Ask a Sustainable Builder

The Guest:

Dan Kolbert is the owner of Kolbert Building, a small, longtime building contractor in Portland, Maine.

Dan has written for various trade publications, including Fine Homebuilding magazine, and for the past 10 years has been moderator of the original Building Science Discussion Group in Portland, Maine, where the Pretty Good House idea originated. Be sure to watch for the upcoming book he is co-authoring, to be published in 2022.

Topics:

• The house as a system
• Upcoming book with co-authors Emily Mottram, Michael Maines, Chris Briley
• Energy efficiency in historic home renovation
• Energy concerns in finishing an attic
• Why combine insulating, air sealing and ventilation
• Durability and adaptability as part of sustainability
• Insulating foundations for energy, health and carbon debt

Links:

Tom Ricciardelli – Recycled and recyclable flooring. One company’s journey creating a quality product from nearly 100% recycled materials and paying to recycle it again.

Tom Ricciardelli is President and CEO of SelecTech, Inc., a flooring manufacturer dedicated to using recycled materials and creating products that are, in turn, recyclable. He is also the Chairman of the Flooring Committee at EOS/ESD Association Inc. which works on furthering electrostatic containment in flooring.

Located in Avon, MA in the Greater Boston area, SelecTech is most known for their specialty commercial flooring that solves industry problems. One product is StaticStop. They also have a unique residential product, Place N Go. It is made with a resilient recycled plastic that installs easily over a variety of problem subfloors, resists moisture, is long-lasting and is recyclable at the end of its life.

Topics:

· Place N Go product, what it is and how to use it

· The company’s path from their initial vision to their current mission

· The wider scope of SelecTech in problem solving for commercial uses

Links:

Emily Mottram, of Mottram Architecture in Cumberland Maine, is an Architect and Building Science Consultant. Her primary focus is on healthy, durable and efficient home design. She believes in high performance building envelopes, low carbon structures, flexible living spaces, daylight planning design, and creating spaces that inspire people to go out and do the things they love.

A graduate of Penn State with a BARCH, she worked for firms in DC and Maine prior to founding Mottram Architecture in 2009. She is licensed in Maine, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania. 

Emily is a moderator for the BS* & Beer Show (*Building Science), has her own building science podcast E3 Energy and Efficiency with Emily and has been featured in Decor Maine, Maine Homes by Downeast, Green & Healthy Homes Maine and Maine Home + Design.

Topics: 

• Journey from hands on learning to architect to sustainable architecture

• Architecture and building science, a powerful combination

• Energy — the extra dimension in planning for comfort

• Understanding building science for healthy indoor air quality 

• Reducing square footage by designing for how each client lives 

• Improving energy performance for renovation while minimizing your carbon footprint

Links:

Michael Maines

With a BS in Engineering from Tufts University, a minor in Architectural Studies and an early interest in building natural, expressive homes, Mike has worked as a carpenter, fine woodworker, contractor, project manager, drafter and as operations manager for one of the premiere Passive House builders in the US where he earned the designation Passive House Consultant. In 2015 he started his own firm, Michael Maines Residential Design.

Mike understands that not every client is interested in building a certified Passive House, so he works with them to find a balance of efficiency and cost, while making sure that the home or renovation is beautiful, functional and healthy for its occupants and the environment. He works all over Maine and New England, and sometimes beyond, using the advantages of digital communication wherever possible.

As contributing editor to Fine Homebuilding and Green Home Advisor, co-creator of Pretty Good House principles and the BS* & Beer (*building science) show which has up to 600 viewers a week, you might say Mike knows quite a bit. More importantly he shares his knowledge freely everywhere as he does with us in this podcast.

Topics:

• A new project using concepts from the Earthship modified for New England
• The Pretty Good House alternative to Passive House, LEED and Living Building Challenge
• The BS* & Beer Show (*building science)
• What questions to ask of a green builder to make sure they know what they are doing
• Thinking about cost and benefit of renovations

Links:

John Deans

For almost a decade John Deans was an organizer and campaigner for environmental and progressive causes, including a long stint at Greenpeace USA.  He loved fighting the good fight, but found himself increasingly chained to a laptop and cell phone. Yearning to breathe fresh air again and work with his hands, he joined Emerald Builders located in Bowdoinham, Maine in 2017.

At Emerald, John works as a Carpenter and as their Marketing Director promoting their business and ideas about sustainability. What he likes about his job: “There is magic in the process of joining material together to make something functional and beautiful, and I love getting to be a wizard-in-training every day.”

Outside of Emerald Builders, John hangs with his favorite person and wife Liia, playing board games, going on outdoor adventures, and working on their little old farmhouse in Bowdoinham. They also serve the sweetest dog in the world, Odin, and most talkative cat, Gambit.

Topics

• A triple bottom line company: People, Planet, Profit
• What does the word sustainable really mean?
• High performance building and building science
• Life cycle approach — energy efficiency is only part of the equation
• What is embodied carbon?
• The issue of concrete and foam
• Alternative to foam
• How to think about the cost of a sustainably built home

Links