Rethinking the trade: Green building and the future of construction

MILLERTON — It was always on the horizon for Don Najdek. But not even he could have guessed 11 years ago that this was where he’d end up.

Last week marked the one-year anniversary of Najdek’s new construction company, Ecobuild. It doesn’t take long to understand that everything he’s accomplished in the 365 days since he started out on his own has been the result of hard work, foresight and a considerable amount of time hitting the text books.

Najdek describes Ecobuild as "the future of construction." The company revolves around a mobile solar generator that accompanies Najdek and his three co-workers to building sites. The generator provides the electrical current needed to power every saw, chop box, compressor, sander and anything else a group of construction workers can think of, "enough to build a small house," according to Najdek, without plugging in once to any conventional power source.

"The company runs off of 100-percent clean energy," Najdek said.

But it wasn’t as simple as running down to the nearest hardware store and purchasing the kind of solar generator that can handle up to a 12 kilowatt surge for seven seconds. For Najdek, understanding the science behind the technology is just as important as running an environmentally friendly operation, and his journey towards creating Ecobuild was more than a decade in the making.

In 1997 Najdek entered into the construction business, working for Winters Builders based out of Lakeville, Conn.

"I met with Rob Winters, and said ‘I’d love to work for you, but in five years I’m going out on my own.’ I always knew someday I’d be the sole proprietor of my own business."

Ten years and a partnership with Winters Builders later, Najdek made good on his word and set out for something different.

"I’ve always loved building science and technology," Najdek explained. "And immediately after I left Winters I started research on continuing education in the building science world. I knew there was a tremendous amount of quality carpenters in the area, and I didn’t want to flood the pool with another quality builder. I needed to create a niche of some kind, and I wanted to do something better."

Najdek enrolled himself in a course called the National Sustainable Building Advisory Program, which was originally designed for architects and engineers. Held at Ulster County Community College, Najdek admits that it was a "pretty intense course," held during the third weekend of every month.

"The emphasis was on energy, the environment and green building products. Everything from watershed management to renewable energy was covered."

At the same time, Najdek found that by forming his own business he had the freedom of time to keep going with his studies. He took multiple science workshops including LEED (Leadership, Energy and Environmental Design), which is used in classifying how green a building is.

"While all this was going on I had a fair amount of smaller projects that were getting me through the winter," Najdek explained. But it wasn’t until he bought his mobile solar generator that business started to grow.

"I got to the point where I needed to do something even further," Najdek said. "Being a builder, you get tired of hearing gas-powered generators. They’re noisy and they let off toxic exhaust, not to mention they continuously burn fossil fuels."

Researching and developing with a company based out of California called Mobile Solar, Najdek was able to construct his solar generator through photos, e-mails and phone conversations.

Three large solar panels rest on the top of Ecobuild’s generator, which is hitched to the back of Najdek’s pickup truck and can be toted from site to site.

The panels create DC electrical currents, which pass through inverters and store the currents in a battery system that Najdek can draw AC currents out from. Those can then be used to power everything from a table saw to a radio for some music, while Ecobuild’s workers settle into a job.

On sunny days the energy created is about equal to the energy used to power construction.

"The theory is that during the day, from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., the sun is out and you’re working," he said. "As you’re drawing energy from the batteries, you’re renewing it from photovoltaic panels.

"It’s never happened before, but it seems the generator could operate for about five to six full days at full capacity without recharging before it would completely drain the batteries," Najdek said, adding that a weekend of rest will bring the battery capacity up to 100 percent for the coming work week.

As far as business goes, even during a down economy Ecobuild has found itself "completely busy," and Najdek is excited about several major upcoming projects.

"I just looked over some conceptual plans that an architect drew up," he said. "Ecobuild is going to be building a maintenance-free home with an extremely low annual energy expense, maybe even as low as zero."

Standing seam will be used on the roof as well as the side walls, which should last well over 100 years before any repairs are needed. The same goes for the porcelain glass tiles on the exterior siding. No painting is required and ICF (Insulated Concrete Forms) construction will be used from the footings to the rafters, along with a geothermal heat system and solar electric energy panels. While regular roof insulation is rated around r30 for normal houses, the new project is project to be rated around r60 to r80.

"This is part of why I went back to school," Najdek said. "You can only learn so much by working with other builders. By going to school you’re talking to scientists, engineers and people who have been classifying and studying problems that a lot of people just guess at.

While Najdek acknowledges that Ecobuild’s initial construction costs are higher (he reported that statistically, green building of his company’s nature runs about 10 percent higher than normal construction outfits), working with environmentally sustainable products is cost-effective in the long run.

"People are paying attention to where they’re putting their money," he explained. "And everyone’s entitled to make their own choice. All you can do is inform the customer and give them the dollars and cents as to how it works out."

Even though initial costs are high, Najdek stressed that the price to build your home isn’t the only thing to consider.

"First, what are your annual costs once construction is finished? How much does it cost to heat your home? Then you have to think about the lifetime cost, and that starts getting into repairs and maintenance. While you’re paying more up front for environmentally friendly materials, a dollar spent today will save you three dollars in the years to come. There’s no question about that.

"What you do today is going to last hundreds of years down the road," he added. "There’s a sense of pride and responsibility, if not for the current owner then certainly the grandson of the person who owns a house that I help build. It’s good to know I’m a part of that."

Najdek’s past projects can be viewed at wintersbuilders.com. Ecobuild can be contacted at ecobuildny.com and Najdek can be reached at 845-233-0928 or at donald@ecobuildny.com.