Our Sustainable Logo

Earth Day 2012 has me reflecting upon our green habits. It all boils down to “Sustainability.”  I believe it is the root of the green movement. This is what it means to us. It is environmental for sure, from a conserving natural resources perspective, such as leaving bare earth exposed and living in homes that have a reasonable footprint.

Sustainability also incorporates economic and social realities for instance making sure that we remain a viable vital business that creates employment in our civil society and local community, and creating enough wealth to pay the bills and have some left over for growth. It means being responsible to our clients and the less fortunate among us. It also resonates in my approach to remodeling in general.

As I stand Levco up against the sustainability yard stick, here is what I see we are doing to do our part.

• Using as little energy as possible.
• Reusing materials or removed items.
• Stipulating low VOC paints and products.
• Volunteering.
• Separating loads to the landfill.
• Steering clients into greener products.
• Repurposing as much as possible.
• Using temporary laborers when appropriate.
• Taking excess chemicals to the toxic waste disposal site.
• Recycling excess materials.
• Finally, not wasting or over consuming.

We are always looking for ways to be clever users of our natural resources and  good stewards of what the earth has provided. I read a disturbing article in Time Magazine a few weeks ago about the habits of the Y generation, and their propensity to recycle less than the boomers.

The Sawtooth Range

I suppose my high altitude look on the issue is that I am teaching my kids and employees to be conscious of the environment and their effect upon it. There are many measuring sticks that can be employed, like carbon foot print.

Some examples of practicing what I preach.

• I just delivered 2 salvaged metal window surrounds to a client who had a need for them.
• I delivered several appliances to the Idaho Youth ranch.
• I made shadow boxes out of removed windows.
• Volunteering for a project at the Boys & Girls club
• I found a used sink and installed it.
• I’ve salvaged unusual lumber to reuse elsewhere.
• I bought and installed a used water/energy saving dishwasher that required minor repairs but had little retail value
• We support Sustainable Futures  a glass recycling organization, and so much more .

I will continue to explore my thoughts on this subject and try to explain how I, as a residential remodeler in Boise, Idaho can inject sustainability and investment into green/renewable technologies and materials into my projects and still make sense to  my clients because it is obviously not intuitive to everyone.

Your comments are welcome. To ask questions or get more information about remodeling, email me directly or visit our contact page.

Frosted Edge

For years now I have noticed an interesting phenomenon that I am not sure anyone else notices. It has to do with recognizing roof patterns in the winter. This is clear evidence that heat is escaping through your roof.

Head down the block and check out your roof and compare it to your neighbors place. Of course there are a myriad of issues that could be contributing to the results you find, but this is a telling sign.

If your roof is the bare one when others have snow or frost, despite having a similar pitch, you could be losing a boat load of energy in the form of heat. This year has been ridiculously light on or late for snow, but you can see it on the frosty mornings too.

Thermal imagery is available in the valley, which that can do a more accurate picture for you. There are also companies that specialize in energy efficiency audits. But for now, this crude visual tool may get you moving in the right direction.

Missing Insulation

The fix could be adding insulation or filling a hole. It could be as simple as a detached exhaust vent. The important thing  to understand is that there is no one size fits all approach. You need to figure out what is causing the problem and address each individual situation to fix the overall issue.

Here is another look at what you might see if you look at your roof at just the right time.

From a remodeler’s perspective, this is always on our minds. At Levco, we always take a look at  the attic and make sure that the existing conditions are addressed and that anything we disturb is re-insulated when we are done.

Over the years, we have made many recommendations to homeowners when we’ve seen problems, and remodeling is a good time to have these issues evaluated and addressed.

Disclaimer: Some of these images came from the WEB. If they are yours, and you object to them being used, please claim them and I will gladly remove them at once.

The New Weigh Station

As a contractor that boasts of our Green Remodeling techniques, Levco is conscious and aware of our environmental impact. One of our 4 pillars of Green Remodeling is resource conservation. Through our process of remodeling your home, lots of debris is generated. What we can’t easily recycle or reused goes off to the Ada County Landfill. 

