Case Study

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Martha Rose Construction: 5-Star Esplanade House

Built Green Rating: 5 Star Homebuilder Checklist Built by Martha Rose Construction, Inc. Location: Ballard

This month’s featured project is a beautiful 5-Star single-family Esplanade House in Ballard. Built by Martha Rose, of Martha Rose Construction, and verified by Dan Wildenhaus of Atmosphere this home included numerous innovative green features such as a 3,000 gallon rain barrel on site, photovoltaic panels, solar hot water, a heat recovery ventilator and even automated bathroom faucets. For a more complete inventory of the many green strategies used, please see below.

Martha Rose continues to exemplify the best practices in the building industry, and proves that green building at the highest levels is achievable in demand in every market. With her previous town homes at Rainier Vista in South Seattle, Rose was the first to achieve the 5-star level for a speculative building project. She is a leader among her peers in the Northwest, and at the 2007 Built Green Conference she was presented with a Built Green Pioneer Award.

The many green features include:

Soil and Water Protection

• 3,000 gallon rain barrel to collect and save rain water for irrigation
• Pervious pavers strategy used for entirety of the driveway, infiltrating 100 percent of rain from driveway area
• Used automated bathroom faucets along with dual flush toilets for water conservation
• Amended all soils on site to 8 to10 inches
• Preserved existing native ferns, summer lilac and dogwoods as landscaping
• Donated existing bamboo plants and hydrangea for immediate reuse
• Limited garage size to one car

Energy-Efficiency

• Photovoltaic panels integrated into electrical panel
• Evacuated tube solar hot water collector and integration to tank storage
• Advanced zone heating including high efficiency electric radiators and high efficiency gas fireplace
• Heat recover ventilator captures heat from air being vented out of the home, to pre-heat the incoming air (91 percent heat recovery) and is set to automatic timers to 20 minutes per hour
• Triple pane windows with a U-value of 0.25
• Average wall insulation of R-27 through use of combination of blown in foam insulation, and rigid insulation panel. Average ceiling insulation is R-40
• Heating equipment located inside the thermal envelope
• Energy Star? appliances throughout
• Installation of programmable thermostats
• Used light colored interior finishes to reduce lighting loads
• 75 percent of lighting consists of compact fluorescent fixtures and bulbs

Material Use

• Rain barrel is made of FSC Certified lumber
• Extensive jobsite waste recycling program, and donation program for salvage material
• Use of products with recycled content, including insulation, drywall, tile, soffit material, countertops and door knobs
• Used finger-jointed pine moldings
• Use of engineered headers, advanced framing technique, and two-by-eight floor joists
• Use of rapidly renewable bamboo for cabinetry
• Used recycled content carpet product
• Locally sourced cedar siding will last 50+ years
• Used a roofing product warranted for 50 years
• Provided built-in recycling center

Indoor Air Quality

• Automatic fans and filter within heat recover ventilator manage air circulation and filtration strategy
• Installation of a ductless heating system
• Use of low toxic caulks and adhesives, as well as interior finishes
• Wirsbo Polyethylene piping used as a PVC alternative
• Installation of whole house fan
• Water management system ensures that all water leaves the immediate footprint of the home
• Footing drain under the slab and tiger drain over elastomeric foundation coating
• This home has no medium density fiberboard, no wafer board and no particle board

Still Images

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