Homeowners who are environmentally conscious are today concentrating mainly on green remodeling. By going 'green', you may experience reduced building and maintenance costs and in the process, improved health. So even if your home is not 'green' you can always think of 'green' remodeling to make it green.
- When venturing into 'green' remodeling, you have to choose amongst options, features and products that serve your interests the best. When buying materials, choose organic, healthy and low impact things like bamboo flooring, natural plasters, natural fiber carpeting, low VOC paints and stains and non-synthetic and natural finishing like bedding linens and cleaning products.
- Other options you have are products with high levels of salvage like natural stone and lumber, agricultural byproducts like linoleum and wheat board and recycled products like fly ash in concrete. As these products are durable and come with low maintenance, they don't have to be replaced or refinished often. This way money and energy is saved, while waste is kept out of landfills.
- You could also consider products produced locally or regionally when going into green remodeling. This is because these local products support the local economy and have lower levels of embodied energy. This means that less energy and resources is used during its production and transportation as everything is found and done locally.
- Besides using these ecologically safe products and materials for green remodeling, there are some tips you have to bear in mind for reduced consumption of energy in your home. Use more of solar power through solar water heaters, passive solar and photovoltaics, where electricity is generated from solar power.
- Have a long lasting metal roof or use light colored 40 year old shingles for your roof as it is reflective, thus absorbing less heat and lowering air conditioning bills.
- When you are re-siding the exteriors of your home, use oriented strand board or low formaldehyde material.
- Install water efficient fixtures like low-flow shower heads and faucet aerators and dual flush flush toilets to reduce your utility bills.
- When choosing tiles, re-use salvaged tiles with 50% or more of recycled content in them.
- Chose your windows while taking insulation, infiltration prevention and durability into consideration for better heating and cooling of the home, and thus reduced utility bills.
- Use LED bulbs instead of incandescent light bulbs, and make sure built in lighting fixtures can accommodate LED bulbs too.
- In addition to all this, you could have a home recycling center that will help ease the burden on local landfills.
- Also have rain barrels kept under the roof or gutter for prevention of contaminated runoff, with urban pollutants, from traveling into lakes and rivers by trapping this water. This water can later be use for watering the yard or garden.
- Even consider setting a rain garden on a low point of the garden to collect rainwater to be used later.
By bearing all these points in mind while green remodeling, you are sure to be proud pretty soon of your environmentally friendly house.
James Tyler is the owner of Ace Builders, a residential remodeling company serving the Raleigh, North Carolina area. Tyler writes about issues relating to all types of remodeling and home improvement projects.
For more information, tips and advice visit http://www.acebuilders.net
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