The three-bedroom, 1,680 square foot spec home was designed by Portland structural engineer Zac Blodget, who wanted to prove that he could construct a truly green, truly affordable home on a 26-foot-wide by 100-foot-long corner lot. He enlisted Milos Jovanovic of Root Design Build as the general contractor, who shared his goal for building a home to certifiably green standards.

Cost Effective Green
The pair set about to "do everything as green as possible within our budget," says Blodget. "We apparently did a pretty good job," he laughs, "because we actually ended up exceeding the LEED Platinum threshold (the highest possible rating) by nine points." Blodget, who now has the home on the market for $340,000, guesses it's "probably the most cost-effective LEED Platinum home ever built." Most eco-friendly homes of this level sell for two to three times the price, he says.

The home offers a 40 percent efficiency gain over a home built to current energy code, and is 25 percent more efficient than an Energy Star home. Blodget says the building's tight envelope allows 467 percent less air infiltration than an average home.

Other green touches include advanced framing techniques to produce thicker walls (and insulation) while reducing lumber consumption. Low VOC paint, paperstone countertops, wheat board kitchen cabinets, as well as bamboo and 40 percent fly-ash concrete flooring are also used in the home. The exterior consists of ultra durable HardiePlank® fiber cement siding.

Blodget says the James Hardie material was the "obvious choice" for siding due to its longevity and 50-year warranty. "With the LEED program, you actually have to create what's called a 'Durability Plan.' They want to see that this house is actually built correctly and it's going to last for fifty or a hundred years," he explains.

Additionally, "low maintenance is a big plus for consumers," he says. The HardiePlank used on the home features factory-painted ColorPlus® technology, which offers a 15-year finish warranty—reducing the need for painting during the home's lifespan.

Blogett says the HardiePlank exterior adds to the home's curb appeal and to the neighborhood as a whole. "People like to see the fiber cement siding as opposed to something cheaper or something that's not as durable."

General Contractor Milos Jovanovic of Root Design Build says HardiePlank is "a great material" that has a good reputation for durability in the rainy Pacific Northwest. "With this climate, HardiePlank is a great product to use," he says. "We like to use HardiePlank for most of our projects" since it outlasts wood and is easy to install.

LEED Lessons
The LEED certification process was relatively straightforward, according to Bloget. "There are meetings that you go to initially and they come out and do a lot of testing and verification on the house," he reports, but overall, the process moves in-step with the construction process. "It doesn’t add very much time to the schedule." Bloget believes that if they had been more familiar with the LEED program, things would have gone even faster. Costs for LEED certification vary based on square footage, but for this particular home he paid $3,200 in registration and testing fees.

Supportive Neighbors
The community has been very supportive of his green building efforts, the engineer says. During open houses, people "would come by and say 'congratulations—we're glad you did this here.' They like to see this in their community," he says. "It was kind of a nice pat on the back."

Streetscapes Online, Volume 32 <