Wild flowers

Does green remodeling cost more? It depends upon when you are doing the accounting. If you are counting the upfront cost, then perhaps it does. If you are counting after the X and Y curves cross in a few years then, -no it doesn’t.

Trust me, there are seemingly intuitively “Green” seeming things that are absolutely not green at all.

I recall a humorous conversation with a client that lives near our local Co-Op. (a place I love but is a specialty store for me). I was showing off the green aspects of the DOW when they stopped me in my tracks and asked to have the green things eliminated to save money.

Wow I had not realized it but the connection is that being green costs extra. It doesn’t help that Whole Foods is here now, nicknamed “Whole Paycheck”.

Now that’s organic looking, but who knows?

Naturally this is often the case when we see that organic things cost more at the checkout line. Carrots are carrots, if you can’t taste the difference why should you pay more. If you were paying attention to what you are eating and were doing a blind taste test, my guess is that you may not be able to taste a difference. I admire those that choose “Healthier” food, don’t get me wrong, but you must admit it is ironic that we are talking about cost vs. value here too.

The problem is that being Green and being Organic are two different things entirely. Unfortunately, the Green Remodeling process has a serious marketing problem to address.

I encourage the use of green materials and techniques but I am at the whim of my clients’ requests. I also understand that not everyone is interested or willing to try alternative materials or techniques which is OK.

Our Sustainability Logo

The only way this green stuff is going to be incorporated on a large scale is to limit availability or eliminate availability of wasteful materials and building techniques.

If I were a spec home builder, I could incorporate all sorts of green things and price the home accordingly, allowing the market to set the price or shall I say value of my project but alas I am not.

In the meantime I approach each project as a unique opportunity to do what I can to be true to my 4 principals of green or shall I say, sustainable remodeling.

1. ENERGY EFFICIENCY
2. INDOOR AIR QUALITY
3. RESOURCE CONSERVATION
4. WATER CONSERVATION

Second Chance

As the economy eases up and manufacturers are being pressured into being more energy efficient and ecologically sensible. I see more products are evolving into the realm of being more verdant.

As a professional residential remodeler, I am looking to the future. I am also keeping a finger on the pulse of the manufacturing world while scouring the recycled building sources, to make sure to make these materials and products available for my clients to choose to incorporate into their remodeling projects.

We are exploring a new relationship with Second Chance involving tax credits for donated item and dedicated deconstruction teams. If it works, it may evolve into being a real player in offsetting the cost of remodeling projects. I also just learned about a pneumatic de-nailing tool that sounds pretty cool too. Stay tuned for more on the topic.

Your comments are welcome. To ask questions or get more information about remodeling, click here to email me directly. or call us at 208-947-7261

Disclaimer: Some of these images came from the WEB. If they are yours, and you object to them being used, please claim them and I will gladly remove and replace them at once.

How Heat Moves Around

I have been confused for years about just what the term R-value means. You would think that if you have 16″ of insulation it should correlate to an R-Value.

That is all well and good, as long as you are talking about the exact same insulation. What an R-Value is, as it turns out, has lots of variables.

R-Value is the commonly used term to describe the thermal resistance ability of insulation.

As you recall heat travels through 3 means:

• Radiation

• = Heat travels through the air Example: heat from the sun warms you through radiated heat. (It is important to understand that Radiated heat does not pass through solid materials. Radiated heat passes through solid materials through conductivity.)

• Conduction

• = When two things are touching, heat travels through from one to the other. Example: touching something hot means you get burned.

• Convection

• = Heat rises. Example: when a cold pot of water is placed on a hot stove, the heated water at the bottom of the pot rises and the cold goes to the bottom of the pot. Air does the same thing.

Spraying Foam

Insulation is often misunderstood. Insulation only slows the travel of heat from high temperature to low temperature. How well it does that determines its R-Value. The R-Value was once described as a U-Value prior to 1945, and a  lower U-Value was better. However, as a marketing tool the inverse of U was used after WWII because it is human nature to think larger numbers are better.

Many factors influence how well insulation works. There are all kinds of materials with insulation properties. These days we fill voids in building walls with fiberglass insulation, and we use spray foams of all types too.

Insulation has evolved over the years as we have understood it better. I have found walls packed full with newspapers, and just heard of a story from a client who has a cabin in Silver City As they drilled a hole into the wall the bit got stuck, after putting it into reverse the bit let go. When they looked in the hole, they found all sorts of clothing. We assume they packed old clothing into the wall for insulation. It makes sense, as we wear clothing to insulate us from the cold. Rock wool and vermiculite are two other commonly found materials that were and used prior to fiberglass taking over the market.

