Frequently Asked Questions

Solar is great, and I encourage it, but it is not the most important part. With solar you’re only addressing the electrical usage, not the gas usage or the comfort and air quality issues that are typical with our housing stock. I like a holistic approach to making a better performing home. Better air quality, less energy usage, and increased comfort are the goals. Then incorporate the solar.

Not at all. Most of the materials we use on projects is being used on similar homes. The materials and systems are just planned out and installed better than in a typical home. There is increased cost in the extra time it takes to design and install things correctly, but it is not a large percentage. The secret is determining which measures are the most cost-effective and offer the biggest improvement for each project.

Based on experience this does not always work. During my time as a home performance contractor we had problems with this model. If your general contractor is not completely bough in on this holistic approach and your goals for the home, there can be conflicts that arise and the end result may not reach your expectations.

The earlier the better. I have a lot of experience designing or helping with designing projects that start with raw land or an existing home and making them into beautiful homes that are high performance. I also have a lot of experience purchasing properties in the area so I can help evaluate properties you’re looking at to purchase.

Yes. Depending on the style of house it may make things more difficult, but it doesn’t mean the you can’t have a high performance home and even a net-zero home.

For the first ten years of my home building career I specialized in foundation, framing and finish carpentry. I thought this is, along with well installed finishes, is what made a great house. Then I was exposed to home performance work and how much the home building and renovation industry was lacking on truly making good house I decided I was only going to build high performing homes.

The biggest reason for this is that we only want to work on projects that can really make a difference on the performance of the house. In the case of a kitchen or bath remodel your not going to make a big difference on the performance of the home with that kind of scope of work. The other part is that I have aways enjoyed working on bigger projects more than smaller ones and I want to stick with what gives me the most satisfaction.

No, they have some good recommendations but if your builder/contractor is not taking a holistic approach to making sure your home is high performance it will most likely be missing the attention details needed to create a truly great home. Energy codes are also lacking in many ways and it’s important to build according to what are truly the best practices.