Foundations & Structural

Remember this: use brains instead of money to hold up your home. At great cost to the environment, most buildings use far more cement, steel, wood and blocks than they really need, only because various people along the line were worried about liability, or simply didn’t take the time to think a design through. For good reason everyone in the construction industry gets pretty conservative when it comes to anything related to life safety, and there’s long term value in having a robust structure, but with a bit of inspiration, knowledge and conversation, a great deal of cost and carbon can be shaved out of most jobs without increasing risk. Bring out the smarts in your team and save yourself some money.

Also remember: structural materials are the heaviest and bulkiest components of a job; the more you use, and the farther they have to travel to reach your project, the higher the energy costs. If you want to minimize the “embodied energy” of your project, then most of your savings can be found in the structure and sheathing.