As a kid, there is nothing much more fun than getting to go to the landfill, My memories of going down to the Berkeley landfill as a child are vivid: old guys scouring the stuff looking for things to reuse, occasionally picking up some jewel of a discarded trinket, being nearly overwhelmed with the thundering trucks and occasional story of someone backing over the edge. As a teenager, I had the fortune of driving my father’s international dump truck there. Although they’re less friendly and we have lost the freedom to take stuff away, I think Landfills have come a long way in the last half century.

TV Country

I now have a construction hydraulic dump trailer (which I purchased right after I fell out of my flat bed unit). I get to/have to, go to the dump rather frequently. Being a regular has its perks. For one, I have a charge account, and I’ve also gotten to know the ladies of the dump pretty well. (No I didn’t just say that). I recently referred to the dump shack and was corrected…”you mean the Scale House”. OK they have some pride, that is a good thing. It triggeres a memory of when dump truck drivers changed their profession to”Sanitary Engineers”

The Berkeley Landfill now has a transfer stations where stuff is sorted and recycled or re-purposed, and dumping is done by weight. The material is transferred out to different places for disposal or reuse and recycling. Perhaps that is where we are headed? We seem to have plenty of acreage, but then all good things must come to an end I suppose.

Here in Boise, we have several cool things being done now but it is not as refined a system as those in other parts of the country. I have listed them among my vendors and am pleased to be working with them pretty well recently.

Wood Recycling

Some cool things:

1. We have a Hazardous Waste Disposal Site that is open Fridays and Saturdays. You just drive up and they take the stuff  out of the vehicle for you. A little known fact is that they have separated some things for resale… The ultimate in reuse!
2. We just implemented a system that will charge based upon weight of the load, but that is still a year out. At the moment, they are still charging by volume and “collecting statistics” for now.
3. Power is generated by collecting gasses from rotting debris
4. Wood that is separated is being chewed up and resold for bio mass heating. In other words it is burned in fancy furnaces for industrial heaters.
5. TV,s refrigerators, and other environmentally hazardous things are separated for safe reclaiming.
6. You’re allowed to have an account to charge your dumps.

The Happy Dumper

Because I’m a regular at the dump, I also have a cool computer chip in my windshield that is read upon landing on the scale. I get to use the industrial scale ( that the big blue dump trucks use) and I get to tell the computer what type of trash I have and how much, in cubic yards. Then I get to go dump, and skip the civilian line on the way out too. Eventually, it should be even faster. I also get, or have to go (depending upon your perspective) to the North Cell – a huge place where the big trucks don’t mix with the civilian population. Everything is huge there. I dare not share these photos. They could be TOP SECRET. Actually, I could not have done the immensity justice. Truthfully, I was so busy dumping and getting out of there while the earth below me was trembling and gigantic devices were roaming around. With tremendous squadrons, probably thousands of birds, keeping an eye on all the activity, I wouldn’t dare pause to snap a photo. I could be crushed like a bug or taken away!

Upon leaving the site, I weigh out again and also get to go in a separate line and back to the job site I go. All in all, I would say that over the past 20 years, my experiences have been ranged from frustration and anger to pleasantly surprised. Recently, I have had nothing but nice things to say. As long as Les Schwab continues to provide free flat repair, and my 4 wheel drive gets me unstuck in inclement weather, I am essentially a happy dumper.

Radon Map

Who knew your house could hurt your lungs? Here in Idaho we live in a relatively moderate Radon level region that seems to get more intense the further north you live.

It turns out Radon is even emitted from slabs of granite along with almost all other products of the earth like concrete itself, but we must put it all into perspective.

The majority of information about Radon’s health effects come from men working underground – miners

Radon (Rn) is a gas that is emitted from the earth. It is the natural byproduct of deteriorating uranium and it gets into the air through the soil and through water.  It is easy to test for and fairly easy to deal with if found in homes to be above the 4 pCi /liter. Here are some selected excerpts from one of the EPA radon sites.

