OUR HEALTHY HOMES INITIATIVE

We believe your home plays a vital role in your overall health and wellness. That’s why at every step of the build process, we put your family’s health at the forefront and embrace practices that will enhance the health of your home.

We are committed to staying well-informed on emerging technologies in this area and collaborate with our long-time trade and supplier partners, who are also invested in this initiative. We work closely together to build the healthiest of homes for our client families.

In our conversations with our clients, we don’t just talk about how they want their home to look; the more important questions we ask, surround how they want to live in their home and how we will provide a healthy, sustainable environment, for years to come.

 

Here’s how our Healthy Homes initiative is incorporated into our build process:

Building Envelope

A healthy home starts with the building envelope. The building envelope includes the foundation, exterior walls, windows, doors, and roof. It is the barrier that separates the interior of your home from the outdoor elements. The engineering of your building envelope influences the structural integrity of your home, provides moisture and temperature control, aids ventilation, protects against pollutants and pests and influences noise reduction.

At New West, we understand the impact a properly constructed building envelope has on promoting healthy air quality and safeguarding your family against building-related illness, increased allergies and asthma, mold growth, high humidity, and pest problems. There are many New West differentiators when it comes to our building envelope, including the use of plywood sheathing. Plywood offers several benefits in comparison to OSB (oriented strand board) sheathing. Plywood is typically more vapour permeable which promotes better ventilation, it is 7% stronger than OSB and it dries quicker, returning to its exact shape, which makes it less vulnerable to water damage.  At New West, we adhere to the most advanced engineering standards, so you can rest assured your home is healthy from the ground up.

Watch this video to learn more about New West’s Healthy Building Envelope:

Windows

Triple Glazed, Low-E windows, which are standard in all New West’s custom homes, help maintain an appropriate temperature, regardless of the season. They minimize the accumulation of mold, mildew and rot and significantly contribute to the reduction of sound pollution. They are more rigid and durable than traditional windows because of the triple layers of glass, which provide superior insulation performance, especially in our cold Calgary climate.

As well, they are harder to break, offering additional protection from vandals or rogue rocks, baseballs, or golf balls! As well, we play close attention to integrating large banks of windows in your home design to increase natural light, which is a known contributor to overall health.

Watch this video to learn more about New West’s Healthy Windows: 

Lighting

We have paid close attention to the concept of Human-Centric Lighting (HCL), understanding how lighting enhances a space and can influence your mood and productivity. HCL emulates natural daylight patterns in your home, which directly affects your physical, emotional and mental well-being. Our HCL systems combine intelligent lighting control with LED lamps and fixtures that can change lighting colour temperatures and intensity.

Using scenic presets, with a touch of a button, homeowners can override the natural environment. This allows you to create a more stimulating or relaxing indoor environment.

Article

How Human Centric Lighting Increases Productivity and Health Benefits

Flooring

The floors we use in our New West Luxury custom homes are Canadian made and manufactured without solvents, volatile organic compounds or formaldehyde and meet the strictest standards for toxic emissions. Our Pure Genius® flooring by Lauzon goes one step further. The exclusive, advanced technology of Pure Genius® is a light-activated, air-purifying agent made of titanium dioxide, which is integrated into a Titanium floor finish. It works constantly, without any loss of performance over time, for as long as the finish lasts.

Pure Genius® improves the indoor air quality of your home, without compromising the quality and appearance of your hardwood flooring. It makes the air in your home up to 85% purer!

Watch this video to learn more about Pure Genius®, New West’s Healthy Flooring: 

Eliminating Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s)

One of the cornerstones of our healthy homes initiative is choosing to use building products, furnishings, fabrics, paints, glues, and varnishes that do not contain Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s). VOC’s are chemicals that pollute the air and are detrimental to our health.

These chemicals are used in the manufacturing of certain products or are specifically added to products. They easily evaporate at room temperature and are therefore labelled “volatile”. VOC’s can irritate the eyes, nose and throat, cause allergies, headaches, nausea, damage to the liver, kidneys, and central nervous system, and in some cases, can even cause cancer. It only makes sense that wherever possible, we eliminate VOC’s in our home when so much time is spent indoors.

Air Quality

Maintaining quality indoor air is essential to your family’s health. Inadequate ventilation, contaminants, chemicals and even odors can impact your home’s air. This can make existing illnesses worse, trigger allergies or cause new health problems to develop.  New West’s custom homes integrate the most advanced solution when it comes to whole house air cleaners and purifier systems. This ensures clean air is distributed to all rooms in your home. Our low maintenance, superior performance systems mitigate the presence of VOC’s, bacteria, mold, allergens, and viruses in your home.

Intelligent Home Technology

New West custom homes are helpful, intelligent homes, outfitted with the latest technology systems that integrate seamlessly with our Healthy Homes initiative. Our custom home networks mean you will always have a reliable, secure internet connection to support your connected lifestyle. This minimizes the frustration that comes from slow internet connections, internet drops or endless buffering. Our technology helps homeowners Manage the Home, Work from Home, Learn from Home, Play at Home, and Supports Health at Home. Knowing your family is always safe, protected by our robust security systems and life and safety systems, minimizes stress, and provides peace of mind.

As well, you never have to worry about your biggest investment because you can confidently lock it and leave it, with the ability to access control of your home and manage it remotely, wherever you are in the world. Healthy living means balanced living; our home automation systems improve productivity so you can enjoy maintenance free living with your time better spent on the activities that bring you joy and fulfillment.

Watch this video to learn more about New West’s Intelligent Home Technology

Accessibility

A Healthy Home means that it is accessible to all family members, regardless of their age or ability. Proactively planning and ensuring your home can support you or a loved one, regardless of any life changing circumstances is important.

One of the biggest misconceptions about accessible home designs is that you must sacrifice aesthetic appeal for function, which is not the case. If required, we can also provide technology adaptations that offer life changing environmental control solutions that support disabled and physically challenged individuals, their families, and caregivers. Building a home with New West means you can build a forever home that is adaptable to any health challenges or changes and supports aging in place initiatives.

Ensuring your custom home is a healthy home, will always remain our top priority!

Read the Calgary Herald article featuring New West Luxury Homes’ Healthy Homes initiative: