Foam board insulation products are quite popular with some aspects of today’s green construction. If you’re looking for some information on these products then check out: Foam Board Insulation Types and R Values.

You may not think foam board insulation is green. However, recent studies from insulation manfucturers suggest that polystyrene insulation is manufactured with as much as 24% less energy compared to fiberglass insulation.

Some manufacturers are even offering recycled foam board products. The nice thing about recycled foam board is any off gasing is most likely completely finished and you’re recycling a product that is already quite green.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Polished / Hardened Concrete Floors

Polished concrete slabs are becoming a popular green building alternative  for the traditional epoxy coated concrete floors used in warehouses and manufacturing plants. It’s become so popular that many people are using polished, stained concrete as a finished floor in new homes.

I recently wrote about diamond polishing concrete floors on my other site and realized it’s a perfect topic for Green Construction. Polishing concrete involves grinding, polishing and chemically hardening the concrete surface to create a beautiful durable finished flooring option.

A densifying solution is added to the concrete to help create a much harder suface. This is achieved by applying some type of sodium silicate to the surface of the concrete. The sodium silicate reacts with the calcium hydroxide found in the concrete matrix. This in turns creates calcium silicate hydrate in the concrete matrix which produces the hardened concrete surface.

This is combined with diamond polishing up to 1500 to 3000 grit which creates a very shiny reflective slip resistant surface. The end result is a concrete floor that requires no additional sealers or coatings in order to protect the surface from staining and dusting.

Why Is Polished Concrete Green?

Polished concrete is certainly a green construction method that makes so much sense. First of all we’re eliminating some type of floor coating and/or flooring material. Secondly, the concrete is already being used as structure so why not use it to serve the purpose of a finished floor surface. Also, there will be no VOC’s emissions from a polished concrete floor compared to a floor treated with some type of epoxy coating.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Home Depot Gift Card Winner

The winner of the Father’s Day Home Depot $100 Gift Card is Mike J. Mike is a subscriber to Today’s Green Construction and plans on buying some new tools. Congratulations to Mike and a big thank you for everyone that entered and The Home Depot which sponsored this great giveaway. Be sure to keep checking back for future giveaways. Thanks again!

Gift Cards from The Home Depot

This year for Father’s Day why not get your hard working dad a gift card from The Home Depot so he can buy himself the perfect gift. Visit your local Home Depot to find three new gift card styles to choose from, including a gift card that look s and feels like duct tape and a gift card that comes with a FREE 3/8” drill bit!

Home Depot Gift Card Giveaway

To celebrate Father’s Day this year The Home Depot is sponsoring a $100 Gift Card Giveaway on this site. That’s right, one lucky random winner is going to have a FREE $100 Home Depot gift card mailed to them on Father’s Day.
If you’d like a chance to win the free $100 Home Depot Gift Card there are three ways to enter this contest. You can enter all three ways for a total of 86 entries (I will add all your entries, no need to leave 86 comments!).

• 1 Entry: Leave a comment telling us what project you’d use your gift card for at The Home Depot. Please be sure to leave your email address.

• 10 Entries: Subscribe to Today’s Green Construction by Email (I can only track email subscriptions, not plain RSS subscriptions)

• 75 Entries: Write a short post on your blog or website about the giveaway and what you’d like to buy with the $100 Home Depot Gift Card. Make sure you include a link: http://www.todaysgreenconstruction.com with text of, Today’s Green Construction. Be sure to email me a link to the post so I can verify your link.

All entries must be received by 11:59 PM (Eastern) 20 June 2009. The winner will be announced on Father’s Day, June 21! So enter to win the Home Depot Gift Card giveaway contest today! You can also find another $100 Home Depot Gift Card Giveaway over at Home Construction Improvement.

Only residents of the U.S. and Canada are eligible. Spam entries will be thrown out. (Spam entries are determined at the sole discretion of Front Steps Media, LLC. All rules are subject to change without notice.

Popularity: 40% [?]

