Remodeling Green

Remodeling is one of the biggest growth industries these days.  With the price of replacing your home going up all the time, many are choosing to redo the home they have, adding space or refinishing space to meet their changing needs.  When you are planning to remodel, do it "green".

Green building practices are not just macro-environmental (the outside of your home - how the building materials, methods etc. impact the air/water/earth) but also micro-environmental.  The "Micro-Environment (my term) consists of your home's latent risks or benefits to your health and wallet.  Here's two examples of an impact on the micro-environment:

Kitchen cabinets - The vast majority of cabinets sold today at home centers are made from particleboard of some sort.  Particleboard contains toxic glues (which hold the particles together) which can "outgas" into your micro-environment and pose a health risk.  Using hardwood cabinets or properly assembled melamine-coated ones will reduce and even eliminate this latent health risk.  Read an article on the subject here

"Can lights" or recessed lighting -they have the unintentional consequence of poking lots of holes in the "envelope" of insulation surrounding your home, which means your home is bleeding heat you paid for...but the solution is to use airtight light fixtures (readily available) so the envelope remains secure.

In addition to eliminating possible health risks, smart remodeling can correct some of your home's deficiencies in other areas such as insulation.  What better time to fix issues than when the home is "torn up" already?

For an excellent set of guides to green remodeling, click here.

  ©2008 Jeff R. Geoghan