Green Valley Academy

Arlington ends single-family-only zoning

Arlington County ends single-family-only zoning!

The Northern Virginia county’s "missing middle" plan will allow buildings with four — and in most cases six — units in any neighborhood!

Arlington ends single-family-only zoning Arlington will become the first locality in the D.C. region to loosen zoning rules and make it easier to build “missing middle” housing in any neighborhood.

Buydown: A Way To Reduce Interest Rates

Buydown: A Way To Reduce Interest Rates! Home builders can help the buyers to reduce the interest rates.

Buydown: A Way To Reduce Interest Rates Buydown refers to methods used by buyers and sellers to lower interest rates in the early years of a new mortgage. Find out if a buydown makes sense for you.

Charlie Munger on crypto: It's ridiculous anybody would buy this 'massively stupid' stuff

Friday wisdom on investment! This is not really a real estate related, but I thought this is something to learn from the horse mouth directly. This is what Charlie Munger had to say about Crypto. I am huge fan of Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger!

Charlie Munger on crypto: It's ridiculous anybody would buy this 'massively stupid' stuff Billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger speaks at the Annual Shareholders Meeting of the Daily Journal Corporation.

How Much Does it Cost to Install a Home Elevator? | Residential Elevators : Home Elevator Experts

How much does it cost to install a home elevator? This is a good read.

How Much Does it Cost to Install a Home Elevator? | Residential Elevators : Home Elevator Experts Interested in adding a residential elevator in your home? Check out our complete guide to the cost of adding a home elevator so you can be prepared.

Green Valley Custom Builders standard home features in McLean!

Some of our standard home features in McLean!
1. 2x6 wall construction.
2. 14" deep floor joists at 16" OC with 23/32" thick OSB sub-flooring glued, nailed and screwed to minimize deflection and squeaky floor.
3. Pella Lifestyle black windows.
4. Recessed LED lighting throughout the home.
5. Structured wiring system at selected rooms.
6. E/V charging station at garage.
7. Speaker prewire at selected areas.
8. Wi-Fi access point at each floor.
9. Main entry IQ PRO video/automation system with a video doorbell and IQ PRO control panel with a built-in touchscreen and siren.
10. Kwikset keyless front door entry system.
11. Security cameras prewire.
12. 7.2 surround speakers system prewire with HDMI/CAT6 connections in media room in basement.
13. Ecobee or Nest thermostat with a Wi-Fi remote connectivity.
14. Epoxy garage floor.
15. Heated master bathroom floor.
16. TOTO toilets.
17. 7" baseboard at main level and 5" baseboard throughout the home.
18. Direct vent gas fireplaces.
19. New construction home warranty included.
20. Many more....

Feasibility study of a lot or teardown consists of the the following.
1. Lot study. Is lot big enough to fit the house? Schools. Cornet lot. Busy road. Cul-de-sac. Proximity to shopping centers, airport and so on.
2. Zoning (R1, R2, R3, etc.) and setbacks. RPA, Flood zone and covenant restrictions. Historic district. HOA and/or civic associations. Bad soil (heaving clay soils having a poor drainage quality). Clay is always bad. It can also create foundation heaving. BMP (infiltration trench, planter box, rain garden and so on). Building height restrictions.
3. Easements (storm water and/or sanitary sewer). County records and deed research.
4. Public water and sewer.
5. Well and septic (needs health department approval).
6. Natural gas, propane tank, and power/electric.
7. Land topography. Flat. Slope. Fully buried basement. English basement. Walkup basement (areaway and window wells). Walkout basement.
8. Soil percolation test (colloquially called a perc test) is a test to determine the water absorption rate of soil (that is, its capacity for percolation) in preparation for the building of a septic drain field (leach field) or infiltration basin. This helps to determine how many bedrooms we can build.

What is a flitch beam?
A flitch beam is a composite beam built up of steel plate/s (commonly referred to as flitch plate/s) and wood/lumber beams. The steel plate/s is sandwiched between the wooden beams connected together using through bolts.

Flitch beams are typically structurally stronger than regular wooden beams. They can span longer and can carry more loads. This is one of the options to avoid using steel beams/columns for longer spans and more loads.

Open house today, Sunday, 06/05/2022, 2pm to 4pm! The builder will be there to answer any questions you may have.

The majority of the structural failures in a house happens at the deck. Typically, and almost all the time, the pressure treated wood is used to build a deck. The life span of a wood deck is about 20 years if properly maintained. Some of the common structural issues are:
1. The deck beams are not properly connected/bolted to the posts.
2. The deck joist hangers are loose or are not properly attached to the ledger board or corroded over time.
3. There are not any or enough cross braces or tension ties.

The local county or city jurisdictions have their own version of slightly modified deck construction guidelines that you can download from their website. Simpson has nicely put together a booklet that you download for free, link below. If you have any questions or comments, please comment below. Happy Friday!

Simpson Deck Connection and Fastening Guide:https://ssttoolbox.widen.net/view/pdf/mlauxumqxk/F-DECKCODE22.pdf

Fairfax County Typical Deck Details:https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/landdevelopment/sites/landdevelopment/files/assets/documents/pdf/publications/deck-details.pdf

Public and private water and sewer connections! Public means house water and sewer laterals are connected to the county or city main lines. If you are demolishing the old house and building a new one, you will have to disconnect the utilities including water and sewer during construction, and reconnect later on. If the public water and sewer lines are available in the neighborhood, but they are not currently connected to the property, you can request to the county or city for connection. There will be a connection fee. Please note. If there are no public water and sewer lines available in the neighborhood, your typical options are septic and well (for water). For septic system, you need to hire a civil engineer for further investigation to find out how many bedrooms house you can build. You need to conduct a perc test by a geotechnical engineer, and get a health department approval for how many bedrooms. Again, this is something you will have to discuss with the civil engineer.

