FGBC Certification: Avoid Key Mistakes

By Stephanie Thomas-Rees

In 2006, the Florida Home Builders Association signed an agreement to support the Florida Green Building Coalition (FGBC).  Since then, FHBA members have been looking to attain the FGBC Green Home Certification for their homes.  As with any new program, there are always common questions and mistakes.  Oscar Toledo, engineering assistant, who processes many of the certification applications and Robin Vieira, director of Buildings Research Division, both of the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC), list and explain some of the most common mistakes made in the application submittals:

1) Add up the points…Correctly.  It’s amazing how something so easy creates so many problems.  So check and double check your submission.

2) Calculate the minimum points needed to qualify…Correctly.  Each of the categories has a minimum.  However, if you don’t reach a minimum in one category, you can make it up by more in the other ones.  Here’s the catch.  It has to be double the number you missed.  For example, it takes 100 points to attain certification.  But if you miss one category by 4 points, you have to make up 8 points elsewhere, which means your overall certification pass points are actually 108.

3) Document properly. Make sure your certifying agent not only knows which points have REQUIRED documentation, but that they are actually sending it in. Without required documentation, no points can be awarded and it’s an overall lower score for your submittal.

4) Floor joist perimeter insulated and sealed.  A home must be at least two stories tall to claim this credit.  One story slab homes don’t have this option.

5) Get supporting signatures.  Several FGBC categories require a sign-off by other professionals.  While the sign off by the Home Energy Rating System (HERS) rater is seldom missing, the signature by the Florida Yards and Neighborhoods (FY&N) agent often is. Soon, it will be possible to also have a Florida Water Star certifier sign off on water options, too.

6) Maintain pervious surface area as a percentage of lot size.  Often times this is miscalculated. You must include the entire lot size in the denominator..

7) No “double dipping”!  If someone is taking points for healthy flooring, then they cannot receive points in eco-friendly flooring.

8) No “double dipping”! AGAIN.  Don’t keep doing it.  If it isn’t allowed on flooring, it isn’t allowed on insulation either.

9) Job site waste management credit can still be taken even if you are not developing a construction and demolition waste management plan.  There are two waste management credits.  The C&D plan requires submittal of a “plan” and obtains 2 points.  Job site waste qualifies for up to 4 points if six or more waste management strategies are implemented (see pages 40 and 41 of the reference guide for more detail).

10) Know the requirements for each point. For example, for the ventilation and ceiling fan credit it requires fans to be installed in each bedroom and each major living area of the house and there must be windows on at least two walls in the same rooms. Thus homes with a bedroom with windows on one outside wall will not qualify.

11) Use the new fee structure. Version 5.0 has some modifications.  If the builder is both a FHBA and FGBC member, the fee is discounted to $50 each certified home.  If the builder is only one or the other, then the fee is $75. If neither, the fee is $100.

To help speed application approval, FSEC has developed a spreadsheet tool that addresses most of the submittal problems mentioned here. Make sure your certifying agent knows that it provides a checklist of required submittal materials based on the green items checked. Look for it on the FloridaGreenBuilding.org web site. 

Stephanie Thomas-Rees, research architect in the Building Research Division of the Florida Solar Energy Center, has been involved with high performance buildings research since 2001. She conducts research and provides technical assistance as a member of the Building America Industrialized Housing Partnership, sponsored by the US Department of Energy. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Florida Green Building Coaltion (FGBC), a Green Home Certifying Agent, and the co-author of Eco-House: A Design Strategy.

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