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    • December

      18

      2012
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    City Of Atl Proposed Stormwater Requirements

    The City of Atlanta is required by the state and federal government to manage stormwater runoff that enters the City’s combined sewer system and neighboring waterways. The City’s proposed stormwater Management Ordinance applies for development actions including new impervious areas (surfaces that do not let water to soak into the ground like concrete and asphalt), construction of new buildings or additions, pools, patios or decks. If the project is greater than 1,000 sq. ft. of new impervious surface, a specialized drainage plan arranged by an engineer or landscape architect is required to decrease the all stormwater flows by 50 percent. (Thus if you add an averaged size pool to your home, you will have to retrofit your entire home with a system)

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    • December

      18

      2012
    • 1271
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    When to Build or When to Renovate.

    The practice of new construction, with all of the advanced green building techniques, is a lot quicker than renovating an existing structure.

    But when you take into consideration having an existing building and infrastructure, we also need to know which has the greatest environmentally impact. While the simplicity of new construction might be desirable, the greater potential for decreasing the carbon impact during a renovation compared to a new construction is very evident over a 75-year life span of a home or building. The National Trust for Historic Preservation newly mentioned that the greenest building could be …….

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    • December

      16

      2012
    • 14451
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    6 celebrities with deep green homes

    Celebrity power couple Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady’s chateau-inspired hovel in L.A.’s chichi Brentwood section managed to raise a few eyebrows earlier this year not just because of its elephantine size — a staggering 22,000 square feet — but also that Bundchen, a noted environmentalist, reportedly planned to outfit it with as many eco-friendly bells and whistles as possible including solar panels, rainwater recycling systems and energy-efficient lighting and appliances. This, of course, led to the inevitable question: Can a $20 million palace with eight bedrooms and a six-car garage still be considered “green?”

    The jury is still out on that one, but we do know that chez Bundchen and Brady would be a heck of a lot greener if they shaved, oh, about 15,000 square feet off the home’s total size. But hey, at least they tried. And look at Larry Hagman. The recently passed actor best known for playing a despicable Texas oil tycoon went and built himself

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    • December

      16

      2012
    • 1769
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    Energy efficiency within reach

    A Building Revolution: The Super Insulated Passive House is a guide to the methods that builders, architects and homeowners around the U.S. and Europe have used to drastically reduce home energy consumption. The movement isn’t new, and neither are most of the construction practices, which, as the film states, were first employed in the U.S. and Canada in the 1970s when the first energy crisis reared its head, threatening greatly increased home heating and cooling bills. The change was short-lived, waning in …….

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    • December

      15

      2012
    • 1381
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    Soma Reinvents the Water Filter, Makes It Gorgeous And Greener

    We have been recommending water filters for years, but they are not without their issues. (Remember Beth Terry’s Take Back the Filter campaign?). They are often ugly, plastic things. I love my ZeroWater, but it is ridiculous to fill, and is seriously out of place in an architect’s kitchen.

    The Soma, on the other hand, is lovely to look at. CEO Mike Del Ponte tells us that it is designed according to Dieter Ram’s principles (which inspired Jony Ives and Apple). Rams has written:

    My aim is to omit everything superfluous so that the essential is shown to the best possible advantage.

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    • December

      15

      2012
    • 1056
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    Winter Lawn Protection

    When the topic of lawn care is brought up, people are likely to think in terms of spring and summer. When the weather gets warm and the grass starts growing, people break out the digging fork, the mower, hoe and related equipments and get to business. What they fall short to understand is that not only can they fix summer harm to the lawn in the fall and during the winter, but also they can in fact recover the lawn so it will be healthier and have smaller amount of weeds in the spring.

    The most critical thing a person can perform in the fall to see the lawn through the winter and train it for next spring
    Feeding is the most essential thing one can do for your lawn in the fall. Many people ……..

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    • December

      15

      2012
    • 1273
    • 0

    Green Designs in different forms and shapes

    While it may at first appear to be the only benefits of green building attempts go to the environment – at the cost of human comfort and expense – this is not the case. Advocates of eco-friendly architecture take a holistic method to the notion of environmental health, taking into human well being in their calculations.

    This Organic dome near ….

