Green Construction – Building and Remodelling the Green way

The trend is to consider green practices when constructing a new building or when remodeling your kitchen, bathroom or home. As of January 1, 2011, California is requiring more green aspects to new commercial buildings. CALGreen mandates reducing water use, diverting construction waste from landfills, and rewards bike storage, non-toxic paint, and solar energy. The code is established to reduce construction waste, make buildings more efficient in the use of materials and energy, and reduce environmental impact during and after construction.

Here are some useful green construction resources:

• Build It Green has some very good guidelines and checklists for Green Construction, remodeling and building new homes.  They are a non-profit dedicated to help all of us out even though they focus on California.  They have extensive lists of building material recommendations and sources.
• Advanced house framing techniques for new homes, require half the wood of the past.
• Build it Green NYC has information on low cost salvage and surplus building materials.

Using salvaged or reclaimed items helps cut down on resource utilization.

• DiggersList is a Craigslist for home improvement.
• TheStoneBroker helps you find countertop remnants at discount prices.
• Heritage Salvage in Petaluma sells reclaimed building materials.
• Driftwood Salvage in Palo Alto sells surplus construction items.
• Urban Ore in Berkeley sells surplus items.
• List of other San Francisco Bay Area Salvage yards.
• CalMAX – California Materials Exchange – One business’s trash is another business’s treasure.
• Green Demolitions – A Connecticut based recycler and dealer for kitchens and home items.
• Handmadetile - Creates custom made tiles to match existing tiles color and shape.

Remember to donate your spare items after your remodel back to these salvage yards.

Free Green Home Plans

Building a new home? FreeGreen has free energy efficient, healthy new house plans for free. You need to join their community to access the plans. Architects usually charge upto 15% of the cost of a home for plans.

Of course it’s probably far more eco friendly and green to buy an existing home given all the resources needed to build a new one, not to mention the current housing crisis.

Related posts:

1. Reducing Construction Waste
2. Good Green Remodeling Book
3. Building Commissioning – Saving Energy in Buildings – Green Elevators aka the Stairs
4. California Green Remodeling Resources
5. New Green Store
6. Targeting “Zero” Waste or Minimizing Trash
7. New San Francisco Green Remodeling Store
8. Decks – Green Deck Designs and Green Deck Plans

Posted on January 26th, 2011
If you enjoyed this post, be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed.