Welcome to my ‘green’ house blog. My family and I designed and built our dream home using green architecture techniques inside and out. When we started this project back in Jan. 2005, we had no idea what we were getting into – we just knew building an energy efficient home was the right thing to do. Did you know that in the United States alone, buildings account for:

• 70% of electricity consumption,
• 39% of energy use,
• 39% of all carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions,
• 40% of raw materials use,
• 30% of waste output (136 million tons annually), and
• 12% of potable water consumption.

Everyone seems so focused on their gasoline consumption when they probable spend more on energy for their homes. So we did what we thought would have the biggest long-term impact – build a new home from scratch using green architecture techniques. So we hired one of the most experienced green architects, Laverne Williams of Environment Associates (http://environmentassoc.com/), to assist us in our design decisions. Laverne’s ‘Design for Passive Sustainability’ concepts and practices were very appealing to us. Our trials and tribulations have been worth it – we love our new home and everything we designed into has worked. We learned so much during this process -our hope is that others will learn from our experiences through this blog.

From my experiences I have seen three different green philosophies: high-tech green, extreme green and common sense green.

High-tech Green

When I tell someone I’ve built a green house, usually the first thing they ask me is about my solar panels. We didn’t install any solar panels because they are not cost feasible yet. They are expensive and risky – one good hailstorm or hurricane and the panels are ruined. We also looked at wind power. You can get a complete turnkey wind turbine for about $10,000 ready to plug into the grid. But you have to have an average of 8 mph winds to make it cost feasible – we don’t in the Houston area. We also evaluated A/C systems that use the coolness of the earth to cool the coils. This seemed like a good technology especially since most of our electric bills are for running the A/C – until we found out we would have to drill a hole several hundred feet deep. The drilling made the system not cost effective. So the only high-tech things we did were very efficient A/C – heat pump system, energy efficient appliances, tankless water heaters and compact fluorescent bulbs. As energy producing technologies evolve, we will continue to evaluate them. For the future, I’ve allocated space in the back yard to build a gazebo that will have solar panels on the roof.

Extreme Green

Some people take green to an extreme. If one wants to go extreme green, look at the US Green Building Council (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification process at:

http://www.usgbc.org/ - home page

http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=222 - LEED rating system info

http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=3638 - LEED rating system info

http://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=3658 - LEED Home Checklist

The Home checklist is a good document to educate yourself on what the USGBC thinks is important – but if you read the document you will see the extent of what is covered under being ‘green’. Everything from whether you stockpiled the dirt scraped for the foundation to shading 50% of your driveway with trees to the use of VOC free paints and glues inside your home. We evaluated participating in the LEED process, but at the time it was going to cost us about $2,000 to get certified - so we decided to put that $$$ into the house instead. It looks like the LEED certification process has become more affordable now. Based on the checklist, I think we could have easily gotten a silver level certification. But LEEDs is not for everyone because it is expensive to follow. I would highly recommend reviewing the LEED process if for nothing else to educate yourself on what is covered under the label of ‘green’.

Common Sense Green

This is a philosophy that I think is just starting to hit the mainstream. To me, common sense green means using the environment to your advantage. My in-laws built a house in central Pennsylvania that used the same building materials as my old house in Houston, TX. The climates and terrain are completely different but the build technologies were the same – this makes no sense. In an effort to standardize and reduce construction costs, the building industry has built houses that are very energy inefficient and cost the home owner big $$$ long term. So we looked at house designs from the 1800s – before electricity and central heating/cooling. Our pioneer forefathers had to use the environment to their advantage to survive. As an example, one person we talked to said his grandparents had two farm houses – one for the summer and one for the winter - each house had different design techniques suited for the different seasons. Through our research we discovered energy efficient design treasures such as dogtrot houses and breeze rooms that we easily incorporated into our modern home design. This is where we spent most of time and effort, incorporating these common sense green techniques into our design. Our goal was to create a house that used as little energy as possible, and then over time as other technologies become cost effective, add on energy producing technologies. Given we were designing for the south Texas climate (mild winters and hot, humid summers) our common sense green design includes:
Only 2 windows facing east and 2 facing west – with 8 windows facing south and 9 facing north. Since the prevailing winds are from either the south in the summer and north in the winter, we maximized our air flow (north and south facing windows) while minimizing the direct sunlight into house (east and west facing windows).
3 ft eves all around the house to shade the house as much as possible in the summer. The eves are the correct length so in the winter months we get sunlight in the southern facing windows to help heat the house.
Even though the front of the house faces west, we minimized the profile of the west facing part of the house by putting a 10 ft porch and a three car garage in front to block as much sun as possible. For the west facing windows, we raised them up as high as possible and put them under 10 ft front porch. We only get a little direct sunlight into the west facing windows late in the evening.
White metal roof to reflect the hot Houston sun.
Pella high effcient doors and windows (Oracle employees get a 5% discount on Pella Doors and Windows)
No fireplace - its not needed in our climate. We used the fireplace in our old house only a couple of times a year. Since fireplace flues have to be able to sustain immense heat, they are usualy made of metal and not well insulated. A fireplace is effectively a badly insulated hole to the outside. In our old house, the room with the fireplace was usually the coldest room in the house by 4-5 degrees in the winter - when we didn't have a fire going.
Two breeze rooms – the master bedroom and the music room.
A dogtrot design through the middle of the house that maximizes and controls the flow of wind throughout the house.

