How one builder improves energy efficiency while remaining faithful to the original designs
The temperature in London, England last summer reached 93° F on just one day. In McKinney, Texas, the average temperature in August is 96° F—and each year Texas usually gets 30 to 60 days of temperatures at or above 100° F.
Those are statistics that mean something to Wayne Goodall, who relocated from London to McKinney 14 years ago to start his construction company The British Builder. Although Goodall does plenty of new construction, he’s gotten to be an expert in renovating historic homes. McKinney, located about 35 miles north of Dallas, was founded just 13 years after the Battle of the Alamo, and the city has the second largest historical district in Texas.
To comply with the city’s building codes for historic home renovations, Goodall pays close attention to the original design details. “We use soffit and fascia that match the look of the original home,” said Goodall. But beauty and authenticity are just part of the equation. “Our customers want their homes to be very energy-efficient as well,” he said. “They don’t want to live in a home that costs them a fortune to heat and cool.”
For these historic renovations, Goodall frequently uses products like LP TechShield Radiant Barrier Sheathing to keep attics cooler and reduce energy costs. “On a hot day it keeps a home up to 20° F cooler than outside temperatures, and that’s with no air conditioning,” said Goodall. “It makes a big difference. On hot summer days, I’ve had customers walk into a house that’s already framed with the windows installed but before the AC unit was in place. They looked confused because the house was so cool.”
For Goodall, another advantage is an easy installation. LP pioneered vapor-venting technology in radiant barrier sheathing, allowing it to dry faster from construction moisture.
Many of McKinney’s historic two-story bungalows date back to the 1890s when a front porch was one of the few ways to beat the heat. Some of them have 6,000 square feet of living space, and today’s cooling bills would astonish the original owners. But builders like Goodall are helping drive those costs down. “It makes me feel good when a client moves into a home I’ve built for them and their utility costs are less than their neighbors,” Goodall said.
