Sustainable Green Home Builder Western North Carolina

How we work


At Rare Earth, we do green new construction and green remodeling and additions. We also offer consulting services, whether it involves siting the home, a review of the design or acting as the consulting general contractor for a DIY project.


We believe a home should inspire with beauty, be functional, durable and promote healthy, comfortable living. What it should not be is parasitic on the environment.


We build our homes to work with Nature. They harvest sunlight for winter heat and daylighting, for domestic hot water and in some cases for electricity. Or in the right locale, wind and/or water is put to work generating the power to run the house. The home's landscaping  can bring the farmer's market to the front doorstep,whether it's a small kitchen garden of herbs, tomatoes and salads or a full-blown organic garden. Berry bushes, fruit trees and other edible plants add more treats for the home dwellers and neighboring

animals and add to the beauty of the home's surroundings.


We began doing green building in 1999, and were one of the early green builders in western North Carolina.  We have worked with most of the energy efficient building systems on the market today: Aerated Autoclaved Concrete (AAC), Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs), Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs), Geodesic domes and Optimum Value Engineered (OVE) framing.


We are always on the lookout for new products or technologies that will help us create better-performing homes. Currently, we do only custom homes and remodels, working with a number of architects and home designers in western North Carolina. We try to get involved with the design process on the front end so that we can offer our suggestions on the most efficient, economical and environmentally sensitive way to build the structure.

 

In 2012, we began a program of complete transparency in billing. We believe there must be mutual respect and trust between client and builder for a successful--and dare I say fun--build. By sharing our books and explaining how we charge in detail, we believe everyone can rest a little easier.