ews of the slowing building industry is old news, however a new trend in construction is sweeping the Piedmont region. Keeping what you’ve got and turning it into what you want is where it’s at these days. In other words — remodeling. With today’s economic and environmental concerns, homeowners are weighing more heavily the effects their houses have on lifestyle, budget, and the planet.

Some homebuilders see the glass as half empty — having so few new clients. Other builders see it as half full — having a select group of environmentally conscious customers willing to take on the challenges of building responsibly.

According to Tom Lovegrove, president of Bayview Construction Company in Moneta, renovating your home for the sole purpose of reducing your carbon footprint or saving money on utility bills is rarely cost effective. But if you’re already planning to remodel your home or build an addition, it’s a good time to make some decisions about the way your home affects the environment and uses energy.

Doug Horgan, vice president of best practices for BOWA Builders in McLean, notes that making home improvements to decrease your house’s impact on the environment may soon be important for other reasons as well. “We expect that within two to five years it will either be very common practice or even mandated by law that new houses meet certain energy efficiency standards,” he says. “When that happens, existing homes that don’t have a certification will be at a disadvantage on the real estate market. “Even now,” Horgan continues, “some jurisdictions require sellers to include the amount of a year’s utility bills as part of the property’s listing.”

The early planning stage of a home renovation is the best time to set goals for the project. There is much more to living green than reducing your electric bill. The first step is to find an architect and contractor familiar with environmentally friendly building methods. Check references. And reputations for keeping within budget.

“Green building is a somewhat new trend among contractors,” observes Todd Heyns, president of Woodcraft Visions, Inc. in Delaplane, “but there are many of us who have been conscious of energy-saving methods, the scarcity of natural resources, and minimizing wasted space all along.” The key to finding the right contractor, advises Heyns, is to be “a nosy Nelly and ask more questions than a Barbara Walters interview.” Listen closely to the answers and try to read between the lines. If you hear a lot of trendy lingo reminiscent of political sound-bites, then it’s possible the contractor is new to green building, and the project could cost too much and take too long. A more experienced contractor will be able to put things in easily understood terms, cite examples of everyday techniques for saving energy and resources, and make concrete suggestions for improving your renovation plans.

“As builders, we need to go farther than just building,” says Jeff Easter, president of Jeff Easter Remodeling in Charlottesville. “We need to educate customers about new products and better ways to live in their home.”

Green building is more than just using new technology and engineered, environmentally friendly materials; it’s about building well — making the most of the space you have, recycling and reusing materials and furniture, using more natural materials, creating less waste, and reducing energy and water usage.

The New Space Age

As families outgrow their homes, they feel the need to add more space. But before moving forward with an addition, they might consider reorganizing the space they already have. An unfinished basement is a blank slate just waiting to fulfill growing needs. It can shift a portion of living space to the home’s lower level, leaving room upstairs for opening up or combining smaller rooms into more spacious quarters.

“The first concern with finishing a basement,” suggests Heyns, “is moisture. Have the basement tested for moisture levels and have a waterproofing system installed to ensure that your finished rooms won’t become a habitat for mold and mildew.”

Another way to reassign space is to absorb less-used rooms into the greater good of the house. If, for example, the dining room has become a shrine to the large feasts hosted there just twice a year, the defining walls could be demolished so that the kitchen could be expanded. Or perhaps a rarely used linen or coat closet could easily be closed off and used as an expansion of an adjoining bedroom closet or bathroom.

When every space in the home has been used to capacity, there is nowhere left to go but up or out.

Tim Burch, Jr., president of Burch Builders Group in Warrenton, recently helped a client whose mother and sister were coming to live in her one-story rambler. “The home needed to be almost doubled in square footage,” explains Burch. “We designed the addition to try and maximize the southern exposure of the lot and used floor-to-ceiling fixed-glass panels, full-lite doors, and even transom windows to capitalize on as much natural light as possible.”

By letting in as much sunlight as possible, his customer gains heat from the sun each day, allowing her to use less electricity for not only heat but also daytime lighting.