Renovating Methods for Eco-Friendly Homes

After some time, your home naturally ages and begins to appear a bit worn-out and tired. If moving is not an option, there are many affordable renovations that can help your house look fresh and new. Before you begin your projects, think about updating your home with the following renovating methods for eco-friendly homes.

Install Low-Flow Toilets

You may have heard that just one small dripping faucet can double your water bill in some cases. With that said, it is a smart idea to look for any way possible to conserve precious water. Low-flow toilets are a great way to save the planet (and a few bucks). They use gravity and pressurized air to get rid of waste.

Toilets that were installed before the mid-1990s used up to seven gallons of water per flush. The Energy Policy Act of 1992 changed that. It mandated that all new toilets use at most 1.6 gallons of water per flush. The majority of low-flow toilets nowadays use only 1.3 gallons. If you see the WaterSense label on the box, then you know that the toilet you purchased is eco-friendly.

Flushing the toilet accounts for about 14 percent of all water usage in the home. By swapping out your old toilet for one that is low-flow, you can use almost 80 percent less water when flushing.

Replace Carpets with Eco-Friendly Flooring

There is nothing more beautiful than the look of a hardwood floor. Unfortunately, hardwood is far from being the most eco-friendly building material on the planet because it takes many years to regrow. In addition, cutting down trees has several other harmful effects on the environment.

Homeowners who want to renovate responsibly without comprising style should use bamboo as a building material. Bamboo grows quickly, up to 4 feet per day, and doesn’t need fertilizers, harmful pesticides or a lot of water to grow. In addition, a grove of bamboo releases about 35 percent more oxygen into the air than a comparable group of trees.

The best part is that bamboo is a rapidly renewable material, which means that it doesn’t take very long to grow. While most trees mature in about 30 years, bamboo trees mature in only 7 years.

Cork is another viable option. Like hardwood, it is very durable, and it resists cracking. Cork is naturally resistant to moisture, mold and mildew. As you probably know, cork is a “springy” material. In other words, it bounces back when you apply pressure to it. So you should think about installing cork flooring in parts of your home where you stand a lot, like in your kitchen, for instance.

The method of harvesting cork is what makes it environmentally-friendly. Workers use machetes to carefully shave ribbons of cork from the trees. They make sure to not harm the trees’ internal membranes during the process. By doing so, the trees continue to live and can yield cork for many years.

Other Green Options

These are just a few of many renovation methods you can use to make your home eco-friendly. By using the suggestions above, you can renew your home while making it durable, healthy and environmentally-friendly at the same time.