John Ripley
EXTERIOR Chandler’s crew wrapped the walls with Tyvek Wrinkle…
With five certifications and an Energy Value Housing Award from the NAHB Research Center, the project taught Chandler a lot about how different green rating systems compare in terms of stringency and ease of use (see Builder Profile)—as well as cost. He spent about $650 to comply with Energy Star and the DOE’s Builders Challenge programs, $650 more for the NGBS report card, and about $1,950 more for LEED certification.
Now that this project is complete, Chandler foresees a role for the two national programs in his business: He plans to continue to certify all of his homes to the NGBS and save LEED for only the highest-performing projects. “It seems to me there is no cause for tension between the two,” he concludes.
Profile: Michael Chandler and Beth Williams
Owners, Chandler Design-Build
Name: Bryant Residence, Saxapahaw, N.C.
Size: 2,498 square feet
Construction cost: $158 per square foot
Completed: June 2009
Certifications: LEED-Gold, NGBS-Gold, Energy Star, Builders Challenge, Green Home Builders of the Triangle-Gold
HERS rating: 48
Designer/Builder: Chandler Design-Build, Mebane, N.C.
Energy Consultant: Southern Energy Management
In 2007 Michael Chandler helped create the ANSI-700 National Green Building Standard, and he is proud of its easy-to-understand, flexible approach. As much as he is committed to the standard, he has always found comparisons between it and the USGBC’s LEED for Homes unproductive.
In building the Bryant house to both programs (his first LEED project), he discovered similarities and differences: While both culminate in a sustainable house, he found that the LEED program is more focused on design and planning and the NBGS rewards actions during construction. ‘LEED is planning focused, so you have to document everything in the early stages,” he says. “But I find it’s easier to document the execution—just grab a camera and take a picture while you’re building—and that’s how the Green Building Standard works.”
That flexibility suits Chandler’s on-the-fly style, which thrives on the freedom to experiment during construction. “The NGBS allows you to improvisationally make the house greener than the plans as you go along,” he says. After 34 years as a green builder—eight of them working with his wife, designer Beth Williams—Chandler is overjoyed to see high-performance construction enter the mainstream marketplace. “When I first started out, we had to get special paint to meet green standards for low VOCs,” he recalls. “Now almost all paints are low-VOC. What was once thought of as high-performance building is now code.”