Installing Net & Blow

As it turns out, air infiltration has a lot to do with how well a wall or roof assembly works. This is why we use a plastic engineered house wrap on the outside of homes to create a wind barrier.The cautionary tale is that you can overdo it in the sealed up home that is so tight that it does not breath. This is where an ERV or HRV to bring in fresh air and exhaust stale air might come in handy, like we used in a below grade, dirt insulated home we worked on several years ago.

As building science improves and our homes become more energy efficient, we can look for better materials to insulate with.

In our region, R-38 is specified as a proper insulation for on top of a ceiling. This is achieved commonly with blown in insulation. Depending upon the R-value of the material used, the appropriate blanket of material is installed. The better the R-Value per inch of the material, the less of it you need. This is where foams perform better. They also dramatically decrease the amount of air flow cutting down the conductive heat loss. As an example, the space shuttle insulation tiles are R-50 / inch.

Open Face Batt Insulated exterior Walls

Most remodelers just call the insulator, or do it themselves, but at Levco, we take a more aggressive stance. We have a great relationship with our subcontractor and have long discussions at times to make sure we use the appropriate material for the specific situation. We have used all sorts of techniques like batts, net & blow, flash and batt, and blown in. We have used all sorts of materials too, including cellulose, high density foam, low density foam, high and low expanding foam, backer rods, and baffles to make sure condensation is kept to a minimum despite living in an arid climate.

At Levco, each project gets an energy inspection. We have a building inspector respond to verify that the correct materials and assemblies are employed not only to vensure that the plans are being followed but that best practices are being adhered to for our climatic conditions.

Your comments are welcome. To ask questions or get more information about remodeling, click here to email me directly, or visit our contact page.

Shower Glass Artifact

In honor of National Recycling Day 11-15-2012, we got to thinking about how our little remodeling company in Boise is doing our part. This is a unique look at some of what we are up to.

Being a remodeler gives me a rare opportunity to do some cool stuff. On a recent project, Levco was able to install an artifact into a door that is a real head turner. The history of the item is so cool that I had to share it with you. Howard Snyder was the handy man of the neighborhood for years. My clients bought his home from the third owners when they had to move away.

Howard passed away some time in the late 1900′s. He was the go to guy to have things fixed. He was also a creative fellow. My clients fell in love with the originality of the home and felt a strong connection with Howard, though they never knew the man. While remodeling their home. “We found all sorts of things that Howard did, including creating a homemade automatic sprinkler system,” my clients said.

In the basement, Howard had installed a crude shower that worked, and their suspicion was that he washed up there after working. The tempered obscured glass shower door had the image of a naked young woman etched into it. The story goes, Howard ran to show his neighbor Bruce what he had done with his new sandblaster beaming with pride. I remember meeting him briefly and recall he had lots of stuff stashed all around his property. Rogene Gustafson, another long lost neighbor, spoke of his eccentricity often.

The client came up with the idea of having it inserted into a door of his new shop addition and this is what we did.

West Boise Beam

On another project we incorporated a beam with the words West Boise carved into it . The historical significance of the beam is that it came from the old West Boise Little League fields out on Liberty and Milwaukee  according to my source Levi Conner, the Crew Chief for sports fields and pools for the City of Boise. Levi says “It was most likely from the late ’70′s when wood was cheap” The Forest Service was doing the same sort of signs, and they looked cool!”

When we found it, the beam was being used as a structural member for a covered patio. We moved it inside and dressed it up. It now sits on top of an existing beam and gives the illusion of being structural in the kitchen.

Repurposing is an art we enjoy dabbling in, and if you’ve followed my posts, you’ll know that we’ve used wood from a Wisconsin barn, and cabinets from previous remodeling projects, and we even incorporated a pedestal sink with a broken base we got at Second Chance building supply, into an upper cabinet and used it in a small bathroom, and used an old dresser  and converted it into a sink base with a Carrara Marble top among other things.

It fits in perfectly with the sustainability theme we carry through our daily lives.

Your comments are welcome. To ask questions or get more information about remodeling, click here to email me directly.

Why of course I am the responsible person, I am responsible for everything. whether it goes right or wrong, my name is on the bottom line.

