Eco-Remodelers

So, we’re finally completely moved in to the new house. It’s been a crazy week and a half. But we’re completely out of our rented townhouse and into our new home. There is still so much to do. I’ve still got to finish the bedroom/office that has the bamboo floors. And, well, the list is long…

Being “green” was very difficult during the move. Some things got thrown away that should have been recycled. We had to use regular cleaning products instead of the more environmentally-friendly products. We even burned up a lot more fuel making multiple trips back and forth instead of a few big trips.

Guilt can set in very fast.

Being tired, running out of time and energy, and money can get in the way of regular green activities. The good news from our lapses in green practices? We don’t move all the time. In fact, I hope to never have to move again. Ever. That was the 2nd time we moved in just 5 months. And I’m done. Stick a fork in me…

But moving did not bring out the best in me. This got me thinking - what other anti-green habits do I have?

One bad habit I finally overcame was the need to run the sink water while I brush my teeth. I can’t figure out why I need to do this, but the temptation is still there. I still want to reach for the faucet handle and turn water on while I brush. It drives me crazy.

Where I’m still bad, however, is with paper towels and paper napkins. I love paper towels. I love those napkins. And it’s such a huge waste of materials. It’s horrible to think of all the energy used to make them, the raw materials destroyed to manufacture them, the wasted oil used to ship them, even the materials used up to package them…

But it is so easy to just rip off a paper towel and clean up a quick mess. And it seems so much more sanitary than to re-use a cloth towel.

I need to cut out this habit. I need to start using cloth for spills and for dinner napkins. I know I do. And it’s going to be a very hard habit to break. But I will work on it.

What anti-green bad habits do you still have?

One room is done! The fourth bedroom, which is also going to be my office, is finished. I installed the bamboo flooring in this room because it is my practice room - if I mess it up there, not many will ever see it!

So, the dining room will be next, but it will have to be after we move. Our current, official move-out date for our townhouse is October 15th. I’ll take up the dining room, which is considered a non-essential room at this point, after we’re in and settled.

The bamboo floor was not very difficult to install. And all the planks were perfect. I didn’t have a single bad one in the bunch.

To install this flooring, I had previously screwed down the plywood subfloor to give it a stable base.

Next, I bought an air compressor (that also came with a brad nailer) and I rented a flooring stapler from Home Depot.

I put down the black felt underlayment that I bought with my bamboo flooring. I nailed down my first row of bamboo planks using my brad nail gun. I had to cut a piece around the air conditioner register using my mitre saw. It’s important to start on the longest “outside” wall in the room - it’s usually the straightest. But you’ll want to put down a chalk line to make sure you’re installing the boards straight.

I had to nail down the 2nd row as well.

You might be able to see the brad nails in the picture above. I used a nail set and hammer to tap down the nails below the surface of the bamboo. I’ll use a wood filler that matches to cover up those nail holes.

After that, I had room to use to my stapler. I would tap each plank into place, making sure the bamboo boards were tight against each other, then I would line up the staple gun. I simple whack of the mallet on the staple gun and it would drive a two-inch staple through the tongue of the plank and into the subfloor below.

As you can see in the picture, the staple split the tongue on the bamboo plank. I backed off the pressure of the compressor to under 95 psi. This kept the staple from driving in so hard that it would split the bamboo.

I did it on my own and I completed a 13 foot by 9 foot bedroom in one day. I would line up each row of bamboo and then go along and staple each board down. Luckily, I didn’t have to use a table saw to slice up the last row to make it fit. The last row was an exact width of the bamboo plank. I did, however, have to nail in those last two rows - because the staple doesn’t allow you to have any room to strike it with the mallet when its so close to the wall.

I staggered all the boards in a random pattern. Never let the seams of the boards line up. This helps give the flooring extra strength. Also, you don’t want to install the flooring right up to the walls. You want to give the wood (or bamboo, in this case) room to expand and contract. Leave about half an inch all around the floors to make sure there is space. When you install the baseboards, if you can still see a gap then you can install a section of quarter-round to the baseboard to fill it.

Also, I did one particular room in an “un-green” fashion. While I was at Lumber Liquidators, I tried to see if they had any spare bamboo or other eco-friendly flooring options. But… they didn’t. They did have some hardwood flooring but it was in such a small amount leftover they couldn’t sell it. I only needed to fill a 6 foot by 6 foot walk-in closet in our master bedroom. So… I bought the hardwood. I needed to do it.

