John Bare
The Zero Home near Salt Lake City is one of the first production…
For optimized insulation capacity and materials savings, Garbett employs advanced techniques that include 24 inches o.c. framing. This reduces the use of wood and leaves more room for insulation, Oehlerking says. Garbett also utilizes open-corner framing that requires two studs instead of three for exterior corners. These techniques increase exterior wall insulation by 10 percent and eliminate about 100 studs in a 2,000-square-foot dwelling.
“Those are 100 studs we don’t have to pay for,” says Oehlerking. “We don’t like to overframe because it’s nothing but a thermal bridge.”
The builder provides its framing subcontractors with detailed plans and requires them to cut to zero waste. “We told them we’d only pay for the amount of product we used,” he says. “It eliminated construction waste and saved a ton of money.”
LESSONS LEARNED
Garbett runs a tight ship on scheduling and was one of the first builders in the region to employ the non-market-driven evenflow system for construction management. “We say we’re going to build X amount of homes regardless of the market, and our subs know they can rely on that schedule,” Oehlerking says. “We leverage this predictable scheduling system to obtain better pricing and faster construction times.”
Now that the project is complete, the lesson learned from its construction is that an affordable net-zero home requires trade-offs and compromises to offset the expense of sustainable systems and products, Oehlerking notes. It’s a formula that the company has refined over the years, and energy-conscious buyers are taking notice. The Zero Home, which was listed for $649,900, is under contract to a Salt Lake City couple who was enticed by its high-tech features and ultra-low energy bills, says sales manager Dan Mooy.
“We have spent hours there just talking about the benefits of owning this high-performance home,” he says. “They have returned every few days to show family and friends, and just to hang out.”
Learn more about markets featured in this article: Salt Lake City, UT.
