Green building practices aren't just about being eco-friendly and saving the planet. It's possible for us all to get away from the political implications and focus on the bottom line, saving natural resources and using superior engineered building materials.
There are two ways to green your home and save money on utility bills. For most of us, that means retrofitting with more insulation, making the move to install radiant barrier foil in the attic, upgrading to power-saving Energy Star appliances, and other home improvements.
The other way is starting from scratch with new construction and building green from the ground up. Either way, it's a win-win. How do we go about making these energy conserving changes? In some cases it's about doing things different ways; other times it is simply a matter of substituting one material for another.
Concrete Foundations and Walls
Whether your home is built with a concrete slab on grade, a pier and beam foundation, or employs a basement configuration, concrete is going to be involved. Conventional concrete is a mixture of Portland cement, various aggregates, and water.
How can this mixture be improved upon? By replacing some of the Portland cement with fly ash. Fly ash is basically a waste product from coal-powered power generation plants. It usually goes into the land fill. Fly ash is also being added to EcoRock, a green building drywall substitute.
One new trend is building exterior walls using insulated concrete forms (ICFs). These are particularly useful in resisting hurricanes and wildfires. The ICFs are assembled in a modular fashion and are poured with concrete.
Building Walls with Finger-Jointed Stud Framing
The term finger-joint studs is self-explanatory; they are made from short chunks of wood or cast-off studs that otherwise would go into the landfill. The pieces are glued together with using a finger joint, very similar to wood joinery with a box joint.
The result is framing members are stronger than conventional lumber. They are also less likely to be warped because of the way they are assembled.
Home Construction with Engineered Wood
Engineered wood is really entering the industry at an expanding rate. Two examples are I-joists and OSB. I-joists are being used for floor and ceiling joists. Like the studs mentioned above, they are straighter and stronger than solid-sawn timber.
The acronym OSB stands for Oriented Strand Board and has largely replaced plywood for applications like roof sheathing and subfloors. It's made of large strands or chips of wood that otherwise would have been discarded or burned. They are compressed into sheets using waterproof glue. An added benefit is that sheets of OSB eliminate the need for subfloor vapor barriers.
The bottom line? It's increasingly more possible to build in a sustainable manner, save money in the long run, and reuse valuable natural resources.
Kelly Smith - Kelly has over 30 years experience as a journeyman carpenter and 20 as a freelance writer and photographer.
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