We did several other things to make our home as energy efficient as possible – all described below. I hope you enjoy my blog and find it helpful and educational. To get the most out of this blog, please start by looking at the bottom entry on the right menu bar (first entry chronologically) and work your way up the menu to the last entry. Click on the triangle next to the July entry to expand the list to see then all.

I look forward to all your questions and comments.

Ron Mayfield

Here's what the cork flooring looks like - but its much lighter in real life. It comes in different patterns and colors - from very light to dark chocolate. Yon can even get it non-natural colors - green, blue, etc.

Another thing we designed has worked very well - using cool reflective light from the outside to illuminate the inside. Under the large north and south windows in the dining/living room we built patios outside. The light reflecting off of the patios reflects up to the ceiling - we slanted the ceilings to reflect the light into the rest of the room. The result is from about 8:00 am to 8:00 pm in the summer we don't have to turn on any lights in the dining/living room - which is the most used room in the house during the day. This is helping to reduce our electric bill.

We finally got in the water tanks - they have been very helpful during our drought this summer. Any time it rains more than about 1/2 inch, all four on the 200 gallon tanks fills up. We then use this water to keep our newly planted trees and vines alive until the next rain.

As you can see, this is a very simple design - water flows off the roof through the downspout into the tanks - then just attach a water hose. The tanks are tall enough so the water pressure easily pushes the water to the back of our property over 100 ft away. I evaluated below ground tanks, but they require electric pumps to get the water out - more electricity and maintenance. Some people have not liked the way the tanks look - they are black to keep algae from growing in them. So we put all four tanks on the north side of the house - the opposite side from the pool where most of our outdoor activities are. So the tanks are really not that much of a eye sore. Here's how I anchored them to the ground so they wouldn't blow away during a hurricane.

I put two layers of 12 X 12 cement pavers with a left over sheet of StegoWrap in between. The StegWrap causes the overflow water to drain away from the house. I put L bolts in concrete on each side and attached a steel cable from the L bolts to the top of the tank. The steel cables keep the tanks from blowing over even when they are empty. The tanks cost about $215 a piece. With all of the materials included, I spent about $1,000 for all four tanks. That works out to $1.25 per gallon and since the tanks should last 30 years, I figure they will pay for themselves many times over. And since flooding is the biggest issue around here, I'm doing my part to retain water to reduce flooding.

Here's some of our plants that have benefited from the rain water collected in our tanks.
One of four grape vines - I'm hoping to have twelve vines and a large grape arbor - and some home made wine! Here's one of our fruit trees - I'm planning for a least 12 fruit and citrus trees. I'm also planning two large gardens. Long term I'm hoping to grow much of our vegetables and fruits - reducing the carbon foot print of our foods - plus home grown is guaranteed organic and tastes much better.

Here's the first fruit (or vegetable) of our labors - a large butternut squash.

Here's some pictures from the outside. We got up the spiral staircase to the balcony overlooking the pool. The kids love being able to go from the upstairs directly down to the pool.

Here's the front of the house - we're still working on the landscaping and probably always will be.

