A high-performance shell is the ultimate starting point for creating an energy-efficient, eco-friendly residence for a homeowner. Elevated shells include expertly crafted wall and roof systems, ready for your unique finishes. Each shell incorporates modern building science, sustainable construction practices, and natural, nontoxic materials to help meet specific energy and design goals.
As no two projects are the same, custom homes require custom solutions. Our team offers personalized guidance during the planning phase, helping you determine the best shell design to align with your energy, budget, and construction goals.
With Passive House Certified Tradespeople on our team, we bring a level of expertise that ensures every step of the process supports your goals. Tasks like air-sealing and proper window and exterior door installation are meticulously executed to optimize energy performance and durability.
A shell home from Elevated is the ideal solution for builders and owner-builders alike. For builders, it provides a reliable, high-quality framework to meet rigorous energy standards. For owner-builders, it’s a game-changer. Our team handles the complex structural work, ensuring your home is properly dried-in and ready for mechanical systems and interior finishes.
When you choose an Elevated high-performance shell, you’re not just starting a home, you’re setting the stage for a sustainable, efficient, and beautiful living space. Let us help you build the perfect framework for your dream home.
We employ four types of shell home construction:
Our prefabricated wall and roof panels are expertly crafted in our shop to deliver exceptional thermal performance and unmatched convenience. By combining structural lumber, sheathing, and insulation into easy-to-install components, these panels allow a building to be dried-in within days of starting on-site.
Each project that incorporates our high-performance panels is custom-designed and meticulously planned to reduce on-site labor while achieving superior energy efficiency. The result is an exceptionally air-tight structure with impressive insulation value, providing long-term comfort and durability.
Designing for high-performance panels does require thoughtful planning. Thicker wall assemblies, precise window and door detailing, and custom roof support structures are all key considerations. If you already have plans for your home, our team can review the drawings and provide suggestions on how to seamlessly integrate high-performance panels, ensuring your project benefits from the efficiency and quality these systems bring.
Prefabricated panels from Elevated Design Build offer a construction method that blends innovation, sustainability, and craftsmanship for a home that’s built to perform.
High-performance framing takes the familiar 2x lumber construction method used in most U.S. homes and enhances it with thoughtful design and expert craftsmanship to dramatically improve energy performance. By incorporating techniques like those found in Passive House construction, our skilled carpenters go far beyond minimum building code standards to create air-tight, thermally superior wall and roof systems that set a new benchmark for quality and efficiency.
This approach offers numerous benefits that elevate a home’s construction:
High-performance framed shells can be constructed using various methods, each suited to the unique architectural and structural design of your home. Our team carefully evaluates your project to determine the best approach, ensuring a result that aligns with your energy goals and vision for a sustainable, comfortable living space.
With Elevated Design Build, high-performance framing transforms traditional construction into an innovative, efficient, and environmentally conscious solution for homebuilding.
Straw bales and natural materials are exceptional building blocks for creating safe, healthy, and energy-efficient homes.
Originating in Nebraska in the late 1800s, some straw bale structures from that era still stand today as a testament to their durability and effectiveness.
In Colorado’s dry climate, straw bale homes excel at providing thick insulation to keep winter cold and summer heat at bay. These homes also promote superior indoor air quality, with walls that naturally absorb carbon from the air, making them feel like a truly healthy and inviting place to live.
Building with straw bales requires thoughtful planning to ensure durability and proper construction sequencing. Once installation begins, progress moves quickly as the bales stack like bricks. For those interested, it’s even possible to join the installation process and add personal sweat equity to the project.
After the bales are installed, skilled craftspeople finish the walls with durable, nontoxic plaster, creating a beautiful, sustainable envelope for your home. Straw bale construction offers a timeless, eco-friendly solution for homeowners seeking comfort, sustainability, and charm.
Elevated’s experienced team of craftspeople can work with other natural materials to fabricate the walls for your shell on-site, including:
If having a home built with natural materials piques your interest, you can read more about the benefits of these construction techniques in the links below:
Natural Building Alliance
Strawbale.com
Parsons Healthy Materials Lab
Similar to our prefabricated wall and roof panels, Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) are a prefabricated product that combine structural lumber, sheathing, and insulation into easy-to-install panels for walls and roofs.
Using foam insulation sandwiched between structural facings, SIPs offer high R-value and ease of installation while providing a tight building envelope that reduces air leakage. SIPs typically use petrochemical foams to achieve their high insulation values, which could be a consideration when deciding which assembly is best for your home.
Regardless of the method or materials you choose for your shell home, bringing your vision to reality is a journey that blends craftsmanship, precision, and collaboration. At Elevated, we guide you through every step, ensuring a seamless and rewarding experience.
The degree of construction Elevated provides owner-builders who want to manage their own home build depends solely upon their desire for assistance. Components of the construction that may be mixed and matched include:
A shell package may then be built for you from the components into the configuration that will best set you up for success.
For owner-builders interested in performing their own GC work without going through the design process, we offer a limited number of small cabin designs. We will construct the insulated panels in our shop and deliver them to you onsite, ready to finish out into a snug little home in the mountains or on the plains.
Shell home packages from Elevated offer a number of advantages for owner-builders and building professionals. To learn more about how to incorporate one into your next project, contact us. We’d love to hear about your ideas.
