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What It Takes to Be a Green Home Builder

Today’s new homes reflect changing market preferences and integrate elaborate designs and consumer desires into the floor plans and construction of the homes. And successful home builders have the knowledge, organizational skills and drive to build them.

But what does it really take to build a house?

Like a CEO, a home builder relies on a number of workers to get the job done right. A home builder guides dozens of skilled artisans and professionals, including carpenters, architects, engineers, plumbers, electricians, painters and landscapers. The builder must understand all of the home’s complex systems and know enough about each contractor’s trade in order to coordinate this skilled team to build and sell a quality product.

Some home builders develop the land on which the homes are built. In this capacity, they act as the land surveyor. They look at a piece of land to determine whether it complies with zoning regulations, local planning laws and environmental restrictions, and whether it is suitable for development. The home builder studies the lot’s topography, searching for rock outcroppings, shallow depth bedrock, shallow groundwater, natural drainage sources and dense vegetation. Landscaping options and erosion control also have to be considered. Once a builder determines that a site is suitable for construction, they must navigate the permitting process.

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Geothermal Heat Pump Water Heater vs Heat Pump Water Heater

What is a geothermal heat pump water heater?

Water heating is a thermodynamic process using an energy source to heat water above its initial temperature. A geothermal water heater does exactly that… [it] utilizes the earth as a heat source to heat/cool water temperatures for your space. Your utility bills will usually cut in half by utilizing geo-thermal.


Heat Extraction

While it may be difficult to explain the technology of extracting heat from air, water or ground, the concept is easier to comprehend once one understands the principles of heat extraction and heat exchange. Consider the following:

  1. All matter contains heat. Zero degrees Kelvin/Rankine (minus 273 degrees Celsius/minus 460 degrees Farenheit) is absolute zero. This is a hypothetical, but fairly well substantiated, theory. There is nowhere in the universe where absolute zero exists. Temperatures in outer space have been found to be approximately three degrees Kelvin, which supports the theories developed by scientists.
  2. Cold is the absence of heat. Cold exists only in relative terms, and plays no part in scientific theory. While we all verbalize such expressions as “It is cold out”, to be technically correct we should say “the heat level outside is ten degrees farenheit” (which, admittedly, is pretty cold).
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Living Stone has another award-winning Parade of Homes (Asheville HBA 2012)

Living Stone Construction, Inc. Has Another Successful AHBA Parade of Homes

During the weekends of October 13-14 and October 20-21, the Asheville Home Builders Association (AHBA) held its 31st Annual Parade of Homes (POH). Every year builders all across the Asheville area show off recently constructed homes in a variety of developments and other communities for the general public to tour and enjoy. This year, Living Stone Construction (LSC) from the Black Mountain Area was the 2012 POH Featured Builder and teamed up with the Southcliff development to introduce the beautiful Alexandra Cottage to the viewers. Both weekends were a great success and approximately 1000 people toured the home.

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Living Stone Construction wins BIG at the NC State Home Builder’s Association

On Wednesday, September 26, 2012 the NCHBA held its annual Stars gala in Charlotte, North Carolina to highlight the top building companies in the state for the work they have done over the past year. Local building company Living Stone Construction was in attendance and claimed six awards throughout the evening. The list of awards, along with the trade partners Living Stone shared the awards with include: Best Radio Project (w/ Patton Property Group), Best Color Ad, Best Landscape Design Under $200,000 (w/ Steve Towe Landscape Management Systems), Best Interior Merchandising (w/ Allard & Roberts Interior Design), Best Room Renovation Under $50,000 (w/ ID.ology Interior Design), and Best Whole House Renovation Over $500,000.

The North Carolina Home Builders Association is a trade association consisting of builder and associate member firms and a network of local builder associations and chapters throughout North Carolina. Chartered in 1963, NCHBA plays an integral role in helping maintain consistently higher industry standards of conduct, quality, and ethics.

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Asheville Builder ~ Homeownership is a Key Issue

If you are among the more than 75 million Americans who own their home, or the millions more who hope to someday achieve the American dream of homeownership, then you will want to tell your candidates where you stand on critical housing issues before casting your ballot this fall.

National policy has acknowledged the importance of the home in American family life for almost a century, yet today, homeownership is under attack.

Legislative and regulatory proposals that would greatly harm home owners, home buyers, the housing market and the nation’s economy are under consideration by government policymakers. These include ongoing threats to the mortgage interest deduction, instituting a standard 20 percent downpayment on home loans, and ending the federal backstop for housing, which would make the 30-year mortgage less accessible and more expensive.

The stakes are enormous. The decisions the politicians who are elected to office this year make on these proposals could not only strip away homeownership’s priority status and obstruct the economy’s ability to recover, but also reverse the housing policies that created a thriving middle class and contributed to a century of economic progress.

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