A Green Building First in Falls Church

I’m really pleased to announce that Arlington Designer Homes recently received the first two Gold-level Green Building Certifications in Falls Church from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Research Center. These new, custom-built green homes, both located on West Street in Falls Church city, are two of only five houses in the entire state of Virginia to be certified at the Gold level. (Arlington Designer Homes also received the first Gold-level Green Building Certification in Arlington last year, for a home on Underwood Street.)

                                                                                                                    

The two new homes will also receive Energy Star certification and will be certified by the Falls Church City Green Home Award Program. One of the two homes was custom designed for the homeowners, who moved into their new home late last year. The second home, located at 307 West Street, was just completed last week and is currently for sale.

Each of these elegant, contemporary homes includes numerous unique green features that reduce energy costs, including Energy Star appliances, spray-in foam insulation, geo-thermal heating and air conditioning, and exterior rigid foam insulation to prevent heat loss. The green features included in these homes will combine to reduce energy costs by up to 50%, prevent toxic off-gassing, seal out mold, allergens and pollutants, and significantly reduce the homes’ carbon output.



Our award-winning new green home located at 307 West Street in Falls Church city features contemporary design, a beautiful gourmet kitchen and an open floor plan.



The National Green Building certification process includes inspections and review of lot and site development, resource efficiency, energy efficiency, water efficiency, indoor environmental quality, and homeowner education.

Many people think that building a green home just means including the newest green technology, but we strive to incorporate green practices during every step of the design and construction process. One of the most important green features of these homes is actually their location. We selected lots close to public transportation – less than half a mile from a metro station -- and within walking distance of restaurants, shops, a library and a bike trail, to help reduce the amount of time the homeowners will have to spend in their cars.

The new green home located at 307 West Street in Falls Church City is currently for sale, and will be open for the Virginia Parade of Homes this Saturday and Sunday, April 30 and May 1, from 11am to 5pm, so please stop by and tour this great house!

Protecting Trees and Reducing Waste

It took months of planning, design and consultation with
city government and arborists before we even got to
this phase of construction!

Welcome to Arlington Designer Homes’ newest GREEN project! I hope that we can use this project to help guide people who might be interested through the green home building process. We have the fortune to be building two unique, new single family homes, side-by-side, in Falls Church City. One of these homes has already been sold; one is FOR SALE.

When you decide to use green building methods to construct a new home, the process should be started as soon as possible. From lot selection to floor finishes, nearly every decision you make will impact the home you are building and could potentially affect green aspects and efficiencies that you want to incorporate into your home. We’ve found that to minimize stress and headaches later on, it’s best to start thinking about green building at the very start of the design and construction process.

Our current green homes are being built in Falls Church, VA. Falls Church City bills itself as "Tree City USA", and the city government has taken some extraordinary measures (which some say far exceed the city’s legal rights), to protect trees.

Also, this area of Virginia is protected by some of the most far-reaching land protection measures in the country. These measures were enacted to protect one of our greatest natural resources, the Chesapeake Bay. The Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act (CBPA) governs everything that we are able to do on any lot inside the designated area.  The CBPA  limits clearing and grading, proscribes runoff protection measures, and includes canopy calculations that guide planting trees after construction.

So, as soon as we selected our lots and began looking at home design with our clients and our architect, we had to make sure that we would be able to comply with the strict environmental protection measures mandated by the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act and by Fall Church City.

After months of discussions with Falls Church, and lots of good  back-and-forth with our arborist, we were able to come up with some solutions to make sure we would comply with all relevant regulations and protect the environment – and trees! - during the construction process. One thing that we are doing to recycle materials and preserve site conditions is to mulch all of the organic material possible into the soil and leave it onsite to act as root protection for existing trees. This green practice not only improves the soil condition, but also reduces the amount of waste that needs to be trucked off site and then either re-purposed or disposed of.

Throughout the construction process we are incorporating a systematic approach to re-using and recycling our construction materials. We sort all materials on-site in different locations in order to re-use smaller pieces of lumber, rather than cutting an existing 8' 2x4 for a 2' block. This not only reduces the amount of waste we produce but it also reduces the overall costs of the project and increases the overall efficiency. Once we have pre-sorted the material, we contract with an offsite company that hauls off the material and recycles up to 90% of all of the waste we produce. Since we started this practice we have cut all waste hauled off site by half!