green renovation

Barrel Vault Ceiling Finished!

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 02:17:51 -0400

Haven’t been many posts from GreenRenovation lately, and for that I apologize. But this video should kick things off nicely!

We’ve been working hard, so no time for the website. Oh, and we did head to Australia for a month, which was nice! But took a lot of time.

Many thanks to Kevin Rowe of Appalachian Sustainable Development. He's a sustainable wood products broker that provided the sustainably harvested maple.

For now, enjoy this great video of my maple barrel vault ceiling installation. Lot of work, but it looks nice. Let me know what you think in the comments!

©2012 Joseph W. Edgell, Jr.

Cherry Tree Shoji Screen Closet Door Install

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 23:38:44 -0400

Been insanely busy here at GreenRenovation. Trying to catch up on our project as our permit expires in October. Yesterday was closet door install and today was finishing up the wood flooring. While there are still some finishing details, the doors are basically installed.

The photo above shows the installed doors, although in bad light and without the valance trim installed. Once I get the valance installed, I’ll post some better photos in better lighting to the photo gallery.

Here’s a quick visual guide of how one installs these nice shoji closet doors:

Verify opening measurements. This is our soon-to-be closet space.....

Grab “shelf” on which everything mounts.....

Measure shelf to ensure length is correct. I needed to trim about three inches from what Cherry Tree shipped.....
 
Pre-drill closet door tracks in shelf prior to hanging. Measurement tolerances very small. Seldom am I this careful.....

Pre-drill and countersink holes in shelf for mounting.....

Hang shelf with included screws.....

Once shelf is mounted, check for level and insert shims where necessary. You can see several shims on the right side. Construction crew did not get things sufficiently level.....

Once shelf properly level, install wheels in track then mount roller tracks in pre-drilled holdes.....

Take break.....

Once track is mounted above, install inset floor groove track. Then hang first door and pose for photo.....

Hang second door.....

Well, you get the idea.....

You can see to the left of the doors, I stil have closet flooring to install. Had to wait to complete flooring until I got the closet doors. The doors have a matching maple flooring track that integrates nicely with the floor.....

Perhaps I’m just super slow, but these doors took me all day long to hang. While it is probably easy to go faster, it’s also easy to make mistakes that can’t be corrected. I think I measured each cut at least three times, and sometimes cut less than needed just so I didn’t over cut.

Cherry Tree’s instructions were fairly easy to follow. There is room for improvement, but overall they were good. A homeowner could do this install if she was careful and had good attention to detail. A good builder could do it as well. I would want a detail-oriented builder to do the install, however, as there are many places to screw up.

Like I said, I’ll have some better photos in a few days and then upon room completion. We still need to get the wood for the ceiling ordered. Running out of time!

©2011 Joseph W. Edgell, Jr.

Joe Installs His First Cherry Tree Design Door

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 10:36:43 -0400

There is a big difference between understanding a concept and actually implementing that concept. Installing a door presents just such a problem.

If a door is to function properly, its frame must be perfectly plumb, level, and square. Three planes of the door must all line up, irrespective of whether the surrounding wall shares those characteristics. Anything less and the door will bind, fail to stay open, or fail to stay closed when not latched. While I had the concept down, the details of just how to install a properly functioning door and frame eluded me. The best method for ensuring that the door and jambs were plumb, level, and square wasn’t taught in college.

Luckily we’ve maintained a Fine Home Building subscription as well as a subscription to back articles on the magazine’s website. They have an extensive catalogue of articles and videos for just about any construction project, including door installation. For interior doors, there’s a fantastic article by Gary Striegler. Gary uses a technique of shimming the door frame’s hinge-side first, ensuring it’s perfectly plumb using a long level that spans the distance between all the hinges. Once the hinge side is shimmed plumb, getting the rest of the door squared-up is a cinch!

The new Cherry Tree Design architectural door looks beautiful installed. And it operates perfectly on the included ball-bearing hinges. We went with a translucent shoji parchment material sandwiched between two sheets of glass. This design allows some light passage into the stairwell for interior illumination, but complete privacy in the bedroom. It also complements the shoji screen closet doors we ordered.

The Emtek door hardware arrives in a week or two. Then it’s on to the second master-bedroom door.

©2011 Joseph W. Edgell, Jr.

Cherry Tree Design Shoji Screens and Doors

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 23:45:40 -0400

A shoji screen, according to Wikipedia, “is a door, window or room divider consisting of translucent paper over a frame of wood which holds together a lattice of wood or bamboo.” I’ve always admired the screens and thought we could use them in our project.

Much to my surprise, some of the best shoji screens money can buy are made right here in America; Bozeman, Montana, in fact! Cherry Tree Design hand crafts screens, doors, dividers, mirrors, lights, and other products in the traditional shoji, and modern shoji-inspired designs.

Started in Boulder, Colorado, then bought and moved to Bozeman by Tyler and Julie Williams, Cherry Tree has been in business for over 15 years. Barbara and I, on a trip to Montana a couple years back, stopped in to talk shoji screens with Bev Piette, one of the designers. We were so impressed that we bought four shoji closet doors and two architectural doors from the company.

While it took us a while to order, order we did. Well, today they arrived. And they are gorgeous! Hand crafted from premium domestic cherry and maple, these doors rock. I’ve posted some photos in the photo gallery. We’ll post our experiences with installation in a few weeks.

©2011 Joseph W. Edgell, Jr.

Home Depot Improves Stock of FSC-Certified Lumber

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 23:05:03 -0400

In 2009, I covered Home Depot’s awful selection of sustainably-harvested, FSC-certified lumber. At the time, I wrote the company complaining about its “green washing.” The Depot now seems to have changed its ways.

Today we needed 2 x 4s and 1 x 4s to begin building our barrel-vault ceiling. Because of our immediate need, I was willing to accept lumber that wasn’t certified. To my surprise, every single piece of lumber we inspected was FSC-certified. While Home Depot seems to be stocking “mixed source” lumber rather than 100% certified, it’s still a significant improvement from 2009 when one couldn’t find any FSC-certified lumber. I suspect the company is using “mixed source” rather than 100% so it doesn’t need to segregate its FSC lumber from its non-FSC lumber.

Either way this is encouraging. Most home owners and many builders get lumber from Home Depot or Lowe’s rather than specialty lumber yards. Having one of the big two stock more FSC-certified lumber helps minimize the impact on the world’s forests.

Of course, many smaller lumber yards adopted FSC certification as a way of distinguishing themselves from Home Depot. Now with Home Depot adopting a broader selection of FSC-certified materials, it makes it harder for the independents to compete. Hopefully those smaller yards are better able to segregate their lumber, however, and thus receive the 100% certification for their products, something that Home Depot has yet to accomplish.

Want to learn more about FSC certification? More on the various types here and here. More on Home Depot’s FSC program here.

©2011 Joseph W. Edgell, Jr.

Renovation Update

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 22:24:11 -0400

It’s been a long time since we’ve posted an update of what we’ve been up to here at GreenRenovation. Given all the other irons in the fire, we’ve been making very slow progress on our own project.

We’ve completed the kitchen waste-line soffit, patched the hole in the kitchen floor where the old chimney used to sit, finished tearing out ceiling in the entry way preparing it for the powder room and ventilation duct soffit, and made slow progress on the bathroom.

In our slow progress, we’ve mudded in the TileRedi shower base, did some shower wall reconfiguration based upon a changed design, installed some of our cement board, sealed the seams with Kerdi-band, and built half of our tub surround. Now we just need to find a couple of people to help us place that damn 550 pound tub!

Once the tub is moved into place, we’ll finish the second half of the tub surround, plumb the tub, install the bathroom cabinet, install the rest of the concrete backer board, and then install the tile. Once done with that, then it’s just the finishing touches of the lights and switches, and we’re done with the bathroom.

The lead photo is Barb sitting in what will be her tub. One of the ways we’ve greened our project is by using used or salvaged building supplies. Barb found an incredibly nice, cast-iron, jetted tub at a used building supply house.

What normally would have been about an $8000 tub, ended up costing her about $600. With repairs to the pumps and heater, the entire tub installation will cost about $2000, a $6000 savings! By using salvaged and reclaimed building supplies, you can substantially cut down on your project’s environmental impact and frequently reduce the costs.

Want to check out what we’ve been up to? Visit the Front Renovation and Rear Renovation photo galleries!

©2011 Joseph W. Edgell, Jr.

Virginia Expands Clean & Renewable Energy Laws

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 21:51:13 -0400

Yesterday the Virginia Governor signed into law eight bills that will improve Virginia’s reputation on renewable energy.

While most of the legislation is geared toward utilities, businesses, and localities, one provision substantially benefits homeowners. House Bill 1983 improves Virginia’s net metering program, doubling the amount of electricity a homeowner or business can generate and sell back to a utility to 20 kilowatts. Net metering allows a homeowner to install wind, solar, or other power generation, and sell that power back to the utility at the same rate the utility charges the homeowner for power.

In some states, while the homeowner buys power at a retail rate, when a homeowner generates more power than she uses, she’s forced to sell that power back to the utility at a lower, wholesale rate. Net metering laws allow the homeowner to offset her charges from the utility kilowatt-for-kilowatt. in Virginia’s case, the new law ups the limit from 10 to 20 kilowatts.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, net metering “is a low-cost, easily administered method of encouraging customer investment in renewable energy technologies. . . , increas[ing] the value of the electricity produced by renewable generation and allow[ing] customers to ‘bank’ their energy and use it a different time than it is produced, giving customers more flexibility and allowing them to maximize the value of their production. Providers may also benefit from net metering because when customers are producing electricity during peak periods, the system load factor is improved.”

Forty-three states were listed by the Energy Department as net metering states as of November, 2010. Note that even with Virginia’s doubling of it’s net metering limit, it’s still a fairly low limit when compared to other states, some of which allow unlimited power generation and sale.

According to the Virginia Sierra club, as quoted by E&E news, the majority of the state’s energy comes from fossil fuels, including 35% from coal.

©2011 Joseph W. Edgell, Jr. (image courtesy carnegiemnh.org)

Builders Beware of Liability as Formaldehyde Declared Known Carcinogen

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 14:48:05 -0400

The 12th Edition of the Report on Carcinogens has been released by the National Toxicology Program. New additions to the report include Aristolochic Acids, Captafol, Cobalt–Tungsten Carbide, Formaldehyde, Certain Glass Wool Fibers, o-Nitrotoluene , Riddelliine, and Styrene. Out of that list, the two most notable for builders and homeowners is the addition of formaldehyde as a “known . . . human carcinogen,” commonly used in building products and furniture glues, and addition of certain glass fibers as “reasonably anticipated to be human carcinogens,” commonly found in attic and wall insulation.

Formadehyde
According to NPT’s fact sheet, “formaldehyde is a colorless, flammable, strong-smelling chemical widely used by industry to make home building products. It is a colorless gas at room temperature, or available as a liquid called formalin.” It is widely used in cleaning supplies, glues, particle board, medium density fiberboard (MDF), plywood, oriented strand board (OSB), and many other products.

Remember the FEMA trailer problem during Hurricane Katrina? The health problems associated with those trailers were largely linked to high levels of formaldehyde in the construction materials. When you buy furniture at most stores, or buy plywood, OSB, particleboard, or CDX at a building supply store, it usually contains formaldehyde. Frequently that formaldehyde off-gasses into your house, threatening your heath as well as the health of your children and pets.

There are two primary types of formaldehyde that are in glues: phenol-formaldehyde and urea-formaldehyde. For reasons that I don’t fully understand, the riskiest of these compounds is urea-formaldehyde. Phenol-formaldehyde does not seem to off-gas like urea-formaldehyde in most glue applications. The American Plywood Association has a report on off-gassing here. There are other non-industry resources available as well to provide an alternate perspective.

Builders, if you’re installing wood or other products containing formaldehyde, you’re now at risk of liability as you’re installing a known carcinogen. Homeowners, while it might raise the cost somewhat, many products are available with no formaldehyde, or with measured amounts of phenol-formaldehyde and low off-gassing rates. Protect yourself and your family, and avoid products with formaldehyde.

Oh, and one more thing, cigarettes smoke contains formaldehyde. One more reason to quit smoking.

Glass Fibers
Fiberglass insulation is extensively used in most homes. While effective and cheap, it is now classified as reasonably anticipated to be a carcinogen. You can avoid problems with the fibers by using alternative products that are equally effective or wearing appropriate breathing protection when working with fiberglass products.

Breathing small fibers is the big problem, much like asbestos.

Builders, ensure your personnel are using respirators when handling insulation. This will help you avoid potential liability and will protect their longterm health. Homeowners, if you enter your attic, open up a wall, or go into a crawl space containing glass-fiber insulation, you too should wear at least an N-95 respirator, easily available at most building supply stores (Home Depot, Lowes, Ace, etc.). You also should wear protective spunbond olefin fiber coveralls (such as Tyvek®) to keep the fibers out of your clothes. If the fibers get into clothes, when those clothes are handled later to wash, they can release the fibers into the air and those fibers can be inhaled into your lungs.

Styrene
Also of note is the classification of “styrene” as “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.” According to the report fact sheets, “styrene is widely used to make plastics and rubber, which are used to manufacture a variety of products, such as insulation, pipes, automobile parts, printing cartridges, food containers, and carpet backing.” Most commonly you’ll see “styrene” as part of “polystyrene,” the plastic with a #6 resin-code on the bottom. Foam cups and thin, clear, semi-rigid plastic packaging are the most common uses of polystyrene.

According to the report, people “may be exposed to styrene through breathing indoor air that has styrene vapors from building materials, photocopiers, tobacco smoke, and other products. Smokers are exposed to styrene because it occurs in cigarette smoke. Living near industrial facilities or hazardous waste sites is another way people may be exposed to styrene. Styrene may also leach from polystyrene containers used for food products, but levels of styrene are very low.”

You can protect yourself by stopping smoking, choosing non-plastic food containers, and ensuring adequate ventilation in your home and office.

Regulating These Carcinogens
Under current law, it is extremely difficult to regulate these products. The Toxic Substances Control Act effectively requires a high-burden on government officials before they can even request information from companies on the chemicals they use in their products. And banning these carcinogenic chemicals? You can pretty much forget it. If you want these dangerous chemicals removed from the products you use, you need to pressure you federal and state legislators to amend the law. Current law is woefully inadequate.

Alternatively, if you’re renovating or building, ensure that your contractors are using formaldehyde-free building products, glues, and wood products. When buying new furniture, ensure it is also built using wood and glues that lack formaldehyde. Insist that retailers carry formaldehyde-free and styrene-free products. And if they don’t, take your business elsewhere and tell them why.

©2011 Joseph W. Edgell, Jr. (graphic courtesy of NTP.)

