Old is new again in Earth-friendly home in Boulder CO

Boulder professor uses plant-based, recycled
goods in construction

Thursday, March 21, 2002 – BOULDER – When Julee Herdt started building
her house, she had to explain to neighborhood kids that they couldn’t really
eat it.

By Kristi Arellano
Denver Post Business Writer

It’s not hard to see why.
The list of building
materials for Herdt’s
home reads like a menu
at a health-food
restaurant. Wheat, soy
and sunflowers were all
used in its construction.

Herdt is building her
house, called The
Farmhouse, using as
many bio-based
building materials as
she can. The cabinets
and wall panels are
made from sunflower
plants and soy
adhesives. She’s using particle board made from wheat straw, drywall made
from pressed wastepaper and other building products made from agricultural
waste or recycled material.

FOR MORE INFO
Check out http://www.thefarmhouse.org for more
information on The Farmhouse or for a
tour of the Boulder home.

Herdt, an assistant professor of architecture at the University of Colorado at
Denver, is building the 4,700-square-foot home to prove that a house almost
completely made with bio-based, recycled and Earth-friendly materials is
not only possible, it’s also livable and affordable.

"This is probably a more extreme example than what most people would
do," said Herdt, whose work has earned her the 2002 Faculty Design Award
from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.

"I think people can pick up one
or two ideas that they can use in
their own homes," she said.

Herdt designed the home with
former student Steve Gates. She
and her husband, Jeffrey Brown,
have already moved into the
house, which they’ll keep open for tours for at least a year.

Because it’s a demonstration house, many construction materials are left
exposed so people can see exactly what they look like. A clear panel on one
wall shows off the insulation materials, which include sheep’s wool and
ground-up blue jeans.

The Farmhouse is heated and cooled with a geo-exchange system that uses
liquid-filled pipes to transfer heat between the house and the ground 150
feet below, where the temperature remains constant at about 50 degrees.
The system can be used to heat the house in winter and cool it in the
summer. A photovoltaic or solar panel system helps run the heating system,
so electricity costs for the rest of the house run about $50 per month.

Building The Farmhouse has cost Herdt roughly $65 per square foot, or
about $305,000. The average per-square-foot sales price of a new
production home in Boulder is $141, according to The Meyers Group, a
nationwide real estate research firm with offices in Arapahoe County.

"We’re normal people; we can’t be spending a ton of money to do this,"
Herdt said.

While some parts of the house, such as the geo-exchange and photovoltaic
systems, are more expensive, Herdt said it was easy to balance the costs
because she used salvaged materials in other parts of the home.

"You won’t see granite and marble and chandeliers here. This is a very
simple way to live," Herdt said.

She got many of her supplies from ReSource 2000, a Boulder organization
that salvages old building materials and resells them for new projects.

Among the salvaged materials she used are support beams taken from a
Denver boathouse and stairway railings made from broken-down cable
spools. The wood for some of the countertops comes from bowling alley
lanes.

Herdt is even using bathroom countertops and shower doors made from
recycled plastic bottles. Detergent caps are finding new life as toothbrush
holders and cabinet handles in one upstairs bathroom.

"This is the kind of stuff you see in Dumpsters," Herdt said. "When most
people drive by a trash heap, they see trash. I’m wondering what can be
reused."

Even the paint for the house was salvaged from other projects, giving it an
eclectic mix of purple, red and blue doors. Other surfaces in the house have
been left their natural colors.

"Julee is one of those people that adopts and tests new products and helps
prepare them for entrance into the marketplace," said Kristin Shewfelt,
director of environmental programs for McStain Neighborhoods, a
Boulder-based homebuilder known for its green building practices.

McStain includes structurally engineered lumber, made from smaller trees
that grow back faster, energy-efficient appliances and windows, recycled
cellulose insulation and carpet made from recycled soft-drink bottles as
standard features in all its homes.

It also offers upgrades to bamboo or cork flooring, photovoltaic systems and
tile made from recycled windshield glass. The company can’t use some of
the products Herdt uses because they’re untested and might not hold up to
customer expectations, Shewfelt said.

Herdt hopes that, by proving the durability of the bio-based products in her
home, bigger builders can follow suit.

Right now, people who want to build ultra-green homes like The Farmhouse
must work with the handful of builders that have experience with the new
products, she said. The products are readily available from small
manufacturers, but most people don’t know they’re out there, she said.

In addition to finding somebody who’s familiar with the products, it can also
be a challenge to get the new houses approved by building inspectors who
aren’t familiar with alternative building materials, she said.

"A lot of times, we didn’t even know what the products she was using were,"
said Stuart Ford, a residential building inspector for the city of Boulder. "We
were dealing with a lot of unknowns."

But most of the unfamiliar products were finish materials rather than
structural elements that needed approval, he said.

At one point Herdt was required to alter her plans to bring the wall between
the house and the garage up to fire code.

"Stuart was very patient in working with us, and I think it will make it easier
for the next person who builds with these materials," Herdt said.

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,33%257E476121,00.html