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Green Building Blog

Ranch Update and Energy Upgrade

An architect and a handy homeowner team up for an exterior makeover with energy efficiency, comfort, and durability as part of the plan

The owner and remodeler of this mid-century ranch wanted it to stand out in a neighborhood of similar homes, and to improve its performance, too.

All over the country there are midcentury homes like this, built just before materials like plywood sheathing and housewrap were common, and just long enough ago that the original siding and windows are either way past their service life or have been covered or replaced, likely with vinyl. For people who own these houses, there are a lot of reasons to invest in their curb appeal. An exterior makeover not only transforms a house into a place they love coming home to; it can also provide a significant return on investment if they decide to sell. But the devil is in the details of the design and its execution. Today we know how to make a house like this energy-smart, comfortable, and long lasting. The good news is that an exterior upgrade often presents the opportunity to do it all.

Before: the existing house was a ubiquitous ranch, due for an update.

Our design/build team was hired by John, an ambitious, talented, and dedicated DIYer who wanted to upgrade his 1950s ranch and was willing to do most of the work. John wanted to embrace the good bones and inherent strengths that his house had to offer while modernizing the building enclosure and finishing the exterior to stand out in a neighborhood of similar ranch homes on quarter-acre lots.

As you’ll see, the house now has a tight building enclosure with decent levels of insulation, siding installed over a modern water-resistive barrier (WRB) with rainscreen details for drainage and drying, and a well-insulated vented roof assembly. The materials that bring the new exterior to life include a standing-seam metal roof, a combination of clear-finished vertical cedar and Corten steel siding, composite trim, and rebuilt windows. With low maintenance as a goal, materials like the metal roof and Corten steel…

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One Comment

  1. Malcolm_Taylor | | #1

    This is a very nice looking renovation, but I'm not sure it makes sense to discuss Deep Energy Retrofits without getting into the costs, ROI, and embodied carbon of the materials. Beyond saying "it can also provide a significant return on investment if they decide to sell”, I don’t see anything that would let us evaluate whether this project, or similar ones, make financial sense.

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