When I decided to rebuild my home at The Evergreen Institute in east-central Missouri, which as many readers know, burned in a fire in January 2011, I had to make some decisions before I could begin work with my architect, James Plagmann of HumaNature Architecture.
The first decision was whether I would retain the existing foundation or start anew. In my case, the choice was made by the fire and the
building department. As it turns out, the south wall of the foundation had been so badly damaged in the fire that it had to go. That was the building department’s recommendation.
Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com if you have a green property that needs appraising.
To create a net zero energy home, I knew I had to pour on the insulation. So, I decided to build with insulated concrete forms to achieve an R value of around 30. I also decided to place 5 inches of extruded polystyrene under the slab to achieve an R-value of around 30. At this writing, we’ve already poured the foundation walls.
Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/blogs/blog.aspx?blogid=1500&blogmonth=6&blogyear=2012#ixzz1y9wNNlUE
Disclaimer: for information and entertainment purposes
Green Real Estate Appraiser 