Home builder Lance Schmidt hears it all the time: Green building costs more.
But he and his colleagues are out to prove otherwise.
Schmidt is one of two general contractors on Mythbuster 2009, a demonstration home being built in Akron's Kenmore neighborhood to show that environmentally conscious building practices are feasible even in modestly priced homes.
The approximately 1,200-square-foot home will have a price tag of $92,000, yet it will meet the National Association of Home Builders' green building standards and the government's Energy Star criteria. Its monthly gas bill is expected to average about $38 a month, far less than what's typical for a home that size.
"The attitude that green costs more - I'm gonna bust it to death," Schmidt said during a tour of the house for industry professionals, public officials, students and others.
The house is a joint project of the Home Builders Association Serving Portage & Summit Counties (Ohio) and the nonprofit Urban Neighborhood Development Corp., which builds affordable housing in Akron on lots that once were vacant or held dilapidated homes.
Schmidt, a green-building advocate and project manager at F.G. Ayers Inc., is sharing general contracting duties with Steve Miller of Rembrandt Homes.
The idea behind the house is to show the public and those in the construction industry how building materials can be conserved, construction waste minimized and a home's energy-efficiency improved, all without significantly increasing the cost. And because students in the Akron Public Schools' Education in Action program are involved in the construction, it's also an opportunity to teach green building techniques to the next generation of tradespeople.
To achieve those environmental benefits, the builders are using a number of construction methods that aren't standard in the industry.
For example, the floor joists are 2-by-8s spaced 19.2 inches apart on center instead of the usual 16 to save wood - a method that's possible because the oriented strand board that lays atop those joists is more than strong enough for that spacing, Schmidt explained. The wall studs are 2-by-6s spaced 24 inches on center, a method that not only cuts down on lumber but creates more room for insulation.
Additional insulation space was created by using raised heel trusses, a technique that involved attaching scrap pieces of 2-by-4s to the roof trusses to raise them a few inches above the plate that tops the exterior walls.
The truss method added nothing to the construction cost, Schmidt noted, but it's not widely used. "See, most builders don't think that way," he said.
Other eco-friendly elements will include insulation on the outside of the foundation and a furnace that's 95 percent efficient and fairly small, since the house will be so well sealed and insulated. Lumber from an old warehouse may be remilled for use as flooring in part of the home.
The house also has a radon collection system, which is essentially a vent pipe tied into the footer drain to carry off any radon that might enter the house. It cost about $100 to install, Schmidt said - far cheaper than the cost of mitigation if radon were found after the home was built.
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