We've been in the new house for almost seven months now and WE LOVE IT! Everything we designed into the house works. The dogtrot design was wonderful this winter and spring - we had the house opened a lot and the breeze through the living/dining room was just as we had hoped. We also used another concept that is found in houses built before electricity and A/C - they are called breeze rooms. My wife's grandmother's house had a breeze room that she loved to sleep in during the summer. A breeze room is a room on the second floor usually over a porch that faces east and has windows on three sides. By facing east, the breeze room doesn't get hot with the afternoon/evening sun as it sets in the west. With windows on three sides there is always a breeze blowing through the room. During the hot summer months, everyone in the family would go up to the breeze room and sleep - it was always the coolest room in the house. We have two breeze rooms in our design - but we had to put them on the first floor. The master bedroom faces east and has windows on three sides - the breeze through this room is wonderful. The other breeze room is the music room and it faces south - which means it has one window facing west. But this window is under our ten foot porch and only gets a little direct sunlight late in the evening (we were hoping for no direct sunlight in the west windows but we missed on our porch legth calculations by a few inches). We also have opposing north-south windows throughout the house - both upstairs and downstairs. Even with a slight breeze outside, we have such a strong breeze throughout the house that we have to have door stops so the doors don't slam shut.
The three foot eves all around the house also has really made a difference. This is one thing our architect really push as being important for two reasons - 1. to shade the house as much as possible to reduce the direct sunlight and 2. to minimize the splashback on the house when it rains. Long term, most rotting comes from the splashback on a house. You can see houses in nearby subdivisions where the builder cut costs by having one foot eves and the houses have all sorts of rotting along the eves. The splashback will also go through the brick and start rotting anywhere moisture can get to wood.
One thing that surprised us was how cool the limestone stays even when the sun is low and shines directly on the house. As an example, when the west sun gets low and we get direct sunlight on the west porch, the bottom of the front door (fiberglass so it won't deteriorate) gets so hot you can't touch it. But the limestone right next to it is cool to the touch. I haven't seen any studies on limestone, but I have to guess it has something to do with the high level of silicon in the limestone that allows it to dissipate the heat from the sun so well.
We absolutely love the cork floors. While the best cork is imported from Portugal and has a high carbon footprint due to the long distance shipping, cork is really one of the best green flooring options because the cork trees are not harmed. The cork is the bark and only the bark is harvested - the trees are not cut down. The cork bark can be harvested every seven to eight years without harming the tree. Don't by cork from China or other places because its not as dense and won't last as long - get the stuff that will last - cork from Portugal. I would highly recommend Amcork - http://www.amcork.com/. They import their cork flooring directly from Portugal - we purchased the cork from them and they did the installation - they did a great job. We even have cork on the stairs - its beautiful. What's special about AmCork products is they have no VOCs in their products. Other cork floors from some of the major suppliers have VOCs in the engineered wood part of the cork planks. AmCork's products are certified safe for even hospitals. The cork is cushier to walk on than any other floor we evaluated - great for the old back. Cork tile is a little different looking, but most everyone has like it. Its been very low maintenance - just sweep or vacuum with an occasional damp mopping. The cork has shown no signs of wearing or scratching - even with a golden retriever running through the house. One thing to watch out for is the installation of the cork flooring. Make sure the installers are away from the house when they are sawing the cork planks. When cut with a saw, cork planks create a super fine dust. Our installer was outside on the balcony on the south side and the cork dust blew into the house - it took us two months to get the cork dust vacuumed out of the house.
The slate is also wonderful. We got it directly from Camara Slate - http://www.camaraslate.com/ . They mine the slate themselves and they gave us a very competive price. We got the unfading green color - we love it - very earthy. It is very dense and has not create any dust - its pratically indestructible and too easy to care for - just mop it occasionally. Slate from other parts of the world (China and India) is not nearly as dense and will wear and create dust - plus the carbon footprint is much greater due to the shipping - slate is very heavy. We especially like the slate when the kids come in from the pool dripping wet and we don't have to worry about the floor at all. The kids also got a kick out of the occasional piece of gold in the slate - fools gold that is - pyrite.
The StegoWrap really worked as planned. As you can see from the pictures below, last summer was the wettest summer in 65 years in the Houston area - we had +65 inches of rain! All of the flooring guys were surprised that we had NO moisture coming up through the foundation. I would highly recommend using StegoWrap for any new building project.
Here's some things we did differently than originally planned.
We decide to go with the Rinnai tankless water heaters because they are clustered together - if one can't handle the load then the other kicks in to help out. RACed water heaters - you got to love it.
We didn't seal the limestone. A quick over with a power washer and all of the stains from dirt/sand came right off.
We didn't use Tyvek because I found a forum where a builder had problems with water getting behind the Tyvek and causing rotting on OSB plywood - which is what the SIPs are made of. It turns out Tyvek allows water waper through - but not water. If water gets behind the Tyvek it can't get out and will cause rotting. Before you put up brick or stone, you have to nail brick ties to the house. Each brick tie is a hole in the Tyvek and a potenial spot for water to get through. So we used a fiberglass impregnated tar paper that should last 30-40 years to seal between the SIP panels and the stone. Tar paper is self sealing when you put a nail through it.
My wife decided she like Moen fixtures instead of American Standard. Both are good quality products.
Soundproofing - after further research I found that fiberglass insulation has about the same soundproofing qualities as cotton batting - and its much cheaper. So we used Johns Manville fiberglass insulation because it has no VOCs.
For soundproofing the main wall between the living area and the sleeping area we used two techniques. First we made the wall the width of a 2 X 6 , but instead of 2 X 6 studs we used two lines of 2 X 4 studs offset from each other - effectively making two independent walls. This way the sound vibrating the wall on one side is not transfered to the other side of the wall. We also used two layers of 1/2 inch sheetrock on the living room side with a special sound deadening glue between them. This is really neat stuff - its called GreenGlue - http://www.greenglue.org/ . Its viscoelastic technology for sound isolation and vibration control - and it really seems to work well. Between the offset wall and the GreenGlue, the kids can be having a great time in the living room and I can barely hear them in my home office right down the hall.
Now for the final test of our new green architecture house - our energy usage. We've had a very hot summer so far compared to last summer's constant monsoons. Compared to our old house built in 1988 with 2,200 sq ft, we are using less electricity in the new house at +3,500 sq ft - and we now have an electric pool pump. I'll put up some numbers on electricity and natural gas usage later...

