SITE EVALUATION

A building site is more than just a place to put a house. Each site, even in an established neighborhood, has attributes to be evaluated for their ability to save energy or promote native wildlife. Meadowlark Builders carefully looks at each site with regard to orientation, topology, water features, and local biology.

Do you have an opportunity to have passive solar on a building site? Can you build into a south-facing hill? These are opportunities that make it easier to move towards a net-zero energy home. Are there established native trees on the lot that can be used for strategic shading? These can save energy and to give a home a more established feel. What is the geology on the site? Not all soil bears weight well so it is good to know this before building a house. What is the inventory of native species on the land? Do we need to be cautious in certain areas to protect habitat?

These questions and many more go into a proper site analysis. By asking hard questions and searching for the right answers, we can live softly on the land and be stewards of our most precious resources.