Posts From February, 2020

How to Boost Home Performance and Durability with Foundation Vapor Protection

Contribute to Four Essential High-Performance Goals with Targeted Below-Slab Protection
How to Boost Home Performance and Durability with Foundation Vapor Protection
As a member of the EEBA community, you play a crucial role in leading the way towards constructing homes that are high-performing, healthy, and resilient. Now aligned with this objective are the self-educated homeowners and prospective buyers who are demanding high-performance homes. Because of this, builders (as well as the raters and architects who support them) are looking for product solutions that: Add value to their customers’ investments Demonstrate a core commitment to being a “responsible” builder Differentiate themselves in a competitive marketplace Our hope at Stego (and the purpose of this article) is to help provide useful support and education so that EEBA builders can better understand vapor transmission at the first side of the home - the foundation - and the role below-slab vapor barriers play in achieving high-performance goals in new homes. No, we are not talking about commodity 6 or 10-mil poly sheeting. Minimum residential code (2021 IRC... read more
 

Bringing it all Together

With a passion for the outdoors and vast experience in sustainability in the building industry, EEBA’s new CEO is ready to drive collaboration to a greater level.
Bringing it all Together
If you're looking for EEBA's new CEO, Aaron Smith, you'll likely find him in Minneapolis working on a remodeling project or playing outdoors with his family. Whether he's gardening, hiking, nordic skiing, downhill skiing, or playing hockey, his love of being outside is evident through the activities he and his wife, Jennifer, engage in with their three boys. Aaron's extensive resume includes over 20 years in construction, building products, sustainability and non-profit board leadership. He also has considerable experience in sales and business development and believes his current position with EEBA is a culmination of all of the subject matter he's been passionate about during his life. His grandfather was a builder in Minneapolis and played a pivotal role in his love for the building industry. “There's such a pride in building something,” says Smith. “My grandfather taught me early on that when you build something, it could be there forever. That stuck with me. There's... read more
 

A New Level of Enlightenment

At this year's EEBA Summit you’ll experience the Ultimate Z.E.N Home.
A New Level of Enlightenment
EEBA is proud to announce a partnership with Pro Builder and Thrive Home Builders to bring The Ultimate Z.E.N. (Zero Energy Now) Home to this year’s High Performance Home Summit. The 2400-2600 sq ft “eco-luxury” model will be built on a 53’x80’ lot and will aim for LEED Gold certification, EPA ENERGY STAR and Indoor airPLUS and healthy home standards. The project will be completely electrified and decarbonized. This model will be used for an additional 33 homes in the development. “We hope that this home, being a model for a community with the same base specifications, shows that homes like these do not need to be one-off demonstration homes but that they can be a successful home series delivered in a competitive marketplace,” says Bill Rectanus, VP of Homebuilding Operations at Thrive Home Builders. As a leader in the home building industry, Thrive Home Builders has been providing the Colorado single family home market with energy efficient homes for over 25 years. Year after... read more