home renovations - questions

[mama24-7]

Greetings.

We need to redo all the outside walls in my home. Turns out there is no insulation in any of them & they are ice cold. We are planning to work w/ a local business to get the paint, insulation & possibly floors, all green - non-toxic or low toxic stuff. I'm excited about that.

What I don't know is about wallboard/sheet rock & spackle. The guy at the store we're working w/ said he knows of no good spackle & doesn't know about wallboard/sheet rock either.

Does anyone have any info on any green brands of these?

TIA,
Sus

[Pinoikoi]

I was reading up somewhere that there is a real problem with some sheetrock that came out of China spreading mold/mildew/allergens.. other than that I don't know.

I hung sheetrock quite a bit last summer.. Putting it in the ceiling is the most challenging, I can do just about any other areas by myself, though.

Our house has a special green insulation.. we have recycled phonebooks in our walls.. they collect the old phone books, chop them up into bits and then they get sprayed into the wall cavities.. it sticks on its own, so they must make some kind of paste out of it? It was pretty cool to watch.

Our old house had virtually no insulation and the outer walls were pretty cold, too.. The house was like 50 years old, and the fiberglass insulation that had been stapled into the walls had with time just fallen down into the bottoms of the wall cavities (I guess it is pretty common for old homes).. I got some foam outlet cover things and installed those myself which cut down the draft blowing out of the outlets around the house.. (take the outlet plate covers off, put on the foam ones, and screw the covers back on) those are pretty cheap.. I think there is also some kind of insulation foam that can fill in wall cavities without removing the sheetrock (just drill a hole in it and spray it in really), but I don't know anything about its greenness..

[I Fly]

What is the outside of your home? Brick? Wood? Friends of ours just had insulation blown into the walls of their 100yo farmhouse. The people drill a hole in the wood siding from the outside into each section and blow insulation in, then plug the hole. How good is your attic insulation, which does a lot more to keep you warm/cool? I am reading _The Carbon-Free Home: 36 Remodeling Projects to Help Kick the Fossil-Fuel Habit_ by S. & R. Hren. They say that almost any insulation is "green" if you consider how much energy it will save in the long run. Insulation will be working in those walls and ceilings for decades or centuries.

[mama24-7]

Our outside is stucco. Then cinder block, then the interior walls. We'd considered having insulation blown in but there isn't enough space in between the cinder blocks & the inside walls. You need a few inches, we have less than one.

We got estimates for vinyl siding (not environmentally friendly at all) but it would cost about $25,000, give or take.

Dh still needs to check the insulation above the bedrooms. We know there is a ton above the living area of the house (it's a one story home).

I'll have to check out that book! Thanks for the title.

Sus

[Denvergirlie]

Originally Posted by Pinoikoi

Our house has a special green insulation.. we have recycled phonebooks in our walls.. they collect the old phone books, chop them up into bits and then they get sprayed into the wall cavities.. it sticks on its own, so they must make some kind of paste out of it? It was pretty cool to watch.

This is called cellulous insulation.

It's basically any recycled paper that has been treated with Borax (fire retardent) and a little bit of water to make it spray.

The blowers can be rented at home depot or the like, but most counties don't allow one to make their own cellulous insulation, but self install can make it cheaper.