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    • December

      5

      2012
    • 1652
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    Issues with Distressed Properties

    Issues With Distressed Properties.   A for-sale house that’s been unoccupied may look like great bargain, but costly problems often prowl inside homes that have been vacant for some time and therefore buyers should be more careful. A home can become unoccupied due to a marriage, job transfer, and loss of a family member or

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    • November

      18

      2012
    • 2174
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    Atlanta advances array of storm water management options as state focuses its …

    On Nov. 27, if all goes as planned, the city’s long-awaited proposal to improve the management of storm water is to get its first hearing by the Utilities Committee of the Atlanta City Council. Advocates hope the council will enact it early next year and Mayor Kasim Reed will sign the legislation.

    In addition, lots of blue sky ideas emerged after a presentation by Denise Quarles, Atlanta’s sustainability director, at last week’s meeting of SERHAS – including this one from Norman Koplon, the city’s long-time director of buildings: Why not catch storm water that runs off Ga. 400, south of the tollgates, and use it to irrigate the……..

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    • November

      18

      2012
    • 1726
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    Tips for Buying an Energy Efficient House

    Buying an energy efficient home can be a great investment that will save you money on energy costs in the long term in addition to increasing the resale value of your home, when you’re ready to move on. With increasing consumer awareness of environmental issues, it’s growing much easier to find energy efficient homes, but it helps to be armored with some tips before you set out on your home buying journey. Savvy buyers can find the perfect house for their needs and negotiate……

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    • November

      18

      2012
    • 1516
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    Survey reveals drop in interest in getting LEED certification

    The most intriguing finding, however, had to do with what seems to be a falloff of interest in LEED certification. In Turner’s 2008 survey, three-fifths of respondents (61%) said they were “very likely” (30%) or “extremely likely” (31%) to seek LEED certification for new or renovated projects. This started falling in 2010, to 53%, and dropped to 48% this year, with 25% “very likely” and 23% “extremely likely” to use LEED.

    Why this apparent decline of interest in LEED? One factor, which was not specifically asked in the survey and is based primarily on anecdotal evidence, is that many AEC firms are building sustainably without asking the client’s permission. There’s also

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    • November

      18

      2012
    • 2494
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    Low-Tech Rainscreen with Charred Wood

    Low-Tech Rainscreen with Charred Wood Jetson Green Zero Cottage — a net-zero energy project pursuing Living Building Challenge, LEED Platinum, Green Point Rated, and Passive House certifications — is finishing nicely. Part of the exterior has a handsome rainscreen of vertical cedar battens and …

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    • November

      18

      2012
    • 1550
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    The Benefits of Wool Insulation

    Wool insulation is made exclusively from sheep wool fibers that are either mechanically held together or tied using between 5% and 15% recycled polyester adhesive to form insulating batts, rolls and ropes. Batts are usually used in timber-frame buildings; rolls for lofts and ropes are mainly used between the logs in log homes. Wool insulation is used for both thermal and acoustic insulating applications.

    Warm and dry environments are vital in creating healthy living conditions. Wool has a natural tendency to accomplish this by absorbing and desorbing moisture.

    Wool is a natural protein essence. The protein from wool fiber is being utilized in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical businesses. This would clearly not happen if there was an element of risk or damaging effect.

    We live in a nation proud of its environmental approach towards

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    • November

      18

      2012
    • 2110
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    Passive House Windows

    It makes sense to invest in a high performance triple glazed window, taking into consideration windows often account for upwards of 50% of all energy loss through a building envelope, By investing in high performance windows it enables a home or building designer to minimize the heating system, make the indoor air quality better and benefit from passive solar heating.

    There are two main causes which makes having quality windows very vital. One of the reasons is associated to the thermal comfort of the occupants, which is directly influenced by the quality of the windows in the house. The other reason having quality windows are important because it minimizes the

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    • October

      27

      2012
    • 1689
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    Formaldehyde Should Not Be In Our Houses, No Matter How Natural; Big Chem Says It Is

    The industry rallies around an attack on Nick Kristof of the New York Times, but he’s right.

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    • October

      27

      2012
    • 1601
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    Can You Build an All-American Home? It’s Hard and Expensive, and It’s All About the Details

    People all over the United States were out of work; if she bought American-made products for the house, she could do her part. But how far could she take it? Was it possible to build a house entirely of products made in America?

