Earth Friendly Building Materials

jchait — Sat, 10 May 2008 02:40:27 -0400

Green is fairly subjective. We do have LEED and independents (folks not following LEED but who do set and follow green building standards), so there is green building and green material use. It's complicated because so far no one has been able to ultimately agree on what's the greenest list of building products. Some people think that a lower VOC paint is just fine, while some think truly green would be no VOC. Some think reclaimed is better than sustainable harvested woods, and some people think you shouldn't build at all new, no matter the greenness of a product.

If you do want to build or renovate green, how then, with all the opinions, do you choose green building materials?

Environmental Building News (EBN) published a useful list that I read a while back with some great tips about how to choose green building materials. Technically it was what makes a material green, but same idea; it helps you choose. Summed up, EBN notes the following traits of green building materials.

Products made from one or more of the following - recycled materials, salvaged materials, or agricultural waste content. This seems pretty basic, but check your products carefully. Some reclaimed or recycled products have newer materials added to them. If your goal is full on green, you'll want to aim for a high percentage of reuse or recycled material.

Materials that preserve natural resources: Materials that last a long time (thus not needing to be replaced), use less of a natural resource than a conventional brand, or materials that we can reproduce rapidly are examples.

Materials that don't produce harmful toxins or emissions, or reduce toxins and other problems (like pesticides) by a decent percentage.

Materials that contribute to a healthy and safe environment: For example, products that help to remove indoor pollution, or block the production of something harmful like mold.

Each of these material issues is made up of many smaller factors and examples. Eventually we'll look at each more in-depth, but now at least you have a good basic check off list.

Building A Reclaimed House - Where To Find Used Materials

jchait — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 02:15:07 -0400

Building a homes with a lot of reclaimed materials sounds cool - if you can find the goods. Luckily, locating material for reuse in home remodeling or home builidng is not that difficult. What's hard is the time it takes to find the right materials for your home projects - be it building anew, or simply adding on to an already standing home. There's a lot to choose from in relation to reclamied materials, so make an initial plan about the items you need, i.e. "Door" and be flexible with your imagination.

Now where to look...

1. Habitat ReStores: ReStores are shops that sell nice quality used building supplies and other home project materials. Their prices are higher up on the resale market but much lower than supplies you'd buy new. Proceeds from ReStores help build Habitat houses within a given community, which is a bonus of shopping there. I love the ReStore shops I've been in. The materials are usually very high quality and unique.

2. The Building Materials Reuse Association (BMRA): sThis non-profit is an educational resource for those interested in deconstruction and the reuse plus recycling of recovered building materials. They offer a handy directory of reuse stores at their website.

3. Deconstruction companies: You can contact companies locally and learn about sales they may be having of salvaged building materials.

4. The Reclaimed Wood Council: This organization can giveyou all the basics about reclaimed wood and hook you up with real reclaimed wood specilaity companies.

5. Your basic salvage shop, thrift store, antique dealer, garage sale, and more: Any place that sells used goods has the potential to sell something you might want to use for your house. These places won't of course sell floor planks or a ton of scrap metal, but they may very well have cubboards, sinks, tubs, and more up for grabs. Just be careful of quality at places like these.

6. Cheap stuff: Online resources like Freecycle and Craigslist have made it super cheap to find almost anything you need. One issue here is quality and another is safety. Never allow folks to bring a "deal" to your home. Meet up in public, with a pal tagging along. However, you can score some pretty decent stuff.

7. Free stuff!: Dumpster diving, asking friends, looking around a junk yard and colleges with building programs all may offer free and usable goods. Some junk yards charge for items some don't you'll have to check around. The downside waiting around and searching for the perfect product of course takes a lot of time. The up side; well, it is free.

There are plenty of other places you can score reused or recycled materials for home building purposes. I'm sure this is a topic we'll re-visit.