Wall to wall or not at all?

What's healthier? Carpet or wood flooring? It's a classic debate. But when considering indoor air quality concerns, we can look to science for some simple answers.

Both carpet and wood flooring products can come filled with toxins, depending on what your installing. With a little research, however, products can be found to minimize this. But what about the long run?

Carpet: when new, carpet acts as an air filter, drawing dust out of the air and capturing it in it's fibers. However, this only lasts for a limited time, until the fibers get filled and the " filter" gets clogged.

Flooring: non-fibrous flooring doesn't have filtering capabilities like carpet, but if swept and cleaned regularly in a well insulated home is the better choice for clean air.

I like a combination. A sustainable bamboo floor with some natural fiber, washable area rugs offer the best of both. Remember when you used to see people beat the dust out of their rugs on the porch?

Welcome Tribune Readers!

Hello Everyone!

It's been quite awhile since my last postings, I've been really busy lately helping people offline to "green" their homes and attending some amazing sustainable events and seminars. The technology in green building is changing so rapidly that it can often be a challenge to absorb it all. Even for someone as obsessed with this stuff as I am. Anyway, please take a look at my past posts, subscribe to my blog, and stay on the lookout! I've got a ton of posts topics ready to write and will be posting 2-3 times per week. With the help of my daughter, I'm hoping to begin some video blogging soon as well.

Thanks for visiting and be sure to leave me your comments!

Ever green,

The Green Guy

How to Handle that H2O?

So much to do, so little time! Sorry readers for not getting back to you sooner. I've been incredibly swamped of late.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to chat with SF Mayor Gavin Newsom about the future of green efforts in the city. The answer? It's in the water.

San Francisco will be taking a renewed look at their water conservation programs in the coming year as our historical statewide drought cycle continues. They will continue to offer incentives to home owners to replace inefficient toilets, shower heads and faucet fixtures. Also, look out for opportunities to replace your traditional water heaters with tankless, on-demand varieties.

Unfortunately, SF doesn't have the same opportunities with regard to water reclamation. This Green Guy sees a huge future in reclamation practices, for both professional and DIY systems. Demand for water will soon compare to oil's as drought cycles and population booms collide.

If you live in a single family home, think about how you could use water that you've collected when it rains, whether to wash your car or water your lawn. Nature intended for the water to be put to use, why let it be runoff?

How much "green" do I need to go Green?

I'm frequently asked by clients if remodeling "Green" is more expensive. The answer is an astounding NO!

Competition in the burgeoning market of green construction is booming, bringing prices down for a wide variety of sustainable materials. At the same time, standard, non-sustainable materials are rising in price due to the decrease in their availability.

Labor prices for green building are complimenting this trend in materials as well. Green building specialists, who have been previously able to ask higher prices for their expertise, are no finding that they must be more competitive. As more contractors enter the green building marketplace, homeowners can expect Green building to become as competitively priced as traditional building practices.

Eventually, thanks to changes in federal, state and local public policies, Green building will become the new standard building practice and the need to ask, "Is Green building more expensive?" will become moot.

Bicycle Garage Built for 2

I've been thinking a lot lately about DIY weekend projects that will have substantial impact for green minded people. (I've had a lot of time to think, since its been a while since my last blog, sorry!)

My favorite is the bicycle garage. If you live in a suburban neighborhood like I do, chances are you have a modest house with a garage or driveway designed to accommodate your oil-addicted vehicles. For those of you who have given up your four-wheeled oil albatross, hats off! Most of us have bicycles, left forlorn in far recesses of our garage, hidden behind holiday decorations and yard equipment. Sadly, for many of us, retiring our cars may not yet be possible.

However, we can reduce our natural tendencies to jump in the car for local driving. The Danish use bicycles this way very effectively. For local trips to the market and around town, they jump on their bicycles, reserving a trip in the car for longer commutes.

I propose that if you want to do a weekend home improvement that will reap big Green rewards and reduce your carbon footprint in a big way, build a bicycle garage.

It doesn't have to be big. A lean-to style shed attached to the side of your garage to house 2 bicycles can be built in a weekend for less than $200. Even less, if you recycle the materials from an old deck or a fence (Always recommended).

