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HBA HOME BUILDING NEWS
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BUILDING YOUR BUSINESS
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FEBRUARY, 2013
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HBApdx.org
EcoVative becomes even more
relevant for today’s housing in-
dustry as it rebuilds itself as the
premier business to business high
performance and construction in-
novations conference: Build Right.
This years’ EcoVative Build Right
conference has expanded to in-
clude a broader range of business
and industry speakers to help you
maximize your earning potential
through cutting-edge construc-
tion techniques, innovative prod-
ucts and increased knowledge of
the latest business best practices
relevant to high performance
building. Exciting speakers, plus
an open and relaxed atmosphere
allows sponsors, exhibitors and
attendees the chance to network
while potentially earning educa-
tion CEUs.
Join us at EcoVative Build Right
this year and check out these ex-
citing speakers:
■
Home Performance Council
presents:
Challenges, Trade off’s
and Incentives for Designing for
Energy Efficient Remodels
Learn how to sell energy effi-
ciency to your clients and make
more money on every job. An-
drew has the experience of work-
ing with Remodeler and Home
Performance Contractor, Green
Hammer for four years and now
works on the existing homes pro-
gram for Energy Trust of Oregon.
He will talk about how to “upsell”
comfort to your clients, how to
tier and structure current and
future projects with efficiency
upgrades to encourage repeat
customers andmaximize comfort.
■
Mark LaLiberte of Building
Knowledge Group presents
:
Remodeling Whole House as A
System
If you have been about houses
becoming too tight and unsafe
– then this class will help you
move past this problem. Mark will
discuss compressive and deep
energy retrofits from a building
science perspective. If you re-
place the windows, upgrade the
insulation and air seal an existing
home – what kind of ventilation is
then required? What if you clients
budget only allows for partial up-
grades – what trade-offs provide
the most value in dollars and
comfort? Mark will be addressing
these questions and more in this
session.
■
Local Builders and
Remodelers share:
Fear Not! –
Do What I Say Not as I Did
This session invites five expe-
rienced builders and remodel-
ers from around the region talk
about the new technologies they
use and what mistakes they made
when first using them. Some new
products like Spray Foam can be
intimidating. What does a builder
or remodeler need to know be-
fore using this product on their
building project? How can one
use OSB without creating a mold
and liability problem 5 years
down the road? This session will
be a candid interactive, learning
experience that will encourage
audience input that will hopefully
save you time and money on your
next job.
■
Bill Joseph of Dunn Carney
Allen Higgins & Tongue LLP:
Reduce Homeowner Litigation:
Common Sense Business Tools for
Mitigating Losses
This program will discuss how
to implement techniques to re-
duce homeowner litigation by
focusing on identifying potential
loss exposures and managing
risks associated with your con-
tracting, construction, sales and
warranty processes. Emphasis will
be on avoiding disputes, solving
disputes before they rise to the
level of litigation and minimiz-
ing the exposure for losses when
litigation is inevitable. This will
be an interactive session that will
encourage questions and discuss
topics as a group.
Topics will include:
• homeowner associations and
planned communities,
• contract provisions related to
dispute resolution and rem-
edies,
• representations and warranties
in the sales and marketing pro-
cesses,
• working with difficult subcon-
tractors, suppliers and custom-
ers, and
• implementing loss mitigation
techniques in the construction,
customer service and warranty
processes
• Alternative dispute resolution
• Statutory right to repair pro-
cesses
■
How to Make an ADU
Profitable
This session will address the
title’s questions for new homes
and existing homes. If any of your
projects have space for an extra
room under 800SF, you are going
to want to come sit in this class.
ADU’s can be basements, garages
or stand-alone rooms. A financ-
ing expert will discuss financing
opportunities for each of these,
an expert appraiser will discuss
potential future appraisal values
on all variations of permitted
ADU’s and a successful builder
will discuss the ROI and the incen-
tives and waivers available within
the Portland Metro area for build-
ing an ADU of any shape.
■
Designing for Pocket
Neighborhoods and
Small Home Lifestyles
This panel of architects and
designers will show examples of
lifestyle efficiencies and trade-
offs for living a big life in a smaller
space. They will talk about the
cost benefits, the cultural benefits
and the design benefits of plan-
ning smaller homes.
■
Acronym-ology of High
Performance Building
Not sure who ETO is or what
OSB stands for? Come to this
session for a down and dirty run
through of the industry’s acro-
nyms. This class will also briefly
cover all the green building cer-
tificates and certifications that a
building can earn such as LEED,
EAI, EPS and HERS and how they
all slightly differ from each other.
■
George Tsongas, private
consulting engineer and
Professor Emeritus of
Mechanical Engineering at
Portland State University:
Damage in Residential Walls
fromWater Intrusion Caused by
Construction Defects
Learn from engineer and build-
ing scientist, George Tsongas,
who has investigated numerous
building failures relating to con-
struction defects and resultant
water intrusion in residential
walls, as he offers an enlighten-
ing overview of such problems
in housing in the Pacific North-
west. George will explore the
main types of moisture-related
damage that occur in wood-
frame construction residential
walls with wood-based and other
cladding, including waviness and
buckling of siding, siding swell-
ing, decay of wall materials, and
mold in walls. He will discuss
how, where, and why water gets
into siding and walls, why the
various types of damage occur,
key construction errors, and wall
locations that are responsible for
most customer’s complaints and
lawsuit. He will conclude with
recommendations for specific ap-
proaches on how to best avoid
wall moisture problems and any
associated litigation.
