Damiyen Wilkerson
September 26, 2022
NGBS and the Artificial Turf Debate
Growing up, playing on artificial turf (AT) was a luxury and a way to prolong sport seasons during the time when natural turf fields were rendered unplayable due to weather conditions. Living in Alaska, it was common to see athletic fields with pools of water, snow, and bare patches late into May. Playing football under said conditions was an unpleasant experience to say the least. When playing for competitive teams, AT was the primary field type to reduce injury and provide athletes with the ability to run, make breaks, and tackle as if they were playing on a well-groomed grass field. No more rolling ankles on uneven patches, no more scrapes and bruises from landing on snow/ice, and no more one-dimensional playbooks on offense because wide receivers were unable to make breaks to create separation from defensive backs.
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Elina Thapa
September 21, 2022
Resiliency and Sustainability
Apart from providing shelter and a place of belonging, a house is also one of the biggest financial investments for many people. Homeowners pour the bulk of their savings into buying a house and then spend half their lives paying expensive mortgages. Imagine all this hard-earned investment wiped out in a single hurricane or torn apart by an earthquake! While there are many unavoidable natural disasters every year, damage to homes could be mitigated by additions/alterations to construction practices—some as simple and low budget as adding hurricane and metal straps to connect the roof and wall members. Sadly, many houses get destroyed each year during disaster events due to lack of resilient construction practices.
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Cindy Wasser, MBA
September 14, 2022
Quick QAP Recap: Fall 2022
Home Innovation actively advocates for third-party certified, green, affordable housing by providing input for state Qualified Allocation Plan (QAPs). QAPs specify a state agency’s allocation of federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). Most QAPs include criteria for energy efficiency and green building, and nearly 30 states specify green building certification as a requirement or point-based incentive. When third-party green certification is included within a QAP, NGBS Green Certification is typically recognized alongside other credible national green building programs. NGBS Green certification is affordable to implement, making it ideally suited for affordable housing.
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Cindy Wasser, MBA
September 12, 2022
Why is it Important that WRI is Included within an I-Code?
What is the Water Rating Index (WRI)?
The 2020 National Green Building Standard ICC-700 includes a performance path for residential builders and developers to demonstrate water efficiency. The Water Rating Index (WRI), included as an appendix within the standard, is a methodology by which a 0 to 100 score is assessed for a property’s total indoor and outdoor water use, compared to baseline conditions.
The WRI offers an important new metric that they can use to communicate expected water use to potential buyers. Like HERS and ERI for energy performance, WRI facilitates straightforward comparison across similar properties.
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Ed Hudson, MBA
September 8, 2022
Change in the Air: How Builders Plan to Navigate the Future
It’s very rewarding being a construction marketing researcher. I truly enjoy tracking, measuring, and predicting changes within the construction industry. But what I enjoy even more is helping our clients continue to reshape their businesses and product offerings to ensure they are providing the greatest value to their customers. This work requires regular interaction with builders and remodelers, keeping our “finger on the pulse” of the industry through interviews, focus groups, surveys, and jobsite observation. We listen and learn about their purchasing behaviors, problems at the office and jobsite, and the solutions they need or opportunities they are seeing.
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Deanna Williams Seale, PE
September 2, 2022
#WillItCorrode: Your Reputation Hinges on Your Product's Reliability
This year, the Home Innovation lab team is on a mission to test some everyday gadgets in our salt spray chamber to find out #willitcorrode. Home Innovation's full range of corrosion testing helps building product manufacturers ensure the performance of metals and coatings. Typically, we test products such as nails, screws, anchor bolts, bollards, stair nosing, gutter clips, ladders, cable, baluster, hand railing, support systems for curtain walls, etc. But we have decided to mix it up a little with this experiment to emphasize the practical nature of this type of testing. Check out the results of our latest experiment with a steel door hinge.
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