Maine Home Renovator Charged with Violation of Lead Renovation Rule

Mon, 16 May 2011 22:21:06 -0400

EPA published a final rule governing home renovations that have lead-based paint. That rule became fully effective on April 22, 2010. Despite being a defender of EPA generally, it seems to me that this rule is pretty onerous for the small renovator requiring extensive and expensive training, expensive protective measures, and expensive disposal procedures. As a result, many small renovators are ignoring the rules, not preparing the EPA-required reports, not sealing off the area containing the lead-based paint, and not wearing proper protective equipment.

There’s no doubt that lead has serious health effects both for children and adults. For children, it makes them stupid. Literally, children exposed to lead have generally lower IQ scores. Other effects include damage to the brain and nervous system, behavior and learning problems, such as hyperactivity, slowed growth, hearing problems, headaches, reproductive problems (in both men and women), high blood pressure and hypertension, nerve disorders, memory and concentration problems, and muscle and joint pain.

One can see that ensuring that lead contamination in the home is avoided is important. But some dispute whether reporting rules on the scale of EPA’s are really necessary in order to protect homeowners and their children. Many of the protective measures could be put in place without the extensive training and reporting requirements. Plus, it is argued, that the increased price the rules add to a project will cause some to avoid renovating altogether, thus negatively affecting the economy. Or it may cause some homeowners to turn to renovators who have no compunction about disregarding the law.

Today EPA upped the stakes for the renovator who doesn’t follow the rules, charging that two employees of a Maine renovator named Colin Wentworth “failed to contain dust and debris generated by lead paint removal activities during a repainting project in October 2010” and alleging that Mr. Wentworth failed to “provide the required training or supervision to his employees to ensure that they followed the required work practices prior to their use of high-speed dust-generating power tools to remove lead paint from the building.” The EPA news release also alleges that Mr. Wentworth failed to take steps to obtain the mandatory lead-safe certification for his firm.

Maximum penalites to Mr. Wentworth are $37,500 per violation per day. That could add up pretty quickly.

Whether or not these rules are fair or appropriate, until someone successfully petitions EPA to relax the rules or gets a court to overturn them, they apply to most renovations of pre-1978 houses where renovations larger than a small window occur. This should be a wake-up-call to all renovators out there that there could be consequences for non-compliance.

A copy of the renovation rule can be found here.

©2011 Joseph W. Edgell, Jr. (graphic courtesy of EPA.)

Correction to Yesterday's Maryland Solar Thermal Tax Credit Post

Thu, 12 May 2011 22:46:44 -0400

I had a bit of a misstatement in my blog post yesterday on Maryland's new Solar Thermal credit law, House Bill 933. In my post I stated that Maryland has created a new solar thermal tax credit. That's not correct.

Back on February 14, 2010 I covered the concept of Renewable Energy Credits in my GreenRenovation blog. You can view the archived post here. The new law makes solar thermal eligible for renewable energy credits, or RECs.

I won't go into all the details of renewable energy credits here, you'll have to read the old post. But basically a utility has the option of not generating it's own renewable energy, but instead buy a "credit" from someone else who is generating renewable energy from, for example, wind or solar.

What the Maryland law now allows is the homeowner to use her solar thermal system for the purpose of generating renewable energy credits. Those credits can then be sold by the homeowner to a buyer for a market price. Previously the only solar system eligible for RECs were photovoltaic systems.

When a utility has a requirement to generate or buy a minimum amount of renewable energy, the law now states that "energy from a solar water heating system is eligible for inclusion in meeting the renewable energy portfolio standard." The homeowner who owns the solar hot water system "shall receive a renewable energy credit equal to the amount of energy [through a conversion] that is generated by the system . . . ."

That credit can then be sold. The bottom line for the homeowner is that it offsets the cost of the system by allowing her to get money from her renewable energy credits. It may not be a tax credit, but it has a similar effect--it makes the solar hot water system ultimately less expensive!

Thanks to Sunnovations, Inc. for catching my error.

©2011 Joseph W. Edgell, Jr. (except photo ©2011 Sunnovations Inc.)

Maryland’s New Solar Tax Credit: Now You Have Solar Options

Wed, 11 May 2011 23:07:55 -0400

Solar is sexy! But when I say “solar,” pause and ask yourself what you think about.

Take your time, I’ll wait………

I’ll bet you thought of solar panels that generate electricity, otherwise known as “photovoltaic” solar panels. And I also bet that you didn’t think of solar hot water otherwise known as “thermal solar.” In the just concluded Maryland legislative session, a new law (House Bill 933) now allows solar thermal to receive renewable energy credits just like photovoltaic panels.

This is a big victory for the green homeowner!

There are three primary reasons a homeowner benefits from this new law. First, solar hot water is much more cost-effective for the homeowner than photovoltaic. Second, the law now allows the homeowner an income tax credit just as if the home was generating electricity from photovoltaic. Third, solar hot water system manufacturing generally has less negative environmental impact than photovoltaic system manufacturing.

So why is it cheaper? There are two components to system cost: materials and labor. Materials for solar hot water are currently substantially cheaper than photovoltaic. Photovoltaic cells are, primarily, made from silicon crystals that must be grown. Lots of water goes into the process, quite a bit of energy, and a number of hazardous substances. The manufacture of PV panels is complicated and, despite research into cheaper alternatives, still an expensive process.