    Some things were easy. Lantz traveled to a quarry in Lueders, Tex., to find chocolate-brown limestone. The marble chips that made up her terrazzo came from Marble Falls. She found Heatlok Soy 200 foam insulation in Arlington and windows manufactured in Stafford. Other items required her to look further afield: Lantz bought shower drains from Iowa, a skylight made in South Carolina, hose valves made in Alabama, fences from California and baseboards from Georgia. She developed the skills of a private investigator.

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    • October

      7

      2012
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    Cool Product Introduced at The Passive House Conference, Blackbox IAQ

    What does it do?

    The BLACK BOX measures many properties of indoor air. Coupled with specialized computer algorithms developed at Equinox Built Environment Engineering, the air exchange rate and quality of the air can be assessed. Good indoor air quality is a balance of the rate that pollutants are released into one’s living space with the rate of air flow through the living space. Our assessment determines both the release rate of pollutants and the air exchange rate in the indoor living space.

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    • September

      18

      2012
    • 1594
    • 0

    Green Your Home For Winter: 7 Cheap and (Sort Of) Easy Tips That Give You A Big Bang For Your Buck

    A decade ago, the Rocky Mountain Institute released Cool Citizens: Everyday Solutions to Climate Change: Household Solutions. It was full of great tips for what you can do to reduce your energy use. However I found the most important feature was this page, which ranked measures you can take by the bang for the buck. It was pretty shocking, demonstrating that we have been pretty much sold a bill of goods, of expensive green gizmos, that cost a fortune in proportion to the money and carbon they save; a programmable thermostat saves more than changing all your windows. Insulating your ducts saves more than an entire solar hot water system.

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    • September

      18

      2012
    • 2689
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    Floating passive house close to mass production

    The Dutch subsidiary of IBC Solar AG, one of the world’s leading system integrators for photovoltaics, has helped bring AUT-ARK home, a floating passive home, a step closer to mass production. A prototype of AUT-ARK is currently anchored in Maastricht (Netherlands) and draws a huge number of interested visitors during its opening hours due to its unconventional construction design.

    IBC Solar B.V. provided its support for the planning, technical design and installation of the photovoltaic system for this unique, future-oriented project, which is powered by a total of 24 photovoltaic modules with a total output of 6,360 Wp (watt peak), an inverter and a solar energy storage unit.

    The home was designed by Pieter Kromwijk (Architectuur Coenegracht & Kromwijk, Maastricht) focusing on minimum energy demand, and is currently anchored in Maastricht. The prototype took nine months to build, and IBC Solar explains that “owing to the considerable interest shown, the floating passive home will soon be going into mass production. Then each home will only take 4 months to build”.

    “The AUT-ARK Home is a perfect example of how the homes of the future will look,” claims Peter Meijers, Managing Director of IBC Solar B.V. in the Netherlands enthusiastically. Once it has been anchored at its mooring, the passive house does not need to be connected to a waterside power supply – electricity and water are produced and treated by the home itself.

    “This is of particular interest in those areas where there is an abundance of rivers and lakes and only limited housing space. This problem could be solved with the passive house, which offers a new, self-sufficient living space,” explains Meijers. Thanks to its innovative construction and self-sufficiency concept, the floating passive home is ten times more energy-friendly than a conventional home of a comparable size.

    Peter Meijers was immediately convinced of the idea of the self-sufficient home and offered his advice in designing the power supply from the very beginning. The planning stage of the project was quite complicated. For example, the construction plans for the passive home were altered several times. IBC Solar B.V. adapted the energy concept for each draft accordingly. IBC Solar B.V. t

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    • September

      18

      2012
    • 1914
    • 0

    Why Construction Is Expensive

    Being a highly cost-effective design-build firm, we spend a significant amount of time and effort on project budgets. We publish the construction costs of most of our projects, discuss pricing in many of our posts, and have even gone to the extent of designing a construction cost cheat sheet. To us, the design and the finances of a project are interconnected. We’ve never cared for the vague and uninformed approach toward construction costs that are all too common in the architecture industry. In fact, it’s common for us to dive into a realistic construction budget discussion as early on as the initial interview for a new project.

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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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