Sarasota Green Construction

2011 USGBC Florida Gulf Coast Chapter LEED for Homes Outstanding Project of the Year

admin — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:09:48 +0000

Our Power Haus project was recognized as the 2011 Outstanding Project of the Year by the Florida Gulf Coast Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. Click on the link below to see a full list of winners.

Florida Gulf Coast Chapter U.S. Green Building Council – Home

Perfect the Art of Best Practices

admin — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:21:31 +0000

Josh Wynne Construction and our Power Haus project are featured this month on the cover of Residential Design+Build Magazine!

Read full article here.

2011 EcoHome Design Awards

admin — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 21:39:23 +0000

We are honored and excited to announce that we have won a Merit Award in the 2011 EcoHome Design Awards for our Power Haus project!

Please read full article here.

Building, and looking beyond cost per square foot

admin — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 01:56:35 +0000

As seen in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, this article is a good commentary about looking beyond cost and at the total value of construction.

By KATHERINE SALANT
Correspondent

Published: Friday, July 29, 2011 at 5:16 p.m.

The latest high-tech in the home building business is all about smart — smart houses, smart wiring, smart appliances and a smart grid.

And then there’s “smart money,” an old-fashioned concept that’s been around as long as we have been building houses. Smart money is money that’s spent wisely. It gets you the best house for your budget, not the biggest house or the one with the most trophy features per square foot.

What are some smart money tips?

1. Hire experience.

Though many people think any fool can design and build a house, you need years of experience to do this well.

An experienced residential architect has taken the proverbial “sketch on the back of an envelope” and developed it into a finished house many times. She won’t waste time on ideas that are too costly to execute within your budget, and she will have the guts to set you straight when something you really want is a bad idea.

Likewise, an experienced home builder has taken many projects from a pile of construction documents to a finished house. He can work with grace under pressure and deal with screw-ups quickly and efficiently (every new house always has a few). He treats his subs so well they will follow him to any job, and he has a real office, not a pickup truck. And, most importantly, he doesn’t promise a great price. He promises a great house.

If your spouse suggests economizing by hiring “a young architect who’s eager but still wet behind the ears and won’t charge much” and an “experienced carpenter who’s just starting a home-building business and promises a great price” put the kibosh on it immediately.

2. To control costs, hire the architect and the builder at the same time.

This unconventional approach, called the negotiated bid, can help you control both design and construction costs. It’s called the negotiated bid because you negotiate the architect’s fee to design your house, the builder’s fee for building it, and determine your construction budget before you start the project. The architect and builder work together as a team. During the initial design phase, as you work with the architect to design your house, the builder monitors the work to ensure that he can build it with your budget. An experienced architect will have a good sense of costs, but a builder is out in the marketplace everyday, and his information will be more accurate. Another plus with this arrangement: a builder can often spot ways to achieve the architect’s desired effect that are simpler and less costly to execute.

Despite the advantages of the negotiated bid, many homeowners are convinced that competitive bidding will produce the best (read lowest) price. A competitively bid price may well be lower than the negotiated price, but the bid price will not be the final price. That’s because a custom-built house is a unique prototype with hundreds of details.

Even the most conscientious architect can, inadvertently, make an error or an omission in the construction documents that form the basis of the competitive bidding. The bidding contractors are supposed to confer with the architect if they spot a mistake, but this doesn’t always happen.

When the errors or omissions eventually come to light during construction, the builder will issue change orders, and he’s not obliged to give you his best price. Besides adding to your cost, change orders can poison the atmosphere at a time when you want everyone to do their best work and you have several hundred thousand dollars on the line.

With the negotiated bid, the builder’s job is to catch errors and omissions during the design phase and he has every incentive to do this. He knows he will be getting the job, he knows upfront how much profit he will make, and he wants to keep things on track.

3. Focus on lifetime cost, not first-time cost.

First-time cost is what you’re paying to build the house. Lifetime cost includes both the initial cost to build the house and the maintenance costs you’ll incur over the 20 to 30 years you expect to live in it.

