Green Remodeling Ideas For Your Home
It’s all the rage; green remodeling ideas are making every TV show, magazine and blog out there, so we decided to join the fray! Switching off lights and remembering to cut the water off when you’re brushing your teeth can save a few cents here and there, but what are some REAL changes you can make to your home to not ONLY save you money in the long run but help do your part to save the environment too? Home Remedy is here to help give you a launching pad from which to get great ideas for your own home to make it more green and eco-friendly.
Look for recycled, sustainable materials.
Your wood floors, furniture, and walls can be covered with and made even more gorgeous with recycled, upcycled, refinished and sustainable wood from other projects or furniture. No living trees need to be cut down! Additionally, there are a ton of resources to find these types of materials without spending an arm and a leg. It may take some work to get the perfect shapes and colors, but the effort is worth it!
No green remodeling job is complete without some sustainable wood floors.
Check out solar options.
With the technology developing with solar energy, your choices are getting more affordable and less bulky. Panels are coming in all shapes and styles. There are a lot of great ways to integrate more passive solar options into your green remodel as well. Concrete and brick interior walls that soak up heat during the day easily release it once the sun goes down. If either of these is a bit much, consider the considerably less expensive idea of reassessing your insulation throughout your home.
Find limitless style choices with upcycled, sustainable countertops.
A green remodeling job would not be complete without some beautiful countertops in nearly any color imaginable. Chips of recycled glass from bottles, windshields and more can coat a sanded slab of concrete to create a beautiful and eco-friendly option for your kitchen or bathroom. This style is incredibly easy to clean and can handle ANY hot pot or pan with ease. It may cost a bit more up front, but its durability (and sustainability) is second-to-none.
Switch from a wood-burning fireplace to gas.
This green remodeling tip may seem a bit counter-intuitive, but hear us out. The destruction of trees and burning of actual wood can be romantic and smell nice, but a direct-vent gas fireplace actually uses less relative fuel to create even more heat. Additionally, if you want to save on energy, or lugging all that wood around, direct-vent doesn’t require a chimney and can be ventilated through a number of ways through your wall to the outside, all without ash or smoke.
Replace your windows thoughtfully.
There are so many options in the window world now with multiple panes and blinds between the panes. Now they even have tempered glass windows as well! Scientifically-created coatings on new windows and better keep the temperature you prefer in while keeping the outside elements where they belong. Many houses have a lot of windows unfortunately and if it’s just not in the budget for a complete window renovation, they also sell sheets of this tempered coating that you can apply to sun-facing windows (or all of your windows) to save electricity and a few bucks. Give Home Remedy a call and we can help make sure your windows or coverings are installed properly.
There are many more great green remodeling ideas for your home out there, but this is just our short list. With a few tweaks to your home, you can make your friends GREEN with envy, the Earth happier and your wallet heavier.
Find more great information about green building and home renovation HERE with the EPA.