EPA estimates that about 20,000 lung cancer deaths each year in the U.S. are radon-related. Exposure to radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking. Lung cancer is the only known effect on human health from exposure to radon in air. There is no evidence that children are at greater risk of lung cancer than are adults.

How it gets in

For smokers the risk of lung cancer is significant due to the synergistic effects of radon and smoking. For this population about 62 people in a 1,000 will die of lung-cancer, compared to 7.3 people in a 1,000 for never smokers. Put another way, a person who never smoked (never smoker) who is exposed to 1.3 pCi/L has a 2 in 1,000 chance of lung cancer

 in 1988 Congress added Title III on Indoor Radon Abatement to the Toxic Substances Control Act.  that year, the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General issued a warning about radon urging Americans to test their homes and to reduce the radon level when necessary

Unfortunately, many Americans presume that because the action level is 4 pCi/L, a radon level of less than 4 pCi/L is “safe”. This perception is altogether too common in the residential real estate market. In managing any risk, we should be concerned with the greatest risk. For most Americans, their greatest exposure to radon is in their homes; especially in rooms that are below grade (e.g., basements), rooms that are in contact with the ground and those rooms immediately above them. 

Simple test kit

Testing is easily accomplished and test kits are available at hardware stores and big box stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s. They are usually the quick tests and will give you a screening of what you are dealing with. Radon is emitted at in an uneven pattern so what you are looking for is your average exposure through the year. This means taking several tests or doing a long term testing kit that takes 90 days.

There is a common misconception that Radon levels are similar in geographic areas. Just because a level may be low in your neighbors house does not mean that it is low in yours.

Radon Exhaust Fan

At Levco we enjoy knowing that we have not set anyone up for additional health risks by remodeling. We make sure that when we do remodel here in Boise Idaho that the soil beneath our projects are left sealed properly and cracks in slab floors and foundations are sealed as well. Here is the further information about Radon in ADA County.

Fixing any home involves sealing cracks in foundations, covering bare soil and if necessary providing forced ventilation to areas where it is hiding. This may mean under foundations. In all of my home inspections I have only seen one Radon elimination fan system. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be looking more seriously at the potentially nasty little problem.

Home Sweet Home

OK you have been in the home for 10 years and you are looking for something to do that will improve your home. You are wondering what would be a good bang for the buck. Or say you have unexplained health issues and you just can’t put a finger on it but you think your home may be the culprit. It is worth thinking about having your duct work checked. Although the EPA thinks it may be an over rated service, there are several instances even they recommend the process be done by a qualified vendor.

Duct cleaning is probably not the first thing that comes to mind in relation to maintaining your home. It seems like every decade or so there is some new newfangled energy saving thing, a better window design or better furnace that will make life better. Besides keeping paint on the place and staying ahead of the stuff that breaks, a good old fashion duct cleaning might be the ticket.

In the old days there was no need for ducts because heat rose through the floor registers and the furnace was a fireplace. Then coal furnaces did a similar thing and the heat rose naturally. Many homes went to radiant heat with boilers, still no need for duct work . Then in the late 19th century oil furnaces were the rage and forced air became the thing and duct work was installed. Later oil furnaces were replaced by natural gas but the forced air systems remained. This made a place for dust to hide along with all sorts of dust mites, mold spores, rodents and lord knows what else. The bad news is that it was out of sight and out of mind. Now we realize that we are building tighter houses and what gets inside stays inside. Indoor air quality as one of the five points of Green Remodeling and the duct cleaning industry was born.

A Duct Cleaning Truck

Provided that you have duct work that routes heating and cooling throughout your structure and it has been there for 10years or more the industry recommends a cleaning. The EPA. On the other hand, who is responsible for Environmental Protection has published a great guide to Duct cleaning. They are pretty skeptical about the industry but like everything, there are those that are unscrupulous that boast of unrealistic health benefits from the process. I believe that if your expectations are realistic then you will be pleasantly surprised. Levco provides the service after a whole house remodeling. The odds are that we have introduced particles into the system no matter how hard we try not to. Take a look yourself through a supply register to see what is there, stick a vacuum down the hole and gather up what you can for starters. This will at least establish whether you need to worry about your ducts in the first place.

