ASK OUR GREEN HOMES EXPERTS!

May 9, 2008

Well, this is my first go at answering an “ask the expert” question for Mother Earth News, and you’ve come up with quite a doozy! Finding a shower surround that is not tile and meets all of your requirements was tough, but I’ve got a few good suggestions for you:

1. Concrete: A concrete shower surround is going to be quite inexpensive and can look excellent. On the eco-friendliness scale, concrete is middle-of-the-road. You can generally find it locally made and it is low-energy to produce; that is except for the Portland cement, which is energy-intensive to produce. Concrete with fly ash, which replaces a portion of the Portland cement, is much more environmentally friendly, but also more difficult to find. You would have to use some kind of water-proofing finish on concrete, as it becomes porous when it dries and this might run into some more environmental problems. One solution would be to use water-resistant concrete such as Hycrete, which is Cradle-to-Cradle certified, provides LEED points to homes and buildings, and requires no sealant. A Hycrete representative said the product would work fine as a shower surround, but recommended an under-concrete waterproofing membrane to further enhance the product, or to make sure to use a fully waterproof product to seal the joints. My hunch is that a waterproof grout over the joints would work. Another possibility is to use preformed cementboard, such as Minerit Special Performance Board, which comes with a water-insulating layer on both sides of the product. Some of your cost is going to depend on whether you can do the labor yourself or must hire someone to do it.

2. Mortar: Our winner of the Natural Home Bathroom of the Year contest last year had an innovative shower solution: She molded the shower out of red-tinted mortar (much like concrete but with a finer grain) and, after the mortar dried and cracked, sealed the cracks with a soft black grout. The result was a beautiful and durable shower. See the project here.

3. Recycled plastic: Parkland Plastics out of Indiana produces PLAS-TEX waterproof, fiberglass-free, chemically inert and recyclable shower surround walls made of 95 percent recycled resins and designed for easy installation and low maintenance. They also offer a VOC-free structural sealant for installation. Check them out here.

4. Soapstone: Finally, soapstone is naturally nonporous and makes for a gorgeous shower surround, but it’s going to cost more. Hart Stoneworks in Colorado makes environmentally conscientious soapstone tiles. They will involve grout but much less than traditional tiles because the individual soapstone tiles are quite large.

I hope this helps you find what you are looking for.

April 18, 2008

There are two options for insulating houses with straw. The straw is the primary structural material in some straw-bale homes — it actually holds up the roof. More commonly, post-and-beam or timber-frame construction forms the skeleton of the building, but straw is used to fill and insulate the space between wooden posts.

With either system, the straw must stay dry and is enclosed with some kind of plaster to protect it from insects and moisture, which would allow mold or fungus to develop. Other techniques to keep water from wicking from a concrete foundation into the straw are also necessary. If the straw gets wet and stays wet, it turns to compost. But if you keep the straw dry, it won’t need to be replaced for the life of the building, which should last much longer than a human lifetime if built correctly.

April 1, 2008

For your garage to be a permanent structure, you will need to dig and pour concrete footings that reach below the frost line. These footings can then support the walls and roof of the garage. The garage floor is independent of this process and does not need to be poured concrete.

Concrete itself is a necessary evil in the construction business. The embodied energy in a truck full of concrete as it arrives on your site is a big contributor to global warming. The energy (usually electric) to superheat limestone to make Portland cement makes concrete a not-very-green material. We need to use substitutes for concrete whenever we can. Here are a couple of ideas that you may want to consider.

March 18, 2008

Concrete makes terrific countertops for kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities. This option is inexpensive, DIY-friendly and yields a beautiful finished product as long as you understand a few tricks.

The first thing to realize is that traditional concrete is not what’s used to make concrete countertops. ‘Concrete’ refers to a mixture of sand, crushed stone and Portland cement, with the stone being added as low-cost filler. But bits of stone can mar the finish of a countertop if they remain visible along the edges of the wooden forms that impart the countertop's shape. And because you can’t see formed surfaces until the wood has been removed, crushed stone creates unnecessary risk with no reward, at least as far as countertops go. Also, since the cost of a stone-free mortar mix for a bathroom vanity is a whopping $10, why bother with stone? The results are just as strong without it, and visual success is more reliable.

People often think that to live the green lifestyle they need to have a super-insulated house or a home made from straw bales or earth. But consider this option: Recycle an old house.

Buying an old home that would otherwise be torn down is a great, low-budget option for eco-friendly housing (if the building is still structurally sound). Think about all the framing lumber that would end up buried in a landfill if the structure were not preserved. You can gradually improve the energy efficiency of the house, starting with good insulation and new windows. 

There are several good alternatives to fiberglass insulation if you want a “green” product to insulate the addition. 

Insulation made from recycled denim is treated with a fire retardant. It’s not made of used fabric but scraps from the manufacturing process. In general, growing cotton is tough on the environment because of the heavy use of pesticides, so this may not be the best option, although it’s a good use of otherwise wasted material. 

Wool insulation provides an option that is natural and renewable. Although wool is flame resistant naturally, it is subject to insect damage. So the insulation is usually treated with boron to deter insects. But boron is a naturally occurring element and not known to be carcinogenic.