Turning Building Science into Building Practice

Three things that builders would love to be able to do:
•  Sell more homes
•  Increase the selling price of each home
•  Generate greater profit on each home

Many builders are starting to realize that building and marketing high performance homes strikes a very positive chord with the informed, energy conscious consumer. With the advent of the Internet and scores of home improvement programs on television, home buyers are now armed with all

the information they need to demand more from their new homes, and their builders. As energy costs continue to rise builders who are willing to find a better way to build homes and cater to this new customer base can take advantage of these new opportunities.

While searching for that better way to build and market their homes, builders frequently turn to workshops, trade shows, or educational seminars. However, after the enthusiasm of the session has faded, builders are left asking the same questions. Where do you start? What programs do you use? Who within the business should manage the new program? Most importantly, how do you make sure that any improvement plans you invest in don't fall by the wayside in face of the daily challenges?

Peter Yost and the team at 3-D Building Solutions have been looking at this specific problem, and through a collaboration with IBACOS, have developed a process they believe can help take the theory of building science from the think tank to the jobsite. It starts by a “champion” bringing the idea of building higher performing homes from the trade show or educational seminar back to the business, and then securing the support within the building company that is needed to make lasting change.

“If you are going to have integrated design, someone has to 'get it' and be given free reins within the company to make sure the changes get done. This champion needs to have both technical skills and people skills to get the right science into the field, and get buy in from the rest of the company,” says Yost. “The champion has to be someone at least high enough in the corporate structure to get the ‘powers that be' attention.”

Make that Change

The process of changing a company from a conventional home builder to an exceptional high performance home builder requires buy in at all levels of the company, including CEO, sales and marketing, site supervisors and trade contractors. While it may seem like a significant challenge, Yost believes that by breaking the process of change down into a step-by-step process, builders can have a much better chance of succeeding.

Step one: Getting buy in

After attending a trade show or educational session the champion gets excited and returns to the home office. After an initial meeting with the company's stakeholders, the champion is given approval to research and develop a plan for changing the building company.

At this point the champion needs to be given the time and resources to realistically explore the possibility of change within the company. It takes a lot of work on the part of the champion, including creating presentations and materials to help convince the rest of the company of the value and importance of adopting higher standards. In addition to getting buy in, the champion should also create a detailed review of current practices, including design specifications, trade contracts, and marketing activities.

Even at this early part of the process, the builder will have some tough questions to answer. Will they work to implement these changes within the design of the existing homes, or create designs? For instance, to improve energy efficiency, the placement of duct systems will often need to be changed. However, this change may require new floor plans and building designs. If the builder has several product lines of homes, will they change every product line or just a few? Should the builder sell high performance as an upgrade to all homes, or simply in the higher end products? Yost believes that such business decisions are a lot tougher than the technical decisions.

The builder should also define their expectations for a high performance home and set standards that can be measured and validated. How safe, healthy, durable, comfortable, and efficient will the home be? Will the home be energy efficient, water efficient and maintenance efficient and if so, to what degree.

Once these issues have been hammered out, and the champion is ready to get the entire company on board they should work with the CEO to present the program to everyone in the organization.

Step two: All hands on deck

The process of company wide changes requires a company wide approach. The champion will have to work with each department to make sure all the resources and needs are met to ensure success. As soon as the whole company has committed to doing their part to make the change, the real work of implementing the plan can begin.

Changes to the design and energy efficiency of homes can greatly affect the type of appliances, insulation, windows, and general building materials used. For instance, if the home is built with a better, tighter envelope it can mean installing smaller sized heating and cooling units. It follows that the purchasing department will have to look at new products from existing vendors, or maybe search for whole new set of vendors.

The sales department must buy in to the concept of high performing homes as well.

“The idea is that your sales force has to understand as well, or nearly as well as your site folks what improvements you are making to your homes. You have to get the technical stuff right, but if the sales people have no idea what you are doing or why, they have no idea why the price of the home is going up.” says Yost. However, when given the tools to market and sell a high performing home, many find the job of selling the home easier. High performance homes have tangible benefits that can be easily demonstrated and can offer a substantial competitive advantage over traditional home builders.

