Call them "Green Homes", "High Performance Homes" or "Sustainable Homes", they're all the same. We believe that there are certain things that all responsibly built homes should address and the time is right. Green building is the answer to many of the problems and concerns that clients building new new homes express.

details The "Right House"™ is currently under construction in The Village of West Clay, Carmel, IN.

In this day and age, energy efficiency is certainly at the top of that list. No matter the style, size or location, we all want to spend less to heat and cool our homes.

Another area that we feel shares top billing is healthy indoor air quality. New home construction today is making our homes tighter and tighter to the point that we now live in a self-contained eco system. Toxins, fumes, illnesses, mold and who knows what else tend to become trapped in the one place where we take refuge . . . our homes! A responsibly built home should contribute to your health, not hinder it.

Does it strike you as odd that the mold problem that we have seen in the recent past was essentially non-existent just 10-15 years ago? Builders never used to have problems with mold. Houses like those built in Meridian-Kessler, back in the 20's and 30's, seldom, if ever, have mold issues. Our industry has had a hand in this with constant changes and additions to our local building codes. This "Code Creep", that builders are so familiar with, has piled on issue after issue, making homes more costly to build but not always better.

Plywood sheathing is often exposed to the elements for long periods of time before being covered with some kind of veneer.

Take a look at the way most builders construct the exterior walls of their homes. This is the first line of defense against the elements. Typical wood framed houses are subject to air infiltration from various paths through the exterior veneers. It doesn't much matter whether the veneer is brick, stone, siding or stucco. They all leak air somewhere. The plywood sheathing that is so often used fights a losing battle against water, mold and insects. Recent code changes have mandated that we use a house wrap, such as Tyvek®. When applied correctly, this helps somewhat but it is often torn, patched together and generally misused.

Then you have your typical fiberglass batt insulation. Even with the most attentive installation, it does a mediocre job of keeping all of the exterior cold air out. So where does this leave us? A moldy and drafty exterior wall assembly that simply is not the best to fend off the elements.

Then come your Volatile Organic Compounds or VOCs. Glues, formaldehydes and other toxins from paints, plywood and even carpets. Add to this, sick children, pets and assorted airborne contaminates. It is not a healthy environment. It is little wonder that asthmas and other allergies that affect so many people are on the rise.

To help mitigate the harmful effects of VOCs and other harmful chemicals, we utilize an organic plaster from American Clay Plaster. This product has numerous properties that contribute to an overall improvement in your indoor air quality.

 

"Earth friendly techniques and products quite simply provide a safer, cleaner, quieter and much more energy efficient home"

 

Lone Star Custom Homes has been studying this for some time in an effort to find ways to improve the construction quality of our homes. We want to give our customers something that is seldom offered in this market, a HEALTHY HOME! While we don't claim to have all of the answers, we certainly have addressed many of these problems.

For starters, we are expanding our primary construction method to include Aerated Autoclaved Concrete. This product, which has been used around the world for over 80 years, offers numerous solutions to many of these problems.

We offer Geothermal heating and cooling as a HVAC option which dramatically reduces the homes energy consumption while at the same time, helping with our fragile environment. Add radiant floor heating to this mix and you have a superb conditioning system with numerous health benefits. We also offer tankless water heaters as another way of reducing energy costs while at the same time, providing the luxurious indulgence of endless hot water while not having to heat and store great quantities of water 24 hours a day. Heat what you need, when you need it.

For several years now there has been strong disagreement as to how, or if, we should ventilate our crawl spaces. The code says we have to, some inspectors tell us to cover the vents up after the final inspection and heating experts say they are the worst thing going. Who to believe! Well, until the jury returns with an unequivocal verdict, we offer encapsulation as a way to avoid the related problems.

Putting all of this together takes more than just your average "Home Designer" or draftsman. We have a well earned appreciation of the skills and talents of seasoned and imaginative architects and prefer to include them as part of our design team. While other builders may offer to "include" the design as part of their package, it usually ends up being their last "framer turned draftsman" who sketches out a plan and the builder ultimately ends up making design decisions as the project progresses. This is a dangerous approach for any kind of major project. You certainly would not set out on a two week trip to Europe without giving careful consideration to every last item that you anticipate needing. Taking the approach of making itinerary decisions while you're in the plane just doesn't make sense.

While the big picture is coming into focus with the design of the home, we also are paying very close attention to the personal feel of the home. The interior design and finishes can make or break a home. Jane Brooks begins this phase of design even before blueprints are drawn. With careful conversation with our clients, she is able to refine and polish the look and feel of the home. Paint colors and finishes, lighting, niches and built-ins, flooring and cabinets; they all have to work together from the inside out. It's the small details that often stand out. Just picking and laying out the tile work seems to take forever!

Building a new home is never routine with us. Each one starts a new and exciting journey. It is not unlike directing a movie, on location, in bad weather and often with participants that don't all speak the same language. With over 20 years of experience, we feel that we have a well developed sense of appreciation, skill and passion mixed with a sense of wonderment with how it all turns out.