This distinction will become clear when you begin to select building materials. For example, you can save a bundle with cheap windows, but when you factor in the cost to replace them once, or more likely, twice over the 20 to 30 years of your occupancy, they become your priciest window option. Skimp on insulation to save a few bucks and you’ll saddle yourself with higher utility bills every day you live there. Purchase cheaper but less efficient heating and cooling equipment, and you’ll not only be paying higher utility bills from day one, you’ll also be replacing the equipment long before you move out.

4. Cost per square foot figures are a useful tool at the beginning of the project, period.

When you start, the cost per square foot is a useful tool for helping you understand what’s possible with your budget. A low cost per square foot is not the hallmark of a good deal.

In fact, it can be just the opposite — a sure indication that a builder is using inferior materials or subcontractors known for shoddy work or that the builder is so desperate to get your job, he has cut his own costs to the bone, and he may go belly up halfway through the project.

Initially, when most homeowners are trying to match their budget with realistic choices, the cost-per-square-foot figure can provide useful information. Divide the amount of money you have to spend (say, $375,000) by the size house you want to build (say, 2,500 square feet), you get $150 per square foot.

Using this cost figure, an experienced architect or home builder can tell you what finishes and features are affordable for the size house you want. You may quickly realize that you will have to build a smaller house to get the features you want or accept modest details and finishes for the 2,500-square-foot-sized house you envision.

The cost per square foot is averaged over the entire house. It does not mean that every foot in the house will cost exactly that amount.

The cost of a specific square foot depends on what’s in it. A square foot in your kitchen or bathroom will cost a lot more than a corner of your living room or bedroom that’s merely “raw space.”

Questions or queries? Katherine Salant can be reached atwww.katherinesalant.com.

Josh Wynne Construction named 2011 Design Excellence Award Winner by Residential + Design Build Magazine

admin — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 01:41:43 +0000

Josh Wynne Construction has been named a 2011 Design Excellence Award winner by Residential Design + Build magazine. The annual awards program recognizes residential design and construction firms for excellence in the single-family custom home market.

The panel of judges that selected the 2011 Design Excellence Award winners consisted of two architects, two custom home builders and an interior designer. The judges chose Josh Wynne Construction’s Power Haus for its success at addressing challenges, design creativity and overall dedication to success, and as proof of the firm’s unwavering quality as the nation’s housing market begins its slow recovery.

“We are honored to receive this award. We are committed to designing and building the most unique homes in our area to the highest level of quality and sustainability possible,” says owner, Josh Wynne. Founded in 1998, Josh Wynne Construction provides Southwest Florida with innovative homes executed with passion and precision. Profiles of the firms and projects selected as winners of the 2011 Design Excellence Awards were published in the July/August 2011 issue of Residential Design + Build and on the magazine’s website at rdbmagazine.com.

“We are honored to present these winners in this year’s Excellence Awards. The level of craftsmanship, challenges and teamwork in each project is inspiring. Ranging in styles, from contemporary to rustic and more, these projects represent the best of the best in the custom home industry,” says Maureen Alley, editor of Residential Design + Build.

Residential Design + Build magazine is the only publication that reaches both architects and builders in the custom home market. Its editorial focus is on the close working relationship between architect and builder, which is necessary to produce truly custom homes in the United States. Cygnus Business Media (cygnusb2b.com) publishes Residential Design + Build magazine, which serves more than 44,000 readers nationwide.

Seen on HomeDSGN.com – The Power Haus by Josh Wynne Construction

admin — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 20:01:12 +0000

Click here or on photo above to read about our Power Haus featured on HomeDSGN.com

Josh Wynne Construction wins SRQ Best of Local

admin — Fri, 20 May 2011 18:24:52 +0000

Josh Wynne Construction wins SRQ Magazine’s Best of Local 2011 for Best Builder and Most Innovative Thinker. This is the second year in a row that Josh was recognized as Sarasota’s Best Builder. Josh was voted Sarasota’s Most Innovative Thinker this year after being the runner-up in 2010.

Josh Wynne Construction featured in EcoHome Magazine!

admin — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 21:03:11 +0000

Click anywhere on the article to see it in it’s entirety and to see a slide show.

Asheville, North Carolina

admin — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 18:58:19 +0000

Asheville is an inspiration.

