wood / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

Which wood is best for framing timber frame construction in homes?
Wall assemblies - new construction

Lumber choices for wood frame construction - choosing timber for framing & building homes

...wood veneer plywood  © Columbia Forest Products   Plywood Plywood is most commonly found as a 4 x 8' panel that is made from thin sheets of wood veneer that are bonded together using phenol formaldehyde glues, although certain manufacturers are leading the way with formaldehyde-free plywood products. Plywood is used f...

Stairs made from reclaimed barn beams
Wood and organic materials

All about wood

...wood comes from a sustainably managed forest, so FSC labelled wood is always preferred.  Where to buy wood: Wherever you live in Canada, there is without a doubt wood being harvested not too far away. If you want to ensure your wood qualifies in some sense as 'local', you can start first of all by species selection - c...

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

...wood finishing oil can even be used on childrens toys © Livos Kunos is an impregnating wood oil that acts as a dye, sealant and finish; it bonds with the interior of the wood but continues to let it breathe. This helps preserve the natural beauty of wood and enhance the grain and colour. As far as durability is con...

90 year old red pine refinished with zero VOC floor oil
Paints, finishes and natural coatings

How to find a healthier wood finish

...wood floor finish, but the majority of them are high in VOC's which are detrimental to interior air quality and health. For this reason non-toxic wood floor finishing oils are gaining in popularity. There are a lot of benefits to oiled floors, especially with softwood which are prone to damage - it's very easy to touch...

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

Eco-Friendly Flooring material options for Green-Homes

...wood. Choosing FSC products promotes the market for responsible forestry management. Engineered hardwood floors: Engineered wood is comprised of several layers of plywood forming the core of your flooring, with a top layer of hardwood. When finished, engineered wood will look like any other hardwood floor. Pros: Sol...

Wall assemblies - new construction

Wood framing

...wood order to match, along with pre-cut lengths whenever possible. This gave us multiple points towards LEED certification.   Further reading on structures and  material efficient framing techniques: About wood frame construction Material efficient framing

Shou sugi ban carbonized wood siding
Exterior cladding

Shou sugi ban carbonized wood siding from Japan, what is it & how to make it?

...wood.  Cedar and larch are local, very durable and resistant to rot. This process can also be done with other common woods such as pine, hemlock, maple or oak and is the perfect finish to the exterior of a variety of wood framing materials. How carbonized wood finish is made: Wooden boards are burnt on each side, which...

High efficiency wood burning fireplaces and how to choose the best
Wood stove and biomass heat

Choosing the best wood-burning fireplace inserts or stoves for heat output & the environment

...wood burning efficiency, and for your choice to be a sustainable one. (Ecohome has a selection of the best wood burning fireplace inserts with blowers here)  Your carbon footprint as a wood burner: Heating with wood does not instantly make you an enviro-villain unless you live on an island with one remaining tree. Wood...

wood ceiling in Reclaimed sunken lumber
Walls and ceilings - interior surfaces

Wood Ceilings or drywall - how to choose your ceiling material & what's the difference in cost?

...wood ceiling. The aesthetics of drywall compared to wood ceilings: Clearly my bias has been established; I like wood ceilings. I find those moments when you are vacantly staring at a ceiling to be infinitely more interesting with tongue and groove wood than staring at a monotone eggshell-white surface - cold me old fas...

Timber frame construction
Wood and organic materials

Wood frame construction

...wood (when dry) is made up of carbon, which remains in the wood even after it has been harvested. It has thus been shown that using one square metre of wood in construction removes 0.9 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere. That means that a typical wooden structure measuring approximately 2,400 sq.ft. retains the equivalent...

Do you need a backup heat source with central heat pumps in a power outage?
Heating and cooling

Do heat pumps need a backup heat source?

...wood isn't your 'thing', or you live in an area where wood stoves are banned or firewood isn't easily available, then that likely isn't the best choice of backup heat. I'm also both fortunate and unfortunate when it comes to wood burning fireplaces, as the area where I live (Vancouver BC) is in the process of regulatin...