Builders, and buildings, reborn through ORE program

“It’s a win-win for everybody”

The crawlspace beneath the Ruby Bed and Breakfast on Gothic Avenue is damp, but drier than it used to be. The building is less than 20 years old, but The Ruby was slowly starting to rot from the ground up.

Bart Laemmel, who has been building, inspecting and remodeling in the valley for more than 20 years, shuffled across fresh sheets of heavy plastic on the dirt floor below The Ruby and pointed to joists above his head that needed to be replaced and places along the foundation where water was able to seep inside.
“Unfortunately I’ve had to fix moisture damage and rot issues on homes around here that are only nine months old,” Laemmel says. “Ninety-nine percent of the time, moisture issues start in the crawlspace.” Moisture from soil, he explained, can lead to structural damage, like rot, as well as air quality issues in the building above.
In 2010, Laemmel started working as the home energy advisor for the Office for Resource Efficiency’s (ORE) Energy Smart Program, which helps people improve the efficiency of their homes and businesses through a process of assessment, planning and upgrades. Energy Smart is a program offered in Eagle, Pitkin and Gunnison counties and funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. ORE manages the program for Gunnison County.
When Chris and Andrea Greene asked for an assessment of The Ruby, Chris says, “I would have thought they were going to tell us that we need to install solar panels and replace the windows, but I couldn’t spend that kind of money.”
Their needs, however, were much more urgent. The moisture found during ORE’s assessment not only had structural implications, but also found that the water had warped wood in ways that exposed the crawlspace to the outside elements, sapping heat from the in-floor tubes feeding warmth to the house. The moisture could have also led to mold, which would have affected the home’s indoor air quality.
“We had no clue,” Chris says. “You don’t see the heat going out.”
The heat was going out and in a house where guests like to take two showers a day and stay warm after long days outside, every little bit of energy use has a big impact on the business’ bottom line.
But the crawlspace is the crawlspace and there’s never a good reason to go down there. Even if Chris had, he might not have known what to look for. So with the assessment, ORE also provided an expert eye and a list of local contractors who could do the work they needed.
“Through the program, one of the nice things is that we look for the real issues and solve the real issues,” Laemmel says. For the job, they keep six energy assessors and 22 subcontractors in plumbing, electrical, insulation and anything that might need to be done to a home or business, and they’re all local people.
The contractors each go through training with the Building Performance Institute to learn how to find inefficiencies and the best ways to fix them. “With [ORE’s] scientific awareness, they were able to help us understand how our building works. We never would have gone anywhere near this without their expertise,” Chris says.
Along with Laemmel in the crawlspace was Elijah Valencia, owner of Elk Basin Contracting, who, along with his crew, was making the improvements to The Ruby. The heavy plastic on the floors and halfway up the walls would act as a vapor barrier keeping ground moisture out of the crawlspace. The Greenes also opted to upgrade to a boiler that runs at 96 percent efficiency and to insulate the crawlspace walls to R20.
“Everything gets sealed in as if it were a basement—we’ll treat it the same,” Laemmel says. “If we can take care of the moisture issues and take care of the airflow, we can improve indoor air quality, durability and efficiency.”
And while Valencia, after 20 years in the valley, hasn’t had too much trouble staying busy through the slow times, he’s been happy to have the extra work he’s gotten making upgrades for people. And his own crew of subcontractors sees the benefit too. “People are getting more efficient homes and we’re getting work out if it, so I guess it’s a win-win for everyone,” he says.
But the biggest benefit from the program might be its accessibility, not only to the expertise to get the job done, but also to money to make upgrading a home or business more affordable. Last year, ORE facilitated more than $300,000 in upgrades throughout the county with the help of Energy Smart Rebates and rebates from Gunnison County Electric Association and Atmos Energy.
“Ultimately, it gives people a goal and helps them achieve it,” Chris says.
“Basically we took an ugly, ignored space in the property and focused on it. It wasn’t just a ‘green’ feel-good project,” Chris notes. “It’s a dollars and cents, building efficiency kind of thing.”
For more information on the Energy Smart program, call ORE at 641-7682 or visit their website www.resourceefficiency.org.