Solar hot water systems, alternatively, tend to be simpler in design – a collector, a pump or two, some piping, and possibly a separate storage tank. Water or a solution of glycol passes through pipes that sit under sun-concentrating glass – the collector. The sun concentrates in the collector, heats the water or glycol solution, and the heated liquid is pumped to transfer heat to your domestic hot water tank. This simple design and simpler bill of materials produce a less-expensive system than photovoltaic.

In the case of solar hot water systems, labor for installation is probably the most expensive part of the system. Plumbers to plumb pipes and contractors to install the panels. But that labor cost for thermal solar is usually less than the cost of photovoltaic system installation, where electricians must be hired to connect the panels into the home’s electrical system.

Ultimately, when deciding whether to install an alternative energy system like a solar system (PV or hot water) a homeowner uses several factors to decide. These include the cost of the system, the amount of energy savings from the system, and the number of years it will take for the homeowner to get her money back from the investment. The simple formula looks something like this: total system cost ÷ by yearly savings on energy costs = number of years to get money back.

This equation can change a bit with tax credits and other cost reducing factors, such as the ones instituted recently in Maryland. Other factors that can impact payback is the cost of energy. Should natural gas costs, oil, or electricity costs rise substantially, then the payback of a solar system would happen much more quickly.

To some homeowners, cost is not a factor. Merely the environmental benefit is sufficient reason to spend the money. But for most, money is a consideration. The overall payback time for solar hot water systems is around 10 years, depending upon system cost and amount of solar energy available. The average payback time for photovoltaic is around 25 years or more.

Before spending a bunch of money on a solar system, a homeowner should seal up the air leaks in her house and increase the amount of insulation she has. But once that’s done, a solar system might be of interest. When considering the most cost-effective solar system, it’s currently solar hot water, not PV. Thermal might not be as sexy as running the meter backward, but it’s a much better value.

In our next post, we’ll cover an innovative local company called Sunovations and their attempts to reduce the cost of the typical solar hot water system.

©2011 Joseph W. Edgell, Jr. (except photo ©2011 Sunnovations Inc.)

Now Blogging on Patch!

Thu, 5 May 2011 22:05:59 -0400

While I still plan to post green renovation specific articles to this site, I’m now taking a wider blogging approach on Takoma Park Patch! Where relevant, I’ll cross-post here to GreenRenovation.

In the meantime, I’m working on a three part series on tile, tile underlayment, and the green-ness of each. Look for it in the next month.

But in the meantime catch me on Patch!

©2011 Joseph W. Edgell, Jr.

What Do You Want Covered in GreenRenovation?

Sun, 6 Mar 2011 11:02:42 -0500

I’m looking for two things: guest contributors and topics.

Keeping up the blog is a lot of work, of course. It’s definitely a labor of love, but one that I haven’t been able to provide you, the loyal readers, the volume of topics you may want. Ideally I’d like to get one or two posts up a week. And lately that hasn’t happened.

If anyone is interested, therefore, in writing guest articles, product reviews, or short notes on new techniques or products, please send them my way and I’d be happy to get you some exposure. You’ll get full credit, including the copyright on the article. You can then say you’re published!

Similarly, if there are topics you’re interested in, but don’t have time or the expertise to write up yourself, I’ll consider covering them. Send your ideas my way to joe @ greenrenovation.us and I’ll consider writing them up.

In future months we’ll be covering wood floor sourcing and installation and tile.

Thanks for reading. I look forward to publishing your ideas!

©2011 Joseph W. Edgell, Jr.

The Greenfields Company Flagstone Walkway

Sat, 12 Feb 2011 18:22:27 -0500

For those of you who may have stumbled by GreenRenovation lately, you’ll notice a delightful flagstone walkway, installed by the Greenfields Company. Byrne Kelly, the president, is a registered landscape architect with the American Society of Landscape Architects and also a local Takoma Park boy. He’s been doing various types of consulting, landscaping, and contracting in the area for the past thirty years.

This walkway was Barbara’s project, so she managed all aspects including obtaining materials, choosing the contractor, and finishing up the sealing. So here’s the deal....

We had a decaying concrete walkway (see photo below, right) that went straight from the street to our old front door. It was ugly and in bad shape. As we were moving the front door location, the concrete had to go. Flagstone, a natural sedimentary stone found throughout the east coast, seemed like a good replacement. Barbara managed to find a load of Tennessee Flagstone on Craigslist for about half the cost new. With a lovely reddish hue, it was the perfect complement to the redwood-colored Certainteed fiber-cement siding with 50% recycled content.

Barbara got quotes from Denchfield Landscaping, Dan the Gardner (aka Dan Edwards), and Byrne Kelly. They were all fairly competitive, with Byrne coming out slightly lower. Barbara and I would have installed the walkway ourselves, but we just didn’t have the back strength to move these heavy stones. Barbara specified the basic outline and curve of the walkway, and Byrne did the rest. His guys dug out the path, laid the base, and installed the stone. He also designed the rock step to mimic the archway of our porch.