Turns out it also is the term given to the licensed person who is “responsible” for keeping sediment from entering our street drains and ultimately our waterways. The class is several hours and is given to folks like remodelers and excavators who run a high risk of inadvertently spoiling our rivers.

Responsible Person Poster

Boise takes this seriously and, unlike the RRP lead based paint rule, these regulations are un-funded by the EPA but mandated by the permit the city has with the EPA. A real person named Clint Smith (Boise City Erosion Control Inspector) does regular inspections and also roam the streets looking for compliance (or lack of) and stops in to say “Hi.”

We just had one such visit, and despite our very clean job site, Clint admonished us to take more precautions…just in case. Naturally, he lives lives in a “worst case scenario” world, which is a good thing. Clint says “violations of the rule will ultimately result in a STOP WORK order if negligence is encountered, or  until the problem is remedied. In the worst cases civil penalties can be assessed as well.”

Straw Waddle being installed

The EPA is all about keeping the sludge and soil out of the drains, they are less concerned about how you do it or what tricks or materials you use. Each technique or materials have their pros and cons. All the EPA cares about is results! They also demand that their requirements are followed. How we get to achieving our results is by using “Best Practices” How cool is that? The way I see it, the bar is constantly being raised.

Witches Hat

At the local supply store there are all sorts of things to add to our arsenal of tricks. We ended up using a Witch’s Hat. (a strong black felt liner designed to trap stuff without obstructing water flow). We also bought a cool roll of green waddle, used to stop flowing debris but allow water to cruise on through. Straw waddles used to be all the rage but they attract mice and fall apart after a month or so, and are not really reusable where ours are. Silt fences are also commonly used but have their problems with sudden failure too.

There are many other options for sediment control. We see scrubby pads zip locked to metal grates to keep chunk debris out, and there are as many grate covers as there are hours in a week. We will continue to protect our waterways and be alert if we see others breaking the rules.

Track Out

According to Clint, “Track out” is the biggest offender at the moment. That is when trucks entering or existing a project leave “Tracks” away from the job site. Number two is “Wash out,” improperly washing out cement trucks, masons, stucco, and latex paints on the job site.

Other big offenders are the big excavation firms doing hillside work and developers not having the proper plans in place or following the federal guidelines. Clint says”Look for the EPA to come down hard on developers and the construction industry in general, as the seasons turn.” There is an engineering  firm we’ve used  in town that will develop an erosion control plan for a fee. It essentially goes over the worst case scenario and helps you pick the materials and best practices to deal with the problems.

The bottom line is that Levco is staying on the cutting edge of respecting our environment with strong oversight from our federal and city officials.

Your comments are welcome. To ask questions or get more information about remodeling, email me directly or visit our contact page.

Disclaimer: Some of these images came from the WEB. If they are yours, and you object to them being used, please claim them and I will gladly remove and replace them at once.

Levco recently had several opportunities to work with reclaimed lumber. It was a hugely gratifying experience on a number of levels. The idea of keeping stuff out of the landfill and creating functional components out of them, not only tickles my artistic side, it soothes my thrifty, sustainable side as well.

By using reclaimed lumber we are employing one of the 4 pillars of our Green Building Philosophy. Resource conservation.

First, we re-purposed solid white and red oak from a barn in Wisconsin to make a kitchen counter top, and then did it again when we cut out for the prep sink, We made a cutting board that incidentally fit perfectly in the sink as a cap.

I often re-purpose old oak floor registers into trivets as a gift for my clients. I have also used Kirei wood for making ornamental bowls and other things.

I have found a source for reclaimed wide planks for flooring, and believe there are many other opportunities out there for others to follow. The entire art prospects of old doors and window frames are endless.

Other things that we have done include rebuilding old door locks and salvaging old building materials for future projects. I also built my shop workbench from reclaimed oak flooring.

I wrote an article about the composite siding made from slash piles and recently salvaged some 20′ 4 x 10′s beams from a carport that was under supported. We are always using Chip board or OSB, even,  and microlam and paralam beams when possible to stay true to our preference for reclaimed  materials as much as we can.

This counter top was finished with many coats of mineral oil and has proven to be very thirsty. I suppose it will reach its saturation point soon, until then,we shall keep feeding it more. The bottom line is that we are always looking for ways to express our inner greenness in our projects, this one just happened to be especially cool.

Your comments are welcome. To ask questions or get more information about remodeling, email me directly or visit our contact page.

Disclaimer: Some of these images came from the WEB. If they are yours, and you object to them being used, please claim them and I will gladly remove and replace them at once.