Building Codes and Zoning


The right home improvement products, techniques, and services:
Contractors, home improvement stores, and specialty shops in your area may not yet have a complete familiarity with the ‘green’ opportunities, products, system integration, and overall savings potential. So, you may get some resistance, since people in general are typically more comfortable recommending something that they are already familiar with rather than something new. To help break the inertia, use the information across this website like our Return on Investment Master ROI Table. Also feel free to post a question in our forum on the message board about a particular need for your home relative to your area. Our team has spent multiple years aggregating research from public and private sector performance reports and from manufacturers and homeowners across the country in order to provide you with the perspective you may need to see the initial payback and long term advantages. Environmental enthusiasts and leading institutions like the American Institute of Architects and the National Association of Realtors, see the value and link into our resources to support their members.

The Green Home:
For your overall home improvement, you can save money, improve your family’s health, and save the planet. Find out for free how much it will cost to do different types of home improvement in your home from a qualified and member approved contractor in your area. Get a FREE Quote . Plus, regardless of the size and scope of your home improvement project, save money and keep your home clean with the top rated chemical free and concentrated Green Home Cleaning Products .

Category Checklist:
Make sure to consider the latest Home Improvement products and services. If you are doing the work yourself or planning on working with a home improvement contractor use this checklist below as a guide to review and ask questions about the preferred products, details, and installation techniques related to:

Building Codes and Zoning:
Residential Building Codes, Zoning and Variances, Storm Water Management, Building Code Requirements, and Property Set-backs.

Tips on Building Codes and Zoning:
New laws across the country are tightening up the rules on storm water management where you may be required to run your downspouts into a collection system. When it comes to property line set-backs, you may have a wall or even a garden shed that was built before the new rules. If you are grandfathered in then you should be all set, but once you make changes, townships often require that you meet the new rules. Don’t forget about looking into historic districts. Members of our team and have sometimes found that homeowners were not aware that their property was included in a historic district by a township just because other properties in the area were deemed ‘historically’ relevant.

Home Improvement Basics:
When it comes to home improvement basics, look for interior home improvements like creating a clean, safe, and healthy home through sustainable ‘green’ furniture, home décor, zero VOC and Interior Paint, plus ENERGY STAR Appliances and Electronics. For energy and utility savings you can focus on insulation and air sealing, windows, doors, lighting and skylights, water saving plumbing opportunities, and high efficiency heating and air conditioning systems. On the outside of your house, look for exterior home improvement opportunities through landscape design and gardening plus solar energy, wind and other power sources. If you are undertaking a major home renovation, an additions, or building a new home, then take the lead to ‘go green’ in as many ways as possible to save money and the environment.

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