Habitat building green in Carpentersville

Habitat for Humanity of Northern Fox Valley has built more than four dozen homes, helping people get an affordable roof over their heads.

Now, the nonprofit organization is building a home that remains affordable once the homeowner moves in.

The home at 140 Lord Ave. in Carpentersville will be the organization's first green home, an environmentally friendly structure that uses recycled parts, energy efficient materials and natural products.

"This is a prototype for what we will do in the future," said Bill Klaves, Habitat for Humanity of Northern Fox Valley's development director. "It is at the higher end of our price range, but the trade-off is that it is more energy efficient. That makes it more affordable for the homeowners to maintain."

Klaves said the home should be complete before Christmas.

The organization and volunteers from Thrivent Financial started work on the foundation on the two-story, 1,350-square-foot home on Thursday.

That base layer utilizes a material that is typically considered harmful to the environment: plastic foam blocks.

But Jack Board, project manager for Weblock, the Lebanon, Ohio-based company that produces the foam block foundation, says the material is environmentally safe as a building product.

"It never decomposes," Board said. "You don't want your foundation to decompose. It is an excellent insulator, keeping the home warmer and drier. The energy savings is almost 70 percent."

The plastic foam insulator also uses about 30 percent less concrete, which is expensive to produce, Board added.

In addition to the foam block foundation, Klaves said, the home will include reused interior fixtures, heavy insulation in the attic and a soy-based insulation.

"We are doing our piece to save the environment," Klaves said.