Z.Z.Daily Construction

Hardwood floors provide an elegant and luxurious warmth to your home. Among the many choices for hardwood flooring that range in quality, durability and price, coconut wood flooring is an interesting alternative that you may not have considered.

In addition to quality and price, another key consideration with hardwood flooring is sustainability. Many of the popular hardwoods used for flooring come from exotic woods that are harvested from our diminishing rain forests around the world.

With the growing interest around sustainable building materials, coconut wood flooring provides a luxurious hardwood flooring solution that is also environmentally friendly.

Coconut wood comes from the palm family. Coconut palms are some of the fastest growing trees in the world. They rejuvenate much faster than most hardwood species, growing to full maturity in 5 to 6 years. This makes the Coconut Palm a sustainable resource.

Coconut wood for flooring is harvested from coconut palm plantations at the end of the tree’s coconut bearing years. Typically, coconut palms produce nuts (coconuts) for up to 80 years. At the end of their coconut bearing life span, the palm trees are then harvested for their wood, and replaced with new palms. (more…)

Bamboo flooring is becoming an increasingly popular choice with homeowners. Flooring upgrades are one of the most popular home remodeling improvements, and hardwood floors have been a first choice for many.

Hardwood floors provide a luxurious and beautiful improvement for your home. They can also be expensive, and with the growing interest and concern about sustainable and renewable building materials, many have turned to the fake laminate flooring products.

But there may be another choice to consider …

Bamboo flooring may be an ideal alternative hardwood flooring solution for you. Bamboo is an eco-friendly, totally renewable material. A member of the grass family, bamboos are the fastest growing woody plants in the world. While it may take over 100 years to replace a hardwood tree such as a Brazilian teak, bamboo reaches full maturity suitable for hardwood applications in about 4 years, and can actually regenerate without replacing or replanting (remember, bamboo is a grass).

Typically, bamboo flooring products have had durability issues. Generally softer than the hardwood flooring materials, bamboo floors have a reputation of being prone to dents, nicks and scratches. But this “softness” legacy may be more an issue in the past. New manufacturing techniques have improved and some of the better bamboo flooring products available today are actually quite durable and sturdy.

Consumer reports has tested bamboo flooring products in the past and found the same typical issues with durability. However, for the first time in a recent test, consumer reports has found the best bamboo flooring products actually out-performed the top selling oak.  See the following video. (more…)

We see more green remodeling ideas everyday, particularly in the area of earth-friendly building materials. We found another company in a similar category to Serious Materials, the maker of EcoRock – a new alternative drywall solution, that we brought to your attention recently.

Cleanboard, a San Francisco based drywall startup, is a new company with a slightly different twist on a drywall product manufactured using a more environmentally friendly process. Cleanboard promotes their ecology friendly drywall product as “the most environmentally friendly drywall on earth“.

CleanBoard has created a solar powered system that uses mirrors to concentrate the sun’s rays on a heat collector which heats a transfer fluid to store the sun’s radiant energy. The heated transfer fluid heats the drywall baking ovens up to 200 degrees Celsius. And the transfer fluid can store the heat in pressurized chambers up to 24 hours enabling the company to manufacture drywall even on days when the sun isn’t shining.

The traditional gypsum drywall manufacturing process typically relies on fuel expensive gas fired ovens that represent a significant carbon footprint. Moving to a solar based technology to heat the ovens provides a carbon free solution and should reduce the energy costs to manufacture the drywall by more than 50%.

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We hear a lot about eco-friendly green remodeling lately. As the sustainable building trend picks up momentum, many companies and manufacturers are jumping on the bandwagon and bringing new and improved green building material products to market.

One such company, Serious Materials, has released a new drywall product they call EcoRock. The company claims this is the first significant change in the way that sheetrock is manufactured in over 100 years, and has recently won the Popular Science GreenTech award for best of what’s new in ‘08.

For environmentally conscious home builders and home remodelers that are looking for better sustainable building materials solutions, EcoRock may be an interesting advancement worth looking into.

EcoRock improves on traditional gypsum sheetrock in several ways.

• Uses 80% less energy to manufacture than gypsum drywall.  Traditional gypsum wallboard manufacturing processes uses energy intensive drying ovens to fabricate drywall. EcoRock is naturally dried and cured using an oven-free process that consumes much less energy to manufacturer.
• Made of 80% recycled materials - made using recycled industrial waste products including waste from steel and cement plants. No gypsum is used to manufacture EcoRock.
• Mold and Termite resistant – outperforms all other mold resistant drywall as much as 50%. And no harsh anti-fungal chemicals are used to make EcoRock.
• Can be fully recycled at end of life – can be used as a pH additive for soils and can be returned to the production of EcoRock and other building materials as a useful raw material. And unlike gypsum drywall materials, EcoRock can be safely disposed of in landfills if necessary.

According to the manufacturer, EcoRock should be available from building material suppliers in the Western states later in 2009. The manaufacturer indicates there is no difference in hanging, taping and installing EcoRock over standard drywall products.  The cost for the new drywall building material is not currently published, but expect it to be higher priced than gypsum based wallboard.

Green remodeling is a distinct trend gaining momentum in the home remodeling industry. When homeowners decide to undertake home improvement projects, green and eco-friendly considerations make sense for two reasons. The energy conservation aspects are good for your wallet and going green is good for the environment.

Creative Green Remodeling Ideas

There are so many creative ways to apply green home improvement ideas. For example, if you enjoy a climate like we do here in Southern California that promotes the integration of an indoor and outdoor lifestyle, consider the following creative application of an outdoor shower.

This concept, courtesy of Jeremy Levine Design, provides an enclosed open-air shower off of the indoor bathroom.  The outdoor shower offers a serene exposure to the open air while protecting your personal privacy.

The green friendly design recycles the shower water into a grey water garden outside. An aesthetic and pleasing lifestyle design that is smart for the environment as well!

photo credit: Jeremy Levine Design

The possibilities for green remodeling concepts are wide-open, but most homeowners choose to start with the basics first. Here are five of the more common green remodeling improvements that you might consider for your next remodeling project. (more…)

Did you know that you can receive tax credits for a number of home improvements that increase the energy efficiency of your house?

Originally, these residential home improvement tax credits were set to expire in 2009.

Well, here’s some good news. These energy based tax credits have been extended through the end of 2010.

Energy Based Home Improvement Tax Credits

First established by congress and signed into law by President George Bush in 2005, the Energy Policy Act (EPACT) provides tax credits to individuals for a number of energy conservation home improvements.

The tax incentives offered are credits, not deductions. A tax deduction discounts the tax payer’s gross income which lowers the amount of income on which taxes must be paid.  A tax credit differs from a tax deduction by directly reducing the amount of taxes owed rather than decreasing gross income. Most homeowners regard tax credits as more beneficial.

These energy conservation credits were initially set to expire in different years, with the first expiration dates starting in 2009. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has extended many of the consumer energy tax incentives through the end of 2010.

Remember, always consult your accountant or tax specialist first to fully understand the specific tax benefit you might receive. The current tax laws are subject to change, and these various tax credits are scheduled to expire at different times. (more…)