Two renderings of one of our newest designs..We are launching jetprefab.com in the next few weeks!
High Performance Homes: More PreFab Designs
High Performance Homes: More PreFab!!!
High Performance Homes | PreFab Prototypes
Our New Factory | Ready to PreFab
Today we began the move into our new Factory! We are launching a new line of homes: Jet PreFab . Our homes will use 100% American made products, and be built in our factory and shipped any where. Our in house design team has been designing our homes the last few months, and we are ready to bring our ideas to life.
Today we began our move in and turned on the power. Here is a slide show with some of the pictures I took this afternoon.
This is what the space looks like currently. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but can’t wait to begin building our new homes.
High Performance Homes: PreFab
American Green Home Builders visit Poughkeepsie Day School
A week or so ago, our entire team took a trip to Poughkeepsie Day School to design and build them an eco-friendly, sustainable classroom. The point of this initial trip was to come up with a design. We met with a team of Kindergarteners teamed up with 6th graders and brainstormed a bunch of ideas. This short video shows how our day went:
High Performance Homes: PreFab
American Green Home Builders Presents: Jet PreFab
We are currently in the process of creating a line of Pre Fabricated Homes. We have been designing these for quite a while, and look forward to sharing our modern designs. All of our homes are designed in-house by Glenn Callahan and Gabe Solberg.
Here is a preview of one of the homes we are working on:
All of these designs are in their early stages, but we couldn’t wait to start sharing.
Leave a comment and let us know what you think!
High Performance Home Solutions | Drainage to Daylight pt.2
This is what our finished High Performance Home Solution looked like from our original Drainage to Daylight post:
High Performance Home Solutions | Drainage to Daylight
Typically when building a home, a drainage system is necessary around the perimiter, in order to move ground water away from where the footings meet the foundation, in order to to stop water from coming in the house.
When we began excavating one of our projects, The Brody Spa, we ran into more water than usual. In this situation there were two reasons for so much ground water;
1) We were at the bottom of a mountain
2) We hit ledge at 8 ft and most of the hole was inside of a big rock with no where for it to drain so it filled with water.
We realized if we didn’t come up with a solution we would not be able to pour our footings, and consequently the foundation and rest of the house.
Our in house design team quickly came up with a fix: A two layer sub drainage system consisting of; an underslab drainage system, and a sub footing drainage system. The upper layer consists of perforated pipes at the footing level in a bed of gravel to drain the water and protect the under slab. The second and lower layer has a perforated pipe running below the footings and out to drainage to day light. This was neccessary to clear the water away and keep it out of the way so that we could pour the footings. Between both systems we made sure there would be no capillary effect or wicking of water into our slab. You can see both layers below (designed in sketch up by Glenn Callahan and Gabe Solberg):

The diagram below shows the sub footing drainage system at a pitch which takes the ground water to drainage to daylight:
This diagram shows the under slab drainage which is at the level of the footings in a bed of gravel:
There are perforated pipes running at a pitch to drainage to daylight.
After this system is installed, we then used EPDM (a type of synthetic rubber) combined with butyl tape to create a water proof barrier underneath the slab to stop wicking and any other chance of ground water getting in:
When all is said and done the water drains away from the hole and clears into drainage to daylight:

Check out part 2 to see what the drainage system looks like: Click here
What Is the Cost to Build a House?
A very common question asked in custom home construction is what is the cost to build a house. Most people believe that building green will cost much more than the conventional methods of construction. That simply is not true. Simple changes to the way we design and construct our homes can yield dramatic improvements in a home’s performance with no additional impact on the project budget. Also, many state and local governments, as well as utility companies, offer incentives for people to build green. Some incentives cover as much as 50% of the construction cost of added green elements to your home. This is happening all across the United States, and the incentives keep growing. Green home building is the way to go since you are not only helping your pockets but also protecting the earth.





























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