Before & After

They come in with a vacuum truck and by drilling a few holes in your duct work and following a strict routine of covering and uncovering registers they manage to suck a ton of debris from your ducts.

Don’t expect the furnace to work much better unless they find a clogged cooling coil, like was the case in my home. They could find a detached duct which does happen. This may have a positive effect upon allergies. It may improve your air circulation, and it will remove all of that pet dander and accumulated dust that no matter how well you clean you just can’t get to. Just the knowledge that your ducts are clean gives you a reassurance that you are living in a cleaner indoor environment. When I need them, System Kleen is the company I use in Boise Idaho.

Looks Like This

At Levco we normally repair other peoples problems and rarely have time or give much thought to care for our own problems. Here is a situation that happened to me recently that probably happens often to others.

My wife noticed that the refrigerator side seemed a bit warm and the freezer side was definitely not freezing.  I suppose a thermometer would have been a more scientific method of determining a problem, but I digress. The first thing I hear is ” I turned the refrigerator up because it isn’t cold enough to freeze everything”

This caught my attention because of an old Flying Pie Pizza story about the Oven Moron. When the oven wasn’t able to keep up with the volume, someone would always suggest we turn the oven up to a higher temperature. The joke is, once it is on… there is no more on, ergo the “Oven Moron”. My wife was now the “Refrigerator Moron”

Flying Pie

Our GE refrigerator is a 15 years old side by side, frost free unit that has been trouble free. Rather than call for the appliance repair man I attempted to diagnose and repair the problem myself, after all what did I have to loose. This is a big ticket item that deserves some troubleshooting, if I failed I would have to call the repairman anyway. My suspicions were two fold.

First, I recall that I had not done my usual spring cleaning in a few years that includes a cleaning of the grills beneath the unit. This is from the dust that accumulates there because the fan is constantly drawing air across the coils. This is also a good place to recover crayons, refrigerator magnets and cereal.

Second, was that a door had been left open of either side as we were full to the brim with extra food for a celebration which can cause massive frosting internally decreasing air flow over the cold coils.

The Details

Right away I removed the bottom grill and saw the obstructed fins, Ah Ha I found the problem.  With the help of a vacuum, a long thin brush and some compressed air I was able to remove enough debris to let the machine breath again. (I inadvertently got dust all over the kitchen too.) Much of the heat generated in the cooling process is dissipated below in the fins. I assumed that once cleaned, the freezer would easily freeze water. After emptying the freezer to a backup unit, I set the glass of water on a shelf in the freezer and went to bed. The following morning the same darn glass of water was there in it’s liquid state.

Frost on the Coils

The plan B for this operation was to defrost. Frost is usually melted off during a defrost cycle. However if a door is left open, for example, so much frost can build up that the defrost cycle is not able to deal with it.

I placed a fan in front of the fridge and got warm indoor air pouring onto the freezer walls and the water began to roll off quickly. I mopped it up to avoid overfilling the evaporation tray that lives below the unit. The ice seemed thick and I realized that there was  a back panel that could be removed from the inside of the freezer. After removing 11 screws the panel was off and some of the shelve brackets and the panel was out, exposing a solid wall of ice over the cooling coils. After an hour and a half the job was done. I put the food back once I could verify that the freezer could make ice cubes.

Oldie but Goodie

Viola!! problems solved, no food lost. The machine was back running smoothly and doing all those cooling duties we normally ask of it without thinking twice. It dawned on me that appliances have a huge appetite for energy and those that are not operating at peak performance are even worse. Think about what progress this appliance has made in the last 50 years.

So, in review, cooling for the entire unit occurs on the freezer side and those fins must remain free of ice to function. Heat is exchanged beneath the unit and those fins must remain free of dust and debris too. This is worth calendaring especially if you do other things like swapping out air filters every 6 months. Although not the case on my unit, many refrigerators have built in water filers that could be changed on a similar frequency depending on it’s use.

