Can This Home Be Greened? Staying Put in New Jersey
(Page 3 of 4)
January/February 2006
By Robert Politzer
For the new study floor, patching and repairing the existing wood-plank floor and refinishing with a low-VOC polyurethane would be the greenest option. However, consideration has to be given to the reinsulation of the subfloor space that will improve the home’s overall energy performance. Dense-packed cellulose insulation could be blown into the subfloor space through the current gaps in the plank flooring, but given the expense of hauling heavy floor-refinishing equipment into the attic and the extra expense of insulating through an existing floor rather than a fully exposed subfloor, it may on balance make sense and be less costly to remove the existing flooring and replace it with a green alternative, such as bamboo or FSC-certified oak planks.
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VOCs and your friendly neighborhood contractor
Problem: Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are industrial chemicals found in most conventional building materials (especially in paints, polyurethanes, caulks, and adhesives) that outgas at standard room temperature and pressure. Many VOCs are toxic or at least very unhealthy. Historically, these conventional products performed better and were cheaper than low-VOC alternatives, so most contractors only have experience with the familiar products readily available at neighborhood supply houses. What many contractors and suppliers don’t yet know is that there are many high-performing, reasonably priced alternatives now on the market.
Unfortunately, the current supply chain is fragmented and exceedingly inconvenient. When Home Depot, Lowe’s, and the other big material suppliers offer low-VOC products, it will make our job as green builders much easier.
Solution: The best and most trusted source for researching certified low- or zero-VOC products is through the Green Seal website. However, Green Seal is not a distributor, so I called my colleague Paul Novak at Environmental Construction Outfitters (ECO) in New York for recommendations. For “true zero-VOC” paint, Novak recommends either AFM Safecoat or Best Paints. (At my company, GreenStreet, we typically use Benjamin Moore Eco-Spec paint for clients who aren’t as sensitive to paint odors.) For polyurethane, AFM Safecoat Polyureseal is ECO’s bestseller. For ceramic tile adhesive, Novak recommends #901 by Envirotech and for low-VOC caulks, he recommends products from Titebond, AFM Safecoat, or QSL.