Stimulus Package – Federal Tax Credits

The recent Stimulus Package has created some significant Federal Tax Credits for home owners looking to make energy efficient home improvements. I thought I’d take the time to summarize some of those Federal Tax Credits that apply to “Green” home improvements. You can find a detailed list of the new Tax Credits on the Energy Star website.

The new Tax Credits involve both new construction and renovations to existing construction. The Tax Credits for renovating existing homes are in effect until December 31, 2010 and they include:

Existing Home Tax Credits

The existing home tax credits are good for 30% of the cost up to a maximum credit fo $1,500.

• Biomass Stoves
• Non Solar Hot Water Heaters
• HVAC Equipment
• Roofing Products
• Insulation
• Doors
• Windows

Existing and New Home Tax Credits

These Tax Credits are really good! You get 30% of the cost with no maximum and they are in effect until the end of the year 2016! They include:

• Fuel Cells
• Small Wind Energy Systems
• Solar Water Heaters
• Solar Panels
• Geothermal Heat Pumps

These new stimulus package tax credits make it a great time to consider some really great energy efficient home improvements like solar power and geothermal heat pumps! My hope is that subsidies like this will drive up demand which should bring pricing down and improve the availability of these green home improvement options.

Popularity: 6% [?]

I hope everyone enjoyed this giveaway and I’d like to thank The Home Depot for sponsoring this great giveaway here on Today’s Green Construction. There were over 450 entries in this giveaway and I hope everyone visited the Home Depot Rental Center site to see how many great tools you can rent there.

The winner of the $200 Home Depot Gift Card is “Tina” who entered and said:

I’d like to rent a pressure washer for my deck and a tiller for our garden. I’m also a loyal subscriber for both of your sites. Thanks for always having these great giveaways.

Good luck on the garden and cleaning your deck this summer Tina and thanks to everyone that entered. I hope all the new subscribers will continue to follow this site and come back for more great giveaways in the future.  And remember to go rent your tools at The Home Depot for all your Green Home Improvement Projects.

Popularity: 19% [?]

I just read an article about Senator Dianne Feinstein and how she’s objecting to solar and wind projects in the Mojave Desert. Nineteen companies have filed applications granting permission to develop solar power and wind power generation facilities on 500,000 acres of the Mojave Desert. Senator Feinstein is trying to block that development from ever happening.

I have a serious problem with the hypocritical approach taken by some of these politicians that scream for alternative energy and a departure from fossil fuels while blocking projects like this. I have to agree with California Governor Schwarzenegger who recently said: “If we cannot put solar power plants in the Mojave desert, I don’t know where the hell we can put it.” At what point do we finally decide to compromise some of our protected real estate for the better good of the environment?

Am I crazy? Do any of you agree with her stance on this issue? The desert has it’s charm and certainly it’s own eco system that we should try to protect. However, it’s not likely that many of will live in the desert and I’d rather see this land used to generate clean energy than to leave it un-developed while we struggle to find a better way.

Popularity: 23% [?]

The Home Depot Tool Rental Center

Did you know you can save money on your spring projects by renting power tools, yard and garden equipment and hand tools at The Home Depot? You can rent more than 325 types of professional tools at the 1,200 local The Home Depot Tool Rental Centers. Renting professional grade tools is a great way to get started on your next Green Home Improvement DIY project without blowing your budget on new tools.

The Home Depot Tool Rental Centers offer a wide range of professional grade tools. Regardless of how large or small your project is they have a tool for the job. The nice thing is you can rent tools by the hour, by the day, by the week or even by the month. The Home Depot will also meet competitors rental prices plus an additional 10% discount on comparable tools. They also have trained staff available to answer all your questions and help you select the best tool for the job.

Home Depot Gift Card Giveaway

Thanks to the fine folks at The Home Depot, we are giving away a $200 Home Depot Gift Card so you can go out and rent some tools for your next Green Construction project. If you’d like a chance to win the free $200 Home Depot Gift Card there are three ways to enter this contest. You can enter all three ways for a total of 86 entries. You MUST follow the directions precisely in order to qualify.