We are back in business and operating far more efficiently than before. Temperatures have stabilized and the ice tray is full up again. I realized that every time I walk past the fridge I pay a little more attention. I can now notice periods of total silence now that the fan motor and compressor are getting a break from time to time. for more reading on the subject .

As a post script…The darn temperature started to creep up two weeks out. Upon taking the unit apart I was disappointed to discover that it had frosted up again. Since I placed a thermometer inside the box, I noticed the problem before we lost any food. I discovered that the defrosters were bad, so after forking out $80.00 the new units (always replace both at the same time) were installed we are in chillin’ again FFN ” Forever For Now”. Sorry family if I falsely accused you of leaving the doors ajar.

Waterfalls in Twin Falls

The concept of water conservation is not a new one, and industry has sprouted recently that addresses this in many ways. One is with hot water recirculation pumps to conserve water that is usually wasted while waiting for the hot to arrive say to your shower. Industry insiders tout 11 thousand to 15 thousand gallons savings per year in a typical home. For a perspective shot, I used 3,700 gallons per month in January, February, July, & August of 2010 (4 people 3 BR 2.5 BA).

Here is an informative article about where our water comes from, along with some other conservation ideas. Although the Northwest and Boise Idaho is experiencing a record setting wet season, water & energy conservation are subjects near and dear to my heart.

From an energy savings perspective the pumps use as much electricity as a 40 watt bulb. There may not be as much savings when you consider heat loss through uninsulated pipes.  If you use the provided timer and some pipe insulation, there will be more savings to be had.

On another down side, folks that are used to turning on the shower and waiting 3-5 minutes for the hot water to arrive are hard to break that bad habit. Instead of wasting cold water they compound the loss by pouring hot water down the drain. It is not always easy to teach old dogs new tricks.

From a pure convenience factor it is hard to argue with turning on the shower and getting hot water right now and all of the other appliances along the way. Each pump recirculates hot water from the water heater and cost is in the $400 -$500, less if we already have a project going simultaneously.

Levco has installed three types of pumps. Each time I do one, I notice that technology has been advancing and that makes me happy.

Grundfos pump

1 Grundfos units have a dedicated return line to the water heater. Grundfos  also makes many other styles for different applications.

Laing Pump

2 Laing brand has a recirculation that gradually pumps water back through the cold side to the water heater. This one has a temperature adjustment too.

Metlund Pump

3 Metlund brand brings a “wall of water” when you request it by pushing a button usually. The unit pumps the cold back down the cold side. This one is my favorite from conservation and energy savings. They also have other ways of triggering the flow.

At my home I mixed the potable “drinking” water with my tile floor radiant heating system. Technically this is a no-no but it works fine for me.

Each pump requires a 110 outlet in the vicinity. I usually fish the new wires from an existing outlet down into the cabinet and use a cut-in box to create an outlet. Kitchen sinks are even easier because they are already wired.

I installed one that is activated to bring hot water to the kitchen sink on demand. Now their entire dishwasher cycle is done with hot water rather than lukewarm increasing the cleaning ability dramatically.

Each brand and style has advantages and disadvantages the question is which one is right for you. I have interviewed each client to date and there is unanimous agreement that they would recommended a recirculation pump to everyone. Let Levco incorporate one of these fine units into a kitchen or bathroom remodeling project and you will be glad you did.

Boise farmers market

I am noticing a trend that seems to make sense here in Boise Idaho. Folks are deciding to stay in smaller homes.They are satisfied to improve their living spaces rather than opt to move out of the city into a sprawling home in the suburbs. The green benefits include less travel, less space to heat and cool, often less landscaping to maintain and cities compress and are far more efficient when it comes to city services and infrastructure.

I purchased a small home several years ago and is being used as a rental. It is a  2 bedroom one bath 900 sf  brick home built in the 1950s that housed a family with 4 boys. It is now the home of a single woman that uses the other bedroom as a home office.

Levco recently added a small addition to a 2 bedroom 1 bath 1100 square foot home in the North End to house a young couple that decided to expand slightly, adding 800 square feet of living space. The addition retained the charm of the neighborhood with a small energy efficient home. It is now a 2 bedroom 2 bath with a wide open kitchen and master suite.

