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Fokus Builders, LLC
Green Builder Missoula, Montana
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Are your houses LEED certified?
Where to find our current project: 339 North Avenue West, Missoula, MT
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Are your homes LEED certified?
No. Generally, we don't use LEED or any other "green" certifications. Here's why...
To have our homes "certified," we have to do three things:
- Pay fees.
- Spend valuable time working through the certification process.
- Hire independent "verifiers" available through the certifiers.
When added up, this is an expense that our customers have to bear.
To address our customers' "green" peace of mind, Fokus Builders does do the following:
- We take the time to fully educate our customers about the green design and building techniques in their high performance homes.
- We take the time to blog the construction of every home we build with photos and explanations. Want to see the insulation? The wall framing? It's all right there on our website for everyone to see.
- We hire professional energy efficiency analysts, Energetechs, to show up and do a blower door test at two stages in the construction process to verify the tightness of each home's building envelope. Energetechs also uses an infrared sensor to gauge insulation levels and identify areas of heat loss, if any, in the building envelope. You don't have to rely on us to tell you how tight and well-insulated your home is; you can call Energetechs and they'll give it to you straight. (And so will we, of course.)
Consumers should look closely at the less rigorous green building programs and ask questions. Often, these certification programs can be politely described as "builder friendly."
The most rigorous "Green" certifications for residential building can have their place. They address a need to inform a buyer that a certain level of attention has been paid to green building techniques (ranging from energy efficiency to water conservation to proximity to public transportation) in the construction of the certified home. At Fokus Builders, we proudly feel we've taken care of that need ourselves through the careful education of our customers, the transparency of our building process, and the independent data to back it all up.
Of course, we are more than happy to go through the LEED or other "green" certification process if desired by a customer who doesn't mind the additional time and expense.
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