From The Builder - Bob Burnside's Blog

Knowledgeable owners of older homes love the character and histories of their houses, but live in them resenting their high heating and cooling costs, and deeply regretting their very-valid concerns about how their homes affect indoor air quality and the environment.

Older homes, problematic when it comes to energy use and built with materials that may be unsafe, stand as testimony to the fact that green building must become a way of life for today’s builders.  In addition to that, “green” must become every homebuyer’s greatest demand and expectation.  After all, it is an activity undertaken in the interest of both environmental stewardship and the safety of the people who live in the homes we build.

If I were king, “green” wouldn’t even be worth talking about.  It would be a permanent, expected and sustainable change in the world of residential construction.  Pun intended.

I have felt this way since I became a builder in 1996.  As a result, I made energy-efficiency and environmentally friendly homebuilding pillars of Fireside Home Construction’s business model from virtually the very beginning. 

When I started out in this business, we barely knew what “green” was and I reflected on that fact last month when I traveled to the National Association of Homebuilders’ International Builders’ Show® to accept my 15^th award related to green building and my FOURTH EnergyValue Housing Award (EVHA). 

The EVHA honors builders who voluntarily incorporate energy efficiency in the design, construction and marketing of new homes.  Winners are considered an “elite” group of builders, but in my opinion we are a group of builders just doing the right thing, the only thing that makes sense for the people who make their lives in — or around — the homes and structures we build.

At the Builders’ Show, EVHA judges reported that Fireside Home Construction“appears to be doing everything it can (that is economically feasible) to design, build, and market an excellent home."  The judges remarked on our attention to detail in site planning, pre-construction energy analyses, and the construction process and I was, certainly, very proud of our accomplishment.

The home that received the award included a wide variety of energy-efficient technologies:

• Insulating Concrete Forms (ICFs)
• Structurally Insulated Panels (SIPs)
• Geothermal heating and air conditioning
• Heat recovery ventilation system
• Spray foam insulation
• High-efficiency lighting

It met the standards and qualifications for several innovative energy/green building programs, as well:

• Energy Star®
• Green Built Michigan
• Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) — Anticipated Platinum rating
• U.S. Department of Energy’s Builders Challenge

And, thanks to the work of my employees, the quality products from my suppliers, and the expertise of the trades craftspeople who worked on the job site, this is an extremely durable and wonderful home for its owners. They enjoy lower heating and cooling costs, maximum indoor comfort and air quality and the knowledge that their home has been recognized by many third parties for high performance as it relates to energy savings, water efficiency, CO₂ emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and overall environmental stewardship.    Am I proud of our accomplishment? Sure.  But I can’t stop there and rest on my laurels.  Building “green” is a process enhanced every day by new technologies. Fireside Home Construction is committed to learning them, using them and achieving even greater “green” gains in the future — for our buyers and for our world.

4/21/09 Outside grading and land balancing taking place

4/20/09  Trim work delivered and finish carpenters start installing cabinets

4/17/09 Cabinets delivered & Septic system installed

4/16/09 Ceramic tile delivered and prep work begins.

Well drilled and hooked up to house

4/15/09 All interior walls were primed and ceilings received final painting

From 3/30 thru 4/10/09 Drywall hanging and finishing as well as outside work was competed

3/30/09 Completed rough electrical and had mechanical, electrical, insulation and rough framing inspection...all ready for drywall

3/27/09 PM...Mark and the crew showed up and installed all of the windows, carefully sealed all the sills with water proofing material, flashed the exterior of all and checked for proper operation. 

Week of 3/23 thru 3/27/09  This week consisted of all the electrical wiring, heating trunk lines, installing the HRV air exchanger and two fireplace plus venting.  Inspections for rough Heating, Electrical, Fireplaces and gas line

               pressure test scheduled for Mon 3/30.  Drywall is scheduled for 4/1/09.

3/21/09  Drywall being delivered and being hung beginning today-   26 working days have gone by since we started excavation and we are ready for drywall........progress moves on

2/23/09-  Monday- Closed on the purchase of the property

2/24/09- Excavator on site and began excavation for the basement

2/25/09-  Completed excavation, installed the forms for the house and garage footings, poured the footings at 4PM.

