Green house effect: Habitat, architectural firm create environmentally friendly home

By Liz Barry

Published: August 16, 2008

It’s a hot Saturday morning at 407 Wise St.

Valvette Spradley paints the windowsills inside her home-to-be, while volunteers wearing heavy utility belts bustle past. Hammers pound. Drills whizz. The air smells like paint and sawdust.

The gray, one-story house looks almost identical to its neighbor on the left, which makes sense since both were built by Habitat for Humanity.

But there’s one crucial difference.

Spradley’s is the first “green home” constructed by Lynchburg’s chapter of Habitat for Humanity in partnership with Wiley & Wilson, a local architectural firm. By using Earth-friendly materials and an energy efficient design, the home is estimated to use 30 percent less energy.

For Spradley, a former beautician who works as a custodian at Randolph College, it’s the first time she will own a home, and going green means substantial savings on her utility bills.  Since she’s a single homeowner, she says every penny counts.

Following the trend
For the Habitat house, “green” is more than just a buzzword.

The home must meet a long list of standards developed by EarthCraft, an Atlanta-based green building program, to receive its certification. With construction almost finished, the Wise Street home is on track to pass the final inspection, says Joey Monile, the construction manager.

Though a first for Lynchburg, the green build is one of many in the state, thanks to an initiative by Habitat for Humanity Virginia. Three years ago, Habitat Virginia set the goal of building 100-percent EarthCraft-certified homes by 2012. This year’s target number is 40 green homes, and 33 have been completed so far, says Sylvia Hallock, executive director for Habitat for Humanity Virginia.

To Hallock, the green building initiative is a matter of ethics. If the technology and resources are available to build it, her attitude is, “Why not?”

“If you can build a home that is environmentally sound, it’s healthier for the inhabitants and it’s going to save them money for the life of the home, then how can you not do that?” she says.

“It wasn’t that we were building bad homes before, we were building the best we knew at the time,” she adds.

The trend extends well beyond Habitat, as more homeowners look to save energy and money. Green building is expected to account for 6 percent of the residential construction industry this year, according to a survey conducted for the U.S. Green Building Council as reported by the Associated Press. That’s up from 2 percent in 2005.

What makes it green?
When some people think green home, they envision a Jetson-esque space age house that would stick out on your average city block. The Wise Street house is anything but.

The home sits on a sunny hill just a short walk from the Old City Cemetery and a bus line. It has grey siding, charcoal shingles and a wooden porch.

What distinguishes the home as a green building is a culmination of small design and material choices that, when put together, make the house more energy efficient and better for the environment.

The wood, for instance, comes from sustainable forests, which is a big plus in the mind of Monile, who oversees construction.

“In other words, you know the wood’s not coming from a rain forest in South America,” Monile says.

The floors will also be environmentally sound – the kitchen and bathroom will be covered with tile made from recycled cork. The rest of the floors will be either bamboo flooring or recycled materials, Monile says.

Bamboo is a popular choice because it is durable and very renewable, says Joshua Padgett, an architect at Wiley & Wilson who helped plan the project.

There are features throughout the house. Fluorescent bulbs and low-flow faucets and toilets will reduce electricity and water use. The crawl space beneath the house is sealed and conditioned for better energy efficiency. The toilets and sinks are arranged to use less piping.  The truss flooring system provides more support with less wood than other options. The cabinets are formaldehyde-free, helping the air quality. Windows are placed to provide ample natural light and cross ventilation on cooler days when air conditioning is not necessary.

“When you put all these things together, you use less materials initially and over the life of the building. You use less energy,” says Padgett.

While any one change may seem like a small step, the net effect is much larger, and if you multiply that number by the total number of Habitat houses built in a year, the impact grows exponentially, Padgett says. Plus, it can feel good knowing your house is Earth friendly, and the green changes enhance quality of life, he adds.

Close to home
The Wise Street house will serve as a model for future green builds in Lynchburg. Since the initiative is a relatively new one for Habitat, they do not know the exact impact these houses will make for the homeowners and on the environment.

Habitat will monitor the energy bills for the first year of occupation, and compare it to the energy bills on a typically constructed building. Estimates from similar projects anticipate savings of about 30 percent.

“The money that they save each month in utility bills is money that can be spent on the children’s health and safety and school supplies and all the other things that families need,” Hallock says.

Spradley, who did not know she’d be living in a green home when she applied for a house through Habitat, says she is excited.

“Being a single homeowner, I think that will help me so I won’t be so stressed,” Spradley says in anticipation of lower utility bills.

With construction almost finished, Spradley can start to see her home coming together in her mind. A couch here, a chair there. She can envision her grandchildren playing in the backyard and having company on the front porch. With a year’s work has almost come to a close, and Spradley’s ready to start her life here.

“After I get the whole house organized the way I want it, I want to have the whole to day to just sit back and look around and drop to my knees and cry for joy,” Spradley says.

Padgett hopes the momentum from Lynchburg’s first green build carries over to future Habitat projects.

“I think the psychological impact is just as important the dollar savings on the bill,” he says. “This will spark a flame that excites people.”