Case Study: Mohit/Blachford Residence

 

A San Francisco Edwardian undergoes a renovation that integrates green building practices with traditional design.

“The fact that I was learning a lot about what was green and energy efficient made it an intellectually stimulating project.” —Maryam Mohit

 

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Case Study Contents:

• Overview
• Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions
• Indoor Air Quality
• Natural Resources
• Water Conservation
• Community & Living Green

 

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Project Stats

Location:	San Fransico, CA
GreenPoint Rated score:	121
Year built	1905
Original size:	3,610 square feet
New size:	4,910 square feet
Project scope:	Expand and reconfigure to accommodate contemporary family use patterns. Integrate green finishes and energy-efficient systems with original Edwardian design.
Architect:	Sutro Architects
Builder:	Larsen Builders
Interior designer:	Adeeni Design Group
GreenPoint Rater:	Kevin Beck

 

A Green Approach to Traditional Design

	House before remodel.

When Maryam Mohit and Erik Blachford bought a three-story Edwardian house on the edge of San Francisco’s Presidio in late 2007, they knew it would have to be extensively renovated before they could move in. “It had been lived in for 30 years by one owner and needed a lot of updating,” Mohit said, adding, “We have three children and needed more room for our family.”

From the start, the couple was committed to bringing environmental awareness to their remodeling decisions. “We are very passionate about environmental issues,” said Mohit. “We care about our personal role in climate change, about being part of the solution.”

Remodeling provides a unique window of opportunity to put some of those solutions into practice. “Once you’re done and the walls are closed up, there’s a certain limit to what you can do to be energy efficient and have a smaller carbon footprint,” Mohit said.

But she was concerned about how to integrate green remodeling techniques with the home’s Edwardian style. “Most of the images of green homes I had seen in magazines had a more modern aesthetic,” she said. “Our house is very traditional. I was personally committed to doing a green remodel, and I thought it would be a very interesting challenge to see if it could be done with a traditional home.”

To help achieve the integration of green building practices with traditional design, the couple hired architect Stephen Sutro, who specializes in renovating historic San Francisco homes. Sutro’s design expanded and reconfigured the three-story house to improve traffic flow, bring in more natural light and give the family more space. The home’s first floor was completely gutted, the kitchen relocated, and a load-bearing wall moved to create a bigger dining room and family room. Outside, a deck was removed, and within its footprint rose a two-story bump-out addition that includes a master bathroom on the second floor. A mudroom and laundry room were also added.

“The new layout of the house works great for our family,” Mohit says. “We use every room in the house. From an environmental standpoint, it doesn’t make sense to have rooms not being used.”

The building also underwent seismic upgrading. “It’s a much stronger house than it was,” said general contractor Dan Larsen.

Mohit is thrilled with the results. “It’s beautiful,” she said. “I really feel we achieved one of my main goals. I didn’t want people to walk in and say, ‘What a green house you have.’ I wanted them to say, ‘What a beautiful house. I can’t believe how green it is.’”

GreenPoint Rated Adds Value

Mohit and Blachford relied on GreenPoint Rated right from the start of the project, after green architect Eric Corey Freed recommended the program to them.

“We knew that we wanted to do a green remodel but we weren’t sure of the best way to go about it,” Mohit said. “We were looking for an external set of criteria to make sure we were doing everything we could and to help guide us.”

The project’s GreenPoint Rater, Kevin Beck, “was great,” Mohit said. “He was thorough and calm. He walked us through the checklist and helped us understand what each of the things were.”

The GreenPoint Rated process can be eye-opening for people who are new to building green. “One of the misconceptions I had going in was it was all about finish materials,” Mohit said. “When I looked at the GreenPoint Rated checklist, only about a fifth of the items were finish materials. Four-fifths was behind the scenes. GreenPoint Rated helped me understand how a house works and it helped me with understanding budgeting for the project.”

“Getting points wasn’t our goal,” she added. “Our goal was to do everything that was reasonable for our location.”

When it comes to remodeling older homes, “there isn’t a one-size-fits-all” way to build green, said builder Dan Larsen. “Some points would not relate to what we were doing, or cost too much or didn’t make sense” for this project. “We had to go through an editing process on what we could do relative to physicality, budget, timing, and research required. This project had lots of layers of complexity.”

“The complexity was fun for me,” Mohit said. “The fact that I was learning a lot about what was green and energy efficient made it an intellectually stimulating project.”

Working their way through the GreenPoint Rated checklist was an educational experience for the entire team. “Now that we’ve done them all, it seems so obvious but when we were starting the project and going through the checklist, there were a lot of things we hadn’t considered,” said Mohit.

Larsen agrees. “Not that we’ve done it,” he said, “it seems like the natural course.”

Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Some of steps taken to improve the home’s energy efficiency were effortless, while others required a greater investment of time and money. Choosing Energy Star appliances “was super easy to do,” Mohit said. “I can’t think of any possible reason not to do Energy Star appliances.”

	Click photos for larger view.

Larsen made sure the home was well insulated with formaldehyde-free insulation; he also insulated all the hot water pipes. New skylights were added and energy-efficient windows installed. “There’s so much natural light in the house now that wasn’t there before,” Mohit said. “We hardly ever have to turn on lights during the day.”

At night, the kitchen is illuminated with energy-efficient LED lights. Trying to get up-to-date information on efficient lighting options was challenging, Larsen said.

	Click photos for larger view.

“There was fresh information coming out every month or so. We felt very experimental on that.” Larsen credits the project’s interior designer, Claudia Juestel, for helping them sort out the complex lighting decisions. Mohit is pleased with the kitchen’s LED lights. Besides being efficient, “the lighting quality is so nice, and they’re dimmable. It looks lovely,” she said.

A new energy-efficient boiler provides heat for both domestic hot water and the home’s new radiant heating system. On the roof, a 2.4-kilowatt photovoltaic system offsets much of the household’s electricity use, further reducing their carbon footprint.

Indoor Air Quality

To protect indoor air quality, Mohit specified that low-VOC paints be used throughout the home. “There’s no limit to the color of low-VOC paints,” she said. “I can’t think of a single reason not to use it.” To reduce the exposure of construction workers and the family to carcinogenic formaldehyde, Larsen used formaldehyde-free insulation, as well as plywood and medium-density fiberboard (MDF) with no added formaldehyde.

In the bathrooms, exhaust fans with timers automatically remove moisture and provide ventilation.

Mohit’s favorite healthy home feature is the mudroom, which “makes it so easy not to track in contaminants,” she said. “It’s been a no-shoe house since we built the mudroom.”

 

Resource Conservation

Reducing waste

In the first phase of the renovation, Larsen brought in The Reuse People, an organization that deconstructs buildings and sells any usable components. “That was great,” he said. “They took virtually everything we wanted out of there.”

	Click photos for larger view.

When Larsen’s team removed the main deck to make way for the addition, they stacked the deck boards and reused them later when rebuilding the third-floor deck.

“We cut the redwood into a particular length and assembled them on pallets,” he explained. “We ran the material through a planer to get a nice clean surface, and reshaped them into a checkerboard deck. I think it worked well.”

Green Materials

When it came to choosing finishes, Mohit didn’t waste time looking at materials that weren’t green. “I tried to only look at things that were within my green filter,” she said. Finding environmentally friendly products “adds time, but they are out there. I encouraged the people who were working with me to find sources. There was a little bit of extra effort. You can’t just go down to the showroom and say, ‘Give me one of those.’”

	Click photos for larger view.

Larsen matched original molding with new molding custom-made from Forest Stewardship Council–certified wood. For the kitchen countertops, Mohit chose FSC-certified wood and stainless steel. “We have three kids and we’re pretty tough on a kitchen. The stainless steel is so durable and so indestructible, and it has 60 percent recycled content. It looks awesome and it’s easy to take care of.”

All the new concrete for the foundations, driveway and sidewalks contains a high volume of flyash, a byproduct of burning coal to generate electricity. Using flyash in concrete keeps it out of landfills. It also reduces greenhouse gas emissions associated with cement production because the flyash takes the place of some of the portland cement that normally goes into concrete.

Within the building trades, misconceptions linger about using certain green products such as high volume flyash. “There was a great deal of fear by my concrete pumpers and finishers,” Larsen said. “There were lots of anecdotal stories about how bad the mix was going to be, that it would take forever to finish, that it would crack early, that it would crack late. In each and every case, there was never a problem with the mix in the way it set up, the way it finished, or the way it looks.”

Water Conservation

To reduce water use, Mohit chose a water-efficient dishwasher and clothes washer, and dual-flush toilets. An on-demand recirculation control pump reduces time spent waiting for hot water at the faucets.

	Click photos for larger view.

One of Mohit’s favorite features is a kitchen faucet that’s operated with a foot pedal. “The kids can’t leave the water on,” she said. “My two year old can get a glass of water and walk away, and the water shuts off.”

 

 

Community & Living Green

The home’s urban setting earned it GreenPoint Rated points. The neighborhood is well served by public transit, and shops, restaurants, neighborhood services and other amenities are in easy walking and bicycling range.

Project Resources

Larsen Builders: www.larsenbuilders.com

Sutro Architects: www.sutroarchitects.com

Adeeni Design Group: www.adeenidesigngroup.com

Organic Architect (green building consultant): www.organicarchitect.com

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