The trend is also being seen across the country and has been the topic of many articles. Perhaps the most interesting book on the topic was written by Sarah Susanka in the Not So Big House. In it she stresses the changing way we use homes now and how to maximize utility and space saving ideas without sacrificing privacy.

High window in tub / shower

Projects we have done that add value to smaller homes include adapting older homes by opening up kitchens to be the primary socializing and gathering spot. Changing walls with doorways into half walls. Another big value item is defining a master suite that includes a bathroom connected to the largest bedroom. Developing attics and basements into functional spaces speaks to adding utility and adding privacy. Updating bathtubs to be tub shower combinations with a high window is another common modification that speaks to how we live now. In the old days a weekly bath was the trend.

Smaller updates include skylights and solar tubes to bring in more natural light and safety updates like adding Egress windows and integrated smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors. The key to remodeling a smaller home is to have architectural consultation prior to deciding on what and were to spend your hard earned dollars. Adding function in my mind trumps everything.

I doubled the size of my 750 sf  home 15 years ago to add a master suite and open up my kitchen. My children started sharing a room but eventually required their own rooms. I think the master suite is going to stay but the emphasis on having so much to do and spending less time at home is contributing to smaller spaces and less excess in our lives. Let’s face it we all know that the more space we have, the more stuff we acquire to fill it.

4 Skinnies in a row

Thankfully, a trend I have seen stop was a gold rush, so to speak, for realtors and developers of lot splitting and home raising to add infill skinny houses. They were sprouting up everywhere in the late 90′s and usually involved a 2 story home on a 20′ wide postage stamp lot. I must admit there are some well done ones out there, but the majority were tacky. Thankfully, rules went into effect that mandate offsets for the second story and an emphasis on 1 1/2 story homes with rear loading alley garages which made them loose their charm. They were considered starter homes and were unfortunately built with “Cheap” in mind. Thus leaving an entire inventory of homes built to last for a decade or so maintenance free and a population that can’t afford to maintain them when they start falling apart.

The bottom line is that maintaining the charisma and charm of an older home and updating it is a viable option and one to strongly consider rather than shipping out to the country. There is nothing Levco can’t do to explore options on paper to make a vintage house a home for the modern family in the old parts of town, especially when that home has ‘good bones’ .

Indoor air quality is one of the four pillars of our green philosophy. Besides working with products that don’t off gas things like formaldehyde, filters are high on the list of things we have control over that keeps our indoor air quality in good shape.

Dirty 1" filter

Residential air filters are graded on a MERV Scale (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value) to determine how much the filter media will let pass through. Filters that pull dust and particles from the air are measured in .3 microns to 10 microns. For perspective a human hair is 100 microns. The MERV scale goes from 1-16 with 16 being the highest. A typical residential filter is between 1-4 MERV but superior ones are in the 8-12 range. The one I use is a MERV 8 and is 4″ a pleated paper like media filter. There are other rating systems out there for filtration, but this ones seems easiest to understand and generally acceptable universally.

The thickness of the filter allows for more surface area of filtering media. The 1″ flat MERV 2 will only pull big chunks of dust from the home and where the 4″ MERV 8 will pull dust mites and spores and fine powders like pudding dust.

HEPA filters are designed to remove 97.97% of particles at .3 microns. This would be equivalent to a MERV 20. They filter in a unique way and work quite well. In fact many home vacuums now come equipped with HEPA filtration. Truly a good way to go.

4" MERV 8

How you use your filter makes a difference too, I leave my fan on year round so in my experience switching filters on a 6 month schedule is perfect. You will want to do filter changes more frequently depending on the way your filters fill up.

Regardless of when you change the filters and how often, having a milestone to schedule filter changes will keep your overall furnace / AC system working properly. Mine is when we switch from Heat to Air conditioning.

We are at the end of April here in Boise Idaho, I often say we are at the edge of the desert but this year we might as well be at the edge of a rain forest. I saw a big show of plum and pear blossoms, and the days have gotten longer, spring has not produced the transition into the cooling season here in Boise Idaho.

