The Future is Green

Green Remodeling Tips: Does Going Green Add Value to Your Home?

 

First of all, a big thank you to everyone who has bought a copy of my book, Practical Green Remodeling. As of a moment ago, Amazon.com's sales ranking show that it is

• #1 in Home & Garden > Sustainable Living>Energy Efficiency,
• and #2 in Home & Garden > How-to & Home Improvements > Remodeling & Renovation 

Here is another excerpt from the book (with a few new edits):

What’s my motivation for going green?

Funny you should ask. You have two choices, really. Do you want to be totally hard nosed and practical, and just do things that directly benefit your family? Or do you want to get all environmental and tree huggerish? Save the whales and so forth.

If you’re just in it for yourself, you can stick with things that make the house more comfortable and economical to run. Concentrate on cutting your monthly utility bills, and use more durable materials and construction methods so it will cost less to maintain.  And forget about the rest of the population; just worry about the people inside the house. Do things to reduce toxins and improve the indoor air quality - for purely selfish reasons.

Or, if you’re seriously determined to try and save the planet, you could go the other way entirely. Not be so selfish. Remodel in ways that cut energy use in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce waste and conserve natural resources, and cut pollution. And vote with your wallet – refuse to buy materials and products that are environmentally harmful, or contain toxic compounds – which will drive down the price of those materials, to the benefit of everyone. In other words, you would make the house easier on the planet, more comfortable, more economical to operate, less expensive to maintain, better for your health, - for purely altruistic reasons.

What’s that you say? They both sound like exactly the same thing? Well, um, now that you mention it, yes, actually, they are. I have to admit, you’ve got a point there.

But what’s the payoff?

To answer that you have to ask yourself, what creates value? One of the first things homeowners want to know about any improvement is, will I it be a good investment? Will the added value justify the expense? But what is our standard for judging value? Is it just about how much the home will sell for?

Most home improvements do not add as much value to the house as they initially cost. A new kitchen that costs $50,000 typically adds less than $40,000 to the home’s resale value. On average, most renovations add anywhere from 65% to 85% of their cost to the home’s value.

So why do we do it? The answer for most people is that part of the value comes from the added enjoyment or functionality they get from the newly improved home. You might, for example, select a particularly attractive ceramic tile for your bathroom just because you like it, even though it costs more than a cheaper option that doesn’t turn you on. When you eventually sell the house, it is unlikely that your choice of tile will alter the price a buyer is willing to pay. But every day, when you walked into the bathroom it gave you pleasure. That’s worth something.

Adding a deck to the back of your house typically adds about 75% of its cost to the home’s value. But over the years you’ll spend many summer evenings relaxing on that deck, barbecuing, entertaining friends and family. The pleasure you get from having that deck means that, for you, it was money well spent.

But what about less tangible – or at least, less visible – improvements? If you install better ventilation and choose non-toxic materials that don’t endanger your family’s health, isn’t that worth something, even if the cost is slightly higher? What is the return on an investment that provides improved indoor air quality, reducing the likelihood that your children will suffer with allergies or asthma?

What if you have strong convictions about the environment? You might happily donate money to the World Wildlife Fund to help them fight deforestation in tropical rain forests. You don’t expect any return other than the knowledge that you helped a little bit. But you know that if enough people do the same, it will have a meaningful impact.

But what about spending a little more for sustainably harvested lumber? It won’t have any direct impact on your daily life. But as more people make that choice, it grows the market for sustainable lumber, which drives down the price. As the price goes down, illegal harvesting in rain forests, as well as other unsustainable forestry practices here and abroad, become less profitable, and a vital resource is preserved.

Weather any particular choice makes your home healthier to live in, or adds to your enjoyment of the house or your sense of pride in being a good citizen of Planet Earth, it is clear that not every decision you make is based on its value as an investment.

Still, in many ways, green remodeling is a sound financial investment. Investing in energy efficiency might cost a bit more up front, but you come out way ahead because the savings on your utility bills will be greater than the small increase in your mortgage payment. It is an investment that pays for itself – and then continues paying dividends as long as you own your home – and when you go to sell it. A growing body of evidence suggests that buyers are willing to pay more for energy-efficient green homes, and that such homes sell faster than nongreen homes.

As more people become aware of the benefits of living in healthy, energy-efficient homes, and as the cost of energy rises, it is very likely that those homes will sell at a significant premium, while energy hogs with poor indoor air quality will lose value.

 

 

Green Remodeling Tips: Checking for Air Leaks

 Over the next several weeks, I plan to offer a series of green remodeling tips drawn from my book, Practical Green Remodeling: Down-to-Earth Solutions for Everyday Homes.