So what’s “green” about this walkway? The base is RC-6, recycled crushed concrete. The binding agent between the stones is recycled sand that Byrne recovered from a water leak. The stone is natural, minimizing the carbon impacts (manufactured stone is basically concrete, and concrete requires a lot of energy to manufacture, with the manufacturing process generating a lot of carbon as well as a number of heavy metals). Finally, the sealant is Acri-Soy from Ecoprocote products. Acrisoy is a non-hazardous ester emulsion mixture extracted from renewable agricultural resources.

And one of the best features of this walkway is that when it rains, the rain drains between each stone through the sand, minimizing stormwater runoff. We’ve replaced a stormwater-producing concrete walkway with a beautiful, natural stone walkway, recycled products, and simultaneously reducing stormwater runoff.

More photos here.

©2011 Joseph W. Edgell, Jr.

Federal Judge Upholds Washington Energy Efficiency Building Standards

Mon, 7 Feb 2011 22:09:27 -0500

Big news out of the State of Washington today. Washington’s new energy efficiency standards for buildings, passed in 2009 and effective on January 1 of this year, were upheld today by federal District Court Judge Robert. J. Bryan. According to a Seattle Times article, the judge ruled that the Building Industry Association of Washington, a trade group challenging the rules, “failed to show that the state code requires them to use products with higher efficiency than mandated by federal standards as the only way to comply with the code.” The group had challenged the rules saying they were preempted by the federal Energy Policy Act of 1992.

The only way buildings have become more efficient and better designed is through strict rules requiring it. Market forces still push for cheaper buildings, and that typically means less energy efficient structures. So long as energy is cheap, building efficiency will stay where it is. This particular code should reduce overall energy use by “15 to 18 percent” for both residential and commercial buildings, according to the State Building Code Council.

The code requires that “builders to choose from a menu of options to make homes environmentally friendly, such as by using high-efficiency furnaces or water heaters,” according to the Times article. The code is more stringent than that required by federal law.

The new rules can be downloaded here for single family residential and here for multifamily and commercial. To read the judge’s opinion dismissing the case, click here.

©2011 Joseph W. Edgell, Jr.

2010 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard

Sun, 9 Jan 2011 18:28:11 -0500

In case you missed it, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy issued its 2010 State Energy Efficient Scorecard a couple of months ago. The top five states, in order from high to low were California, Massachusetts, Oregon, New York, and Vermont. Picking up the rear were Nebraska, Wyoming, Alabama, Mississippi, and North Dakota.

The scores are derived from six factors including utility and public benefits programs and policies; transportation policies; building energy codes; combined heat and power; state government initiatives; and appliance and equipment efficiency standards for a total of fifty possible points. Also worthy of note is the “most improved” states which include, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Alaska.

According to the ACEEE’s website, “The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to advancing energy efficiency as a means of promoting economic prosperity, energy security, and environmental protection.” ACEEE board members include researchers, industry, government, and nonprofits.

©2011 Joseph W. Edgell, Jr.

The Energy Detective Quality, Service, and Support

Sat, 8 Jan 2011 11:24:42 -0500

The Energy Detective’s TED 5000 is a decent device. It tracks your home energy use and gives you some ability to track individual appliance power consumption. I’ve covered it here and here. We’ve had ours online for over three months. Despite the great product, the build quality is low, the failure rate high, and the customer support intermittent.

In the three months we’ve had the product live, we’ve had a failure of two components. The battery in our display unit failed, and, more importantly, our MTU gateway quit working. I can assure you that it’s very frustrating to have everything working and set up properly then have it quit three months later for no apparent reason.

Granted, failure of electronic equipment is not uncommon. Build quality certainly varies from company to company. But check out the TED support forums and you’ll note that there are a lot of unhappy people.

To TED’’s credit, they keep those posts live and open. That openness is certainly a point in TED’s favor. But post a note to the support forums or send an e-mail to the TED support e-mail address, and you’ll find a response is not exactly rapid. With our last equipment failure, it took three messages, nine days, and a threat to refer the case to consumer protection authorities before I got a response. That lag time is unacceptable. If it were just me, I could overlook it as an error, oversight, or fluke. But the number of people complaining seems large.

As further confirmation of the company’s difficulties, as I was writing this entry, their website went down returning a “General error: 1114 The table 'log_visitor_info' is full.”

I get the sense that TED is a small company. Perhaps they’re undertaffed for the demand that their product has created. Or perhaps they’ve had more problems than they expected and are overwhelmed trying to resolve them. Perhaps they’re having difficulty improving build quality. But whatever the reason, a great company adapts. It hires more people, it requires suppliers to improve build quality. And it responds to customer inquiries quickly. From my viewpoint, TED is failing in these areas.

The TED 5000 is a great concept and a decent device. I like the features it’s provided. If you buy one, however, be prepared for some challenges. I still recommend the product, but with substantial caveates. TED crew, if you’re listening, step up your game or you’re going to lose customers.

©2011 Joseph W. Edgell, Jr.

Most Residential LEED Points Ever

Mon, 3 Jan 2011 21:27:26 -0500

Think your renovation is green? Check out this project in Chicago.

