From Daily Journal of Commerce, by Sam Bennett
From the outside, the home at 8020 S.W. Elmwood St. doesn’t stand out from the other Ranch style homes in its Southwest Portland neighborhood.
But the home’s accomplishment in sustainable design is unique. The home is expected to receive LEED platinum certification in the Home Renovation category, and if successful it will be the first in Oregon and only one of 10 in the United States to have that designation.
“Anytime you hit this level of performance, it’s something special,” said Randy Hansell, the LEED Home program manager for the Earth Advantage Institute. “It’s innovative to take an existing home and do what they’ve done with it. They were really able to do some great things.”
The home will be part of the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland’s Ultimate Open House on April 18, 19, 25 and 26. The home is expected to receive LEED platinum certification in time for the open house, and it is listed for $850,000. The renovation was designed by Paolo Design Group.
Stephen Aiguier of Green Hammer Construction, which was the builder on the project, said the “gut rehab” project on Elmwood Street was a perfect fit for his firm since it specializes in green building projects.
An important step in meeting LEED platinum standards was adding new walls inside the home’s exterior walls, in order to use low-density spray foam insulation between the new walls and existing walls. Though the walls took up additional space, the home actually was converted from three bedrooms and two baths to five bedrooms and three baths. The simplicity of the Ranch style home, which includes a basement level, made the renovation easier than it would have been for a multi-floor craftsman home, Aiguier said.
For heating and cooling, the home uses a closed-loop, ground-source heat pump that extracts heat from the earth by warming a ozone-safe refrigerant that flows through pipes underground. In the summer, the cool temperature below ground cools the refrigerant. A heat recovery ventilator keeps the air inside fresh – which is necessary because the home is nearly airtight, according to Rebecca Novis, a project coordinator with Green Hammer. The home also keeps out cold air by using Pella fiberglass windows.
The home is expected to earn LEED points by using as much of the existing framing as possible. When new framing was needed, Green Hammer bought lumber from a supplier in Lewiston, Idaho. In the kitchen and bathrooms, cabinets are made from Forest Stewardship Council certified plywood, and countertops are made from manufactured quartz called Caesarstone. The home also features low-flow faucets and toilets. The existing flooring was saved, as was the home’s siding.
A 3-kilowatt photovoltaic solar panel system will feed energy into the grid in the summer, Aiguier said.
The home’s landscaping uses drought-tolerant, native plantings. Because turf requires water in the warm months, there is none used in the front or back yards. Rainwater that doesn’t sink through the sloped, semipermeable driveway will make its way to a bioswale at the base of the driveway.
During construction, 99 percent of construction waste was recycled, Novis said. Happy Fish Restoration oversaw the removal of invasive plants from the area near Ash Creek, which runs through the property’s backyard, and DeSantis Landscapes was the landscape architect.
Though the home has not gone through the LEED certification process, Aiguier said he feels confident that it will reach the platinum level. Every room in the home has some LEED point-earning components – from the cork flooring to low-VOC paint. Even the lower level entrance has a built-in shoe-storage space, which prevents contaminants from being tracked in.
