Generally speaking building "green" is
the efficient use of our resources to create healthier homes,
protect the environment and provide long term cost savings.
What Makes a Home Green?
A green home is designed, built, renovated,
operated, or reused in an ecological and resource-efficient
manner. Green homes are designed to meet certain objectives
such as protecting occupant health; improving productivity;
using energy, water, and other resources more efficiently;
and reducing the overall impact to the environment.
What Are the Economic Benefits of Green
Homes?
A green home may cost more up front, but
save money long term through lower operating and utility
costs over the life of the home. To take advantage of this,
home builders need to incorporate the objectives at the start
of the design process to ensure maximum potential for savings.
Some benefits, such as improving occupant health, comfort,
productivity, reducing pollution and landfill waste are not
easily quantified. Consequently, they are not adequately
considered in cost analysis. For this reason, consider setting
aside a small portion of the building budget to cover differential
costs associated with less tangible green building benefits
or to cover the cost of researching and analyzing green building
options.
Even with a tight
budget, many green home measures can be incorporated with
minimal or zero increased up-front costs and they can yield
enormous savings (Environmental
Building News, 1999).
ICF - The Right Choice for Your Next Home
ICFs are basically forms for poured concrete walls, that
stay in place as a permanent part of the wall assembly. The forms, made of
foam insulation or other insulating material, are either pre-formed
interlocking blocks or separate panels connected with plastic or metal
ties. The left-in-place forms not only provide a continuous insulation and
sound barrier, but also a backing for drywall on the inside, and stucco,
lap siding or brick on the outside.
Bontrager Homes recommends and
Builds homes using
NUDURA Integated Building Technology Products.
Why Use NUDURA ICF for your next home?
Building with NUDURA Insulated Concrete
Forms allows the benefits of concrete construction to be
realized without sacrificing the aesthetics that we have
come to expect with other types of construction. Listed below
are many of the positive characteristics achieved through
the use of ICF’s.
- Energy Efficiency – Nudura ICFs consist of two panels of 2 5/8” polystyrene
panels that have a rating of R-22.5. When combined with the thermal mass of the
concrete, ICF walls have the ability to reach a performance level of R-38 or greater.
This allows the homeowner to save up to 50% on their heating and cooling.
- Comfort – Concrete homes built with Insulated Concrete Forms can provide up
to *9X greater Comfort. Outside cold can easily travel through a typical wood-framed
wall causing thermal bridging, creating uncomfortable cold spots inside your home.
NUDURA concrete homes offer superior
performance when it comes to thermal bridging, resulting in even temperatures
throughout your home with reduced drafts and cold spots.
- Durability - Compared to traditional building methods like wood or steel
framed walls, ICF’s provides much greater durability and strength. NUDURA®
Walls can better withstand Mother Nature’s worst – especially in high wind
areas that are prone to hurricanes and tornadoes,
withstanding wind speeds of up to 250mph.
- Fire Resistance – Insulated concrete forms can provide up to four times
the fire protection of a standard wood-framed wall. NUDURA® Insulated Concrete
Form walls are built with steel reinforced concrete and a non toxic fire retardant expanded polystyrene foam.
- Sound Resistance - NUDURA’s double foam insulated concrete core acts as
an effective sound barrier, filtering out unwanted noise, dampening sound
vibrations and ensuring a serene and comfortable ambience within your home.
- UP TO 2X GREATER ENERGY EFFICIENCY
- UP TO 3X GREATER SOUND RESISTANCE
- UP TO 4X GREATER FIRE RESISTANCE
- UP TO 9X MORE DURABLE - SUPERIOR STORM RESISTANCE
- Visit the NUDURA Website
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