Using all the same equipment, I installed the flooring in our closet on Sunday.

It’s a maple hardwood that was stained a rich, red cherry color. I had just enough to fill the small closet with only one 3 foot board left over.

Even though hardwood is not a green material, I was able to put their small leftover quantity to good use so that none was wasted. I know… I’m rationalizing, but I needed flooring and I got it for less than a dollar a square foot.

Here’s a closeup shot of the stapler resting on the floorboard so it can drive the staple into the tongue.

And the final product. It turned out very nice. Now I just need to re-install the baseboards around the floor in both rooms. I’ve primed and painted the baseboards before installation to avoid spilling any paint on the new floors.

I’m still working on the house and getting it ready for the new carpet. I picked up my bamboo flooring yesterday and dropped it off. Hopefully, I can get it installed on Sunday.

In the meantime, I wanted to write a post on something that I’ve been thinking about for a while. Most people hesitate to even think about “going green” because they’re convinced it will cost them a lot of money.

So, I wanted to throw out a few ideas of how you can do your part… even if you don’t have much money to spend on being more green and lowering your carbon footprint on our planet.

Recycle - this is important to cutting down on trash in our landfills, lowering our need for foreign oil, decreasing our use of limited resources, and most areas now have recycling operations. About the only expense you would have would be the purchase of a trash can to hold your recyclables.

Pre-Cycle - Precycling is the act of lowering the amount of resources you use up. It could be a matter of avoiding unnecessary purchases all together. There are other examples, such as buying items in one large package instead of a dozen smaller ones. By precycling, you’re choosing ahead of time to buy less and use less to prevent the need for things to ever be recycled.

Turn Off the Water - drinkable water is a valuable commodity and it’s getting harder to find every year.  Many of us waste a lot of it every day. If you want to cut down on your water bill and help preserve drinkable water, you only have to make slight changes:

• Many people leave the faucet running while they brush their teeth. Gallons of water can run down the drain while you spend the needed two minutes minimum while brushing teeth.
• Turn the water off to shave (or shave at the sink.) Just fill a cup of water and use that to rinse your shaver off.
• Don’t flush your toilet after every single use. There’s an old saying, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down.” Words to live by.
• Take a bath instead of a shower every once in a while.
• Turn that 45 minute shower into a 20 minute shower. You’ll save gallons upon gallons of drinkable water.
• Fix those leaky faucets. Even a small drip can add up to gallons of good, clean water being wasted over time. You might need to spend a little for a repair kit at the hardware store, but you’ll save a lot of money.

Turn off the Lights - Every time you leave a room, shut off the lights. Even if you might be coming right back. Leaving most of the lights on in your house can burn electricity and keep your electric bill high. And, you’re not doing much for the planet by wasting electricity. The more power you need the more that coal-burning plant need to send harmful CO2 into the atmosphere.

Shut the Door - Ever stand in front of the refrigerator and wonder what you want to eat? While you’re deciding, all that cool air is falling right out the door. And then your fridge need to kick back on to replace the lost cool air and that kicks up your electric bill. Also, if you’re running your air conditioning or heater and you or your kids leave the back door open? Same thing. All that conditioned air zips right outside costing you money and the planet some valuable time.

Shut off Electronics - Even though your stereo or computer is on “stand-by”, it’s still using power. If you put all your major electronics on a power strip and shut them off completely after each use, you’ll cut down on electricity usage. And it doesn’t cost a dime…

That’s all I can think of for now. I’ll continue to add to this post as ideas come to me. Do you have any ideas on how to go green without spending any money? Let me know.

I’ve got some seriously squeaky floors…

Many of the rooms in my house have them. I decided to take care of it when I prepped our dining room for the installation of bamboo flooring I just bought. I removed the old royal blue carpeting and took it out for recycling. The pad underneath, I was forced to throw away. Those carpeting pad generally cannot be recycled.

If you have a squeak under your carpeting, linoleum, vinyl or wood floors, there’s a good chance it’s in your subfloor. The subfloor is the plywood that is nailed to the floor joists. The problem with using nails is that wood tends to expand and contract when the weather changes. Those pesky nails loosen up and when you walk on your floor, the subfloor goes up and down on those nails. That causes the squeak.

And if you happen to be removing your flooring (to install an eco-friendly cork or bamboo floor!) it is the perfect time to fix the squeaking.