The benefits of making your bicycles more accessible:

• Less dependency on fossil fuels & a lower carbon footprint
• Increased excercise (the good cardio-vascular kind)
• Improved community engagement - riding bicycles allows people to be more connected with their surroundings
• Fuel savings

The Bicycle Garage Built for 2 is a home improvement with exponential environmental benefits. Its also a project that you can feel good about having built as well as a project that will make you feel better as you begin to ride. Green building is often holistic, involving responsible building practices as well as lifestyle changes.

Good luck and thanks for staying sustainable!

p.s. If you'd like some ideas for how to make your own bicycle garage, send me a comment and I'd be happy to chat with you about it.

Decks without deforesting!

Hello out there! I've been a busy builder this last week, I've been consulting with a number of new clients on projects ranging from room additions to bathroom remodels to options for decking. That being said, its been awhile since I've had the time to contribute to my blog.

Anyway, I'm back and excited about decking again! Since I've gone green people have asked me how I feel about building decks and until now, I haven't had a definitive answer. Redwood, cedar and ipe are all wonderful, naturally weather and pest resistant traditional decking materials that, while gorgeous, are being deforested worldwide at an alarming rate.

The plastics industry has tried to offer some alternatives such as composite decking and PVC decking that look-like and can be handled like wood. Unfortunately, these products just don't hold up when tested against the elements or standard "green" principles. First of all, plastics crack, warp and get extremely hot in warm weather. As composite materials weather, the wood fibers in them collect moisture and mold that discolor the decking. Furthermore, since composite decking is a combination of plastic and wood material, they to date are non-recyclable. Once the deck is no longer useful the deck cannot be disposed of. PVC isn't much better, since a portion of the material has to be virgin oil products and the process of manufacturing holds such a heavy carbon footprint.

And let's be honest, plastics just don't have the natural beauty of wood decking.

However, all hope is not lost! Let me introduce... BAMBOO DECKING!

This stuff is awesome! Bamboo is a rapidly renewable natural resource. Bamboo is already being used to replace hardwood floors, paneling, wall coverings, carpets, cloth, etc. and so forth. And now bamboo decking is available that has many of the same properties as redwood, cedar and ipe with the natural beauty unavailable by plastic alternatives. And it feels good under your feet!

Bamboo decking is sold by the linear foot and is made by compressing bamboo fibers into a denser board form and sealed with a soy-based oil for added protection. The glues used to bind the fibers contain no urea formaldehydes, resulting in a product that does not "gas-off" toxins as it dries out. Oh, and did I mention it costs about the same as traditional deck surfaces?

All in all, this is my new favorite for decking. I'd suggest you try it on your next project. This is what I'll be using for my backyard.

Here's a link of the outfit in San Diego that carries it: http://www.calibamboo.com/bamboodecking.html?gclid=CJW_rM6kq5wCFRlcagodMElskg

Green Concrete? (Part 2)

As promised, I'm back with more thoughts on Green concrete mixes. While it's not a perfect green solution, at least the industry is attempting to focus on the enormous carbon footprint that the production of concrete represents. Following are some pros and cons to current concrete mixes attempting to provide more responsible products:

Pros

1. Removes fly ash (captured coal industry pollutants) from landfills
2. Needs less water than standard concrete mixes
3. Requires less quarrying of virgin materials
4. Creates an extremely high density concrete

Cons

1. Health affects are not known
2. May attribute to radon build-up in homes & release toxins into interiors
3. Takes longer to set up than standard concrete
4. No environmental standards for these products have been developed yet

While there are some big drawbacks for the uses of Green concrete mixes, all is not lost. I would recommend using this concrete whenever possible for projects that are outside. Retaining walls, pathways, fence posts, etc.. This way, the possible health concerns can be mitigated while finding a way to trap these coal byproducts in something other than landfills. Let's give a shout out to the cement guys for trying and the encouragement to keep it up! In the meantime, if you have an immediate product, Quickrete has a ready-mix Green concrete (1101-63) with 50% recycled content you can ask for. Contact Quickrete for a supplier near you at: http://www.quikrete.com/ContactUs/Main.asp