beach Balls

    Concrete is heavy, and 5% of the world’s CO2 is created during the manufacture of the cement that goes into it. Then there is the aggregate that is dug out and the trucks that have to carry it. Not only that, but most of the concrete that is in a slab isn’t even needed; it is just a spacer between the bottom, where the reinforcing steel is in tension, and the top, where the concrete is

    • May

      6

      2012
    • 1471
    • 0

    New Rating System,Envisions Sustainable Infrastructure

    Envision™ provides a holistic framework for evaluating and rating the community, environmental, and economic benefits of all types and sizes of infrastructure projects.

    The Envision™ Rating System evaluates, grades, and gives recognition to infrastructure projects that use transformational, collaborative approaches to assess the sustainability indicators over the course of the project’s life cycle.

    Who Can Use Envision™

    Envision™ can be used by infrastructure owners, design teams, community groups, environmental organizations,

    • May

      6

      2012
    • 1820
    • 0

    10 Creative Reuse Ideas for the Garden Real Simple

    While you may think some of your stuff has hit the end its life cyle, or is only good for one thing, much of it could be leading a double life in your garden! Before you give them the heave-ho, check out Real Simple’s great list of 46 new uses for old things in the garden; here are our 10 favorite ideas. More Read More..

    • May

      6

      2012
    • 1645
    • 0

    One Family’s Story: Keeping Chickens in LA

    The trend toward keeping backyard livestock in urban and suburban areas seems only to be growing. We’ve featured plenty of chicken coop designs in the past, but we loved this homemade coop in a small backyard in Los Angeles so much that we wanted to share the story.

    Irwin Miller, whose kids’ room we featured for its clever use of small space, inherited some chickens from his son’s school. He explains how the whole addition

    • May

      6

      2012
    • 1840
    • 0

    Novice Carpenter Builds a Secret, Illegal Tree House on Crown Land in Canada

    Joel Allen didn’t expect to end up building a secret cabin on land he didn’t own in British Columbia. First he thought he would work in software (that didn’t work out), then he retired at the age of 26 (didn’t work out either). After befriending a self-taught carpenter, Allen was inspired to go into the field himself. He headed to Whistler, north of Vancouver, lived out of his car and looked for work.

    Allen spent a lot of time in the woods, and realized he wanted his own hideaway. Working with architect friends, he designed an egg-shaped tree house. After a two month search for the perfect tree, he found his spot, on publicly owned….

    • May

      6

      2012
    • 1773
    • 0

    The (Nearly) Weed-Free Garden

    Either he knows a lot about gardening, or he’s a whiz at Photoshop. I’m betting on the first.

    Lee has a four-part system for beating the weeds:

    – Don’t disturb the soil. (prevents buried weed seeds from surfacing and germinating.)
    – Set up permanent beds and paths. (so you won’t have to till to aerate the soil.)
    – Keep the soil ….

    • April

      15

      2012
    • 1525
    • 0

    They’re Baaack: Average House Size Shoots Up To Highest Ever

    As the housing market entered its steep decline during the latter part of the past decade, it took home sizes with it. While there was much to bemoan about the state of the industry, among designers and architects it seemed the one bright spot was what appeared to be the demise of the McMansion and an increased focus on efficient functionality. Between 2007 and 2010, the average size of a new, single-family home in the U.S. fell from 2,504 square feet to 2,381 square feet, according to U.S. Census data. It was the rise of smaller and smarter.

    Or was it?

    “For all these years, the trend was going [down], and then in 2011 it got reversed,” says Rose Quint, assistant vice president of survey research at the National Association of Home Builders

    • April

      15

      2012
    • 1572
    • 0

    Beat the heat: how a new type of eco home is helping tackle global warming

    Beat the heat: how a new type of eco home is helping tackle global warming The Ecologist The heat storage capacity of different materials is one of the most important features of building a passive house , explains Swift, which is why several of the designs on the site are partly buried underground, to make the most of the constant …

    • April

      15

      2012
    • 1883
    • 0

    Habitat builds passive house in Berea

    Habitat builds passive house in Berea Lexington Herald Leader A family in Berea is getting an energy-efficient home from Habitat for Humanity. The Richmond Register (http://bit.ly/HkaBZC) reports it is Habitat for Humanity’s first ” passive ” home in the state, which means it exceeds federal Energy Star ratings and … Berea family getting Habitat’s first; Passive home in Kentucky.

