Eco-Remodelers

Well, my first major project on the house was not a direct “green” remodeling job. Before I bought the house, the home inspector and I noticed there were some leakage problems in the basement. Part of our offer on the house included a demand to remedy the basement drainage system and shore up the walls in case there had been any extensive damage. That had all been taken care of prior to our closing on the house.

What I needed to do was take care of the cause of the problem.

I had noticed that the gutters on the house were worn out and no longer effective. There were gaps and a bad pitch on the gutters that was allowing rainwater to run right off the roof and down into the foundation of the house.

It rains a lot here in Ohio and I needed to make sure I had good protection for the foundation and basement (which I eventually hope to finish.) I spent all day on Sunday removing and replacing the gutters on the house. And when I say it wasn’t a direct green project, it will have eventual green results.

Currently, the downspouts move any rainwater down into the ground and into pipes that carry the water to the curb. The water is eventually washed down to drains on the street. All this fresh, clean rain is being wasted!

I plan to install cisterns at the end of each downspout to capture the water collected during a rain storm. Eventually, I may even try to install an underground water tank to store it all. I can use the water for irrigating my landscaping and lawn on the hot, dry days. I may even be able to use the water for flushing toilets and other household needs. But those are projects for another day.

I had to buy a ladder that would get me all the way up to the second floor. I bought new aluminum gutters, hangers, zero VOC caulk for outdoor use, and gutter guards to prevent debris from clogging up the gutters and downspouts.

The original gutters were in pretty bad shape. They were bent and barely hanging on. I only had to remove a few of the nails and they came crashing down. Unfortunately, they came down on me. I got sprayed with old, stale water and dirt. Not fun on a 90 degree humid day…

I put up the new gutters in sections. I would climb up and pound in several nails in a straight line. I would then prep my new gutter section with hangers and carry it up the ladder. I would set the gutter under the shingles from the roof and on top of the nails I had placed. Then I fastened the screws into the fascia board of the house, making sure that each 10 foot section dropped by 1/4 inch down toward the downspout.

I repeated this process until all the gutters were in place and secured to the downspouts. I applied caulk to all the seams in the gutter sections to make sure there would be no leaks. I ran out of time to install the gutter guards, but I’ll take care of that this weekend. I also plan to test the gutters at that time. I want to run a hose up and spray the roof. I’ll watch to make sure the water rolls in past the gutter guards and that there are no leaks.

If your house doesn’t have gutters or the ones you’ve got are in sad shape, I’d recommend installing a new set. It will protect your biggest investment. If you want more details on how to do it, email me at tim (at) ladaddy (dot) com. If you need to find a contractor to install gutters, you can submit a request on the ConstructionDeal.com website for free and you’ll get quotes from gutter pros the same day.

The nice thing about the old metal gutters that I removed? I can recycle them. They can be dropped off at the local recycling stations here in Dublin, Ohio and I won’t have to feel guilty about just throwing them away. If you need to find a local recycling center near you, try Earth 911. Describe your recycling product/material and where you’re located and get a list of local stations.

One of the disadvantages of buying a “used” home is that someone else made quite a few choices about it before you came along.

I was hoping to buy a home with a two car garage that had not been “finished.” A finished garage means that there is drywall installed on the studs. Usually the walls have also been textured, primed, and painted.

In the case of our house, there are walls in our garage but they haven’t been done well. I can see the drywall tape that patches two sheets together. There are holes in the drywall. And the walls are very dirty (but covered with one coat of cheap, flat paint so they can’t be washed.)

One thing I also wanted was to insulate the garage walls before I put up drywall. This would allow the room to be comfortable in cold weather and would help act as an insulating barrier between the outside and the house during winter.

I’m torn. I don’t know what I should do. I’d hate to tear down the existing drywall just to make the garage more to my liking. I’m wasting drywall by removing it, buying more, and installing it. I know that drywall can be recycled - the gypsum has to be separated from the paper, with dust being kept to a minimum - but I don’t know if it’s possible here in Ohio.

