Planning for Quality

Consistently designing and building homes with quality and performance in mind makes sense. New homeowners stay happy when they live in homes that are problem-free, affordable to operate, and comfortable. In turn, there are less hassles and costs for the builder to fix problems that weren’t resolved upfront. However, improving the quality and performance of homes often requires not only new products and practices but also a whole new way of thinking. New Jersey builder Tindall Homes has found that the hard part is not so much using new products—it’s the process of designing and building to ensure that every system in the home is working with, not against, other systems.

In the 1970s, American cars rolled off the assembly lines and into the hands of drivers who soon regretted their purchase. Many American-made cars were known for their poor quality, and the manufacturers’ reputations suffered. Over the past few decades, the industry turned itself around through painstaking planning, rigorous testing, and quality assurance. Tindall Homes’ Senior Project Manager John Clark likens the reinvention of American car manufacturers to the homebuilding industry. Says Clark, “That’s where we’re at—good planning, rigorous inspection, quality assurance, and a streamlined process.” It seems absurd that the auto industry never had that level of planning and testing to begin with. After all, a good car is the result of not only quality components, but careful engineering and design to ensure safety and high performance—when it’s new, and in years to come. A home isn’t much different. It, too, is a truly integrated beast that must perform well and be safe for homeowners. Only it costs ten times more and needs to last for decades. A home is composed of many different systems, including building envelope (foundation, walls, and roof), mechanical systems, plumbing, electrical, and finishes. What’s not always apparent is the way in which the functions of these systems relate to each other. Change one system and you could have either a mess or a success on your hands, so it’s essential to understand and plan for these system interrelationships.

Planning the Grand Design

While essential, considering how each piece of the home works with (or doesn’t) another piece is an adjustment that’s difficult to make at first. Says Tindall Homes’ Principal Mark Bergman, “It’s easy to install high efficiency mechanical equipment. Builders know how to do it already. The hard part is the process of considering other elements when you make that change.” Clark agrees. “It’s a planning process that starts when you design the house. Everything’s connected. You can’t buy trusses, slap them up, and hope for the best. It’s re-thinking everything and how it fits together.” Tindall Homes is a semi-custom New Jersey homebuilder who typically builds 40 to 50 homes a year. Over the past three years, they’ve increased the quality of their homes, which meet or exceed the Energy Star® requirement of a Home Energy Rating System (HERS) score of 86. With the basics of higher performance homebuilding under their belt, they’ve set out to push their own limits and propel their homes to a superior level of quality.

To support them in reaching exceptional levels of energy efficiency, durability, and occupant comfort, safety, and health, IBACOS is partnering with Tindall Homes through the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Building America Program. This article focuses on a specific change in product, practice, and process that Tindall Homes made to meet several of these performance goals.

Increasing efficiency and comfort

Tindall Homes wanted to double the energy efficiency of their homes to achieve 60% reduced energy. To meet this goal and also increase homeowner comfort, a key strategy was maximizing the performance of the heating and cooling systems. This involved creating a systems integration design that includes not only the heating and cooling systems, but also the air distribution, structural, plumbing, and electrical systems. Tindall Homes typically install two heating and cooling systems for the entire house. The heating and cooling system serving the second floor is usually located in unconditioned attic space, meaning that it doesn’t received heated or cooled (i.e. conditioned) air. In this setup, ducts are run through the unconditioned basement and attic. Because unconditioned attics in the New Jersey climate can have temperatures ranging from 10°F to 140°F, running ductwork through the attic could lead to reduced efficiency and comfort. The conditioned air traveling through the ducts can leak out at points that are difficult to make airtight, such as where ducts connect to the system, or boots leading to ceiling registers. In addition, heat can travel through metal ductwork easily and can be lost through conduction. The result is that all the air that was designed to be delivered to rooms doesn’t make it, and the air that does make it is warmer or cooler than intended, depending on the season. All this leads to a reduction in homeowner comfort, fueling a vicious cycle of the homeowner adjusting the thermostat, and the heating and cooling system having to work again, which reduces its efficiency.

Using open-web floor joists

The solution? Tindall Homes chose to place the heating and cooling system serving the second floor in a mechanical closet on that floor. To integrate the duct and mechanical system layouts, ducts needed to be run through the second floor framing system. Tindall typically builds with solid engineered wood joists. To be able to run the ductwork through the second floor joist space, Tindall used open-web floor joists that are sized specifically so that ducts can be easily routed between openings. This makes it easier for contractors to run the ductwork, resulting in increased productivity and, ultimately, reduced labor costs. Another benefit of open-web floor joists is that plumbing and electrical lines can also be routed through.

The results are worth it

The integrated framing and mechanical systems resulted in shorter duct runs (since each furnace was centrally located in the house) and all ductwork being within conditioned space, both of which improve energy efficiency and increase homeowner comfort. A comfortable home that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to operate will result in happy customers, who spread the good word, enhancing the builders’ reputation and generating referrals. In turn, callback, service, and warranty expenses related to efficiency and comfort may be reduced. “Buildings are a major energy user. If we build more efficient houses, we can make an impact in the country.” While this philosophy is the right thing to do, it also makes good business sense. Rising energy prices have spurred the government to push energy efficiency, and new building codes require higher performance. New Jersey may begin requiring builders to meet the Energy Star® levels that Tindall Homes is already meeting. By the time the codes change, Tindall Homes will be building at twice the level of efficiency, which gives them an advantage over builders struggling to learn how to build differently.

To reach the superior quality they want to provide to their customers, Tindall Homes needed to design a plan that considers how everything fits together. While it was difficult to adjust to the complex process of systems integration planning, Tindall is committed to quality because it’s a win-win situation for everyone: customers, the environment, and their own bottom line.