I removed the carpet, pad, carpet tack strips, and all those staples that held down the padding. After that, I vacuumed the floor to get up all the small pieces of junk that I had created. Next, I pulled out my drill and some floor screws. I used inch and a half screws and followed along where I saw nails.

The subfloor nails usually go in a straight line, along the same path as the floor joist underneath. I put in screws close to the nails to really help hold down the plywood. After screwing in about 40 nails across the dining room, I was done.

I walked back and forth on all those same squeaky spots and there was no sound. I went down into the basement and looked up at the floor joists to make sure I didn’t have any screws that missed or that had caught onto anything dangerous (like electrical wiring) or expensive (like HVAC ducts.)

Had the squeaks persisted, I would probably have gone back down to the basement and put 2 x 6 boards up in between floor joists and nailed them together. Floor joists are usually 12 to 16 inches apart. I could have cut several 2 x 6 boards to that length, inserted them perpendicular to the joists, and attached them with nails. That gives longer joists added strength and can prevent those squeaks.

Next, I have to install the bamboo floors. I bought several cases from Lumber Liquidators yesterday. Once I pick them up, I’ll leave them in the dining room for 5 to 7 days. This allows the bamboo to acclimate to the temperature and humidity of the room and I’ll get a better fit (and less squeaks!) once they’re installed.

Well, I found out what a Merv Rating is today. Turns out it’s pretty important when it comes to your indoor air quality.

I wanted to replace the filter in our furnace and start from scratch. It turns out our house has an electric furnace but it also has an air quality system installed next to it. It’s a system called Aprilaire and it adjusts the humidity levels in the home as well as the indoor air quality.

Most homes have a filter on their air return or in the furnace or heat pump. The system in our house is attached to the outside and it has a rather large filter on it. Another duct has been cut into the outgoing air to allow for moisture to be added during the dry winter months.

No matter what type of system you have in your home, it’s important to inspect and change your indoor air filters on a regular basis. If your filter is clean, it allows more air to travel through it. Your system won’t have to work quite so hard to push that air through, which means you’ll save on your electric or gas bill.

While purchasing the replacement filters for the house, I noticed they had individual “Merv Ratings” on them. I had no idea what a Merv rating was. So… I looked it up.

Turns out that the Merv rating refers to how effective the filter is at removing dust and microns from the air.  The higher the number, the more effective the filter is. They go from one to sixteen. When the rating is higher, the filter can help remove some or all of dust, pet dander, pollen, and even smoke if it’s rated high enough.

Most of the typical flat filters found in a house are rated from about 1 to 4. They have a thin membrane of filtration that barely stops larger pieces of dust or debris floating through your house.

If at all possible, see if you can find a larger filter that will still fit your system. The more filtration you have, and the larger and more pleats it has, the better the air and the longer it will last. That means less recycling and better air quality.

One side effect of using a furnace or air filter is that it also keeps dust off the appliances heating and cooling coils. When those coils are dirty, there is also a drop in efficiency as they have to work harder to keep the air warm or cool.

When to Change the Filters?

If you have the flat filters that are usually less than an inch thick, you should replace them every month. It depends on how many people live in your house and whether or not you have a pet. Check the filter on a regular basis to make sure it’s not clogged, damaged, or wet.

If the filter is hard to see through, looks very gray, or has any holes in it - replace it. Your air will improve and your system will run better (saving you money and allow you to use less energy.)

I’ve been reading a lot of blogs on the green movement lately. Some are purely green sites and some just happen to have a post or two on green remodeling or a green building subject.

One thing I’ve noticed is some green blogs advocate a completely radical change or else we’re all doing no good whatsoever. Other sites might suggest that you should do what can, when you can, and if you can.  Every little bit helps, right?

I’m somewhere in the middle, I guess.

Part of me screams that things are so bad with global warming that I need to completely eliminate my carbon footprint or the entire planet is doomed. The more rational part tells me that I need to do what I can and that I need to keep doing more as I learn more. And that I need to document it all in this blog so that maybe others can follow along. And maybe be motivated to make changes themselves.

I don’t advocate The-Sky-Is-Falling approach to green renovation. I think this would scare too many people away. The giant wave that is the “green movement” right now is very important, but we need to make sure the wave doesn’t knock people over or send them running.

Not sure what you can do to make your home more green? I say do what you can, but don’t feel overwhelmed. Start with baby steps. Those who want radical changes and immediate legislation are barking up the wrong tree. Yes, we need leadership from our government and we need more incentives to go green. But to force people into making big green leaps will only cause confusion and a create a backlash that will ruin the work done so far (and to come in the future.)

Baby steps.

Do what you can but… you must do something. And you must start as soon as possible. The sky isn’t falling yet but we’re starting to see some serious cracks in it.

Going shopping for bamboo flooring for the dining room and office this weekend. I think I’ve found a few good deals at Lumber Liquidators that I need to check out.

My wife and I decided to start our painting projects in our new house.  Painting is never fun… it’s a boatload of work. And we knew we’d be blowing our whole weekend on it. But, when we bought the house, every single room was painted white. This had to be done before we moved all our furniture in.

Plus, we knew that more than likely all the rooms had been painted with regular paint that emits what are called Volatile Organic Compounds, or VOCs for short.

Why are VOCs, found in regular paint, so dangerous? These chemicals in liquid, solid, or gaseous form are found and paint and are part of your house where you live and breathe. And where your family lives and breathes. Chemicals, such as formaldehyde and benzene are added to help the performance of the paint. These dangerous additives continue to “off-gas” into a room for up to five years! But technological advances have allowed companies to create low-VOC or Zero VOC paints and stains.

After some research, I went with the Harmony paint line available at Sherwin-Williams. We painted our daughters’ rooms pink and purple and this paint, with no odors and no VOCs, worked perfectly. It’s a bit thicker than normal paint, but worked fine with a roller as well as a brush. We knew our girls could sleep in rooms with no gases that can lead to respiratory problems, cancer, or other problems causes by chemicals found in normal paint. And… we would sleep well knowing they are safe.

The paint was slightly more expensive than regular brands I’d find at Home Depot or Lowe’s. I paid $34.99 per gallon and I saw regular Behr paint at Home Depot selling for $28.99. It was definitely worth it.

We painted our youngest daughter’s room a bright pink on Saturday and painted our oldest’s room on Sunday with a color called “Potentially Purple”. We used an Eggshell finish to give the room a bit of a gloss that wasn’t too shiny but would allow easy cleanup from all the crap that kids get into (and ON walls…)

We’ll probably use the same paint in our master bedroom. I might try a few other low- or zero VOC paints in other rooms, just to test them out. The Harmony brand meets or exceeds the GS-11 criteria for any paint used in an LEED-certified homes.

Painting any room is all about preparation. Painting an interior room is very easy, if you do the correct things before you start. You should remove all the plates that cover electrical outlets and light switches. Use the blue painters tape to mask off areas you can’t remove. Put down plastic or a canvas drop cloth to protect your carpeting. I always use a primer on tough stains, or to cover up a dark paint color. After all this prep work, you’re ready to start painting.

Need to remodel a room? Use the zero VOC paint. It’s a great way to revive any room and a great way to protect you and your family.

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…

Okay. I’m ready to start turning my new (new to me!) house into a green home…

Where do I start? Oh, man, this is going to be tough.

I think it’s so much easier to have a specific project in mind and not have to deal with getting an entire house ready to live in. I’m one of those people who will pick a project and as I’m walking past another problem… I will stop and work on that new problem. I need to force myself to look at the larger picture.

We closed on our house on Tuesday (yesterday) and we had a brief window of time to take a few things over before we picked up the kids. I’ve got two daughters (4 and 9 months) and so the house is not something we can spend all day, every day, working on.

I managed to take over a lot of tools as well as a few working lights so that we could see in the dark and for safety purposes when we’re not there. I put CFL bulbs and timmers on the lights so they would turn on and off on their own and not use much energy.

Our first steps, I believe, will be to get the house ready to be painted. We’ll also need to remove the day-glow bright blue carpeting. Our plan is to recycle the carpeting at the Re-Store. It’s a store run by Habitat for Humanity where they sell items from previous remodels or use the items in the houses they build. They only take recent or new products (to make sure they are efficient products or materials.) The carpt is fairly new, but extremely ugly and not something we want to live with.

I also need to address a few problems around the house to make sure things are sealed up tighter. Many people have a high heating and/or cooling bill and it can really help to cut down on any major holes, gaps, or cracks in windows, door frames, siding, flooring, etc.

I’ll be taking a lot more tools and supplies that I’ve brought with me from L.A. over to our new house over the next day or so. I’m sure I’ll have to purchase a few things that I don’t already have.

Lots to do. Lots to do.