I could spend a large amount of time patching the drywall, repairing holes and bad tape jobs, and painting it. But there are so many more projects needed to be done before we can move in.

I’ll have to do some checking to see what my options are.

Update - I called around to the City of Columbus, Solid Waste Management, and a few other sources and found there is no recycling program here for drywall. If I dump it, it will go into a landfill… Which I don’t like the idea of. I may have to repair and paint the existing drywall and not bother with insulating the garage at this time…

Everyone loves their buzzwords.

The latest is “precycling.” And it’s something that I’ve been trying to get myself to think about and actually do it.

What is precycling? Well, recycling is the act of changing a product or material back to its original form or raw material to be used again in another product or material instead of tossing it in the landfill.  The thing to consider is that it takes energy (fuel for transport, energy to recycle, fuel to transport the raw materials, energy to create a new product, etc.) to recycle.

Precycling isn’t so much a technique or process. It’s taking an action to prevent the need to recycle in the first place. For example - - you could go to the grocery store and use the plastic or paper bags to take home your groceries. Then, you could recycle the bags. The truly smart move would be to take your own cloth or canvas bags to the store with you and avoid the need to recycle anything. That’s precycling.

Another way to precycle is to buy a product in the biggest container possible and using it for a longer period of time. This prevents you from using up a ton of little containers and recycling all of them. Some jumbo boxes of cereal hold as much as three regular boxes. Buy one big water bottle instead of all smaller 12 oz. bottles (I try to re-use those water bottles more than once if I ever do break down and buy them. I simply wash them off and refill them with the big jug of water.)

I try to use this justification whenever I buy pizza, too. I tell my wife that I need the ginormous extra-EXTRA large pizza that’s as big as the hood of your car instead of buying several small pizzas in all those cardboard boxes… She never goes for it.

So, we’re going to try to precycle more. We still collect all the bottles, cans, boxes, wrappers, and plastic we can and drop it off at the recycling once a week. But our goal is to try to cut down on some of our recycling as well.

Okay, so we’re only a few days away from closing on our new house. We’ve been terribly busy and it’s only going to get crazier!

We finally had a chance to take a look at our flooring options. We stopped by a local carpet store to look at what is available. The first thing we did was explain our situation - we moved to Columbus, Ohio from Los Angeles and we’re buying a house. We told the salesman that we’re going to be making it a “green” remodeling project. At one point, acknowledging that we were from California (which is almost a bad word here in Ohio), he called us “those kinda people” when we told him we wanted more green carpeting options. It was funny. He backpedaled but we think it was a Freudian slip…

Now. I know carpet isn’t the most eco-friendly flooring choice for our new house. Many truly want a green home without all the baggage that carpeting has. But you can only put so much cord and bamboo flooring in your house (and, yes, those two will be going into the house) before you say, “enough!” But we’re only going to be putting it in our living room and in the bedrooms upstairs. There is already a nice hardwood floor throughout most of the 1st floor and there is tile in the kitchen. I’m going to put in cork planks in one bedroom upstairs (my office) and I’m going to put bamboo in the dining room.

At the store, we asked if there were any green carpet lines. It turns out there is. And it was in the waaaaay ass-backend of the store. Behind a curtain. Down a flight of steps. Under a hanging bare bulb. Where only Californians would dare venture. Just kidding…

There are many types of carpet. Wool, nylon, polyester, and more.  Many claim to be stain-resistant but our last carpet in our house in L.A. was made from polyester and it was too dirty to be cleaned after 2 years. We decided we go with nylon because it wears longer, has better stain fighting treatment, and can be recycled.

Nylon comes in two types - Type 6.6 and Type 6.  Both can be recycled back into carpeting. This means that it can be considered “cradle to cradle.” This is the ultimate in green options. Anything that can come from a recycled product and then turned back in to be recycled to create that product again is designated cradle to cradle. Nylon is made from oil, which is non-recyclable, but one the carpet is made it can stay carpet for a long time.

