Sustainable Building Practices Find Home In Long Beach House

By Carla M. Collado
Staff Writer

In just a few weeks, Samuale Roger and Judy Barden plan to move into their new, environmentally friendly, 1,750-square-foot home — which also is set to become Long Beach’s first “all-green” residential building.

The couple demolished their old, 720-square-foot house last summer to make way for a Structural Insulated Panel (SIP) home near Termino Avenue and 10th Street. SIPs consist of an expanded polystyrene foam core (similar to what keeps drinks warm in a foam coffee cup and cold in a cooler) sandwiched between sheets of oriented strand board. They are much easier to install than traditional “stick” frames — in fact, it took Roger and her crew of three workers just five days to put up the panels at the start of construction in August 2007.

The two-story home is now about 95% finished; its floors still need sealing, outside siding still needs to go up and landscaping will be last. But when it’s done, the house will have three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, a kitchen, breakfast nook, living room, formal dining room and about 1,300 square feet of wrap-around balconies on both floors. There’s also a 300-square-foot studio loft adjacent to it with its own 400 or so square feet of decking, located above a three-car garage.

“Oh my god, I love it,” Roger said of her house.

Roger and Barden decided last year to design and build their new home in part to accommodate their growing number of grandchildren. However, they also wanted their home to be as environmentally friendly as possible.

“I think people are starting to understand the impact we have on our environment,” Roger said. “It’s not up to everybody else (to make changes), it’s up to us.”

The house features dual pane windows, low-flow toilets, reclaimed bathtubs, all Energy Star appliances (including an HVAC system that uses Freon and Puron), a gas fireplace and no-VOC (volatile organic compounds) paints. Roger installed foot pedals on the kitchen sink to save on water, and all the kitchen cabinets are solid-wood (so they don’t emit VOCs like pressed-wood ones). All the light bulbs in the house also are fluorescent, and are controlled by sensors that turn off the lights in each room when the room’s been empty for more than three minutes.

Roger also chose to use reclaimed Cajun Cypress for the floors — she’s originally from Louisiana — which is rot-resistant and termite resistant, she explained. For the sidings, she chose to install cement fiberboard siding (Hardie Plank).

The SIPs not only make the house virtually soundproof, but they also will help keep the house warm and allow the couple to save on energy costs. (The roof panels are 8 1/2 inches thick and the wall panels are 6 3/4 inches thick.) Roger said she expects to spend no more than $40-$55 monthly on electricity, versus the $80 monthly bills she used to get with her old house. She said they also hope to add eight to 10 small solar panels on the roof in about six months to help with energy costs.

In addition, they plan to install a water catch system to water their yard and native plant garden. Short-term plans for landscaping include planting drought-tolerant and native plants — Roger plans to ask her friends to bring plants to their housewarming party at the end of the month to help them get started.

When all is said and done, the couple will have spent roughly $300,000 on their new home. Roger said they tried to buy reclaimed furnishings and focused on buying them locally (except for the SIPs, which came from Canada and the Cajun Cypress flooring which came from Louisiana).

“We’re doing this virtually on one income,” she said. “It can be done. You’ve got to be tough with your budget.”

For people who don’t have the budget but still want to “green” their homes, Roger suggested starting with small changes: switching to fluorescent light bulbs, upgrading water heaters, monitoring use of water on lawns, planting at least 50% native plants and sealing or replacing windows. But she still pointed out the benefits to residents of building “all-green” SIP homes, such as quicker construction times and increased resale values.

“I think they’ll have a much more comfortable house,” Roger said. “(And) it’s going to be better for the environment in the long-run.”

Asked if she has any other plans to make her new house more “green” down the road, Roger said “I don’t think I could make it more green.”

The couple’s home already is on its way to receiving a Platinum rating through the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system.

Roger also recently became a distributor for Real Western Homes — which helped her design her new house — and InsulSpan (an SIP manufacturer), and already has two new SIP homes for San Bernardino customers in the works.

For now, she said she’s anxious to move into her new home at the end of the month. As she admired the nearly finished house, she said she knew exactly what she will be putting out on the large balconies: “rocking chairs, ceiling fans and myself.”

To learn more about the home, visit www.greenonmayfield.com-a.googlepages.com/ourhouse.