Features
How To Make Sure Your Green Home Is Truly Eco-Friendly
Many people dream of building a home from scratch. They want to choose and design everything to perfectly suit their needs and preferences.
However, most people don’t consider the benefits of building an environmentally friendly home. Environmentally friendly homes aren’t just great for the environment. They can also be aesthetically designed and have excellent curb appeal. The U.S. Green Builder’s Association has a number of recommendations and standards. They estimate that 85% of all homes have sustainable features. Here we will look at a few ways we can incorporate green ideas into your build.
Always Choose Sustainable Building Materials
It’s amazing how many different building materials are available these days. If you are able to shop around and think outside the box, you can find great alternatives to traditional materials. You can use organic, plant-based materials like reclaimed timber, hemp and bamboo or the really interesting one of mycelium composed of fungi and mushrooms. These materials are in high demand these days for a variety of reasons. First of all, they tend to be lighter and easier to work with than a lot of traditional materials. They are also a lot better for the environment.
Work with Your House Builder To Ensure Your Green Requirements Are Met
If you are working with a flexible contractor, they will try to discuss your requirements at every stage of the building process. When we interviewed FC Developments, they told us that their experience in custom builds helped them understand their customers’ projects. They try to take their customers’ vision into account and try to give them the design they are looking for.
Be Sure to Make Your Fuel Sources Sustainable & Renewable
When you build a custom home, you have a lot of flexibility in deciding how it is going to be powered. This allows you to look at renewable and sustainable fuel sources. However, you need to make your choice carefully. It is important to be aware that renewable and sustainable fuel sources are not always more environmentally friendly. For example, the currently popular wood burners are sustainable, but there are concerns about pollution from them. However solar panels are both sustainable and environmentally friendly, such features can also increase the sell on value of the property a lot.
Make Sure the House Is Well Insulated
It’s very important to make sure the house is well insulated. This is by far the most important factor in building a green home. If the insulation is poor, then you’re losing money and causing pollution. It’s shown that the carbon cost of poor insulation is a cause for great concern and should be avoided if there is any way at all to do so.
Make Sure the Garden Is Environmentally Friendly
Once the house build itself has all been meticulously planned out and shown to be green and environmentally friendly, you need to make sure that you have not forgotten the garden space. It has been shown that intensive landscaping and the associated materials involved with a lot of it are not always particularly environmentally friendly. There are many ways to not just avoid harmful garden design, but also to create environmentally positive spaces such as a wild-flower meadow type garden or install a green roof to maximize the green benefit of your space.
Build Your Green Home the Right Way
Green homes are more popular than ever. You have a lot of control if you are building a sustainable home from scratch. However, you need to make the right choices along the way.