Because stormwater runoff is a bad thing (moving water with pesticides, fertilizer and general trash into the sewer system, local lakes and streams), LEED SS4.2 values permeability - meaning it’s a good thing for the rainwater falling on your property to soak into your property and not run into your neighbors yard or into the street.

LEED provides a graduated point system that ends with 4 points for 100% permeability.  Keep in mind that 100% permeability doesn’t mean you can have -0- concrete.  Rather the Rating System states that you have to have features that direct water falling on the impermeable areas to features designed to capture the water and direct it to an area where the water will be absorbed.

With this post I provide a photo of our back patio - designed to direct water to the spaces between the concrete pads (versus having a solid slab).  Also, next to the patio (and difficult to see in this photo) is a swale that keeps the water from running downhill into our neighbor’s yard. 

The key question that I’m discussing with our Home Provider is the driveway ribbons.  We specifically designed this drive for permeability purposes.  The current question is whether the space between the ribbons is sufficient to support the amount of runoff from the ribbons…our Landscape Designer is working on the calculations.

So, congratulations, Sean!

*I used to introduce Sean as a “LEED certified professional”.  But Sean has finally got it into my head that “buildings are certified, people are accredited.”

“students and young professionals dedicated to becoming and recruiting the future leaders of the green building movement.”

You can read more about Emerging Green Builders here.

The yard was a little unkempt due to 7 inches of rain in 12 hours just a day and a half ago, but inside was fine.  The hot topic was our bathroom floor tile.  It is fantastic-looking, and people really notice.  But it’s not some exotic tile.  In fact it’s a Dal-Tile product, produced locally.  It’s called Fabrique..everyone loves it!

In the photo, that’s Kelly Mitchell, our architect.  She’s on the right, explaining our house’s green features to a couple of the folks on tour.

PS:  the tone of the article is very funny…it’s enjoyable to read through!  Two thumbs up!

There were lots and lots of questions ranging from how often we should seal our ipe wood deck to how much more did building a LEED home cost us.  I didn’t now the answer to the first question, but am all too keenly aware of the second.  Fortunately the guy we bought our ipe from was there and he told me that we should clean and re-seal the ipe every two years….good to know.

Robert will be posting photos from the event to the website gallery soon (I hope).

The tour is featuring one LEED for Home certified Platinum house, and 2 LEED for Homes registered Platinum house.    Sign up quickly!  They’re limiting the tour to 60 participants!

This past week has been an eye-opener.  We’ve gone through multiple conversations with the City of Dallas inspectors regarding our use of reclaimed rainwater for irrigation and for washing clothes.  We’ve had visits from Building Inspectors and Zoning personnel who have all admitted that they really don’t yet have a handle on how to manage many green building features.

As mentioned, we’re attempting to use our rainwater in our washing machine.  Our contractor set up our washing machine just as they had done for other customers in surrounding cities - all of which approved of those installations.  However, Dallas didn’t know what to think of it!  The Inspector first wanted a separate “double check back flow valve” (or something like that), then he didn’t understand the filtration system.  Finally, they told us that they were not going to approve the use of reclaimed rainwater for the washing machine.  We were told to dismantle the water delivery mechanism and try later when they were ready to tell us what they would approve.

While our Rainwater Harvesting contractor made a huge mistake by not clearing the use of the system BEFORE it was entirely installed (lesson learned!), the City of Dallas is clearly not ready yet for innovative Green building techniques.

We’ll reconnect the washing machine when the City catches up to us - and I suppose this whole ordeal is the price we’re paying for being on the cutting edge (at least in Dallas, anyway) of Green building!