Hayward Lumber Co. goes beyond green building, focusing on indoor air quality after its owner’s family discovered their own home was making them sick.
Bill Hayward puts his money where his mouth is. A longtime advocate for green building, he moved into a new 3,400-square-foot home in November that was built using products he sells in his seven-store chain in northern California. The home was designed to combat health problems that he, his wife and five children experienced when they moved into another home a few years ago. Those experiences now drive Hayward’s business philosophy to promote building healthy homes.
“The new home utilizes the next generation of home-building techniques and the most innovative technology and building materials available today,” explains Hayward, CEO, president and chief sustainability officer for Hayward Lumber in Monterey, Calif. “It addresses the health and comfort of its occupants and reflects state-of-the-art building science. My family simply feels better living here. It’s the future of homebuilding.”
The home is based on Hayward’s four principles of healthy home construction: continuous fresh air, proper sealing and insulating, minimized toxic materials and cleanable surfaces. Key products in the home are the Zehnder Comfosystem, a Swiss based heat-recovery ventilator, and Prosoco liquid-applied water- proofing. These two, along with many others, were sought out and signed as vendors after extensive research.
“Our mission today is ‘To improve health in America by changing the way we build,’” he says. “My family got sick in a new home, and I don’t want that to happen to others. I see the rapid rise in habitability claims, and I know this is a problem worth solving.” Hayward believes close to 40% of homes in America have an indoor air quality problem.
