[Greenbuilding] 100 miles builds

[bilrob at silcom.com]

Living here in New Orleans there are many opportunities to use salvaged materials; durable, materials.
And there are several places where salvaged stuff can be purchased:
The Green Project, PRC, Old City Building Center, Habitat Restore, The Bank and Ricca's to name a few.
Not to mention the materials that can be salvaged from a rebuild.

Architecturally and environmentally outstanding.

However there are two real world issues that need to be addressed:
Lead paint and building to current hazard resistance requirements.

I will just look at the lead issue.
Using old materials, far better than what we can buy at any building supply store stocking new materials,containing lead paint is a risky business.

Let's take it for face value that lead causes neurological damage to children and even to adults.
Once there lead containing materials are reintroduced into the structure there is an added exposure to the lead-based hazards. Especially friction surfaces, doors and windows.

When proper precautions are not taken the persons using the structure are exposed.

This is not meant to discourage building material reuse but instead to take all of the implications into consideration.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Corwyn" <corwyn at midcoast.com>
To: greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org
Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2012 9:13:05 AM
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] 100 miles builds

On 2/25/2012 10:14 PM, Jason Holstine wrote:
> Id argue that's overly generalist and not necessarily true. (a) better they rebuild at
  net zero than trash, but putting that aside... The old home may have 
been a creaky sieve
  with asbestos and lead paint hanging out. How healthy and responsible 
is that?

The asbestos and lead paint are a bit of red herring.  They are often 
best left undisturbed, and eventually they will need to be dealt with no 
matter what you do.

But the issue of sieves is pertinent now.  A house which is consuming 
vast amounts of fossil fuels is not green.  It is an intriguing question 
when you are better off starting over rather than renovating what you 
have.  I am involved with a couple of projects to retrofit existing 
houses to Passivhaus standards.  While it certainly isn't as easy to 
accomplish as building from scratch, it is a lot less material 
intensive.  I am not seeing much of a correlation between the current 
efficiency or age of an existing building, and the ease of retrofitting 
it to be energy efficient.  Some of the easiest buildings are early 
1800's mansions with thick empty walls, while others are cheaply made 
buildings that just get wrapped.

I think we are once again, needing to examine the details of each case, 
and doing the right thing based on an intelligent analysis of all 
possibilities.

Thank You Kindly,

Corwyn

-- 
Topher Belknap
Green Fret Consulting
Kermit didn't know the half of it...
http://www.greenfret.com/
topher at greenfret.com
(207) 882-7652

_______________________________________________
Greenbuilding mailing list
to Send a Message to the list, use the email address
Greenbuilding at bioenergylists.org

to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page
http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/greenbuilding_lists.bioenergylists.org