Jetson Green blog recently covered this home, indicating that it received 119 LEED points. That’s enough to get it LEED Platinum along with several other certifications. The article indicates that this house has geothermal HVAC, cold-cathode lighting, recycled drywall, reclaimed lumber, a wind turbine, and triple-pane FSC certified wood-frame windows. There are other features as well.

What I’m most comforted by is that it took the owner over four years. At two years, I don’t feel so bad about our project!

©2011 Joseph W. Edgell, Jr.

Large Trees Reduce Crime (UPDATED)

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 21:25:03 -0500

While this is not strictly a renovation-related topic, I thought it interesting enough that most GreenRenovation readers would be interested. There’s a new study in the journal Environment & Behavior out of Oregon showing that certain types of trees reduce crime. Specifically, large trees on a front lawn were associated with an decrease in both property and violent crimes. This is particularly interesting to me as a Takoma Park resident, an oasis of big trees in an urban desert.

Conversely, numerous small trees, like those planted in new subdivisions and along planting strips are associated with an increase in property crime. The study was recently noted in Willamette Week and can be downloaded in full for free at this link.

When considering a renovation, thinking about tree placement is an important part of your project. We already know that trees properly placed can significantly reduce cooling and heating loads for your house. Those trees also provide substantial habitat value for birds and small mammals. And of course, they provide stormwater filtering and reduce stormwater runoff from your property. Now the large trees providing ample shade can also help prevent break-ins.

Recently in Takoma Park there was a resident who cut down a large tree so he could have solar power. The equation for trees versus solar just tipped a bit more in favor of trees!

UPDATE - UPDATE -UPDATE - UPDATE

The study is no longer available at the link I used, above. Here is a new link with the entire study. We’ll see how long this link stays live.

©2010 Joseph W. Edgell, Jr.

Interview with Enviroshake’s Ashley Hewko

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 18:25:53 -0500

What if you could have a roof made from recycled plastics, rubber, and waste agricultural fibers and get a lifetime warranty to boot? While this may sound like fantasy, that product has been around for the past 11 years. It’s called Enviroshake.

Enviroshake Background
Manufactured in Chatham, Ontario (yeah that’s in Canada for you geographically challenged readers, about an hour east of Detroit), the company’s been making big pushes to expand its market throughout the United States. I recently had the opportunity to talk with Ashley Hewko, Enviroshake’s marketing director about the product, the company, and the environment. This article is a summary of my talk, my personal experiences, and materials provided by the company.

The company was founded in 1998 and was originally a stand-alone business unit of Wellington Polymer Technology. After an unfortunate plane crash that killed the company’s owner, the Enviroshake unit was sold to a new investor as a stand-alone company in 1999. That new company continues to produce the same quality shingle product at its Chatham plant.

The economic downturn has impacted the entire construction sector. To respond to the reduction in new construction, Enviroshake has turned much of its focus to reroofing. Many homeowners’ associations are looking for a product that has minimal maintenance, but meets visual requirements. Enviroshake, with its very natural cedar look, fit the bill.

The company notes that while the overall roofing market grew at a sluggish 2% annual growth, the synthetic and green roofing materials market still experienced double-digit growth during the Recession.

So, What’s It Made Of?
As mentioned, Enviroshake uses recycled materials to create its synthetic roofing product. Enviroshake roofing contains 95% recycled materials. There aren’t many roofing products that can make that claim. Components include soda bottles, tires, waste agricultural fibers, and a host of other post-consumer plastics and rubbers. This is the same tried-and-true formula the company has always used and there’s no plan to change it.

Although the exact formula and manufacturing process are trade secrets (ssshhhh!), the company notes that its product offers major benefits over wood shakes that include increased durability, UV protection, wind and hail resistance as well as superior mold, mildew, and insect resistance. Oh, and you don’t need to cut down trees or drill new oil wells to get it on your roof. For a product brochure, click here.

Manufacturing & the Environment
Enviroshake is investigating ways of greening its already green manufacturing process. Currently, Enviroshake manufacturing produces zero industrial waste. The only waste is the packaging. All other waste materials are recycled back into the product at the manufacturing facility. Hopefully the company is looking at ways of ensuring 100% recyclability of its packaging.

Additionally, if you remove Enviroshake from a house to reroof (not sure why you’d want to do that), the company will take that old Enviroshake roofing back at its factory and recycle it into new Enviroshake. You just need to ship it back to them at your expense.

I suggested that the company introduce a formal “take-back program” for any shakes not used or any shakes that are removed from old roofs. While I was not able to get a commitment from the company that they would create such a program, they will take back unused Enviroshakes on a project-by-project basis. Plus, I suspect that if you took the expense to ship them your unused Enviroshake, they’d recycle it for you. Of course, your roof’s carbon miles would be very high if you did that. It would be much better to get rid of your unused product on the free section of Craigslist.

An additional way they’re greening their manufacturing process is looking at local sourcing of raw materials. The company is working to source all of its raw materials within 300 miles of its factory, and has hired personnel to focus on its sourcing and distribution channels. Local sourcing reduces carbon miles, thus increasing environmental bragging rights. But it’s also good business. Less distance means less shipping costs. And that means lower, more competitive prices.

