non-toxic-cabinets / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

How Much do Sustainable Green Kitchen Countertops Cost?
Kitchens

Pricing green kitchen countertops - there's never been a bigger choice of sustainable kitchen counters

How to price a sustainable kitchen countertop? As a professional cabinetmaker, I have often been asked how much a kitchen costs. There is no accurate answer of course, though when pressed, I would have to say somewhere between $18-30,000. The size of your kitchen, material choices and your taste in finishing makes it i...

Non-toxic food safe natural wood finishing oil for counters, floors, decks
Paints, finishes and natural coatings

Natural wood finishing oil is non toxic too

Livos is a Quebec manufacturer of natural wood finishing oils, and they are very transparent about the composition of their products which are mainly plants and some other natural materials. There are also no heavy metals used in the colouring pigments, so it is a completely sustainably-made and healthy product.  "In o...

custom kitchen renovation by River Woodworks
Kitchens

Formaldehyde-Free Green Kitchen cabinetry for a Non-toxic Home - Price Comparisons

Green kitchen cabinets - why does it matter? To improve the air quality of your home, that's why! “Indoor air quality” refers to the quality of the air in any home environment. The potential impact of indoor air quality on human health nationally is important for many reasons, including: Americans spend on average abo...

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...

Laminate Kitchen countertops can be beautiful & green too - Counter by Formica
Kitchens

Choosing green kitchen countertops for sustainable homes Including LEED v4 & Passive House PHIUS+ certified

The most common kitchen counters you will find in homes are traditional laminate countertops. And they certainly live up to the adage ‘you get what you pay for’, as most of them still contain a lot of formaldehyde and they aren’t very durable. Maybe the latest generation of laminate countertops for kitchens & bathr...

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...

Painting with zero VOC paint from Benjamin Moore
Paints, finishes and natural coatings

Choosing safe paints

There is a current trend towards limiting the production of solvent-based paints, replacing them with solvent-free or water-based paints. The move towards safe paint has led to a noticeable improvement in indoor air quality since the mid-seventies, and better even in the last decade. But paints based on petrochemical s...

Detergent-free eco friendly Laundry balls
Cleaning and maintenance

Do Laundry balls work?

While walking through a home show not long ago I came across a product that has always intrigued me, the laundry wash ball, some kind of magic bean that washes clothes without detergent. Curious but skeptical, I circled in for a closer look.  As the Ecohome Network is considered a trusted source of green building and h...

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...

Home made DIY laundry detergent from buckeyes / horse chestnuts
Lifestyle and environment

How to make Eco-friendly DIY laundry soap from Buckeyes / Horse Chestnuts

DIY laundry soap made from Buckeyes/ Horse Chestnuts - who knew? The mission of Ecohome goes beyond providing sustainable and energy efficient home building guidance - what goes in the home matters too. The most important thing that goes in homes is, in our opinion, people. As we live in an increasingly toxic world, mo...

Non-toxic, naturally-dyed Easter eggs
Lifestyle and environment

DIY non-toxic & all natural Easter egg dye.

Dying eggs is one of my favourite spring traditions. Sadly, many conventional food dyes and artificial colourings are far from benign. According to a 2010 study conducted by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Food Dyes: A Rainbow of Risks, "The three most widely used dyes, Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6, ar...