Noel's Green (make that SUSTAINABLE) Blog » Housing

Thanks Frankly

noel — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:53:25 +0000

FranklyMLS.com is a superb web site that I use for searching and analyzing residential properties in this, the DC/Maryland/Virginia region. It’s my favorite tool because it is fast, easy and returns latest MLS data in a format I can analyze in Microsoft Excel, text and numericals. No gobble-dee-gook. Other web sites that use this MLS do not deliver this simple function.

I appreciate this because I often feel like I am hunting for a needle in a haystack and I am looking at hundreds if not thousands of potential buys. Having a quick way to filter and pick out selections is imperative when doing a wide search for specific properties, in this case, helping WynkSystems Ventures to find broken distressed houses to buy, renovate and sell or rent out.

LEED Certified residence

noel — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:51:19 +0000

Here is an exciting example of green design filled with good ideas.

This LEED certified home in Arlington is also an beautiful example of how a lower carbon footprint looks and how utility bills can be lowered to almost nothing.

Is it ironic that the house is listed for $1.175 million but the utilities are supposedly under $400 a year? Hmm.

It’s predictable. This is a prototype, and prototypes tend to be expensive! Custom luxury homes do that to your budget, you know?

Nice ideas in this one. I’d like to take some of these for my designs.

Up-to-date methods like insulation in board form rather than fiberglass batts (SIPS : structural insulated panels)
Careful placement and sizing of windows to maximize light, view and ventilation, but minimizing excessive heat and glare.
Selecting and designing HVAC and lighting systems that are more efficient, healthier and easier to maintain. Geothermal heat pumps are a special favorite.
Creating design features like overhangs, fins, and screens to reduce direct solar insolation during the cooling season.

Small is beautiful: Ductless mini splits

noel — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:12:01 +0000

Homes and small commercial buildings may benefit from the application of ductless mini splits. What the heck is that? I was watching one of those TV programs on renovating homes the other day when a discussion came up about air conditioning an attic room with low ceilings and small windows. Someone suggested a window air conditioner because there was no place to run a duct and I almost gagged on my coffee. That is not a good idea.

I abhor window air conditioners. Ductless mini split package air conditioning units can eliminate window air conditioners and literally blow them away in terms of performance. Also, all you need is a couple of copper pipes run through a small wall opening to the remote “condensing unit”. Ductless minis come in room size capacities, and they are far more ENERGY EFFICIENT and esthetically pleasing to look at than window AC. And you save the window for what it was best suited! No bulky object blocking the view or preventing the occasional pleasure of an open window for breeze.

I guess the TV show illustrates that ductless mini splits are one of those “inventions” that is not known to the vast majority of people.

Ductless mini splits are not a particularly new idea, the first ones came out in the late 80s from Mitsubishi. I first used them in a tough spot where I needed to design in some cooling for a “computer room“ in the basement of a historic 1890s Princeton University dormitory. Regular split package air conditioners are pretty bulky and basically require ductwork to work anyway. And you need space to hang ductwork. If window air conditioners were absolutely not an option, what can you do?

The common solution in classroom and lab buildings for this sort of single room cooling is to hang a fan coil and run campus chilled water into the unit. But there was no chilled water anywhere in the building to tap into. Ductless mini splits are great where the slim aspect of a cassette shaped cabinet is acceptable on the wall or ceiling. They are also a permanent solution to the problem of adding efficient cooling without sacrificing space while still preserving the integrity of walls and windows.

Dysfunctional Multiple Listing Service

noel — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:32:35 +0000

Lately, we ( my partner and my team) have been looking daily and diligently for rehab properties, and making offers (or trying to ) on the ones we like.

However, a peculiar thing is happening with bank-owned (REO ) home in northern VA. There have been rumors of dishonesty and unscrupulous operators. And we are seeing some evidence of this as well.

The banks have been telling us as shareholders and borrowers, that all homes will be marketed as widely as possible, using the MLS. I do not see how that is happening.

We monitor the MLS almost daily, as does our Realtor ^tm agent. As we see homes that fit our criteria, we immediately schedule a walkthrough within the day, and in many cases, write an offer within a few hours. There have been several instances where we have had opportunity to make our offer through our agent and then the banks listing agent, knowing that there is competition. This is a decent sealed bid process. It is far from normal for real estate, but in these abnormal times, we are dealing with it. Those seem legitimate, if awkward when compared to the usual “price discovery by negotiation”.

BUT there is a question of how such rapid timing constitutes widespread and appropriate marketing by the bank. Especially if not all the buyers can make their offer. We have come a dozen instances where a property is under contract within the first day on the market. Extremely odd and questionable action.

The dysfunctional part is here. It is banks that have houses under contract before noon on the day they are offered on the MLS. They claim its an open and transparent process. How can it be that selling bank officer(s) can receive, review and make decisions on the highest and best offer.

The MLS is being used as a trojan horse, and it appears that the winning offerors are getting their information about the houses on the INSIDE. Isnt there any one else outraged?

