Renovating Your Home’s Interior Efficiently – Whether you bought it new or pre-owned, your home is likely your most valuable asset. However, over time, this asset becomes obsolete, forcing people to buy a new home, buy an old home, or remodel an old home.
Renovating your existing home is not only a satisfying journey, but it can also save you money on moving costs and, if done right, make your home more environmentally friendly. Called green remodeling or environmental renovation, this trend takes old, outdated homes and brings them up to modern, eco-friendly standards.
Renovating Your Home’s Interior Efficiently
Green remodeling, also known as environmental remodeling, involves taking into account the environmental impact of home renovations. Older homes built with low energy efficiency standards offer great opportunities for green retrofitting.
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Renovating your home also affects the environment in many ways, so you can participate in the green building wave in many ways while renovating your old home.
Steps that can be taken to achieve green design include the sourcing of materials, the types of materials used, and repair designs. With all these eco-friendly remodeling options, you may be wondering where to start.
If you decide to take on a home improvement project and do it in an eco-friendly way, there are a number of ways you can do it. From green building methods to sustainable building materials and beyond, let’s explore all the possibilities for changing the environment.
Unless you’re a do-it-yourselfer, most homeowners depend on general contractors to handle their green home improvement projects. Certification is relatively common in general contracts, including green building methods.
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Look for a general contractor with one or more green building certifications, such as National Association of Home Builders Green Certified, National Association of Renovation Industry Association or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).
Although these certificates are only pieces of paper, they show commitment to environmental development. However, the real proof is the renovation contractor and the subcontractors they hire.
The construction phase is a huge part of environmental construction, but it is still only one part. Another big part is passive environmental changes that can happen during the design phase.
This includes installing skylights to maximize natural lighting, limit energy use, and reduce energy bills. It also includes the routing of heating, ventilation, and cooling ducts, exits, and window placement to maximize sunlight and natural warmth during the winter.
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Not only interior design and building design are important, landscaping design can also influence your landscaping project. The placement of trees in particular makes a big difference.
Choosing the best summer shade trees and placing them in the right location can significantly reduce summer cooling costs. Choosing trees that shed their leaves in the fall and winter will increase lighting and natural warmth in your home and lower energy costs. This makes hardwoods an excellent choice for landscaping projects.
Integrating the design process into your overall goal of environmental change will ensure the greatest success of your project.
On top of the design process, you can prepare for your green renovation project with an energy audit. These audits are called energy assessments and perform a series of tests to identify inefficiencies in your home. This can include things like measuring the efficiency of your furnace, checking door seals and window seals for leaks, and doing a thermographic scan of your home.
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After an energy audit, you will have a clearer picture of what needs to be updated to increase the efficiency of your home after the environmental renovation.
Another way to do environmentally friendly construction is to use sustainable materials. These are building materials made from renewable sources or from sustainably harvested sources. This can include renovating your kitchen with green cabinets, composite panels made from materials like recycled plastic, new countertops, bathroom fixtures, and even recycled insulation.
You can also complete your environmental renovation project as sustainably as possible by dismantling buildings instead of destroying materials. Diving in with a sledgehammer and demolishing all the old stuff might be satisfying, but you might end up destroying your reusable stuff. Instead, methodically dismantle old items and find anything that can be reused, such as wooden beams and fasteners.
If you can’t reuse anything at home, that doesn’t mean you have to buy all new materials. Sustainability can be achieved by repurposing high-quality items from other people’s refurbs or thrift stores, such as Habitat for Humanity’s network of ReStores. You can also find reusable items that fit the specific theme you’re going for.
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For example, if you want a rustic-style living room for your green home renovation, consider a tumbledown barn or driftwood. These can be quality materials and offer great alternatives to buying new wood and artificially aging it.
Older homes generally have outdated appliances and appliances, such as water heaters, refrigerators, stoves, dishwashers, air conditioners, and heaters. These older devices are often relatively inefficient and are a barrier to green change.
So, if your environmental construction project has old appliances and electronics, consider upgrading them to new, more efficient ones. An example of this is replacing your old water heater with a more efficient tankless water heater.
The U.S. Department of Energy found that tankless water heaters are 24 to 34 percent more efficient than tank heaters for homes that use 41 gallons or less of water per day. However, for people using 86 gallons of water per day, these tanks are still 8-14% more efficient. In addition, you can install a heater at each outlet and save even more.
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You can also opt for solar water heaters, which use no electricity and can reduce your water heating bills by 50-80%. If you really want to go green with your renovations, consider renewable energy by retrofitting your home with solar panels.
The initial investment may be high, but the long-term returns for the environment and your wallet will be worth it. Of course, your savings can vary from solar panel to solar panel, depending on the amount of sunlight, electricity prices, solar system size, roof design, and even your utility company’s billing method. So check these before installing rooftop solar panels.
Just like the appliances and electronics in your home, the building materials you use can significantly improve the success of your remodeling project. Consider upgrading to newer, more efficient alternatives while removing old building materials. It includes:
Part of the carbon footprint of home improvement is in the transportation of materials. Fortunately, you can limit this by buying as many building materials as possible locally. From bathroom countertops to lumber, these materials can be sourced locally, eliminating emissions from transporting home building materials over long distances.
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Not only are you saving on emissions, but you’re also helping to support the local economy, so it’s a win-win all round.
There are a few things you should consider when undertaking a landscaping renovation project. Let’s take a look at a few important and often overlooked parts of an environmental renewal project.
Many upgrades to your green renovation project may qualify for federal, state, or local loans. For example, installing a low-flow toilet can earn you a credit on your utility bill or a credit check mailed to you, and up to a 30 percent tax credit on all solar panel installations through 2032.
Recycling and repurposing is a great way to make an environmental renovation project more cost-effective. When people suggest these reclaimed items, like old barn wood or old wood from a dismantled garage, they just want to get rid of scrap wood. This is a great opportunity to get these materials for free.
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For example, see if your neighbor is demolishing an old building with recyclable materials. In this case, you can volunteer to offer the old material to you for free and help repair the damage.
While building, pay close attention to the health of the environment and don’t forget to clean up. Check how the contractor plans to clean up your site and make sure the entire process is in line with green building processes to ensure it’s environmentally friendly.
No matter how green the process, there will still be hazardous substances such as asbestos that can harm wildlife and human health. You’ll also want to make sure it’s being disposed of in an environmentally friendly way, not just dumping it in landfills or leaching into groundwater.
Research shows that renovations are more environmentally friendly than new construction, and this is only exacerbated when environmental renovation projects are involved. This relates to the greenhouse gases emitted during the life cycle of a material, including everything from extracting raw materials from the earth to transporting them to the physical construction process.
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If you’re renovating instead of building new, the net new raw material will come in much less.