Illustration: homebuilding.co.uk

All green building materials are meant to save energy and natural resources, reduce emissions and create a healthy living environment for the occupants. Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs) go one step further to reduce build time and maintenance.

Building with ICFs is a one-step process to create walls for the building envelope, foundation and floors. The final product is a sandwich of two layers of polystyrene insulation and a concrete filling. There are no wall cavities to insulate. Interior and exterior walls can be finished once the concrete is poured. Compare that quick process to framing a wall, insulating it, and putting up and finishing drywall inside or applying siding outside!

How insulated concrete forms are constructed on-site

On the job site, polystyrene forms are put in place with steel connectors as interior and exterior walls. They can be dry-stacked (they connect sort of like Legos®) to the desired wall height, and rebar can be added for strength. Concrete is poured in 1’ at a time and tamped down to release air pockets.When the forms are filled, the walls are complete!

It will take a week for a foundation wall to cure enough for backfilling, and it will take several weeks for the walls to dry. In the meantime, the interior of the home can be very humid.

Other benefits of ICFs

• fire, wind, insect and mold resistant
• no rotting
• acoustic qualities
• reduce temperature fluctuations indoors
• no CFCs
• no wood used
• non-toxic – no off-gassing

ICFs: upfront costs and long-term savings

ICFs sound like the perfect building system, but it does have its drawbacks. Moving windows and doors after construction or to remodel takes masonry cutting tools. Remember, the walls are solid concrete! Like most green building methods, construction costs are a bit higher, maybe 5%, but the energy savings of an ICF home will pay for that.

The public needs to be aware of the money they will save by living in an energy efficient home. This information is crucial to getting people to embrace green building. Contractors and architects have modeling software that show the savings of a green home over the exact home built with traditional methods. When people can see a chart or graph of what they will save and their ROI (return on investment), they would scoff at the slight extra cost to build with energy efficiency in mind.

But back to ICFs now.

Insulated concrete forms systems: Rastra

There are various systems for ICF building, the first of which was Rastra. In the late 1960s, BASF, a German based polystyrene producer, was experimenting with expanded polystyrene beads mixed with cement, to sort of combine the traditional components of an ICF wall. In 1972, this became known as Rastra, a Compound ICF.

A few years ago, my contractor friend, Jimmy, was building a courtyard wall in my neighborhood. I saw him while I was out walking and went over to say hi. He and a worker were easily lifting a big piece of concrete-looking material off their truck. It looked like a very long, rough cinder block with several holes along the length of it. Then the worker measured it and cut it with a handsaw!

Photo: ownerbuilderbook.com

I asked Jimmy what it was. He said, ‘Rastra block.’ I’d never seen it before, but he explained to me that it was recycled insulating material mixed with cement, making it a lightweight, insulated building material. I was fascinated! He said they cut the pieces to the exact length they needed, stacked them, then filled the spaces with concrete for stability and structure. He said it went up quickly to reduce building time. I could see it was quicker than adobe or concrete block, which is standard for courtyard walls here.

Rastra block components

The Rastra website says their product ‘is made of a lightweight composite material called THASTYRON, produced with 85% recycled expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) and 15% cement.’ I love that it’s recycled material! The materials for a Rastra home have a low embodied energy. I also love that Rastra walls have an R-value of 48 and reduce thermal bridging, which is where heat loss in a conventional home occurs.

Like I said, there are many ICF systems, and Rastra claims to be the original. If you want to build with ICFs, do some research, ask a lot of questions, but most important, find a contractor that works specifically with ICFs.

Prefab homes have had a negative associations attached to them; unglamorous, characterless, low-quality, temporary. But in addition to the falsehood of these associations, as it turns out, they are actually coming into line with a new paradigm for green building. Fashioned in modular processes offsite, and then delivered to a location, a pre-fab home is less instrusive to an eco-system, and less fuel is burned to build them, due to fewer trips to the site.

But, what are the advantages of a pre-fab home beyond these implications for green building? Does its nature as an eco-friendly housing construction method really mean a sturdy, long-lasting, and affordable home in which you can place your trust? Writer Nadia Jones explores these questions below …

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In many ways, prefab homes get an unfair label. Many people don’t believe that they can get the modern and unique design they desire with a factory made, pre-designed home. While in the past this may have been true, companies throughout the nation are working to reinvent the industry of prefab housing.