Negotiation is out the window this season. Maybe normalcy will come back this fall or winter, but I look forward to it returning as son as possible. This foreclosure market appears rigged.

Crawl Spaces and Moisture – lets get them separated

noel — Sun, 17 May 2009 19:17:17 +0000

I have been seeing more and more use of a dramatically different but simple solution to the age old
problem of how to best construct a crawl space. Years ago, I decided that they were evil,
but I seem to end up with them in so many buildings that I work on. There are better solutions, especially as we learn how new high performance homes are being constructed.

This week I am faced with proposing a solution to a flooded crawlspace in a 40 year old 2000 sq. foot home a friend wants to rehab.

One problem is the high water table immediately around the house. The backfill soil surrounding the house apparently had a high water retention. And also the rainfall recently has been incredible.

Here is a foot of water in the crawlspace we have to deal with.

Flooded Crawl space

We have to pump it, that’s a fact we cannot change. We need to eject the water a far away as we can get it.

I’d like to always promote best practices, so I prefer the crawlspace be retrofitted with a sump pit and pump, (after its cleaned and remediated, of course).

I’d like a durable, flexible waterproof liner attached to the floor and walls, permanently sealed foundation wall vents, and, if at all possible, insulated walls with 1.5″ thick polyisocyanurate board (just short of R-10 as recommended by the US DOE ). But I am not sure we can do that on foundation walls that have sitting in this much water. The recommendations seem to apply better to new homes more than to retrofit like this. (Folding the vapor barrier into existing joints is not possible, but we can look for alternatives and be creative about that detail.)

In any event, the crawlspace will become a part of the envelope. It will no longer lose heat in winter, with attendant cold floors. It will also act as a heat sink in summer. Some reports are that this type of crawl space reduces home energy consumption by 20-30%. It will no longer be a source of mold spores, rodents, insects, or dirt. To be sure it is vented as required by building code, it should get a small amount of air through small supply and return air grilles, .

ASHRAE has recommended that crawlspaces be treated this way since 1997.

The problem starts with crawl spaces being treated as OUTSIDE the building envelope, But crawlspaces are so intertwined with the structure mounted above them that it seems impossible to reconcile all the conflicting issues without health or durability compromises.

Its ridiculous that most crawlspaces attract and trap so much dirt and water. They are conducive to structural damage as well as contributing to unhealthy conditions inside the home. I won’t list the compromises, but a review of the traditional crawlspace is here article and here
crawlspace info

The International Building Code, which most of Virginia follows, prescribes several rules for crawl spaces as follows

Ventilate : Vent sizes are prescribed and are often installed between the outside and the crawlspace
Insulate : for generations, floors were not insulated but in the past 30 years, many coes required the floor to insulated. Then the problem of piping was just to insulate and heat trace them or just fix them when they froze. Such reliability!
Isolate : Put a low water permeance vapor barrier on the floor to keep the moisture out. Yeah right! It works well in theory only.

Recommendations for constructing a crawlspace in the mixed humid regions ( ranging from roughly from central New Jersey south to north Georgia and west to the central Mississippi Valley.

Sources
US Department of Energy Report:
Habitat Congress Building America: MIXED-HUMID CLIMATE CASE STUDY

ASHRAE Journal Article May 2008,
New Light in Crawlspaces by Joe Lstiburek

http://thecrawlspaceconcept.com/

Aha! A national MLS database does NOT exist

noel — Tue, 12 May 2009 14:29:39 +0000

An interesting web site Denver Home Values made this 2007 commentary. Its a bit dated, but it discloses the lack of widespread standardization of the data.

“The difficulty of dealing with the many legal and technical issues has not prevented a few national real estate conglomerates from attempting to build a national database of listings for display on their national corporate web sites. However, they are still subject to the same rules and limitations as described above. This means they must have very deep pockets, because they must maintain a dedicated staff of programmers and legal counsel to deal with all of the different MLS rules and data formats that currently exist.”

The MLS here in Virginia has been consistently behind the curve since March. The data regarding status has been almost continuously out of date. Anytime we identify a property is a deal and send in an offer, we are told later that there is an accepted offer. It does not matter whether it has been on the MLS for 2 days or 150 days. Most of these are bank owned, by the way.

We are continuously frustrated. Suggestions about whether or how the MLS can be useful in this crazy environment are welcome.

Depressing reality of the recession

noel — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:58:01 +0000

Am I imagining this?
Is this ridiculous or what? New homes?!

During the week of April 26th, Texas-based Guaranty Bank demolished about a dozen new houses in California. I don’t understand how or why they could not find a buyer for these frame structures who would move them and save all this hard work and material from the land fill. These were frames for Gods sake! With brick veneer. They could have called me and I would have had them cut up and taken away to be re-used. I might have done it at no cost to the bank. What a waste.

Shame on Guaranty, I hope they get whats coming to them for this disastrous approach to business and built assets.

Demolition shows a complete lack of imagination