SanJoseGreenHome.com

When you are looking to spruce up your floors, there are several quick and easy updates that can increase your property value without causing you a lot of time and money. One of the main renovations that brings the best return on your investment is flooring.  If you are concerned of not being eco-friendly, you are in luck. There are a quite a few green flooring options available on the market that are pretty, durable, and that any future buyers will love.

Hardwood Floors

One eco-friendly alternative for hardwood is a salvaged wood floor. People are known to throw away old crates and barrels or to send to the dump remnants of older buildings like farmhouses. Instead, this wood can easily be cleaned, sanded and repurposed as a hardwood floor in your home. Once installed and sealed, these floors not only add character to your home, but they add the  beauty of the seasoned wood grain. Old wood can be found rather inexpensive at salvage yards.

Concrete

Most homes have a layer of concrete under their existing flooring. This concrete or a recently poured top can be turned into a great looking natural stone alternative. Etching and acid staining can color and seal the concrete into just about any shade desired. Concrete also works well installed over underfoot radiant heating systems.

Bamboo

Bamboo is great for floors. Depending on the way the graining lays, bamboo flooring can look just like wood floors, or it can have a neat textured or patterned feel. They are hard and resilient, and bamboo is grown like wheat, quickly in a short amount of time. Bamboo is also mildew-, mold-, bacteria- and water-resistant.  Make sure to look into the VOC levels of the bamboo floor and opt for the lowest possible, no need for breathing fumes from an “eco friendly’ product.

Cork

Cork is normally seen in bottles and as bulletin boards or sign hanging places on walls. Cork is designed to be resistant to mildew, bacteria, and mold. It also naturally repels moisture. The best part is cork floor is soft and warm on bare feet, which makes getting up in the morning a little easier and oh so pleasant.

Glass Tiles

Glass tiles make great floors. They are hardy and durable. They can be very slick, but texturing makes them less slippery. Many glass tiles are made from recycled materials, including bottles and jars. Just look for recycled written on the packaging.  Glass tiles make a beautiful, green choice.

Cork, bamboo, glass tiles, concrete, and salvaged wood are great eco-friendly flooring options. These are easily installed, and when you are selling your home, buyers will love the looks of them. Whichever flooring option you use, these environmentally friendly choices will add value to your home.

If you had to imagine the greenest home in California, what images would spring to mind?  Would it be some clay, dome shaped structure perfectly exposed to solar angles, or maybe an ultra chic, boxy looking modern beauty with massive windows facing a valley?  What if I told you that this home sits on a pretty standard residential street in Santa Clara and an untrained eye wouldn’t even notice any “greenness” about it if they drove by?

Meet the “Bluebird” residence.  This Earth Bound Home’s show house  is also the personal residence of founder David Edwards.  Rated as the Greenest Home in California by Build it Green organization, the original 1400 sq. ft. ranch style home was added to and remodeled, creating a 3100 sq. ft. 4 bedroom, 3 bath home with an office and workout room.   Awards range from Acterra’s Business Environmental Awards Built Environment Award to Build It Green’s South Bay Best New Home award for the 1996 Green Home Tour. Come with us on a video tour to explore all the ingenuity, design and careful choice of materials that went into this project.  (Also see a list of “green” features below the video.)

This home’s many green features include:

• Small 2.7 kw Photovoltaic solar electric panels provide all of houses electrical needs
• Solar thermal renewable energy systems
• An inexpensive and no maintenance Grey water system waters the only plants in the entire landscaping that require water, the clumping Bamboo.
• A 1400 gallon underground rainwater cistern collects rainwater every winter
• All FSC wood framing and FSC certified Brazilian Cherry Flooring
• Home built with Structural Insulated Panels(SIPs)
• 65% more efficient than Californias’ Title-24 Energy Efficiency requirements
• $155/year gas bill, $4/year electric bill, $132/year water bill
• 93%  recycling and reuse of building demolition debris
• Half of all windows were purchased from salvage yards, saving over $10,000 over new windows
• All doors on the first floor were salvaged, saving $3,000.
• All trim throughout the house was salvaged from old redwood decks, fences and the siding on old houses. It was milled on site and the shavings used as mulch on the landscaping.
• New One Lawn Synthetic Lawn contains no heavy metals and requires no maintenance or water. None of the landscape requires supplemental water and saves approx. 50,000 gallons of water a year.
• House uses 31,285 gallons of water a year, for 5 people. This is approx 84% less. than the average household uses(~110 gallons per person/day- including irrigation)

Photo and home description courtesy of Earth Bound Homes

When most people think “green” homes they imagine solar panels and fancy energy saving gadgets.  It doesn’t have to be this way.  We invite you to explore with us a passive solar home in Saratoga (Bay Area) designed by a local architect Hari Sripadanna.  The home has achieved a LEED Gold rating and truly stands as a model for sustainability in our community.  After all, Hari bought parts of his house on Craigslist! 

Obviously, we could not cover all the fascinating details in the video so if you want to learn more, please read Hari’s comments and see design plans right below the video.  Enjoy.

by Hari Saripadanna (parts of the article was originally posted on the GAB Report):

With increasing popularity of green building and passive solar design, it is important to understand that sustainable design is more than a collection of credits. The key is to create synergy between building systems and practices that multiply each other’s benefit. One can create more value simply by choosing two or more complimentary sustainable design elements that play off of each other. The combined effect is more than the benefit when these design elements or systems are used alone. 

I would like to share with you some synergistic concepts used in the design of my house and show you how (more…)

So do green homes cost more? When comparing construction costs of green homes there seem to be all sorts of figures floating around.  Some builders say it does not cost much more to build sustainably, and some say it could cost anywhere from 5-20% more to build a truly green home.  Much of those added costs however, can be recouped via numerous rebates and long term operational costs as in the case of this newly build home in Menlo Park.  Come with me on a tour and meet Bill Lacs from Lacs Design and Construction and see this newly constructed property that boasts many elements of sustainable design and technology.  Perhaps you will be surprised why this home owner decided to spend a “few” extra bucks at the end…

Here is a great example how one can take an older home and make it more energy efficient with an element of smart design.  These home owners in San Jose could have built this sun room addition in an old fashion way but instead, they decided to incorporate a passive solar element that not only made their home more comfortable but also chipped off a few bucks off of their energy bills.  You will also learn a few more benefits of a cool roof and see a couple of them in action.

The technical info is fun and educational, however, your favorite part might just be the very end, where Sigmond shares a message with us all from his heart.  Enjoy.

If you have any questions for Sigmond feel free to leave a comment here or give him a call direct at 408-353-6727.

A small bungalow front yard is reborn as a shady woodland oasis of natives centered by a naturalistic fountain accented with metal sculpture.  As you’ll read on, you’ll notice from the photo tour that this new garden shows that sustainable landscaping can be accomplished through DIY talent and on a shoe-string budget when working closely with a professional landscape designer.

The home owners of this Craftsman style home in College Park area of San Jose already prided themselves living a green and sustainable life style.  But there was still some unfinished business – their water thirsty lawn.  So they decided to say goodbye to their front lawn and concrete hardscape and figure out a way to design a new, water wise yard on a budget.  They were receptive to many sustainable suggestions including: turf rebate programs, lawn removal, water-wise irrigation, flagstone installation, planting natives and storm water management.

Fact is, if you have the time, patience and willing to learn, you can do a lot on your own.  Here is what I mean… Size of the lawn was 900 square feet.  For about $5 a square foot, I designed the plans and coached my clients through their installation.  They did the install themselves but I helped them locate materials and assisted them in receiving an $800 water rebate by removing their lawn.  Total cost?  (more…)