What is basement egress window? Why do we require at each bedroom in basement?
If you want a legal bedroom in basement, you need at least one egress window at each bedroom. An egress window, referred to in the building code as an Emergency Egress & Rescue Opening, is one that opens directly to the exterior of the home. It is designed to allow occupants to exit the home in case of emergency, or, in a worst case scenario, allow firefighters a way to enter the bedroom to search for and rescue occupants who may be incapacitated. There are specific size requirements for a window to be considered an egress window. Ask your design professional for further details.

What are the design loads to be considered while designing a house structurally?
From structural point of view, house should be designed per current building codes and industry standard design guidelines to ensure structural integrity of the house structure. Also, check with your local jurisdictions or design professionals who are familiar with the local jurisdiction guidelines about additional requirements. There are mainly 2 types of design loads/forces we have to consider, and they are gravity loads and lateral loads. Gravity loads are dead load (weight of the structure itself) and live load (weight of people living in the house). You also have to consider snow load depending on which part of country you live in. Lateral loads are wind load and seismic load. For example, if you live in east coast, we typically consider wind load only, not seismic. If you live in California and territory, you will have to consider seismic, not wind, in general. Check with your design professionals for more information.

What is frost depth? Why is it very important?

Frost depth is the depth at which groundwater freezes during winter. When the water freezes, its volume increases by almost 10%. If we do not extend the house footings below frost line/depth, when the groundwater under the footing freezes, it will push the building up. When the ice melts down during daytime if the outside temperature arises above melting point, the building will come down. If so, throughout the year, your building will move up and down. This will result cracks and settlement in the house. We should always avoid it. Therefore, we should always extend footings below frost depth. This depth varies throughout the United States depending on how cold the temperature will be during the winter. In Virginia, typically, the frost depth is 24".

Who are the design team members for your new house project? People often think that you just need to hire an architect, and he/she will take care of the rest. It is not necessarily true. Here are the design team members involved:
1. Building architect specialized in residential design and construction. Make sure the architect is specialized for single family residential construction. Architect will make sure you like the house it looks from outside and inside including space planning and finishes.
2. Landscape architect. Depending on your needs and lot size, if you wish to incorporate outdoor living such as swimming pool, patio, gardening and other features into your project, you need to hire a landscape architect who is familiar with this type of construction.
3. Structural engineer to make sure the house is structurally sound and stable. The architect typically is not qualified to design structural elements of your house.
4. Civil engineer to prepare grading plans and storm water management such as planter boxes, infiltration trenches, rain gardens and so on.
5. Geotechnical engineer is required if you have a bad soil and needs soil study and/or you need on site storm water management system.
6. Interior designer. Interior designer will help you to select the finishes, fixtures, flooring and more for your house.

Trending House Plans | Architectural Designs

People often contact us asking if we can build the house based on the floor plans they could purchase from the internet. There are several legit websites where you can purchase the plans from. Our answer is almost always NO. The main reason is these plans are not a complete set usually. To be a complete set, you need a set of both architectural and structural drawings. Architectural drawings show how the house looks like from outside and inside including space planning and finishes. Structural drawings show structural elements which are very very important to ensure the structural integrity of the house. You need to hire a local, qualified and licensed structural engineer who is experienced for residential design and construction for that. Structural elements include house foundation, wall framing, floor framing, roof framing/trusses, beams, posts, headers, jack studs, king studs and so on. Sometimes these third party websites also sell structural drawings along with the architecturals, but the issue is they may not be familiar with your local jurisdiction requirements. They may be over designing it or often time under designing it. You do not want that to happen. So, our advice is you can purchase the plans from these websites, but hire a local, qualified and licensed architect and structural engineer who are experienced in residential construction to review the plans. One of the big issues in structural drawings these days is wall bracing design. If you are building a house in Fairfax County, you must submit separate wall bracing plans/notes/details and calculations depending on which method you used, prescriptive method or engineering method.

Trending House Plans | Architectural Designs By submitting this form, you are granting: Architectural Designs, Inc., 501 Kings Highway Fairfield, CT 06825, United States, http://www.architecturaldesigns.com permission to email you. You may unsubscribe via the link found at the bottom of every email.

www.fairfaxcounty.gov

Retaining walls are designed and constructed to retain higher grounds, typically a slope surface. In Fairfax County, Virginia, if the unbalanced height is up to 4 ft, you can build retaining walls per county typical details and do not need to submit a separate retaining wall drawings prepared by a licensed structural engineer.

1. Unbalanced height ≤ 3 ft. No need to pull a permit. Build the retaining wall per county typical details.
2. Unbalanced height ≤ 4 ft ( but > 3 ft). Needs to pull a permit. Build the retaining wall per county typical details.
3. Unbalanced height > 4 ft. Needs to pull a permit. Also needs to submit a separate retaining wall drawings/calculations prepared by a licensed structural engineer.

Other local jurisdictions might have a slightly different guidelines. Refer to their website or contact them for more information.

Credit: Fairfax County Typical Retaining Wall Details

www.fairfaxcounty.gov