Step three: Tools for the trades

Getting buy in from trade contractors is the most important part of the transition process from conventional home building to high performance home building. To help, Yost and 3D Building Solutions has worked with IBACOS and the Building America Program to develop tools to make the process easier.

First, a comprehensive scopes of work document is used to help define the requirements for construction and manage the process every step of way. The scopes of work documents are given to the trade contractors so that they know exactly what quality of work will be expected of them, and what their specific responsibilities will be.

“We decided on a template that would work for six different trades: foundation, framing, window installation, drainage planes, HVAC, air sealing insulation. From a performance perspective these are the big ones. The trades need to know they have to maintain the conditions that existed on the site before they start work.” suggests Yost. For example, “If a trade contractor accidentally punctures the air barrier, they have to fix it before they leave the job site.”

Checklists are used frequently in the process to make sure that work is getting done as expected. Pre-work and post-work checklists play a large part in enabling the builder to make sure that the home is built to the standards they have defined. Checklists are customized to each specific detail of construction.

Pre-work checklists offer the builder a chance to walk the site with the trade contractor to make sure everything is ready according to the checklist. If a specific type of drainage plane is required on a home, the window installer needs to know that it has been installed correctly, and they have to sign off that the house is ready for them to do their work.

To help validate the home's performance, post-work check lists can include performance tests. For example, the air sealing contractor knows that they won't get paid until the blower test is done and the performance standards are satisfied. Yost recommends that the builder reserves the right to water test any window before the home is complete and states this in the scopes of work,. “You may never do that, but it will really put the window installer on notice that they have to make that window water tight.”

Step four: Test it before you build it

During the process of transition from conventional to exceptional home builder, Yost suggests that builders take the time to get it right the first time. One way to do this is to build mock-ups of each critical area of the home the builder is trying to improve.

“It's a good way of discovering how flexible trades are going to be with you. Build a mock-wall and install window ahead of time. It can be an expensive process, but it's a way to make sure it gets right the first time and makes sure that everyone understands what level of quality is expected.” says Yost.

Once completed, the mock-ups can be used as a tool for the sales team, as well.

“Put them in the model home garage and use them to train the sales team and customers. We underestimate buyers and what they care about. They aren't going to walk into your house and ask to see your flashing details, but they are watching a lot of shows on television that explain how a home works”.

A Worthy Change

To reap the full rewards of building high performance homes, Yost suggests that builders carefully plan their approach and set reasonable expectations. Ideally builders would be able to completely overhaul their approach to home building and take a more "systems" approach to construction. By designing the home so that all system are optimized and working in concert with each other, Yost believes builders can achieve great profit, faster. In reality though, that major of a transition can be difficult. “The less you are allowed to fully implement a systems approach, the longer you are going to have to put off the financial benefit, and that's going to be tough.”

If a builder is going to incrementally improve their product, the order in which they address performance changes is critical. Many builders will improve efficiency first, but lack a coordinated systems approach with the code which can result in troubles later. “Some builders may work up the R-values in the wall, but don't beef up the drainage plane inspections. Building inspectors don't inspect flashing details. The code is there to make sure you save energy, but doesn't do anything to make the homes healthy.”

When looking for the most practical and safe way to implement high performance options, Yost acknowledges work done by IBACOS to define the process which should start with water management, then combustion safety improvements, then thermal envelope and air tightness.

While any company can pursue the cause of high performance homes, some businesses will find the process of transition easier than others. “The best companies for this are the mid-sized companies because they generally have management structures that aren't too diffuse and the CEO isn't removed from the daily operations.” says Yost. “Small enough to allow fast transition, but large enough that they have economic sway over their trades.

Resources:

Peter Yost presented this information with Duncan Prahl of IBACOS, and Justin Wilson of Building Performance Solutions at the 2005 EEBA Excellence in Building Conference. You can download a free copy of the presentation here. (Adobe Acrobat required)..

Also, 3D Building Solutions offers a copy of the IBACOS/3-D Building Solutions Compiled Supplemental High Performance Scopes of Work for free download from the 3-D Building Solutions web site.

About the Expert:
Peter Yost is a partner at 3-D Building Solutions consulting firm providing design support and material solutions for new buildings as well as diagnostics for better building performance. Peter also provides services for the Environments for Living Diamond Class builder training program.