choosing-best-drywall / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

How to Choose Eco-Friendly Drywall: There is a lot more to choosing drywall than one might think, and as it finds its way into pretty much every building made, a lot of resources are used in the process and noses irritated. In the LEED Platinum certified Edelweiss House, we used CGC Sheetrock® Brand Ultralight gypsum ...

Walls in residential homes are almost exclusively finished using gypsum board (either recycled or synthetic) because it is cheap and easy. It is however, not the only option for interior walls, and it has some other competition - especially in areas that may get humidity. We will start with drywall, but also list off a...

A technical guide to understanding the role weather barriers and rainscreens play in a wall, choosing the right products and installation tips for optimum performance. They're officially known as water-resistive barriers or WRBs, sometimes weather-resistive barriers, but in practical terms they are more commonly called...

DIY drywall repairs are an easy home improvement that pretty much anyone can handle. Cracks and dents in drywall are cosmetic only, so if you completely screw up a drywall repair job, the only real problem would be a fresh dent in your ego. The most common damage to drywall consists of dents, minor cracks and popped na...

Construction is a dirty business, and living in a home under renovation can aggravate asthma and other respiratory illnesses, it can also lead to issues developing that people didn't suffer from before. Air that is full of dust and chemicals can cause respiratory irritations even among adults who don't suffer from such...

Wood Burning Inserts & Stoves - which are best & which burn cleanest? Reading the specifications to find the best wood burning fireplace inserts or wood stove can be rather complicated, so how do you choose? Let's shake loose the important points from all the technical jargon and make the process a bit more enj...

The importance of installing doors and windows correctly: Window and door openings are breaches in a building envelope that need to be carefully managed in order to prevent moisture damage and air leakage in homes as well as to save energy. Water leaks from around windows and doors are the visible result of a poor inst...

Wood ceilings - what's the the skinny? Ahhh, the charm of a wood ceiling, seriously, what's not to like? The intent of this page is less about talking you out of installing gypsum board (drywall), and more about giving you a little encouragement if you are hesitantly considering a wood ceiling. It’s a natural product t...

Which is the best home EV charger? That depends... Here's a suprising fact for many new EV owners - the charger for a shiny new Electric Vehicle is actually inside it! The charger is not the box on the wall, but is the equipment installed inside the car that takes the AC Alternating Courant electric sourced from your r...

This is the fourth piece in a blog series written by Craig Anderson as he documents the design and construction of an off-grid LEED Gold passively-heated home. See post 1 of the off-grid homes blog here, the overview . or post 2 in the off-grid homes blog here covering design and construction choices. or here see post ...

1. Asphalt shingles: Asphalt shingles © Ecohome We’ll start with shingles to get it out of the way, because choosing an eco-friendly, durable roof covering starts first with dismissing any idea of installing asphalt shingles. High-embodied energy, rarely if ever recycled, they deteriorate rapidly with UV rays, emit s...