Glavin Homes Awarded Emerald Level at Parade of Homes

Lakeview Prairie Home

The Parade of Homes may be over for now, but the public response has been overwhelmingly positive for our Lakeview Prairie home. Our biggest challenge was to build a home without duplicating a larger version of what we normally do, and we accomplished this in spades.

Our Lakeview Prairie certified green home was unique to the show. With a one-of-a-kind design featuring a low-pitched roof, cantilevered overhangs, and gorgeous natural stone, it was the only house to reach the National Green Building Standard’s Emerald level. Our original goal was to achieve Gold level, but after completion of the house, third party testing, and verification, the house actually attained the Emerald level.

So what does this mean for the homeowner? Emerald-level houses have cleaner air than most new houses because of a Heat Recovery Ventilator, a unique feature manufactured by Lifebreath. It uses 65 percent less energy than an existing house, 55 percent less than a code-built house, and 40 percent less than an Energy Star certified house.

About the NW Natural Parade of Homes

The Parade of Homes is an annual, family-friendly event that showcases some of the finest homes in the Pacific Northwest. Sponsored by NW Natural®, the event featured eight luxurious homes and ran from July 11 to July 27 at Erickson Farms in Felida, a beautiful district located in West Vancouver off Interstate 5. Some of the event’s builders included Pacific Lifestyle Homes, JB Homes, and (of course) Glavin Homes.

According to the Building Industry Association (BIA) of Clark County, an organization dedicated to protecting the building industry, the number of visitors at the 2014 Parade of Homes nearly doubled over last year, and with so many attractions it’s easy to see why. Visitors enjoyed delicious food, fun activities, and a tour of Vancouver’s most impressive homes, not to mention that some took advantage of promotional “half-priced” days.

At Glavin Homes, we are honored to participate in this year’s Parade of Homes and we look forward to next year!

WHY THE BLUE HOUSE?

Blue Rigid Foam Board House

Why is our house blue? This blue rigid foam board is one of the many advanced energy features that Glavin Homes will be presenting in the 2014 NW Natural Parade of Homes. Besides the R21 in the walls this rigid board adds an additional R5 around the entire exterior of the house. Did you know that every 2X6 only has an R5 insulating property? This means that at the exterior walls where there is a stud, beam, corner, or any piece of wood the effective R-value at this point is R5. Most houses have a stud every 16″, plus all the extra wood for other purposes. This means that a standard code house, that is supposed to be R21, has an effective R-value of R11 to R13. By putting R5, around the entire exterior of the house, the effective R value of the walls is increased, approximately, by a whopping 28% to 33%! This is just one of the things that Glavin Homes is doing. Stay tuned for more.