Prefabricated homes were once used predominately in underprivileged areas for track housing or project homes. However, in recent years prefab housing has made a major market shift. Prefab homes now strive to be the future of the housing market. Offering amazingly beautiful, modern architecture, fairly inexpensive prices, and eco friendly living, prefab homes may be exactly that: the future.

Prefab does not mean ‘cheaply made’

Many individuals hear the term “prefabricated” and immediately think “cheaply made”. This, of course, is not the case. Prefab construction begins in a factory. Components of a structure are manufactured offsite in an industrial facility and then shipped to the building location to be fully erected there. In many ways, building a home within a controlled factory environment allow builders to do an even better and more thorough job.

This is the site of a modular building project in Denmark, built well, inexpensively, and with a community feel in mind. Click the photo through to the photographer's page to learn more about how it was made. Photo: seier+seier

Because structures are built offsite and indoors with controlled conditions, the materials used on the house are better cared for. By eliminating weather as a factor during the construction process, building materials arguably stay in better condition when they are at their most vulnerable. Encouraging quality construction, prefab homes are specifically designed to withstand common weather conditions. Once delivered and erected on site, they are built to last as long as a traditional home.

Prefab homes demonstrate modern design aesthetics

While home prefabrication is not a new concept, the design styles being used on these homes has changed drastically in recent years. Designers have worked hard to create a new aesthetic for prefab homes and with that new aesthetic bring new life to the phrase ‘pre-fab home’. The new aesthetic that many pre-fab housing companies are striving for features clean lines, simple architecture, and a modern glitz factor.

Pre-fab homes have found their niche among modernist bargain shoppers with a desire for eco-friendly living. Modern prefab homes feature maximized natural light with numerous windows placed depending on the individual location of each structure. This gives the home a beautiful look as well as an opportunity for passive heating and cooling, minimizing the need for high energy costs.

Prefab homes and affordability

With modern design and green initiatives in mind, it can be hard to believe that pre-fab homes are in any way affordable. However, that is exactly the point. New prefab home developers strive to make expensive looking, modern homes that are better for the environment at a price that is accessible for the average person. Mass modular construction, mobility, and versatility make pre-fab homes inexpensive and in reach.

With fewer materials used, the cost of building a prefab home is less. Also, prefab homes take a fraction of the time to design and manufacture because they are created within a controlled environment, cutting the cost of labor significantly. In other words, pre-fab homes can be built more quickly and at a lower cost.

Prefab homes and green building materials

Another way that prefab housing companies promote modern and green design is in the materials they use. Many builders use as many recycled and renewable products within their homes as they can. One go-to material for green builders is bamboo. Because bamboo grows so quickly and easily, it is a great renewable resource to use in flooring and other design elements of a home.

This is a shot of a modular home, built by students in 2007 as a part of a sustainable architecture course. BuildDirect supplied the strand-woven bamboo flooring you see here.

Also, using steel, wood, and cement as sturdy framing materials helps homes withstand difficult conditions, accounting for less waste in the long run. Furthermore, builders constructing homes or parts of homes within a factory are able to reduce the amount of material waste by a significant amount. Less waste means a greener home.

Gain Eco-friendly awareness

While prefab housing may not be for everyone, there is a lesson to be learned from the prefab, eco-friendly approach. Even if you do not desire a home that is built in a factory, there are plenty of lessons to be learned from building cheaply and intelligently with the environment’s well-being in mind.
Consider recycled or renewable materials for your next project. Think about reducing your energy use by positioning windows in opportune locations based on the location of your home. All of these things can help to save you money and help to save our world.

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Thanks, Nadia!

Nadia Jones blogs at top online college about education, college, student, teacher, money saving, movie related topics. You can reach her at nadia.jones5 @ gmail.com.

Click the image to view the image in full.

With this in mind, I thought I’d talk about the green building materials that you may think about investing in during the coming year for your home improvement projects.  Luckily, in the last few years the range of items that meet the criteria have expanded, as the industry has become more and more sensitive to the increasing demand for sustainable building materials.