Finally, the company says that it employs “best practices” in plant operations, including electrical consumption and purchasing. The company doesn’t yet purchase carbon offsets for its power, but a little consumer nudging might push them that way.

Enviroshake Lifetime Warranty
The company offers a lifetime warranty to the original owner, and that warranty is transferrable to new owners for 50 years. It’s hard to surpass forever.

To control warranty costs, however, the company is changing slightly its business model. Where the company previously offered the warranty to any homeowner or installer, Enviroshake is now changing its system to only offer the lifetime warranty for “certified installers.”

For now, they have a hybrid approach, however. They still use the standard building supply distributors, and still offer the warranty if you purchase the shakes from those building supply houses (TW Perry, Roofing Center, or other similar companies). The distributor model is used extensively throughout United States’ markets.

The company plans, however, as more installers receive company certification, to only offer the warranty through certified installers. Currently they’re moving their Canadian market to this model in order to tighten up their installation quality control.

If you have a question about whether you’ll receive a warranty, I suggest contacting Enviroshake directly before purchase.

As a small commentary to the company, I’m not sure its model will be a success. Growing market share means making the product more, not less available. From my discussions with local builders, they tend to shy away from any product that requires either novel installation techniques or special factory certification, each of which takes additional time, and therefore costs more.

While Enviroshake artfully avoids the first pitfall, they are quickly headed into the second. Only the most progressive or the largest roofers will offer their product. Unless they have an aggressive, small builder-focused marketing campaign and free certifications, they simply will not get the building community on board.

Look
One of Enviroshake’s best features is its realistic look. The grain pattern is modeled on real cedar shakes. While the product appears a dark gray at first, within about six months of being on the roof, it weathers to a medium gray. This medium gray color looks practically identical to a weathered cedar shake.

Additionally, Enviroshake uses quite a bit of variation in the grain of the shakes, and “shuffles” the shakes at the factory. So when you get your new roof, within six months it is nearly impossible to distinguish Enviroshake from a natural cedar roof. Come by our project at see if you can tell the difference.

New Product
But what if you don’t want a roof that looks like wood? Cedar shakes are very popular in the Pacific Northwest, but what about the Northeast, which prefers slate roofs?

Enviroshake is hard at work on a slate-lookalike product. Dubbed “Enviroslate,” they expect to release the product in 2011. Given that we haven’t seen them rush the product to market to compete with existing synthetic slate, I anticipate that it will be very realistic looking. I would also expect the exact same quality and features as the original Enviroshake product.

One note, however. Enviroshake will need to ensure they own the trademark. There appears to be an Australian company with the same name in the same product category.

LEED Points
Currently, using Enviroshake in your construction can net you 16.5 direct LEED points and up to 57 relevant LEED points. The company has received its independent 3rd party LEED and National Green Building Standards Performance Assessment.

In addition to the environmental benefits, the product is also a solid building material. It’s received a whole host of certifications ranging from fire retardency to impact testing to longevity. The product doesn’t break or burn. The roofing currently has a Class C fire rating, but the company’s working on its Class A rating. They’ve also received Level 4 impact certification from Underwriter’s Laboratories.

I once had a building inspector say to me, “Joe, if you get the urge to go up on your roof, sit down and have yourself a cup of coffee until the urge goes away.” He was really worried that walking on a roof causes leaks. With asphalt roofing materials, that’s true. But Enviroshake is so robust that you could probably hold regular parties on your roof and not have a problem.

Installation
The product goes on like any other roofing product. It is split with a saw and nailed down. Underlayment is standard felt paper with Ice and Water Shield or similar product at the edges, although you may want to substitute a product like TriFlex 30 for felt paper to ensure leak resistence. Either way, Enviroshake is very easy to install. Enviroshake offers helpful installation videos on its website. I’d encourage you to require that any installing contractor view the videos.

Leaching
Enviroshake states that it’s not aware of any leaching when rainwater runs off its product. The company tells me, however, “We are currently engaged with NSF International to complete the NSF Protocol P 151 regarding Rainwater Catchment System Components. This will take some months to complete though.” Despite this, the company touts the product’s use in rainwater containment and grey water systems for toilets and landscaping.

Almost all roofing leaches harmful materials into the environment. Asphalt shingles leach petroleum products into local waterways. Tin roofs leach lead. Having a product with zero leaching would be a substantial benefit. I hope their testing confirms that.

If you’re interested, the company notes that Enviroshake has been used in rainwater collection and containment systems, as well as in grey water systems for toilets and landscaping irrigation. The Sisters of St. Ursula used Enviroshake for their motherhouse in Chatham, Ontario. You can read a small amount more about the LEED Gold project here.

Final Thoughts
I’ve installed this product on two houses now. There are not too many products I’ve used that I can recommend as strongly as this product. Its green credentials are legit. If you install this product, it should be the last roof you’ll ever install. To find where you can buy Enviroshake locally, contact the company.

©2010 Joseph W. Edgell, Jr.