■
Dan DelMain of UMBRELLA
Web Solutions:
Networking and
Social Media
Do you attend business net-
working events and mixers to at-
tain clients? Do you know whichs-
Social media platforms (Face-
book, Twitter, Pinterest, Houzz,
Google+) are most widely used by
the building industry and which
ones are most effective for build-
ing business? Are you finding
business opportunities through
these activities?
In this seminar, we will discuss
how to leverage your activities in
networking and social media to
attract new clients, bring back ex-
isting clients and to create power
partners that can provide ongo-
ing referrals of new clients to your
business. We will explore time
management techniques, discuss
which social media platforms are
most important to your business
and show you how to measure
social media ROI. Networking in
conjunction with social media
can take your business to the next
level of success. We want to show
you how.
■
2013 Portland Housing
Update
This “mid-year” housing update
will focus on market activity, lot
availability, financing and ap-
praisals to help builders, develop-
ers and their sales representatives
better understand the trend pro-
jections for the rest of the year as
well as the next couple of years.
The session will focus on the Port-
land Metro region as well as pro-
vide some sub-regional perspec-
tives.
■
Builder Forum on Housing
Affordability (with Elected
Officials)
This Forum is geared towards
dealing with issues that are affect-
ing housing affordability and pro-
viding feedback to invited elected
officials on ways jurisdictions can
help builders address affordabil-
ity impacts. Several areas will be
covered, including cost/value of
green building, impacts of permit
approval timeframes, and various
regulatory policies. This Forum is
free to all HBA builder members
and elected officials.
HBA
PDX
.
ORG
Sustain
Ability
GREEN & SUSTAINABLE BUILDING, DEVELOPMENT & EDUCATION •
FEBRUARY, 2013
Since its debut at the 2009 Ulti-
mate Open House Tour, EPS
TM
has
gained considerable traction as
a valuable tool both for builders
and buyers focusing on energy-
efficient homes. EPS is an energy
performance score designed by
Energy Trust of Oregon to quan-
tify and compare homes based
on their overall efficiency. To date,
more than 2800 homes have re-
ceived an EPS, including over 1100
in the past year alone.
Arbor Custom Homes is one
of many area builders embrac-
ing EPS as a way to market high-
performance homes. Over the
past year, the company has built
150 new homes, almost all of
them receiving an EPS. “Nearly
100 percent of our homes in 2012
received an EPS and we are very
proud of our performance,” said
chief operating officer Brad Hos-
mar. “We like EPS from the stand-
point that it is easy to relay to po-
tential buyers the comparison of
our homes’ performance to that
of our competition.”
For buyers, EPS helps clarify the
home search by using real-world
numbers to paint a detailed pic-
ture of each home’s energy use,
estimated utility costs and car-
bon footprint. Kelly Asmus, Direc-
tor of Marketing at Renaissance
Homes explains the advantage:
“Consumers are getting very
savvy about energy. We believe
consumers genuinely see the
benefits of saving energy both as
responsible citizens of the planet
and for pocketbook savings. An
EPS serves both of these purposes
and shows consumers that, as the
builder, we took the time, energy
and effort to carefully select prod-
ucts that will enhance the livabil-
ity and efficiency of the home.”
2012 was a very strong year for
EPS, with more than 1100 newly
built EPS homes accounting for
an impressive 24 percent market
share. Having a trusted andwidely
accepted rating system for high-
efficiency homes goes a long way
in increasing their ever-growing
popularity. With EPS, buyers can
see the benefits of these homes
more clearly, while builders have
the added support they need to
make energy efficiency a stan-
dard part of the building process.
Get to know EPS
Energy Trust offers cash incen-
tives and a host of resources to
builders of high-efficiency homes
that exceed Oregon code and
qualify for an EPS. Get started and
discover the full benefits of EPS at
www.energytrust.org/nhresources
or call Energy Trust’s trade ally
coordinator at (877) 283-0698,
option 1.
ProgramManagement
Contract transition begins
Starting in late Fall, the Program
Management Contract for Energy
Trust of Oregon’s New Homes
program and residential services
in NW Natural’s Washington ter-
ritory is being transitioned from
PECI to Fluid. Beginning January
1, 2013, Fluid will provide program
support and marketing services
for trade allies and other contrac-
tors. PECI remains the Program
Management Contractor for the
Oregon New Homes program.
Fluid and PECI will continue work-
ing together to ensure a smooth
transition.
For more info, contact the Wash-
ington New Homes trade ally team
at (866) 365-3526.
EPS scores big with builders as sales tool, plus incentives
This year’s EcoVative Build Right speakers
EcoVative
Build Right
Conference:
Thursday, April 18th, 2013
7:30 a.m.-6:00 p.m.
Holiday Inn, Portland South
25425 SW 95th Street,
Wilsonville, OR
Early Exhibitor Registration
for only $495 until February 15!
Contact Shaina at
(503) 684-1880 for exhibitor
and sponsor opportunities
today.