Getting close!

Originall posted on:

Thursday, November 22, 2007

We've been busy trying to get the inside finished and there are a thousand details to remember. But we are close - we will be moved in before Christmas. Its taken us three years to get here - but we are quite please with the results. All the cabinets are in and all but one of the counter tops have been installed. Electricians should be completed next week - its nice to have electricity and lights so we can work late in the evening. The tile guys are back on Mon. and the cork floor installers will be starting on Wed. All that will be left on the inside is finishing the A/C vents, plumbing fixtures, appliances, and paint touch ups.


Here's the front of the house looking from the west showing the garage and front porch.

This is the front again looking a little more from the south to show the south patio and lap pool.

This is the south side of the house looking from the east showing the lap pool and the upstairs balcony. The long back tube on the right is where one of the above ground water storage tanks will be. We would have had them in by now, but the plastic mold broke - so it will be another month before we get them from the manufacturer. We will have four 200 gallon tanks when done. We will use this water to irrigate the trees, flower beds and gardens.

This is the north side of the house showing the north patio. Above the air conditioner condensing units are the two Rinnai 85E exterior tankless water heaters (two white boxes on the wall). These water heaters are 'clustered' together - one is the primary and the other is the secondary. If the primary is unable to handle the hot water flow rate demand, the secondary unit starts up. After a predetermined time, the primary and secondary units switch roles so that the primary doesn't wear out sooner than the secondary.

This is the Music Room looking southeast - outside is the pool.

This is the Living Room and Dining Room looking from the breakfast bar - again that's the pool outside.

This is the kitchen looking across the breakfast bar from the dining room.

Here's a close up of the kitchen granite - its called Cold Spring.

The Stone is finished.

Sorry its been soooo long since I put up pictures - we've been focused on getting ready to sheetrock. Big news is the stone is finished and they did a great job. The metal roof is getting close - they should be finished next weekend. More later....

Last of the SIP walls are going up.

Here's the last SIP roof panel going up!!!

To hold up the SIP roof panels, beams are placed at the peak, and for long roof panels, in the middle of the panel. We decided to use 3X3 in. steel poles (brown poles) to support the beams. The steel poles are bolted to the concrete, then the beams are bolted to the steel poles and 10 or 12 in. screws are used to hold the roof panels to the beams. This gives us better hold-down for the roof during a hurricane. This view is looking at the Living Room wall and the Powder Room door.

Turning around, you can see the beams over the Living Room, Dining Room and Kitchen - lots of beams and steel poles! The doorway is between the Foyer and the Living Room.


This is the beam over the Master Bedroom before the SIP roof panels were put up.

Second floor is almost up

We've finally had two weeks of good weather! The second floor walls are up and they finished putting on the second floor roof today! Next step is to get the roof up above the living/dining room area. This will require some large roof beams to be set in place first, then the roof panels go up. More later...


View from the South looking at the master bedroom.

View from the Northwest looking at the second floor and the dining room.

Putting the roof panels on is quite challenging - but these guys have been doing it for years. Its like putting together a big puzzle.

View from the West looking at the front of the house.

View from the Southeast looking at the master bedroom and the where the second floor balcony will go.