Everyone wants to have a healthier, more energy-efficient home. So, in honor of Earth Day, we’re showcasing three eco-friendly building products for your home you’ll want to consider for your next project!
-
Reclaimed Wood Countertops
Wood has always been a material of choice when building, finishing and furnishing a home. But the natural resource hasn’t always been used in a sustainable way. What better way then, to bring some of the beauty and warmth of wood into your home, than to incorporate eco-friendly, reclaimed wood?
There are several places that breathe new life in old wood planks and boards by creating beautiful countertops and tables. Often, customers can choose from several available species. Grothouse, shown above, makes most of its reclaimed wood countertops from salvaged Pennsylvania barn wood.
Source: Longleaf Lumber
New England’s Longleaf Lumber mills all its custom reclaimed wood countertops and tables in Berwick, Maine. You can feel good about these gorgeous countertops that recycle and re-purpose old wood into something beautiful for your home. You’ll also be on trend with the popularity of today’s rustic, farm house aesthetic.
-
Solar-powered skylights
What is one of the biggest things we all crave for in our own dwellings? Light and bright spaces. Click over to Pinterest, and you’ll be hard pressed to find many photos of dark, shadowy rooms. Studies have shown that exposure to natural light helps patients recover better in hospitals, children do better in school, and workers be more productive – and we all know what it can do for your mood!
Green building and lighting gurus talk about “daylight harvesting” or the technique of lowering energy costs by maximizing the ambient light available in a room. This method of taking advantage of one of our greatest natural (and free!) resources-the light of the sun-has become standard practice in today’s built environments.
Source: Velux
One way to bring more light (and fresh air!) into a room or space is through skylights. And while skylights have been around for a long time, the products offered today are smart and energy efficient. Velux, the largest manufacturer of skylights in the world, has created a solar-powered, smart skylight that can be open or closed at the touch of a button and requires no electricity (read: no expensive wiring). The solar powered “Fresh Air” skylight also has a built-in sensor and will automatically close should it start to rain.
Source: Velux
And solar powered skylights aren’t only good for the environment, but for your wallet as well. Certain energy efficient models of skylights (including Velux’s Fresh Air Solar model) are eligible for a 30% federal tax credit. You can read more about this on Velux’s website here.
-
Tru-Exterior™ Trim and Siding
Nothing has more of an impact on the curb appeal of your home than its siding and trim. Sure paint color combinations are going to make a statement and landscaping can highlight a beautiful home. But, without the fundamentals in place, all the window dressing in the world won’t give you the affect you are after.
Source: Boral
If you’ve got some siding replacement or trim work to do on your house, consider these revolutionary products from Boral. The company has a created a new category of building materials with its poly-ash based engineered products. TruExterior™ Siding and Trim uses a minimum of 70% recycled materials (mostly fly ash, a by-product of coal combustion) in its proprietary process to create a product that you handle like wood, but that has clear benefits over wood.
Source: Boral
TruExterior™ trim and siding are resistant to rotting, cracking and splitting and are impervious to insects. They do not absorb water, so can be installed at ground level and are more dimensionally stable than other low maintenance products on the market. But what we like best about TruExterior™ – besides its look – is the fact that it is taking a waste product and turning it into something useful.
Of course, there are many other green building products on the market, but we like these three, not just for their eco-friendly properties, but because they will all enhance the look and feel of your home as well.
Kristen