Batt Insulation

This project was a fairly straight forward insulation project with a vented area above the insulation that will allow for proper venting and circulation that will prevent condensation and moisture problems. Normally Visqueen is stapled to the walls over the insulation then the drywall is placed over it. We base our decision not to use a Visqueen moisture barrier upon the most recent building science. Studies have shown that we do not use it and here is why. Imagine the moisture, we live in a dry climate on the edge of a desert. The warm moist air in a home passes through the drywall and the cold air is coming in through the siding, house wrap sheeting and insulation. It meets at the Visqueen and condenses causing moisture problems. Eliminate the Visqueen and it doesn’t have a place to condense. Use the interior painted drywall as a moisture barrier and the problem is gone. Local building code does not mandate Visqueen usage and the insulation companies are willing to use it or not. I feel that we have clarity on the issue finally after plenty of research. In my opinion is that this issue is also a green building thing because it improves indoor air quality by eliminating a source of mold.

Green Siding

We are using an Engineered Lumber designed to replicate real wood siding of old because the description of work specified harmonizing with existing conditions. The style we are matching this time is called  cottage lap and is made of at least 25% recycled material.  The siding also come pre-primed, an extra bonus for us. In speaking with Don Barnes a salesman for the manufacturer, the Collins company has been around since 1855 and is the manufacturer of True Wood this product also uses forest tree trimmings and rather than have them burned in slash piles they are broken down the the fibers and combined to make siding. So in reality it is a more green product than it takes credit for.

Lap Siding

The Collins Company has a rich history and Levco is especially proud to be using their products in our projects. As you can see we caulk each nail head in anticipation of paint we also added vertical pieces, one to disguise the seam and one to add symmetry. I’m not telling which one is which. In this case we also added gutters to harmonize.

Floor joists TJI's

This is the fun stuff, At Levco we blast through the rough framing with gusto. Pat and his crew impressed us all by working in between storms to set the floor walls and trusses. It is a little known fact that framing techniques although similar have improved in recent years with the advent of Green Building Techniques. We do different corners than we used to. This allows for better insulation and less thermal bridging.

Eye in the sky

Possibly the coolest thing that happened is that we got an aerial shot of the project in progress, you never know who is watching. I always warn my crews to keep on the lookout for low flying helicopters. As far as the speed of framing goes, don’t be fooled, we give careful attention to detail and assurances that we are always level and plumb. Extra attention is used to ensure that headers and floor joists are made of engineered lumber when possible

Ta Da

This includes using OSB sheathing, and OSB sub-floor. Manufactured trusses makes for a straight and strong end product. This phase went so quickly I had to rely on the owner to get some photos for me. In the end everyone wins when we use advanced materials and techniques to construct our remodeling projects. Sure no one ever sees behind the Sheetrock again but it is these and other minor details that make us proud of what we do.

Being Green in the remodeling industry is, depending on who you speak with a new thing, or an old thing. Most of us gained awareness as we were growing up in the 60′s but there are those that have made an industry of it in the past say 20 years. Rather than call ourselves a Green Remodeling company, I have incorporated green techniques and principals from our daily lives into our daily operations. Green to me is a “philosophy of green” I placed it on the home page of the web site and it  is a simple as these four principals for me.

Off loading the metal

1. Energy efficiency, 2.Indoor air quality, 3.Resource conservation, and 4.water conservation. Each item has many meanings so through the years I plan to show examples of what I mean by green remodeling. Here is an example of #3 Levco recycles often, here is one load of load of 1000 lbs of metal. We also separate loads to the dump when we can to save out lumber. and contribute to our re-purposing center frequently. We also keep a recycling center on site for plastic metal and paper glass. Applying green methods and technologies is growing in popularity all the time, we have incorporated many of the principals but few of the technologies to date. The lack of tax credits and long investment recuperation time has dampened the enthusiasm in our area. we do however use great insulation, great exhaust fans, engineered lumber when ever we can (instead of dimensional lumber), high efficiency appliances and high efficiency windows. Look for many more posts on this topic to come.