Home Performance Guild of Nebraska
We are constantly being asked for a list of “good contractors”. Often, this is difficult because “good” is both subjective and conditional. It is conditional in that an insulating company may be excellent at installing attic insulation, but terrible at installing insulation into the walls or crawlspace. Or an HVAC company that excels at service and repairs, but performs poorly at installing new air conditioners. It is also subjective in that the contractor may have done their job technically well, but left a mess behind. This is why the contractor recommendation from your neighbor turned out so bad you haven’t spoken to him in 6 months. The mess didn’t bother your neighbor, but drove you crazy! Like most cities, Omaha has its share of good and bad residential contractors. I’ve never met a contractor trying to do a “bad” job, but it does happen. The solution isn’t Angie’s List, but commissioning.
The term commissioning comes from shipbuilding. A commissioned ship is one deemed ready for service. Before being awarded this title, however, a ship must pass several milestones. Equipment is installed and tested, problems are identified and corrected, and the prospective crew is extensively trained. A commissioned ship is one whose materials, systems, and staff have successfully completed a thorough quality assurance process. In commercial construction, most new buildings undergo this process. The process also works for existing commercial buildings (termed retrocommissioning), where the goal is to improve how the building performs.
The retrocommissioning process also exists in the residential market. The Home Performance Guild of Nebraska is a 501(c)6 nonprofit committed to promoting safe, healthy, comfortable, sustainable, high performing, and energy efficient homes based on applied building science. Like traditional guilds and trade associations, one of the main goals of the Home Performance Guild of Nebraska (NE Guild) is to “raise the bar” among local residential contractors both professionally and technically. The NE Guild meets monthly for training, guest speakers, share ideas, talk about new building products, and discuss building science theory. More importantly to midtown home owners, the NE Guild also provides homeowners with a retrocommissioning process to improve their home’s performance. This 3-step process includes a home evaluation or inspection, written scope of work for home performance upgrades, contractor pool to perform the scope of work, and finally 3rd party independent verification of the upgrade work. The NE Guild also provides education and free advice from our contractor pool for the general public at events like Earth Day and the restore Omaha Conference as well as through their website.
The term commissioning comes from shipbuilding. A commissioned ship is one deemed ready for service. Before being awarded this title, however, a ship must pass several milestones. Equipment is installed and tested, problems are identified and corrected, and the prospective crew is extensively trained. A commissioned ship is one whose materials, systems, and staff have successfully completed a thorough quality assurance process. In commercial construction, most new buildings undergo this process. The process also works for existing commercial buildings (termed retrocommissioning), where the goal is to improve how the building performs.
The retrocommissioning process also exists in the residential market. The Home Performance Guild of Nebraska is a 501(c)6 nonprofit committed to promoting safe, healthy, comfortable, sustainable, high performing, and energy efficient homes based on applied building science. Like traditional guilds and trade associations, one of the main goals of the Home Performance Guild of Nebraska (NE Guild) is to “raise the bar” among local residential contractors both professionally and technically. The NE Guild meets monthly for training, guest speakers, share ideas, talk about new building products, and discuss building science theory. More importantly to midtown home owners, the NE Guild also provides homeowners with a retrocommissioning process to improve their home’s performance. This 3-step process includes a home evaluation or inspection, written scope of work for home performance upgrades, contractor pool to perform the scope of work, and finally 3rd party independent verification of the upgrade work. The NE Guild also provides education and free advice from our contractor pool for the general public at events like Earth Day and the restore Omaha Conference as well as through their website.