LABhaus builder partners offer the best route to LABhaus ownership.

sustainability

sustainability

Sustainability can never be defined in simple terms nor measured by a single metric.  From a building standpoint, sustainability cannot simply be a additive veneer of ‘green,’ and popular assumptions cannot be taken simply on face value.  Many popular building ‘green’ building products, for example, are produced on the other side of the planet in highly polluting factories and require vast quantities of fossil fuels to ship to the point of use.  Sustainable design, then, must be about intelligent decisions taking all information into account.

LABhaus homes start with one of the most advanced building envelopes available, using polyurethane structurally insulated panels.  LABhaus homes are then heated and cooled by advanced heat-pumps and domestic water is heated by the sun.  All fixtures selected are chosen for their quality first, but all reduce water and energy use.  Finished chosen offer exceptional durability and luxury, but with a lighter footprint.  The Forest Stewardship Counsel certified select white oak floors, for example, come from carefully managed North American forests and are harvested in a manner which maintains the health of the forest. They are also exceptionally beautiful and durable and are delivered unfinished to allow for customization by the buyer and control over what chemicals processes are used.

LABhaus further has an unwavering commitment to economic sustainability.  LABhaus homes not only aim to counter wasteful home construction techniques, but also aim to curtain wasteful home development and finance techniques. As the center-point of domestic life, a home should be comfortable, attractive, durable, and affordable.  Reduced energy use and high quality materials with long life cycles are both enjoyable in the present and reduce future costs.  But the greatest economic impact comes with rethinking the model by which most new homes are produced in the United States.  Whereas typical speculative developments are driven primarily by the goal of generating returns on at-risk capital, LABhaus is driven by delivering the most home to the consumer at the least possible price.  The simplified ‘just-in-time’ process by which LABhaus homes are produced and purchased can eliminate up to 10% just in closing costs and a further 10% in construction interest and loan fees.  Because there are no traditional developers involved, an additional 10-30% can be eliminated as well.  Further profits taken in traditional development by de-contenting your home through the unseen use inferior generic products or questionable construction techniques is simply out of the question.  And while LABhaus homes use an extremely high-end standard specification, our streamlined supply-chain means that each item that goes into a LABhaus home delivers the greatest possible value to the purchaser.

In higher-priced markets, LABhaus homes can be less than 1/2 of the price of inferior developer homes and often substantially undercut decades-old homes in need of renovation as well.  Especially in a depressed real estate market, LABhaus can make incredible economic sense.  Even when developers sell their projects ‘below cost,’ that ‘cost’ often has little to do with the value of the actual home–the ‘bricks and sticks’–being sold.  That cost has more to do with the cost of over-paying for land, paying for years of construction interest, and early profit-taking.  None of these factors actually adds anything of value to the purchaser of the home.  Further, depressed real estate markets often mean incredible value on desirable land, including infill lots in some of the nation’s most desirable communities.  In some cases, complete LABhaus projects cost less than the cost of the raw land on which there are being built just a few years ago.

ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY

  • LABhaus homes aim to offer the highest quality product at a moderate price at a broad range of price-points
  • LABhaus homes use high-quality materials designed to out-last inferior products found in competing products
  • LABhaushomes are designed for superior energy efficiency, meaning substantially lower monthly utility costs
  • Purchasing a LABhaus home can be just as easy as buying an energy-wasting existing home in many regional markets
  • LABhaus homes are built on-demand;LABhaus buyers pay for homes, not speculative  profit margins and developer overhead
  • LABhaus homes have a fixed costs throughout each regional market.
  • LABhaus purchasers pay for the value of their home no matter where they live, not the inflated price of a neighbor’s home.
  • Land is the primary variable for LABhaus prices
  • The lower price of a superior LABhaus home can mean drastically shorter mortgage terms for a comparable home with the same payment amount

ENERGY SUSTAINABILITY

  • All LABhaus homes are Energy Star qualified
  • All LABhaus homes sold in the North East and Mid-Atlantic feature advanced polyurethane SIP construction
  • All LABhaus homes feature solar-boosted water heaters
  • All LABhaus homes offer optional solar electric packages
  • All LABhaus homes exclusively feature energy star appliances

LEED COMPATABILITY

  • While all LABhaus homes are built to the highest standards, LABhaus will cooperate with LEED raters for buyers desiring certification
  • Given proper site conditions, LABhaus homes can readily be built for LEED Gold certification
  • Certain developments may be qualified as LEED Platinum
  • LABhaus homes are built in a minimum waste environment
  • Key building components feature high recycled content
  • High quality control standards simplify certification

LOW IMPACT DEVELOPMENT

  • LABhaus homes are designed to provide comfortable living in high-density configurations
  • LABhaus communities feature indigenous plantings and onsite storm-water management
  • LABhaus communities are largely built in in-fill environments, reducing encroachment on agricultural land
LABhaus » sustainability