CertainTeed Gypsum Board Products Enhance IAQ, Occupant Comfort of Green Kentucky Model Home
(Valley Forge, Pa.) – CertainTeed gypsum products are playing an important role in optimizing the indoor air quality (IAQ) and occupant comfort of the My Green Kentucky Home Project, slated to be the first net-zero energy LEED® For Homes Platinum-certified home in the state. Designed and built by GCCM Construction Services, LLC, of Louisville, Ky., the home features AirRenew® IAQ Gypsum Board, M2Tech® Moisture- and Mold-Resistant Gypsum Board, SilentFX® Noise-Reducing Gypsum Board and GlasRoc® Diamondback® Tile Backer.
Recently completed, the 3,725 square-foot home was constructed as a model for sustainable homebuilding, with a particular emphasis on energy and water efficiency, IAQ and homeowner comfort. When specifying materials for the interior, GCCM Construction Services found that CertainTeed offered a wide range of high-performance products that would meet their IAQ and acoustic control goals. The unique ability of AirRenew to capture formaldehyde from indoor air and convert it into an inert compound, which remains safely within the board, especially caught the builder’s eye.
“When I saw AirRenew, I said we have to have that,” says Sy Safi, manager for GCCM Construction Services. “As a builder, designer and engineer, I can design the home and spec it with low- or no-VOC materials, but the homeowners are going to bring in their own furnishings—possibly some with VOC content—after I’ve left. I feel it’s my obligation as a professional in our industry to minimize our occupants’ exposure to potential health risks. So, whatever I can do to provide them with healthier indoor air quality long after I’m gone is important. With AirRenew’s ability to remove VOCs – specifically formaldehyde – from interior air for years after installation, it was an excellent fit for this project.”
The builder also installed M2Tech gypsum board in parts of the home and Diamondback tile backer under all flooring and behind tiles in the bathrooms and kitchen to provide resistance to moisture and IAQ-threatening mold growth. SilentFX and CertainTeed fiberglass batt insulation proved an ideal solution for dampening excess noise.
“Comfort and being at peace in a home is a design consideration for the homeowner that is often overlooked, and noise pollution doesn’t always get enough attention either,” Safi says. “In this home, the homeowners are planning to hang a flat-screen TV on the wall between the living room and the master bedroom and have a woodworking shop in their basement. By installing SilentFX and CertainTeed batt insulation in the living room wall and along the stairwell to the basement, we’ve created a buffer to minimize the transmission of unwanted excess noise to the rest of the house.”
All gypsum board was installed by Affordable Drywall, Inc., of Louisville. Safi was very impressed with the wide variety of building products offered through CertainTeed that builders could use to meet their green building goals.
“I’m very happy with the CertainTeed products we used on this project, and I’m going to use them again in future projects,” Safi says. “CertainTeed has its mind set in the right direction regarding sustainability, and it shows in their products. The key for a successful project is collaborating with the right team members and CertainTeed played a big part in this.”
My Green Kentucky Home was completed earlier this year and has been open to the public for tours, pending the homeowner’s move-in, to increase awareness of contemporary green homebuilding techniques. Other CertainTeed products featured include: EverNew® PT Deck. Other sustainable features in the home include: insulated concrete-form walls, spray foam insulation, geothermal heating and cooling, solar panels with battery backup storage, 3,300-gallon rainwater collection tank, low-flow water fixtures, ENERGY STAR® appliances, zero-VOC paints and LED lighting. For more information, go to www.mygreenKYhome.com.
Offering a broad range of gypsum and finishing products for interior and exterior needs, CertainTeed Gypsum has served the North American building industry for more than 80 years and is a subsidiary of Saint-Gobain, the world’s leading producer of gypsum products. This, in combination with the full range of affiliated CertainTeed Corporation building products, provides architects, contractors, builders and dealers one partner to provide service and support for commercial and residential building projects. For more information, go to certainteed.com.
About CertainTeed
Through the responsible development of innovative and sustainable building products, CertainTeed, headquartered in Valley Forge, Pa., has helped shape the building products industry for more than 100 years. Founded in 1904 as General Roofing Manufacturing Company, the firm's slogan "Quality Made Certain, Satisfaction Guaranteed," quickly inspired the name CertainTeed. Today, CertainTeed® is North America’s leading brand of exterior and interior building products, including roofing, siding, fence, decking, railing, trim, insulation, gypsum and ceilings.
A subsidiary of Saint-Gobain, the world’s largest building products company, CertainTeed and its affiliates have more than 5,700 employees and more than 60 manufacturing facilities throughout the United States and Canada. For five consecutive years, the company has received top honors from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its contributions in protecting the environment and was most recently the recipient of the 2013 ENERGY STAR Sustained Excellence Award. The group had total sales of approximately $3.3 billion in 2012. www.certainteed.com
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