• 1 Entry: Visit The Home Depot Rental Center site and find a tool you’d like to rent, then come back and leave a comment below telling us which tool you’d rent. Please be sure to leave your email address.

• 10 Entries: Subscribe to Today’s Green Construction by Email (I can only track email subscriptions, not plain RSS subscriptions)

• 75 Entries: Write a short post on your blog or website about the giveaway and what tool you’d like to rent with the $200 Home Depot Gift Card. Make sure you include two links: http://www.todaysgreenconstruction.com with the text “Today’s Green Construction” and http://www.homedepotrents.com/?utm_source=blogger2&utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_campaign=sitereferral with the text “The Home Depot Rental Center“. Be sure to email me a link to the post so I can verify your links.

All entries must be received by 11:59 PM 17 April 2009. The winner will be announced on April 18! So enter to win the Home Depot Gift Card giveaway contest today! You can also find another $200 Home Depot Gift Card Giveaway over at Home Construction Improvement.

Popularity: 100% [?]

Blower Door Test

This week we are finally finishing construction on an Energy Star home for a customer so it was time to perform a blower door test. The blower door test is used as an analytical measure of a houses air tightness. The Energy Star Certification program uses the results from a blower door test as one benchmark in determining whether a house meets the criteria.

The blower door test was performed by a third party inspector using the equipment shown in the photo. This simple piece of equipment contains an adjustable door panel, a calibrated fan and an air pressure measuring device. The fan is turned on to create a negative air pressure in the home which allows the tester to calculate a standard CFM50 score. The CFM50 score is definted as the air flow in cubic feet per minute required to create a 50 pascal pressure difference in the house compared to outside.

The CFM50 score is then used in a computer model along with information about the insulation R values, door and window U values and the square footage of the home. The computer model then generates a score that’s used for the final Energy Star rating. We should get the results back in the next week or so and it will be interesting to see how this new home rates.

Stay tuned for the results!

Popularity: 29% [?]

Recently I was asked to review a children’s book that encourages environmental awareness. Seeing that we have two small children I gladly accepted the request. I was especially interested in seeing how this children’s book could help our young ones understand the important of the environment around us.

Legend of Honey Hollow

The Legend of Honey Hollow is a very well written story about endangered bears from around the world that  end up all living in Honey Hollow. Honey Hollow is a special bear sanctuary with clean air and water until developers threaten to destroy their environment by cutting the forest down. The bears team up with the loggers children to save Honey Hollow from certain destruction and to protect the environment they live in.

The author, Jeanne McNaney does a wonderful job teaching children to appreciate wildlife, the environment, community and working together to save our environment. The book contains amazing illustrations that bring this environmental awareness book to life.

Our 4 year old son has fallen in love with the book and the characters of Honey Hollow. I have to believe that teaching our children valuable environmental awareness at a young age will only help strengthen the current environmental movement. If your children enjoy reading books and you’re looking for a great way to teach them about the fragile environment we live in then this book is for you.

Follow this link to buy a copy of The Legend of Honey Hollow for your children to enjoy.

Popularity: 26% [?]

Walk-In Closet Materials

Recently we created a great new walk-in closet in our master bedroom suite with products from EasyClosets. We are really pleased with our experience from EasyClosets and I wanted to share some information about their products that showcases their environmental awareness.

Protecting The Environment

EasyClosets works hard to protect the environment by utilizing many different recycling approaches.

• 100% of EasyClosets particleboard used for shelving comes from post industrial waste streams. This means that the particleboard is manufactured using 100% wood scraps that are created from other wood milling operations (wood chips, wood scraps, saw dust, etc.).
• EasyClosets uses packaging materials created from 95% recycled materials.
• 98% of their inbound cardboard is recycled on-site for new packaging materials.
• 100% of waste product from cut closet rods is recycled

Some may argue that using particleboard isn’t really green. However, I disagree because the scrap materials used for particleboard would either be burned or dumped in a landfill. By using those materials to build useful materials we’re helping reduce the impact on the environment.

If you’re looking for a new closet then I suggest you give EasyClosets a look!

Popularity: 29% [?]