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Green home building and remodeling needs a different approach than the usual, established way of building.

Customarily the homeowner, you, approaches an architect who designs the home, based on your imagery, ideas, dreams and wishes.

The finished plan is then distributed to several general contractors for bid.

The general contractor in turn contacts his/her subcontractors to receive bids from them for framing, roofing, plumbing, heating, air conditioning, excavating and foundation work, landscaping, interior finishes.

The bid prices are based on the understanding of the drawings by each contractor. Hardly ever do the subcontractors talk to every other during the bid process. Hardly ever is the designer contacted with inquiries. Almost never is the homeowner, you, contacted.

The contractorrs’ final bids usually include a list of exceptions and/or a contingency allowance, which might never be utilized, but is paid for by you anyway.

Homeowners most frequently accept the lowest bid. Why not? Unless you are familiar with and understand the construction business, know the contractor’s quality of work, what other criteria could you apply?

The process outlined above often results in significant construction rate increases, dissatisfied homeowners and sometimes lawsuits.

Enormous resources are being neglected and missed when homes are remodeled and constructed the usual way: Knowledge and trade-specific expertise, which could save you time, money and headaches.

The Green Process To Building A House

Constructing a green home must be a systematic approach and done as a team. The project must be looked at as a program, in which every component is connected to and depends on the other components. For example:

- Location of the house on the property will decide the amount of soil disturbance, excavation and landscaping
- Location, size and types of windows can impact the heating and cooling requirement
- Type of heating and cooling gear will influence space requirements for furnace, heat pump, solar collectors, piping, ductwork, etc
- Choice of exterior wall will impact first cost versus installation cost versus insulation values versus appearance

You get the thought

Teamwork is required to make it all come together. The folks who plan and construct your green house, will be working with you and with every other for weeks or months. These are some important questions to ask when assembling your green building team:

- Do all of the team members agree on the importance of building green and are they dedicated to it?
- Do architect and contractors have experience in green constructing and if not, are they willing to learn? The majority if the team should have some experience in designing or building green houses
- Do you like and respect them? Can you see yourself interacting with every of them frequently and maybe work through some difficulties?
- Do they like and respect every other?
- Do they take pride in high value work?
- Can they recognize input about their trade from other trades?

Don’t miscalculate the significance of your team getting along and working well together. There can be times during the construction when tempers flare, tensions are high, pressure is on. And this could be just when the insulator has to do some very meticulous work to seal all leaks, while the electrician is breathing behind her neck to hurry up so he can get his labor complete.

It is important to include as many of the trades as possible during the drawing phase. Decisions about alternatives in materials or heating system or anything else can then be done by all concerned parties from a fully informed perspective.
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Tags: Bid Prices, Building A House, Building And Remodeling, Coming Of Age, Construction Business, Contingency, Enormous Resources, Excavation, Foundation Work, General Contractor, General Contractors, Headaches, Heating And Cooling, Home Improvement, Lawsuits, Plumbing Heating, Roofing, Soil Disturbance, Subcontractors, Systematic Approach, Time Money