building green

[lightheart]

If you were to start from scratch, bare ground, what things can you do to make your home green


use real wood, not pressure treated/plywood
low water consumption toilets/ outhouse
watch for glues in rugs/flooring
automatic switches for light turnoff
if tin roof, no lead headed nails

what else?????

[Rhiannon Feimorgan]

I would use as much natural material as possible. Local prefered. On site even better. My dream is a cob/strawbale highbread. Straw from the farm down the road, clay and sand from the soil onsite. Roundwood construction dosn't waste as much wood as you don't need to cut away part of it to make it square. The fibers of the wood are intact too which makes it stronger. You can make roof support and beams, door frames ect from trees cleared to make room for the house. ie trees that would have been cut anyway.

I would have a metal roof. Metal from roofs can be recycled at a scrap yard when the roof is dead. They also last way longer than conventional roofing materials. (plus I love the sound of rain on a metal roof) which reminds me, meatal roofs are great for colecting rainwater so I would need a cystern or something like that.

I would also want a grey water system that takes wash water and reuses it to water the garden. I want a composting toilet too.

The house would have to be designed for passive solar heating/cooling.

I could go on but the kids are calling.

[libranbutterfly]

I could list it on and on, but instead, I'm just gunna link a page

I plan to build an Earthship one of these years

This site goes into more details about the process.

[DoubleLove]

We built an Earth Advantage home (OT...moved in 9/8/06--notice in my sig the date our twins were born : ) and found the program to be really helpful to work with as far as building "green". Lots of great info/resources/guides on flooring, framing, insulation, landscaping, lighting, ventilation, etc. Our house is so tight, our hightest heating were only $60/mo and we kept our home at 73 degrees and we live in Oregon, and it was snowing most of that month.

[GoddessKristie]

I'm with Rhiannon!

I too have been wanting to build a straw bale/cob hybrid! That is definatly my dream home! I'd do straw outer walls, cob inner walls and bamboo flooring. *sigh*
I also would do a grey water system.
Green roofs are cool, but I'd rather have a system for reusing the water.
I want an outdoor shower supplied by rainwater.
Clay roof.
Passive solar.
Water furnace.
and SALVAGE SALVAGE SALVAGE
the more you can keep from a dump the better! I'd keep my ears open for buildings being demolished and get every single thing I could get from them, windows, bathroom fixtures, everything!

Now, if I can just convince my husband....

[eco_mama]

yup , add me to the earthship list.

you can look into yurts, straw bale, geodesic. bamboo floors, non toxic paint, solar/wind engery, water savers, composting toilet, look for everything recycled! i watched a show called "most extreme homes" (or something like that) the other night and there was an awesome house this guy built in australia that one 100% recycled! everything from building materials to furniture was completely recycled. it was awesome!

[AngelBee]

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[CaraNicole]

subbing

[momaste]

Here is a VERY thorough checklist of ways to build green.

[AngieB]

We used trees off of our land to build our house. Most were trees that needed to be taken out for the building pad and for thinning for fire protection. We paid someone who brought his saw mill to the property and mill the trees into lumber. We had framing lumber, siding and indoor trime plus lost left over that we are now building the chicken coop, barn and an second garage. It cost a lot less than buying the lumber and seemed fairly "green".

[lightheart]

thanks everyone for throwing ideas out there, I'm still thinking and taking notes

I keep going back and forth, I know reusing things is better all around but sometimes I get to thinking about well, is that really safe to use looking at it in personal health or environmental view, then I start thinking about the safe to use stuff and I think, well what's the impact on the world if I do use XYZ...

[lightheart]

Originally Posted by AngieB

We used trees off of our land to build our house. Most were trees that needed to be taken out for the building pad and for thinning for fire protection. We paid someone who brought his saw mill to the property and mill the trees into lumber. We had framing lumber, siding and indoor trime plus lost left over that we are now building the chicken coop, barn and an second garage. It cost a lot less than buying the lumber and seemed fairly "green".

and if you used the lumber before it dried completly, it was GREEN in another way too, meaning uncured!

[Malva]

I would reuse as much stuff as possible, getting second hand everything I could find. Toxicity wise, it has already offgased anything bad it could have had at some point.