    • April

      15

      2012
    • 2231
    • 0

    New App Will Monitor Residential Energy Usage

    A new Facebook app will enable consumers to quickly and easily benchmark their home’s energy usage against similar homes, compare energy use with friends, and share tips on how to become more energy efficient.

    The social energy app is an initiative of Facebook, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), software provider Opower, and 16 utility companies. More than 20 million households within the 16 participating utilities’ territories will be able to take advantage of the app’s “Utility Connect” feature, allowing customers to choose to have their energy use automatically update each ….

    • April

      15

      2012
    • 1849
    • 0

    LEED overhaul to address long-term building performance

    The US Green Building Council (USGBC) is revamping the LEED rating system this year. LEED 2012 will focus on improving the rating system’s clarity (providing more precise technical criteria) and making the system more user-friendly. Some may consider these competing notions, so i’’s quite a lofty goal to meet. There will be revisions of prerequisites and point systems. LEED 2012 is going through a third public comment period, and has a proposed launch date in October. A FAQ document developed by the USGBC highlighting the

    • April

      15

      2012
    • 1677
    • 0

    How To Start a Compost Heap

    Many of us recycle and reuse, but there’s something vaguely intimidating about making the move to composting. I’ll admit that I was guilty of hesitation, worrying about the smelliness of the endeavor and never entirely sure of what can and can’t be composted in the first place. But after a bit of investigation and minimal effort, I’ve realized that composting is really easy, affordable, useful, and sustainable.

    • April

      15

      2012
    • 1721
    • 0

    Scoring the Referees: How Pharos Judges Green Labels

    [Editor’s note: This post is authored by Bill Walsh, Executive Director of the Healthy Building Network .] When building products carry different green certifications, how do you know which product is best? Maybe there is a way to compare apples and oranges. As green certifications and labels have proliferated, so has greenwash.

    • April

      15

      2012
    • 1735
    • 0

    Energy Efficient Buildings in Demand Worldwide

    We cannot sustainably keep pace with the world’s continuously growing hunger for energy if we continue along our current path. Especially in the building sector, however, there exists an enormous potential for energy savings where we can reduce energy use by 80 to 90% without any reduction in comfort.

    Countries around the world are realizing this. Only “Net zero energy buildings” will be built inSouth Korea and California as of 2020 and throughout Europe, all new builds will have to be constructed as “nearly zero energy buildings” by 2020. Europe’s future energy efficiency directive also calls for high annual retrofit rates of public building stock

    • April

      15

      2012
    • 1808
    • 0

    How To Make Natural Garden Pesticides

    Garden pests are one of the few things I find frustrating about gardening. Whether it’s the snails taking over your lettuce or the aphids sucking on your roses – it’s definitely annoying – but not a reason to fret and reach for harmful, toxic sprays. They might eliminate the pesky culprits, but they are harmful to you and the environment

    • April

      15

      2012
    • 1642
    • 0

    A new Living Building Challenge: Community-scale retrofitting

    Green building might be little more than a fringe hippie idea if not for certification. The medals and honors now available through rating systems have enabled a good and altruistic effort to become a highly marketable quality. LEED – Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – is now the most well-known and well-used certification system, claiming nearly 9 billion square feet of space participating in its various certification programs globally. But it’s not alone, and it’s not necessarily the greenest of the green. The relatively new Living Building Challenge has been steadily gathering fans in the green building community for tougher-than-LEED standards such as net-zero energy and net-zero water.

    • March

      18

      2012
    • 1467
    • 0

    PHA Atlanta, Brings Passive House Training to Atlanta in June

    Passive House Training is coming to Atlanta in June & July. Click here to see more information on the up coming classes.

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© Copyright EcoCustom Homes | 5784 Lake Forrest Dr | Suite 216 | Sandy Springs, Georgia 30328 | 404.303.7280
Costs of Custom Homes

The first thing most people want to know is: What does it costs to build a 3000 sqft custom home in the Atlanta, GA. market?  The first thing you have to calculate is the square footage you want.  Once you have that, the numbers below give you a good starting point.

Adjusted Square Foot Calculation:

New Construction:

Renovations:

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