Posts Tagged ‘Green Building’

Forget wood, laminate, ceramic and all those other offensive gas emitting and environment degrading options for your floors and walls. No green home is green without recycled tiles. And thankfully when it comes to this, we have many options. Recycled glass tiles seem to be a hot item on the internet and also among those who want to build green homes. This is probably because everybody has use for glass tiles and they are relatively cheaper to recycle than other materials. Also, for those looking at colour and vibrancy in their showers or kitchens, recycled glass tiles are affordable and they fit the bill perfectly.
For those of you looking for something little more unique – try out recycled metal tiles. Very few people have ever really tried any kind of metal tiles; leave alone recycled metal ones but the ones at Eco Friendly Flooring leave you quite speechless. They’re made from recycled aluminium or brass and would look absolutely stunning in the kitchen or even as plain decorative elements on a wall.
Another great option is rubber flooring. Before you get ideas about bouncing along as you walk, let us make ourselves clearer: Rubber Flooring is actually safer (because it’s slip-proof); durable (because it won’t crack and will expand when your house settles); comfortable (it’s sound absorbent, soft to feel and walk on) and quite economical when compared to other options. And if you thought you might not get variety, check out Rephouse for their colours and textures.
If you find yourself confused by all the recycled flooring results when you try Google, visit www.ecosurfaces.com – a one stop shop that covers flooring surfaces made from all types of eco-friendly , materials in many colours and textures.

By using certain principles for building aspects. The passivhaus technique achieves its standards by improving on many aspects of designing and building, particularly:

1. Passive Solar Design: This entails using naturally available sunlight, the suns’ daily and annual cycles to maintain a comfortably warm home without using other heating and ventilation system. This is done by building compact structures, window orientation, using lightweight materials and other techniques.

2. Superinsulation: The walls, floor and roof of a passive house are highly thermal insulated to prevent heat from escaping. Most houses have some form of insulation, however, they will depend on traditional temperature control devices to maintain constant temperatures throughout the house. Passive houses are superinsulated, such that the walls themselves are made up of insulating materials. Because of this, there are no thermal bridges, and there needs to be no external insulation of any kind.

3. Advanced Window Technology: Windows play an important role in designing passive houses. Window placement, size, alignment, material and design help to increase natural lighting in the house without adding to the heat or using electricity. Windows for passivhaus are differently manufactured and are made with extremely thermal resistant. The glass also is generally filled with argon or krypton gas which reduces heat transfer either ways and absorbs UV rays.

We’ve been talking about passivhaus a little too many times in recent posts, and you’ve also probably been wondering about what’s so great about passivhaus. Depending on what kind of research you’ve been doing about building or remodeling you might have come across the term ‘Passive House’. Well, passivhaus is the German term for the same.

Passivhaus is a building technique, or rather a set of building principles which result in creating a house that is extremely efficiently heated and cooled without the need for any external cooling/heating system. To make things simpler – imagine your current expenditure on heating and cooling – in terms of the system/equipment, the energy usage and the maintenance. Now bring this expenditure to almost 10% of its cost – this is what the Passivhaus technique looks at achieving.

Passivhaus achieves such efficiency by the inherent design and plan of the building itself, ambient and incident sunlight and weather conditions like windiness, cloudiness and sunshine. The principles of passivhaus are rigorous and strict ensuring that the structure built is extremely air-tight, optimally utilizes ventilation, super-insulated, and can remain at constant temperatures regardless of outside weather. Most of all – passive houses are sustainable, minimizing usage of energy and creating extremely healthy indoor air quality. Any energy, is required is produced with the help of solar systems – further reducing the carbon footprint and cost.

And contrary to what you might think, passive houses are as normal looking as regular homes and also not as expensive to build as others.

Remodeling – Demolition

An eco-friendly home first begins by taking it all apart – the demolition we mean. Ideally, environment friendly construction should begin here. Here are things you can do to ensure that you have a green demolition too:

1. Start by reviewing all the times in your house, to see what can be recycled. Recycling is one of the simplest ways by which you can minimize waste, minimize cost and maximum your home’s green quotient. Start with the furniture – can you use the wood to create other things? Can you donate it? Can u refurbish it to reuse it? When you think of bringing in the new, think of what you’re going to do with the old.
2. Ensure you have a demolition crew that doesn’t tear the place down. Many items that are quite salvageable get damaged in the process of demolition. For example, you could use the bricks for the walls to pave your garden or backyard or for some other construction in the house, provided the crew knows how to bring them out intact.
3. When you finally do end up with things that you cannot put to any use, before discarding them, look for people who can put them to good use. For example, you might not know what to do with all your old plumbing pipes, or there may be items that get damaged and thus are not of any use – like glass or tiles. Contact companies that manufacture recycled construction material. They will be more than happy to get their hands on raw material or at least refer you to someone who would be.

When you finally meet a few green remodeling contractors who fit your bill, you need to discuss certain things with them in order to know which one of them you would want to trust your house to. This is a crucial junction, at which you can do a lot to ensure that the remodeling project goes off smoothly, and you get exactly the house you want. Asking the right kind of questions will help you make this possible.

1. Can he provide References: Always check a contractor’s past clients. If possible, check out the homes he has remodeled. This will give you an idea about his style and also directly get to meet with the clients. It is also important that this past project happened in the near past.
2. Is he a member of any trade association: This will ensure that your contractor has a verifiable and authentic background.
3. Why he is in this business: Green building requires a certain type of contractor. He’s got to have some environmentalist streak in him, in order to be a genuine green builder. From his answer you will be able to judge if he seems to be the genuine type.
4. Will he also get permits if required: Almost always remodeling projects require permits from local authorities. If your contractor can offer this, then it’s a huge task taken off your shoulders.
The NARI website also provides a good list of questions that you could ask contractors before selecting one.