Specifically, I’d like to talk about some of those ‘checkboxes’  I mentioned earlier, to put these materials into a proper context.  Here are some of the big ones:

1. Resource efficiency. How quickly or easily is the material processed without undue impact to the environment? Does that resource renew itself fast enough in line with the demands placed upon it by industry, and is the process in place that go into its manufacture recognize the importance of this balance? Is that resource long-lasting enough to serve as reclaimed materials at a later date?

2. Indoor Air Quality. Does the material meet with government and industry standards for emissions. CARB is a body that has led the way in reducing the percentage of particles into the air from the materials themselves. Also in terms of air quality in general, does your building material of choice come out of a process whereby natural materials are preserved for the purposes of C02 absorption?

3. Energy efficiency. How much fuel is burned getting the materials from harvest to market? When it’s installed, how much energy will the material retain to the benefit of energy efficiency to your home in general?

4. Water conservation. Does your building material or fixture of choice contribute to more efficient water usage such as low-flow technology, graywater usage, or rain harvesting?

5. Affordability. Does your building material outweigh the cost of production with long-term durability so as to reduce the requirement for replacement?

Also to be taken into account here is the idea of post-industrial waste, and how your building material option utilizes these types of materials.  For instance, strand-woven bamboo floors utilizes the parings of bamboo used to create traditional bamboo floors, and makes them into a unique product.  Many types of glass and porcelain tile rely heavily on the presence of recycled glass products in the production of new tile surfaces.

In judging just how to choose green building materials, it really is all about balance.  I think it’s about communication too, between you and your building materials vendors, and between them and the manufacturers.  This aspect of things, much like the market itself, is constantly evolving.  But, in the meantime, it’s good to have a starting point toward achieving a better balance when becoming a more informed consumer. It’s information like this that will help us to gain a better balance to our world in general.

Cheers!

Rob.

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There are a lot of reasons to get rid of your carpeting. Maybe the carpeting you’ve got is worn out, or just plain unfashionable. But, when you do get rid of your old carpet in order to make way for new carpet, or other floor covering, you’ve got to figure out how to dispose of the old in order to make way for the new, right?

With all of this in mind, our 21st century has presented us with a new and improved paradigm when it comes to throwing things away; these days, we recycle. When carpeting that has worn out its use, or its welcome, how do we dispose of it in the context of this new paradigm of environmental responsibility?

Because carpeting is made from durable materials, and a lot of manufactured substances as well, keeping old carpeting out of landfill sites is an important effort.  Materials lasting a long time in your home is one thing, but when they last a long time in landfill, that starts to become a problem.  But, as materials for recycling,  old carpet has all kinds of potential for use in recycled goods which are becoming increasingly useful and popular, like composite materials, and underpadding for new carpet.

The challenge with carpet is that it is interwoven, and consisting of various natural and manufactured materials; wool, polyester, nylon, latex, and other elements.  These materials need to be separated before the recycling process can begin.  There is an associated cost with this which is one of the challenges in encouraging wideapread national carpet recycling in the United States and Canada.  Yet, the work is certainly worth doing in terms of waste, and in terms of sustainability.

One resource to turn to when you’re looking to get rid of carpeting the eco-friendly way is to consult CARE, which stands for Carpet America Recovery Effort. This organization came out of  a national agreement between carpeting industry leaders and branches of the U.S government in order to keep carpeting products out of landfill sites all over the country.

Despite the complexities of the process, the estimates of how much carpeting the organization has kept out of landfill is a staggering 5 billion pounds of old carpet.  It makes one’s head spin, knowing how much of this material was shipped without thought into city dumps over the years before efforts were made to recycle it! You can contact CARE to find out about recycling sites, and related issues when looking to recycle carpeting.

The existence of CARE is an indicator that the industry itself  is aware of the recycling issue as being important.  So, another source for carpeting recycling may be your local broadloom retailer, or the manufacturers themselves to find out from them where to take your old carpeting.

In the meantime, you can also take a look at this list of carpet recycling centers across the U.S to find one closest to you.

Cheers,

Rob.