Building a customized home to suit your family’s particular needs is a proposition that sells itself – who wouldn’t love to have the perfect materials, building plans, and all the customization you’ve always wanted to include in your dream home?
Truth is, the process can get overwhelming much quicker than most new homeowners realize. Hasty construction and smooth-talking contractors can lead to serious buyer’s remorse – no one wants to live in a home that consistently delivers problems that could have been avoided with a little forethought and planning.
This is where the concept of high-performance buildings come in.
The term ‘high-performance building’ refers to a building that integrates and optimizes the life cycle basis of all major high-performance attributes for a construction project. According to the Whole Building Design Guide, this includes aspects such as energy conservation, environment, safety, security, durability, accessibility, cost-benefit, productivity, sustainability, functionality, and operation consideration.
Putting it simply, high-performance buildings consider the optimization and integration of all the features and functions that the building is supposed to exhibit. By considering the needs and requirements of its occupants, planners can create buildings with excellent environmental ratings, high safety, durability levels, and even artistic/architectural beauty.
Here are four of the most important reasons to consider partnering with a certified and proven high-performance building contractor:
Energy Efficiency
Some of the best reasons to consider a high-performance building are the long-term benefits of efficient and responsible energy usage. By following regulations set in modern green construction codes such as the International Green Construction Code (IgCC), builders utilize high-quality materials to build structures such as high-thermal mass walls. These allow homes to cleverly store thermal energy in the day and release them at night, providing an eco-friendly solution to thermal regulation.
Similarly, solar energy panels can be used to further reduce the carbon footprint of the home, gradually resulting in reduced power expenditure.
Disaster Resistance
Expecting a home to last several decades also means guarding it against all manner of natural disasters – from floods to hurricanes, fires, and earthquakes. Not only does this protect both the structure and the occupants within, but it also saves homeowners from the financial and ecological costs of rebuilding and repairs.
High-performance buildings use specialized materials to ensure this – from fire-resistant building materials to flood-proof concrete and steel reinforcement bars that prevent a collapse in case of tremors.
Durability
While disaster resistance allows constructions to withstand harsh conditions, regular wear-and-tear needs a different set of guidelines.
To keep a building in perfect condition through the years and maintain its longevity, features such as double-layered EPS insulation and reinforced concrete walls help in keeping resiliency levels high. They also indirectly cut down on costs by reducing the frequency of maintenance, repairs, and specifically, damage caused by moisture and pests such as termites.
Indoor Environmental Quality
The most important elements to consider when planning home construction are the people living indoors – and specifically the quality of their environment within.
Furnishing and interior design are just one part of the puzzle – to ensure a safe and productive home, high-performance building techniques employ the use of moisture-resistant materials, well-planned acoustics to avoid unnecessary sound reverb, and low-toxicity components.
These four features combine to give homeowners a perfect, 360-degree coverage of all the important bases to touch on before setting off on a home-building project.
