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From YouTube: How to Build a Better Home - Water Runoff
Description
In this segment, green homebuilder Patty Shields talks about the importance of having good water runoff when building a passive house. The program is introduced by Arlington County Green Home Choice program director Helen Reinecke-Wilt. http://freshaireva.us/2011/11/greenhomechoice/. Links to all nine segments can be found at http://environment.arlingtonva.us/energy/how-to-build-a-better-home/
A
Hello,
I'm
helen
Reineke
wilt
of
Arlington
County's
initiative
to
rethink
energy
and
green
home
choice
program
you're
about
to
watch
one
of
a
series
of
videos.
We
call
how
to
build
a
better
home,
the
story
of
the
construction
of
a
passive
house.
We
hope
you'll
find
some
useful
tips
about
making
your
home
greener
and
more
cost
efficient,
whether
you're
building
a
new
home
or
simply
upgrading
your
present.
One
here
is
green
home
builder
patty
shields
of
Metro
green
with
today's
tips
on
stormwater
runoff.
A
B
So
we
are
so
glad
we're
getting
near
to
near
to
the
end
of
this
project
and
so
want
to
talk
about
some
of
the
things
we've
done
on
the
outside.
This
house
is
built
in
an
RPA,
a
resource,
protected
area.
That
means
that
one
part
of
the
house
is
within
a
hundred
feet
of
a
stream
or
a
stream
bed,
in
this
case,
Donaldson
Run,
which
eventually
flows
into
the
Chesapeake
Bay.
B
Because
of
that
we
need
to
address
phosphates
or
water
runoff
on
this
house,
maybe
more
than
than
other
houses,
but
still
this
is
an
important
issue
for
all
homes
in
Arlington
County.
So,
just
going
over
some
of
the
things
that
we've
done
in
the
house,
I
will
point
you
up.
This
house
does
not
have
any
gutters
it
has.
The
water
runs
off
into
what's
called
a
channel
drain.
This
has
been
designed
by
an
engineer.
This
channel
drain
has
about
six
inches
of
large
stone
that
won't
erode
over
time
on
top
of
a
filter
fabric.
B
The
water
comes
off
the
roof
channels
down
through
this
drain
and
then
over
this
design
spillway
into
a
designed
planner.
This
was
also
designed
in
conjunction
with
Arlington
County,
the
unique
thing
about
this
planner,
it's
4
by
10,
so
it's
pretty
large
and
it's
about
5
feet.
Deep
and
the
first
2
feet
are
taken
up
by
clean,
washed,
gravel
and
a
pipe.
There
is
a
pipe
down
there
that
the
water
that
comes
off
the
spillway
will
eventually
get
to
once
the
water
gets
into
the
filtration
planter.
B
It
has
to
go
through
the
filtration
process,
and
this
has
been
designed
by
engineers
really
all
over
the
country
on
what
the
best
method
is
to
filter
phosphorus
out
of
water
and
also
to
keep
it
from
flowing
too
fast
overland,
one
of
the
things
we've
done
and
that's
been
designed
into
this
planners
first.
Of
course
you
have
the
watch
gravel
at
the
bottom
with
the
pipe
in
it,
then,
on
top
of
that
pipe,
we
don't
have
any
filter
fabric.
On
top
of
that
pipe,
we
almost
have
two
feet
of
this
sand
mixture.
B
This
is
called
a
planting
media,
it
not
soil.
It
is
85%
sand,
10%,
soil
and
5%,
something
called
leaf
starter,
which
is
sort
of
like
a
mulch
or
a
fertilizer.
But
it's
natural,
and
so
what
happens
is
the
water
passes
through
this
goes
down
through
the
planter
into
a
perforated
pipe
at
the
bottom
and
eventually
leaves
the
house
or
leaves
this
area
and
then
goes
through
another
filtering
area
at
the
bottom
of
the
property
which
is
less
intense
and
then
spills
out
over
the
property.
So
what
happens?
B
Is
we
capture
all
the
water
from
this
house
in
this
area
about
half
the
house
in
this
area
and
it
is
able
to
filter
out
and
filter
all
the
the
phosphates
out
before
it
leaves
the
property?
The
second
critical
part
of
our
water
retention
and
bio
filtration
plan
is
pervious
concrete.
You
see
the
planter
over
there
and
then
you
see
here.
We've
got
the
actual
driveway.
B
This
driveway
is
has
underneath
it
a
20,
inch,
bed
of
gravel,
wash
gravel
and
then
six
inches
of
what's
called
pervious
concrete,
now
I've
just
washed
my
hands
from
messing
with
that
soil
over
there
and
I
am
now
going
to
pour
on
this
pervious
concrete.
So
you
can
see
how
quickly
it
absorbs
the
water.
B
Advancement
in
technology,
you
see
yours,
you
do
see,
people
use
pavers
with
sand
in
between,
and
these
are.
This
is
a
pervious
product
as
well,
but
pervious
concrete
is
slightly
lower
in
cost
and
as
a
much
higher
absorbency
rate.
So
for
this
particular
project
it
was
ideal.
One
of
the
most
important
things
about
building
a
new
house
is
to
make
sure
that
you
are
preserving
the
property
that
you're
on
preserving
it
during
construction
and
also,
if
you
can
preserving
any
existing
bushes
in
the
existing
canopy.
B
Most
importantly,
we
feel
really
proud
that
in
this
case,
we
have
preserved
almost
the
entire
canopy
on
the
property,
only
cutting
down
three
trees
and
leaving
about
98%
of
the
canopy
you'll
see
behind
me.
There
are
several
trees.
This
large
tree
here
was
slated
to
be
taken
down.
We
were
able
to
preserve
it
by
working
very
delicately
with
the
area
around
our
driveway,
our
clients,
driveway.
Also
these
trees
in
front.
We
were
able
to
do
a
good
job
with
them.