wooden-planter-boxes / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

b sq. Design Studio Inc. is a Toronto-based landscape design and build firm that endeavours to create elegant and modern landscapes with a focus on sustainability and longevity for their work. “Plug and Play – the Pallet Garden” is their 5th feature garden installation for the annual Canada Blooms Garden Festival. Bui...

Introduction to wooden prefab kit homes Prefab housing is gaining a lot of attention in the news and in the construction industry due to the greater speed of construction, quality and affordability it offers compared to site-built homes.  There are prefab homes made with a variety of materials, here we will focus on th...

Restoring a weathered cedar deck easily, step by step  Cedar decking boards turn gray in a few short years if untreated, and can make your deck look much older and closer to the end of its life than it actually is. There are easy tips for restoring an old deck and bringing back the original color of cedar decking. Deck...

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...

Framing lumber choices for building homes Framing lumber, also known as structural wood, is the grade of wood used for house framing (studs, Larsen Trusses for double-stud walls, headers, roof trusses and floor joists, etc. as well as in timber frame construction). Its technical characteristics make it perfectly suitab...

The environmental advantages of wood frame construction: As a renewable building material, wood has many advantages over other materials. It requires less energy to produce in terms of resource extraction, manufacturing, and transportation. While still prevalent in residential construction, wood has largely been replac...