2/26/09- Stripped the forms from the footings, laid out the basement on the footings and began erection of the Insulated Concrete Form basement blocks

2/26/09- Completed the form assembly and were ready to pour concrete.  Could not pour on Friday as it had rained too much to gain access with concrete trucks.

3/2/09- Monday-  We poured all the concrete into the ICF basement walls and straightened all walls for plumb and square

3/3/09-  We removed all the wall bracing, installed the mud sill plates on top of the foundation, installed the exterior basement water proofing dimple membrane and had the pea stone installed for

              the basement floor and to cover all the exterior footing drain tile.

             We also installed all of the main floor ladder floor truss system.

3/4/09-  We installed the first floor deck sheathing with glue on 100% of the floor trusses and nailed all of the sheathing with 8D ring shank nails.  As the floor deck was going on, we began installing

              all of the 6" Structural Insulated (SIP) wall panels.  By end of day, all exterior main floor walls of this Ranch home were up and prepared for roof trusses tomorrow.

In 5 1/5 working days with 6 men we have come from an empty hole in the ground to a home ready to have the roof installed.  This is a great example of the efficiency of the ICF foundation and SIP systems.

3/5/09 -  We finished the 1st floor walls and set all of the roof trusses for the main house....ready for sheathing the roof

3/6/09-  We sheathed the roof with ½" OSB and roof clips and finished all the foundation water proofing and covered the roof with 15# felt to make it water tight....ready for shingles

3/7/09- Saturday.  With a crew of 3 today, we installed the drip edge and shingled the rear half of the roof.  The weather has been horrible, drizzle all today and ¾" of rain at least this weekend. The

            site is inaccessible by vehicle right now.  We also put scrap/ left over fiberglass and foam in the attic to use it rather than throwing it out.  This will lessen the amount of cellulose we have to

            use.  Recycling is good!

3/9/09 Spent the day wrapping the outside with Tyvec, finalizing basement water proofing and the start of interior framing.

3/10/09 Built the interior partition walls, leveled the basement floor for Styrofoam and installed the electric service to the house.

3/11/09 Miscellaneous framing and tidy up activities, mason installed concrete block for garage walls, garage walls pre built on the ground.

3/12/09 Completed all rough HVAC installation, installed all garage walls and roof trusses

3/13/09 Poured the basement floor, sheathed garage roof and tied garage roof into main house.

3/14/09 Saturday, built all basement/ walk out interior partitions

3/16/09- Monday - Back filled the garage, shingled garage roof, rough plumbing ½ done, HVAC trunk lines being installed

3/17/09 Completed rough plumbing, begin rough electrical, excavating walk out area, building front porch

3/18/09 Electrical continues,  framing crew moves on to Begin Hoffman remodel of 1950's ranch in Dexter.  Demolition first.

This new model home is being built for our foreman with the intention of building a smaller, super energy efficient home that is very attractive and functional.  It is 1138 S.F. on the main floor and about 800 S.F. in the finished lower level.

9020 Island Lake Road
Dexter, Michigan
48130

It sits on 3.6 acres at the NW corner of Island Lake Road and Wylie roads, about 1 minute west of downtown Dexter.

As you enter the front door you will come through a nice Timber Frame front porch from Riverbend Timber Framing and that opens to an open great room, dining and kitchen area with a lovely fireplace and cathedral ceiling.  It features a first floor master suite and two guest bedrooms and a full bath on the lower walk out level. It also has a nice powder room and laundry room near the home entrance from the garage.

For energy efficiency it includes an Insulated Concrete Form basement from Advantage, 6” Structural Insulated Wall panels from Insulspan and an insulated ceiling of R51 Cellulose.

Heating and cooling is provided by a (2 Ton- the smallest size they make) Geo Thermal system which also provides about 85% of the hot water when the heat or A/C is on.

From start to finish including landscaping and interior decorating we will complete this project in four months.  Please follow our progress on our "From The Builder" blog.