The 'Greening' Of Your Home
Using environmentally friendly, or "green" products is a new and growing trend in the home building and remodeling industries.
Those products benefit Mother Nature because they're made from recycled materials, are biodegradable, or because energy or water is used efficiently in making or using them.
Contributor Danny Lipford, who hosts "Today's Homeowner," stopped by The Early Show Wednesday to display some items you can use to enhance your home without hurting the environment.
Lipford pointed out that "green" products are usually more expensive than their counterparts, but prices should come down as more people use them, pointing to hybrid cars as an example.
Here are a few of the products Lipford showed:
Milk Paint: Milk paint in an organic paint that is not only safe for people, but for the environment. The ingredients in the base paint are used in the food industry and are completely biodegradable. Also, milk paint is totally free of strong odors (it smells slightly milky upon application), air pollutants, volatile organic compounds, and solvents or harmful poisons.
One of its biggest advantages is that it really is made from milk. Because everything is completely biodegradable, you don't the problem of disposing of the painting materials properly.
$8.95 pint, $15.50 quart, $43.95 gallon milkpaint.com
American Clay Natural Earth Plaster: These earth plasters are formulated from materials found in the United States. This 100-percent natural material is made from natural clays, recycled industrial waste aggregates (marble dust, etc.), and pigments. It's easy to apply, by simply mixing it with water. The plaster is non-flammable, mold- and pest-resistant, and is available in a variety of colors.
Its all-natural materials "can be applied on any wall in your home that allows you to create the texturing that is so popular now with different types of interior decorating," Lipford says. "Since it's a pigment with 30 different colors, you don't have to paint it. But, if you choose to later, you can paint, stain, or replaster over it." It won the National Association of Home Builders' Outstanding Green Product Award last year.
Approximately $1.00 - $1.15 per square foot (includes primer, color, plaster and a coat of sealer). americanclay.com
BioBased Insulation: This new insulation is a soybean-based polyurethane foam insulation that quickly expands to 100 times its original size. Because this product conforms to any shape, it can fill any nook and cranny and help create a healthy and energy-efficient home.
"I believe everybody knows the plight of the American farmer," Lipford remarked. "In the green building industry, they are constantly looking at how they can help agricultural concerns with building products. This is a way to create a need for more U.S.-grown soybeans, by creating a building product that uses 100 percent soybeans. It does not contain any harmful agents." It was recently voted the Outstanding Green Product of the Year.
Price Varies biobased.net
Environmental Home Center Traditional Cork Tiles: Cork tiles glue down on your subfloor to create a completely natural flooring that is easy to walk on. This flooring is made from the bark of the cork oak tree, then stripped to make long slabs. After the wine corks are stamped out, the scraps are grounded and pressed back together to make flooring.
"This type of flooring is warm to the touch, cushy, offers great acoustical insulation, and can be used anywhere in the home," Lipford pointed out. "Some of the advantages are that it can be glued straight down to your floor, whatever your subfloor is. It's really a very comfortable floor to the bare feet, and it's good in a situation when you want to improve the acoustics, maybe in a gameroom. It's available in a number of colors, and you can have it in a shiny finish or more of a matte-type finish."
$4 - $8 per square foot environmentalhomecenter.com
Eleek, Inc. Recycled Aluminum Light Fixtures: These light fixtures are designed and manufactured in Oregon, using 100 percent recycled aluminum. The goal of this company is to use green materials and processes whenever possible, while maintaining a profound sense of design.
An added bonus is that all luminaries are ETL listed, which means they meet or exceed the UL standards, a great safety feature. "Everybody is familiar with the recycling of aluminum cans. These are light fixtures made completely of recyclable aluminum," Lipford notes.
$395 eleekinc.com
Sandhill Recycled-Glass Tiles: All the tiles from Sandhill are created from 100 percent recycled glass could otherwise have ended up in landfills. These contemporary tiles are created with a glass-fusing technology. According to Sandhill, each tile takes less than half the energy to produce than a ceramic tile and less than a-fourth of the energy it takes to produce a cast-glass tile. Lipford observes, "This can be used to replace ceramic tile on walls and floors or wherever you would use traditional tiles."
These tiles recently received the EPA Evergreen Award.
$20 - 25 per square foot; Mosaics are $40 square foot. sandhillind.com
IceStone Durable Surfaces: This is another type of recycled glass. IceStone durable surfaces are made from 75 percent recycled glass and concrete. Lipford says these products can be used in many places, such as kitchen countertops and backsplashes, bathroom vanities, tabletops, interior walls, and tub surrounds. A total of 20 standard colors are available.
$25 to $45 per square foot icestone.biz
Richlite Kitchen Countertops: This countertop manufacturer creates natural-feeling, paper-based countertops. The unique paper surface brings a soft and comfortable ambience to a room that is sometimes thought of as cold and hard. This product is made from environmentally sustainable resources that are attractive, durable and long-lasting.
"These countertops are basically paper-based countertops that not only are made from environmentally-friendly resources, they add a softer, more comfortable feel to a room that you can't get with stone," Lipford says.
Approximately $85 per square foot installed richlite.com
shetkaStone Work Surfaces: These work surfaces are created entirely from recycled fibers. shetkaStone is a solid-surface material fabricated from all types of paper, including wax paper, and glossy paper. The material can be sawed, sanded, glued, nailed or screwed together and can even be sealed with a wood or stone sealant available at any home center across the nation.
Danny quipped that this is where your old phone books end up.
Approximately $45 per square foot (everything is custom) shetkastone.com
For more information on "green" products, check out these Web sites:
U.S. Department of Energy: Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy