healthy-home / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

Healthy Home Offices - Natural Biophilic Design Ideas
Interior design and furnishing

How do you create a healthy home office? With Biophilic Interior Design

If you’re anything like me, you’ll have daydreamed on more than one occasion of having the luxury of being able to work from home. Oh, the thought of not having to deal with the daily commute, of being able to put your laundry on before the weekend rolls around and being able to spend your lunch break in the luxury of ...

Radon and vapour barrier below slab on grade floor
Radon in Homes - Mitigation

Vapour / radon barriers below slab floors

How to Install a Radon Barrier - Slab Floors If in the kind of area where it's a good idea to install a vapor barrier against radon ingress, (check out the Radon maps by state and province page to find out here) we can't stress enough how important it is to test for radon, or better still to continually monitor for hig...

Laneway house by Lanefab Design/Build
Interior design and furnishing

Interior furnishings & decor

  Protecting your indoor air quality: Any renovation or building project is exciting, but it can also be exhausting and emotionally taxing. Right at the end when it's time to furnish your new space can be one of the hardest times to stick to your environmental convictions. When you are finally ready to move in, the tem...

Interior solid pine door
Doors and trim

Interior finishing

Adhesives and sealants: Modern homes have a lot more caulking and adhesives than older homes. Adhesives are liberally applied to many surfaces for ease and speed of job completion, as well as to prevent squeaking between flooring and joists, for example. Functionally speaking, caulking is used to prevent moisture and a...

DIY air exchanger installation video
HRV and ERV

DIY Lunos HRV air exchanger installation video

This heat recovery ventilation (HRV) system is very different than what people are probably used to seeing, where air is directed to a centralized core for a heat exchange before being exhausted from the house. Lunos is a decentralized system with a series of self-contained units, each with their own ceramic heat exch...

Prefab Passive House & LEED Kit Homes for Sale in Ontario & North Eastern US
Concept and design

Prefab Passive House & LEED ready kit homes - the future of buying a new home?

Prefab Home kits are ideal for Passive House or LEED certified homes Écohabitation the French language Quebec affiliates of EcoHome, in conjunction with experienced Architects & Kit home manufacturers, have launched a series of stylish & affordable prefabricated sustainable green kit homes that are able to meet...

Vinyl record album
Healthy indoor air quality

Keep vinyl out of your home (albums excluded of course)

The production of vinyl (also known as PVC- polyvinyl chloride) accounts for approximately 40% of the chlorine gas produced in North America. Vinyl is highly polluting in production, and as a building product it is susceptible to UV exposure, causing it to break down and release particles. And in the unfortunate event ...

Healthy indoor air quality

The impact of ambient fragrances on our health

Given that we spend about three quarters of our time indoors (counting both home and work), it is essential that we work to ensure clear indoor air quality. Contrary to what many people believe, indoor air is often more polluted than outdoor air. How is inside air worse that outside air? The air you breathe inside orig...

LEED Platinum prefabricated home Kit
LEED Homes

LEED® Platinum prefab kit home has superior air quality and performance

Prefab LEED Platinum kit house in Montreal   Ellen and Roman Szumski earned LEED® Platinum certification for their home in Labelle, in the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec and EcoHome took a look. LEED is a point-based green building rating system, so we must emphasize the exceptional performance of this house modeled by...

Non-toxic building materials can improve home air quality
Healthy indoor air quality

Maintaining healthy indoor air quality

Mold in homes is a bad sign so how to get rid of it or prevent mold in drywall? Mold and mildew in homes develops in conditions of high humidity, most often in bathrooms, kitchens and basements, unless caused by roof leaks and other building envelope failures. Along with affecting the durability of your home, mold and ...

Understanding sound transmission in homes
Insulation and soundproofing

Understanding sound transmission in buildings

Before embarking on any structural changes, it is most important to understand that the sound isolation between two homes is not determined only by the common wall or floor. All the other parts of the construction - side walls, ceilings, floors under walls - can transmit sound. Flanking sound transmission (see below), ...