Increasing Energy Efficiency with Advanced Framing Techniques

There are many things that go into building a green home. A truly efficient green home is initially designed on paper and then built on the site. There are many homes that have green features, but at Arlington Designer Homes, we believe that to realize a green home's full potential, you need to start at the beginning. Our green homes do much more that create an efficient, comfortable, and healthy home to live in. We also reduce, reuse and recycle our materials to make the whole process more efficient and sustainable.

When we clear a site, we use the trees that must be taken down on site as mulch for remaining and new trees. When we mulch these trees, it helps cover the soil to prevent contamination from entering our streams. The added mulch pad helps to protect existing trees' roots and improves the basic organic composition of the soil for years to come. All this, and we keep these trees out of the landfill. But as I said, that is just the start.

It is important to incorporate green principles from the construction of the foundation to the roof in green home design. Today I also want to talk about Advanced Framing Techniques (AFT). These techniques allow us to integrate green building into the entire home. Some of our AFT are no-brainers, and any team that is not doing them just doesn’t have basic technical knowledge. Some of these items are: insulated headers, ladder blocking and California “T” corners.

An insulated header is the area above a door or window that has added insulation. In standard construction techniques, carpenters put a ½” of plywood sandwiched in between the header material. The plywood is just a spacer, but to us, it is an opportunity. This is an opportunity to add more insulation and therefore efficiency to the house. We put in ½” rigid foam insulation (R-3). It isn’t a high R value, but it costs nothing to do and should be a standard part of an new home being constructed.

Ladder blocking is added where an interior wall meets an exterior wall. Rather than have the interior wall run into the exterior wall and end with three 2x4s in solid wood block, we create a ladder. We string 2x4s horizontally every few feet to fasten the interior wall to the exterior wall. This ladder is not directly in contact with the plywood that is the side of the house sheathing, so we can get insulation behind the ladder 2x4s and create a more efficient house. Where there used to be just wood block, we have eliminated the wood block and added more insulation.

California “T” corners are used where two exterior walls come together. Like ladder blocking, we try to eliminate a mass of 2x4s and wood block and create space where we can add insulation. We do this by doing just what the name implies, creating a T where the walls intersect. This T helps us to get insulation into the corner rather then blocking.

The three examples I gave above are things that all of us at Arlington Designer Homes consider ‘basic’ construction techniques that every house should be using. We use these AFTs, but also go above and beyond by eliminating headers where possible, and using less wood and more insulation in window and doors jacks, along with many, many other techniques that set us apart from those that ‘just build to code’. We build for what the code will be in 20 years.

The Truth About Trees

People often ask  ‘How can you consider your company green when you cut down trees?’ This always strikes me as a very narrow viewpoint. What we do as a green company is so much more than any one aspect of construction, and tree protection is a very big and nuanced issue. As a green company, we have to balance the needs of our customers, the neighbors, the community and the environment.  In planning for our projects, we take all these factors into consideration.

One of the first things we do when we start a project is develop a comprehensive tree plan. The first part of this plan is a tree survey. We identify all the trees on our property and adjacent properties that fall under our site plan. We identify the type of tree, assess the health of the tree, and desirability of having this tree on the site. Many people aren't even aware that we undertake these studies, but we do one for every single property, to help us protect not only our trees, but also our neighbors’ trees and our neighbors’ property. The studies help us determine which trees should be removed and why, which trees should be preserved and why, and which types of new trees should be planted.

With the house we are building at 2617 Nottingham Street in Arlington, one question I heard many times was "What can we do to save the trees?" In my opinion, the question should have been “Should we save these trees?”  In this case, the answer was most definitely no. Most, if not all, of the trees on the property that we cut down were infested with a contagious, deadly canker disease. The best thing we could have done for the other trees on this property and for the neighbors' trees was to remove them before they contaminated other trees.

In our tree survey, we were able to identify trees that pose a danger to other trees or personal property and remove them. As I drive or walk through Arlington, I see all sorts of trees and properties that would benefit from having an arborist take a look at them. Some are in simple need of having the English Ivy pulled off of them so they don’t choke to death. Others need more TLC, and yet others are dangerous or diseased and should be removed. Our tree survey helps us to identify and remove dangerous and infected trees.

We also look at the desirability and viability of a tree. Many of the trees that we have in our area are invasive non-native species. These species can threaten the health of native plants and animals. That is why as part of any green program you are encouraged to plant native species. We believe in removing invasive species as needed, and planting species that will help support native wildlife, that are disease and drought tolerant, and that have a proven track record in the area.

The viability or life span of a tree is something else that is taken into account when deciding which trees stay and which trees go. The simple fact is, trees have a certain life span and sometimes when you are at the end of it, the best thing we can do is replace an old dying tree with a tree that will be strong and healthy for years to come.

Most of the trees we removed from the property at 2617 Nottingham St. were either diseased, invasive, or at the end of their healthy lifespan. We took our arborist’s expert council and removed the less desirable trees so that we can start to implement our more comprehensive and appropriate tree plan. The tree plans we execute are based upon creating vibrant, lasting trees that will benefit native species along with the homeowners and neighborhood for many generations.

Some interesting and useful related links:

Virginia Tech Cooperative Extension Guide to Problem-Free and Native Trees for Virginia

Virginia Department of Natural Resources Native Plant Finder

Virginia Native Plant Society (has lists of nurseries)

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!