My wife and I just returned home from a short trip to Asheville, NC. Michelle has been trying to arrange this trip for quite some time and I had been reluctant. Her primary motivation was to visit the Biltmore. Ironically, my lackluster interest was also because of the Biltmore! I am a pragmatic guy and I am devoted to sustainable homes and lifestyles so the idea of a 175,000 square foot home was basically appalling to me.

For those of you who are not familiar with Biltmore, it is the largest home in the US with 4 acres under roof. It is located on what was once a 125,000-acre estate. The home was completed in 1895 after 6 years of construction. George Vanderbilt, who was a 33-year-old bachelor at the time of completion, commissioned Biltmore for use as a family retreat. Richard Morris Hunt designed the home. Frederick Law Olmstead, the most famous landscape architect of all time, designed the landscape using 3.2 million plants and trees of over 130,000 varieties. While these are impressive numbers, they are definitely less than sustainable. At least I thought so.

Michelle and I arrived in Asheville at lunchtime, so after checking in to our hotel in downtown we decided to walk to a nearby watering hole for some food and drink. Lexington Avenue Brewery is settled into the old General Store building. We decided on a beer, which was brewed in house, and started chatting up the bartender. The food and beer was incredible and the people were passionate. It turns out that all of the beef and lamb served here is grass fed and grown on their own farm just outside of town. The spent grains from the beer brewing process were fed to the livestock. All of the other menu items, including produce and cheeses, were grown and made in Asheville and all table scraps are composted for use in these farms. Obviously, I was interested in figuring out how this historic little town in the mountains, known for a home that in my opinion was the least sustainable in America, had become more progressive than Northern California.

The next day we visited the Biltmore. The approach drive was nothing short of breathtaking and I am certain it was two miles long. Not one plant was out of place and yet it was completely natural. Pulling into the courtyard was akin to opening a massive door to Wonderland. The home is nothing short of incredible. Still, while I marveled at the level of detail and craftsmanship I couldn’t help but consider what a waste it was for one man. We started the audio tour, which is rich in history and is, in my opinion, completely necessary.

It turns out that Mr. Vanderbilt’s dream was to build a sustainable home for his family and the home’s 35 workers. He built a masonry plant on the property to supply the clay, concrete, brick and block for the home. The stone in the house was quarried from the home’s foundation. He built a hydro-powered sawmill on the river where the trees he cleared for the road, the home, the garden, and the pastures were milled for use in the home. He built the home to be fire-resistant using all block walls and floors and steel trusses. The proximity to the high flow, French Broad River allowed for running water in all bathrooms and the kitchens. Wastewater was diverted to the gardens. All of the food served in Biltmore was grown on site. He started a cattle operation, raised sheep and stocked the land with game, which was hunted for food. Beer was brewed on site and local grapes were used for wine making. He built the Biltmore Villages to house the people tending to the home’s many needs and founded schools for blacksmithing, woodworking, pottery and more. Even in 1900 Vanderbilt felt there needed to more effort to keep life local. George Vanderbilt understood the value of local goods and services perhaps more than any man of his time. By his death in 1914, George had built the most amazing home in the America, started the first sustainable forestry operation in America, had a world-class dairy, had the most diverse horticultural operation in the world and had built a community. Soon after he died, his widow, Edith, sold 90,000 acres of his estate to the federal government to establish the Pisgah National Forest. It was George’s life dream. In 1930, George’s family decided to open the home to the public to ensure his legacy would be kept and to establish a basis of preservation.

The entire community still seems to embrace George’s sustainable concepts. Most homes built in Asheville exceed green building standards. Local food is the rule at all restaurants. Artisans’ shops line the downtown streets selling blown glass, pottery, metal work, and even clothes. The list goes on and on.

While there is little doubt that a 175,000 square foot home is beyond excessive, I admit that I misjudged. Vanderbilt’s misdeeds with resources have been paid back in spades by his legacy and his contribution to what is absolutely the most sustainable community I have ever visited. Asheville is an inspiration.

Josh Wynne Construction Featured in Professional Builder Magazine

admin — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:29:50 +0000

[singlepic id=42 w=320 h=240 float=left]We were interviewed for our Mission Valley project as part of an article discussing building green on a budget. Read about it here!