flooding / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

DIY cork flooring pros, cons & installation guide with video
Flooring and stairs

Cork flooring installation - the eco-friendly flooring choice, with "how to" video

Cork flooring, pros & cons Cork is a renewable resource, harvested from trees without killing them. Although it comes from far away (mostly Portugal), its carbon footprint from transportation is quite reasonable given that it is light-weight and can be made very thin - so a lot packs into a shipping container. Cork...

Marmoleum is a non-toxic eco choice for flooring
Flooring and stairs

Marmoleum: a healthy and durable flooring option.

Remember linoleum? Meet marmoleum! Remember linoleum, that durable but boring material found on most kitchen and bathroom floors of older homes? These days, its called marmoleum and it comes in bright colors and faux finishes. Whatever name you call it, it’s generally considered both the greenest and healthiest floor c...

Eco-friendly & Healthy Flooring is best for Green Homes
Flooring and stairs

Eco-Friendly Flooring material options for Green-Homes

The floors you choose really create the atmosphere in your home and give it its identity. The first considerations should be to choose a durable and non-toxic floor to ensure safe indoor air quality (IAQ). When you are making choices, find out the estimated lifespan and what maintenance is required to keep it in good c...

All About Hemp Wood Flooring, How it's Made, Where to Buy?
Flooring and stairs

Natural non-toxic hemp flooring by HempWood & Tennessee Wood Flooring

Natural building products such as hemp flooring are gaining in popularity for those who want healthy homes with sustainable eco-friendly building materials. Hemp is a very sustainable crop given the quick growing time and the amount of carbon sequestered in hemp building products. A hemp crop goes from seed to ready-to...

Slate tile installation in bathrooom
Flooring and stairs

Slate Tile installation - video

We have finished the bathroom counter, floors and shower stalls with a dark slate tile from Glendyne. Slate is a natural stone, so its surfaces have more character and inconsistencies in texture - and at times in thickness - than manufactured tiles. This can mean a bit more effort on the part of installers, but a more ...

Slab on grade or a foundation and basement?
Foundation choices

Slab-on-grade vs foundation and crawlspace or basement

Is an insulated slab on grade the best foundation choice? Or is a basement better? Traditionally, home construction often starts with a concrete basement foundation - But is that the best choice?  The first factors to consider when designing the foundation system for a home are lot size and soil conditions. When space ...

Why basements flood and how to prevent that with a sump pump
Basements improvements

Why Basements Flood & How to Prevent Flooded Basements

...flooding, it also depends on your budget, whether your basement is finished, and your comfort level.  If your basement isn’t finished, isn’t at great risk of flooding and your sump pump is rarely activated, a back up battery may not be something you want to invest in. If the water table is high where your home is and y...

Refinishing hardwood floors, top tips for sanding wooden floors DIY
Flooring and stairs

Refinishing hardwood floors or wood planks, top sanding tips

Sanding and Refinishing a hardwood floor, when is the best time to do it? It may seem weird to say, but the best time to refinish a hardwood floor is before it shows severe signs of wear and tear. Hardwood floors and hardwood laminated or engineered floors are durable and can withstand a lot of traffic, but over time, ...

Diving to retrieve sunken timber from the log drive
Recycled and Reclaimed Materials

Reclaiming sunken timber from the log drive

As a kid growing up along the Gatineau River in Quebec, watching tugboats pulling log booms down the river was commonplace, and logs that got loose were a great source of entertainment and exploration. Any that were big enough to hold a bunch of kids for log rolling competitions were highly coveted. There were legitima...

As our climate adapts to human carbon emissions, homes have to change
Lifestyle and environment

Changing homes in a changing climate

...flooding of basements.  Backups often happen when there is excessive rain or flooding, as the sewers become overloaded. After the 2005 floods, the city of Toronto made the inclusion of sewer check valves on new homes mandatory. Now with flooding this year in Brampton and Mississauga, those areas are considering the sam...

Flooded streets impervious surfaces - Calgary Alberta
Rainwater Collection & Watering

Rainwater management and water-permeable surfaces

...flooding.   We know many coastal cities are already at risk of flooding due to rising sea levels and increased storm surges; obviously this is made much worse if such a city is dropping at the same time. And the numbers are more significant that most would imagine. During the recent California drought, depleting ground...