Shaw is a company that makes Anso Premier carpeting. The Anso nylon comes with a great wear and stain 15-year warranty, a great color selection, and lots of texture choices. And, I discovered that it comes with a green “thank you” rebate of $1.50 per yard (40 yard min.) on your next carpet purchase (good for 5 years and it’s transferable to friends & family.) Their carpeting contains recycled content and the nylon 6.6 fiber can be recycled and turned back into carpet again.

So, we’re going to try it in our new house once we move in. If you’re shopping for carpeting, ask a lot of questions and see if there are any green options available where you live. The prices are reasonable and in line with standard carpeting. And most of the carpet lines now are low in Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) that can affect indoor air quality. Make sure there is a CRI Indoor Air Quality Carpet Testing Green label available on your choices.

Our house purchase is moving forward. We had a few issues with water leakage in the basement and around the chimney which were discovered at the home inspection. Those issues are being remedied by the seller before closing, so… hopefully we’re on track to begin moving in by the end of the month.

Now, our green remodeling plans can begin.

There are a few immediate concerns that we’ll have to take care of before we even start to move things into the house. We’ll need to take care of some flooring installations. We’ll need to paint. And we’ll need to purchase a few appliances.

Once those are taken care of, we can begin adding new systems to the house that will help us save energy, conserve water, recycle, and improve our air quality. I’m not going to try to do everything at once. It will be a slow process that, over time, will move the house in the direction of more sustainability and a smaller carbon footprint.

I need to make out a complete list that covers everything I want to do. I have a good idea of a lot of things I’d like to do, but no real plan to implement everything. And I want to do it as efficiently as possible - for example, I’m going to install Solatubes in the roof, would it make sense to also replace the roof with a more eco-friendly material? And while I’m up there, maybe install a roof garden? And then insulate the entire roof and attic area?

Or would it make more sense to update the roof, replace the windows, and install bamboo flooring in the kitchen? I’ll have to work out a plan to make sure I don’t spend or waste more than I have to.

For our immediate concerns, I do have some ideas. We’ll be painting the interior rooms (which are all white) as our first project. My goal is to use 100% zero VOC paints. VOC stands for Volatile Organic Compounds. Paints, glues, stains and other similar products can contain these compounds which emit a breathable gas while they are appied and after they are applied.

Today, there are high quality products on the market that do not release these potentially dangerous toxins into the air. There are a variety of low-VOC and no-VOC paints out there. We plan to use them in all the rooms we paint.

As far as appliances go — we’ll be looking for highly energy-efficient products. We will need a dishwasher and an electric stove. I’ve got a list, from the Energy Star website, for high efficiency dishwashers and stoves that I’ll use as a guide to make my purchases.

One thing I’ve been considering is the induction cooking systems. The use less energy, heat up faster, are easier to clean, and save more time than gas and conventional electric cooktops. It’s also safer - the surface of the stove does not get as hot. There are some drawbacks but I’ll have to continue my research. I do know they are more expensive, so that could be a dealbreaker.

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.

Green building. Sustainability. Water conservation. Solar energy.

Those words have been floating around for many years now. And they’re starting to make it into everyday conversations. People have decided to help protect the planet, help protect their families and homes, and to save money.

I’ve decided to do my part as well. My plan is to buy a home, here in Columbus Ohio, and turn it into a “green” home. This blog, EcoRemodelers, will cover the journey to make the house a safe home for family and to reduce my carbon footprint on our environment.

My goal is create a How-To guide as I learn how to do all these green renovations myself. I want to cover all aspects of the home - energy efficiency, indoor air quality, recycling, alternative power sources, and green home products to name a few. And I want to try out a few remodeling projects that are expensive as well as many that are absolutely free.

Whether you’re a professional renovation contractor or you’ve never picked up a hammer in your life, my hope is that you’ll get something out of my trials and (many) errors. Maybe you’ll try a few things in your own home. Maybe together we can make a difference and help our planet and our wallets at the same time!

Stick around. Come back often. Laugh at me. Laugh with me. Watch as I slide on these green-colored glasses and do my little part in my little corner of our big blue planet.

Email me at tim (at) ladaddy (dot) com if you have questions, comments, ideas or whatever.

Photo courtesy the Sierra Club