Homes lose most of their heat through air movement. And most houses leak a lot of air. If you do nothing else to your home, the first and most important thing to do is to find air leaks and seal them with caulk, expanding foam or weather-stripping. This is the simplest, most cost-effective thing you can do to improve your home's energy efficiency.

Now that the weather is turning colder, you can find air leaks in your home with a simple test. On a day when it is 15 to 20 dregrees cooler outside than inside, close all doors and windows and turn on all exhaust fans (usually in bathrooms & kitchens). Then run a damp hand around your door and window frames. Any place you feel a draft, that's where you need to seal.

To pinpoint drafts more accurately, light a stick of incense and hold it close to a window or door. As you move it around, being careful not to set the drapes on fire, you will see from the movement of the smoke where you have drafts. You can also buy a non-toxic smoke-pen, a small device made especially for this purpose. Just Google "smoke pen" and you'll find several online sources.

If you see drafts around the outside of the frame, where the window trim meets the wall, you can easily seal that with a tube of caulk. (Use low-VOC caulk so that you’re not filling your house with potentially harmful fumes as you seal the leaks.

If you see air movement where the window sash meets the frame, you should consider replacing the jamb liners, or adding weather-stripping. This is a little more involved than caulking, but if you are patient and a little handy with tools you can probably do this yourself in an afternoon.

Other places to look for drafts are shown in the illustration below. For more detailed instructions visit the Energy Star web site here.

My new book, PRACTICAL GREEN REMODELING, (Taunton Press) is now in bookstores

I am pleased to announce that my new book, Practical Green Remodeling: Down-to-Earth Solutions for Everyday Homes, published by Taunton Press, is in bookstores nationwide as of today. You can also find it here on Amazon.com.

In the coming weeks I will be posting excerpts from the book, as well as tips for making any home healthier, more energy efficient, and easier on the environment - in short, greener.

Here is a brief excerpt from the introduction:

All across the country Americans are waking up to the realization that our planet is in trouble. Temperatures are rising, glaciers are melting, and changing weather patterns are starting to affect food production. Communities across the country and around the world are facing serious water shortages. Wildlife habitat and natural resources are being depleted at an alarming rate.

The scope of the problem seems so vast that we often wonder how anything we do as individuals can possibly make a difference. Yet single-family homes in the United States produce 21% of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas responsible for global warming. Our homes, at least, are something we, as individuals, do have the power to change.

Reducing energy consumption. Green remodeling offers an excellent opportunity to stop being part of the problem and to become part of the solution. Excessive energy consumption, and the negative environmental impacts associated with producing all that energy, can be dramatically reduced and you can save money on your utility bills into the bargain). Choices as simple and inexpensive as plugging air leaks or switching to more efficient light bulbs can have an enormous impact. And that’s just the beginning.

Reducing a home’s energy consumption by 25% to 40% or even more is not uncommon in green remodeling projects, and well within reach for most people. And today, the holy grail of net zero energy use is no longer a just dream but, for an increasing number of homeowners, a reality.

But there is more to green remodeling than just improving energy efficiency. Greener homes not only consume less fossil fuel, but they also make more efficient use of natural resources like water and lumber. They reduce waste, make innovative use of materials with recycled content, and extend the useful life of valuable resources that once would have ended up in a landfill.

Healthy homes. Going green also means making homes healthier. Americans spend, on average, 90% of their time indoors. For young children and senior citizens, the percentage is higher. But the air indoors is commonly two to five times as polluted as outdoor air--and much more than that in some homes. It is no coincidence that rates of asthma and allergies have skyrocketed in recent years.

Indoor pollutants are blamed for a vast array of symptoms including headaches, fatigue, dizziness, sore throats, eye irritation, nasal congestion, and rashes, among others. Exposure to toxins such as formaldehyde and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are contained in many kinds of building materials, furnishings, and finishes are among the prime culprits. In many homes, excessive moisture fosters the growth of mold and mildew, posing serious health risks. And even the cleaning products used every day in millions of homes can have negative impacts on health.

Finite resources. Unavoidably, the very act of building and remodeling homes uses up a lot of stuff: everything from lumber to steel to a wide range of building products derived from petroleum, such as paints, plastics, and floor and wall coverings. And lots of other things. But is there an infinite supply of these things? Obviously, there is not.

If the earth contains a finite amount of natural resources, which clearly it must, and each year we keep using up those resources faster than we did the year before, which we certainly are doing, that is not something that can be sustained indefinitely. So we are simply going to have to find ways to use less of things that cannot easily be replaced and to reuse as much that can’t as we can.

The scope of the problem seems so vast that we often wonder how anything we do as individuals can possibly make a difference. Yet single-family homes in the United States produce 21% of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas responsible for global warming. Our homes, at least, are something we, as individuals, do have the power to change.