Using a Greener Stucco
Some stuccos are greener than others and we’re just wrapping up work with one of the most sustainable stuccos available. If you’ve been following the Desert Rain project, you know that every material that goes into the construction of this home has been carefully chosen. The exterior stucco is no exception. Lower Environmental Impact While [...]
Building Your Dream Home
When you decide you’re ready to live in your dream home there are so many factors to consider. Where should it be? What should it look like? How should it be built? How much will it cost? Etc. You may decide to purchase a new home, find an older home and remodel it, or have [...]
Green Building: Understanding the Certifications
Green Building is more than trendy phrase, it’s a huge movement in the construction industry for both residential and commercial buildings. But the term “green” can mean different things to different people. For some, green defines the way a building performs after it’s constructed. Others are concerned with the building process itself – where materials [...]
Certified Sustainable Home Professional
Timberline Construction is pleased to announce that James Fagan has received the Sustainable Homes Professional (SHP) certification from the Earth Advantage Institute®. This certification enhances our company’s growing experience with a variety of green building techniques and is a testament to our dedication to building sustainable and healthy homes. Green? A little or a lot. [...]
Desert Rain Garners More Media Attention
The latest in a series of Bend Bulletin articles chronicling the Desert Rain project, this article gives a brief overview of project parameters as well as insight in to some of the methodology behind the project.
Using Fly Ash: Greener Concrete
The foundation is well underway at Desert Rain, the Living Building Challenge home we are building in one of Bend, Oregon’s older neighborhoods. At every step of the way, this project involves careful consideration of the materials used, where they come from, how they are manufactured, how they will perform, and how they will [...]
Desert Rain: the first in Central Oregon to use Juniper as an Alternative to Pressure Treated Lumber
We have been working closely with Parr Lumber, in Bend, to identify and source an alternative to Pressure Treated (PT) Lumber for the Desert Rain Project. This Living Building Challenge project has pushed us and out suppliers to look at every aspect of building in a new way. Traditionally, PT is used for under-floor framing (areas [...]
What if every single act of design and construction made the world a better place?
We were so taken by Paul McGinnis’s discussion of the Living Building Challenge that we wanted to share some excerpts from his recent post on The New York Green Advocate: ….engaging the broader building industry in the deep conversations required to truly understand how to solve problems rather than shift them… What’s appealing about the Living [...]
Blower Door Test: Excellent Result!
We recently had the Shevlin Home tested to show that it is an energy efficient, healthy and resource-wise home. The testing was done through the Earth Advantage program and received an excellent result on one of the tests which helps determine a home’s airtightness. These are several reasons for establishing the proper building tightness: * Reducing energy [...]
Update: Reclaiming the Potato Barn
The potato barn wood reclamation project has been a slow but steady process. As more of the wood is revealed, we able to better assess the product and the appropriate applications for it. For now, we’ve identified the floor joists from the barn as potential trusses and rafters in the new home. There is also a considerable quantity [...]
Reclaiming Lumber & Timbers from a Prineville Potato Barn
We recently visited an old potato barn in Central Oregon with the hopes of reclaiming lumber and large timbers. The barn owner plans to tear down the structure because it is in disrepair and is a safety concern and a liability. Our hope is to save the douglas fir and ponderosa pine for structural and [...]
LBC – the Most Stringent Green Building Standard
This article from EcoHome highlights some of the challenges that our Desert Rain team faces in designing, sourcing, and eventually building this ultra green home in Bend. Living Buildings By: Rick Schwolsky When the Cascadia Green Building Council launched its Living Building Challenge (LBC) program in 2006, its certification requirements were unofficially billed as “beyond LEED.” [...]
Super-green Home Being Downsized
Bend couple still seeks to build self-sustaining green home by Kate Ramsayer/ the Bulletin Editor’s note: Tom Elliott and Barbara Scott invited The Bulletin to follow their green-building project from start to finish, to share their goals, decisions, costs, concerns, problems and achievements, and to be an open book on what it takes to build [...]
SIPs- an Amazing Building System
The Shevlin House incorporates a highly energy efficient and green building system – SIPs (Structural Insulated Panels) and they are being installed today! SIPs are one of the most airtight and well insulated building systems available- using less energy to heat and cool, allowing for better control over indoor environmental conditions, and reduce construction waste. Each SIP is [...]
Their Green Devotion is Admirable
Bend homeowners work — and pay — to make their home eco-friendly By John Stearns business editor / The Bulletin Published: November 07. 2010 4:00AM PST Some people probably question the money Tom Elliott and Barbara Scott are spending to create the greenest home possible in Bend — almost $270,000 before construction has even begun. The Bulletin [...]
Green Home Costs, Challenges Add Up
But Bend couple is not giving up on building extremely green home By Kate Ramsayer / The Bulletin Published: November 01. 2010 4:00AM PST Editor’s note: Tom Elliott and Barbara Scott invited The Bulletin to follow their green-building project from start to finish to share their goals, decisions, costs, concerns, problems and achievements, and to be an open [...]
Ghost Wood Siding
Ghost Wood siding is being installed as an alternative wood product to reclaimed wood and barn wood. Ghost Wood is a product that resembles reclaimed wood, while preserving our historic monuments – utilizing dead standing timber and preserving our Ghost Towns.
Ground Source Heat
Moore Climate Control is installing the ground loop tubing for the Geothermal Heat Pump System with the help of our excavator McKernan Enterprises. Ground source heat is a central heating and/or cooling system that pumps heat to or from the ground. It uses the earth as a heat source (in the winter) or a heat sink (in [...]
Bend Couple is Aspiring to Harness the Wind
by Kate Ramsayer / The Bend Bulletin The roof of the super-efficient greenhouse Tom Elliott and Barbara Scott are designing is slated to be covered in solar panels to produce electricity. But the Bend couple is hoping to take onsite energy production on the northwest Bend property one step further. They’re proposing to install two vertical wind turbines to [...]
A Materially Different Home
Before a Bend couple can start building their ultra-green home, they need theright materials – and finding them is a challenge Editors note: Tom Elliott and Barbara Scott invited The Bulletin to follow their building project — to build the greenest home possible — from start to finish to share their goals, decisions, costs, concerns, problems [...]
Stacking ICF
The ICF is being ‘stacked’ and the form of the house is becoming apparent. These large, hollow blocks are stacked and filled with reinforcing bar and concrete. Homes built with ICF exterior walls require an estimated 44% less energy to heat and 32% less energy to cool than comparable frame houses.
Green Methodology
Timberline Construction of Bend is a member of the US Green Building Council, a participant in Energy Star and Earth Advantage programs, we have an Earth Advantage® certified Sustainable Home Professional on our staff, and we are actively working to implement LEED principals in our building practices. In recent years, we have had increased opportunities to [...]
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