Passive-home neighborhood emerges between Loveland, Fort Collins

LARIMER COUNTY — In what may be the only fully passive home neighborhood in the region, the two partners in Black Timber Builders LLC are marrying modern design with techniques to make an entire neighborhood energy-efficient.

Passive-home construction uses techniques that achieve a finished product that is 90% more efficient than a traditional home and are so resistant to exterior weather forces that their internal temperature varies little from season to season.

They achieve that goal by using highly efficient windows, aggressive application of insulation, and installing ventilation systems that include an air cleaning system to preserve resident comfort.

Russell Baker and Kyle Meyer, partners in Black Timber, are well on the way to accomplish that.

In a 40-acre subdivision called the Estates at Donath Lake, in the netherland between Loveland and Fort Collins, the company is building 13 homes — four are built or under construction, two more are designed and ready for construction, and another is in design. The homes are high-end, well-designed and modern structures with lots of amenities. 

The one at 8301 Four Points Court sold in December for $2.7 million. It’s 3,770 square feet on nearly two acres. Not yet occupied — its owners are planning to retire in Colorado — it still has some construction occurring, namely an outdoor pool and poolhouse.

Each of the homes in the subdivision will be uniquely designed with the only requirement being that they be created to meet passive home standards. The home at 8301 just received its certification.

“We had no idea what a passive home was,” Baker said. “Once explained, we saw a lot of interest. I love the concept. I love the comfort factor. We looked at the land and the lots and saw that this would be a good place to do it.” 

Black Timber was created by Meyer in 2011 in Boulder. In 2015 it moved operations to Northern Colorado, and in 2020 Baker joined the company, Meyer said. 

Baker’s experience was in land development; Meyer’s expertise was in homebuilding.

“We wanted to control our destiny,” Baker said. That meant buying land, entitling it, designing structures for the property, building and selling — a vertically aligned company, Meyer said. The company employs the carpenters and others instead of subcontracting. That way it can control the finished product, which in the case of passive homes requires additional training and attention to detail.

Walls are 2X6 frame construction with four inches of exterior insulation. Inside the insulation is an air barrier carefully installed so that all edges are sealed. In other words, no leaks from inside to outside.

The house at 8301 Four Points does not have a basement, but it does have a crawl space where air handling/air cleaning equipment is installed.

Windows are highly efficient and of a European style that swing in and/or open from the top. Doors to areas outside the passive envelope — the interior garage door and front door, for example — are thicker than normal and seal tightly, almost resembling the door on a fire-resistant safe. 

The pillars of passive homes, said Meyer, are “super insulated, airtight construction including under the house, high performance glazing usually triple panes with an argon gas filler, and air quality” technology.

Passive homes recover heat from the people within them and from solar energy. The solar system for the Four Points home will generate 110% of the home’s load, meaning about 10% will go back to the Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association grid.

The home does have an electric heat pump for those times when solar energy isn’t available.

“We wanted to see what we could do with modern architecture, not just a block structure. Our goal was to spec this development,” Meyer said. The Four Points home was built on speculation and sold soon after it was put on the market.

While the homes in the Donath Lake subdivision are high-end, the passive nature of the homes adds just 5% to 10% to the cost, Meyer said.

As Black Timber builds out this subdivision, it also has other projects in the works, including townhomes at Ketcher Farms in Windsor, Eagle Brook in Loveland and Old Town North in Fort Collins. It soon will start on a 175-acre Sugar Creek neighborhood in north Loveland that will include “a myriad of product types,” Baker said.

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