Onine Book On Green Building & Remodeling Information. Every builder needs a niche – a way to find good work without butting heads against cutthroat competition.
The new book Build Smarter with Alternative Materials by Leon Frechette explains how to get a leg up on the competition by working smarter, not just harder. This Web site includes dozens of excerpts from the book, including complete chapters designed to make or save you money on every job. You'll get the facts, not the hype on these materials – including what to do and what to avoid, installation tips and man-hour estimates. Click on any chapter title in the blue bar at the left to see the chapter contents. Within each chapter you'll find a list of new materials recommended by the author. Leon Frechette presents TOOL TALK, a live tool demonstration at home & garden shows across the United States and Canada.
Sustainable Building Calendar. Sustainable Building Newsgroups & Listservs. Listservs: Listservs are email-based discussion or announcement services.
When you join or “subscribe” to a listserv (don’t worry, they’re usually free) your email address is put on a list with all the other subscribers. Any mail sent to the listserv is forwarded out to all the subscribers. Discussion lists have an inherent advantage over Usenet in that they usually require that the sender be a subscriber to the listserv. This drastically cuts down on spam and other “drive by postings”. The following are some of the listservs on sustainable building topics that may interest you. The Greenbuilding listserv is one of the best we’ve found. Sept 2010 to present. B4UBuild.com - Residential Construction Info.
Free Stuff for Designers & Builders. Design A House: Free Architecture Courses. DoubleCAD™ XT: Free CAD Software. The #1 Alternative To AutoCAD LT...
For Free DoubleCAD™ XT is an AutoCAD LT® work-alike. But free. It's also 5-Star Rated from the editors at CNET... and the #1 most downloaded free CAD at Download.com. Powerful 2D CAD capabilities — and great .DWG and .SKP compatibility — make DoubleCAD XT an invaluable free companion for AutoCAD® and SketchUp™ users alike... ...and the best alternative to AutoCAD LT on the market. With so many new, innovative features, DoubleCAD XT may be the free AutoCAD LT upgrade you've been looking for: Familiar But Improved.
Create Free Interactive Floor Plans. Autodesk Homestyler - Free Home Design Software and Interior Design Software. Free Ebooks: Green, Cookbooks, Self-sufficiency, Off Grid, Homes. Make Your Own Paint. Decorating techniques make use of the most unexpected local resources.
Somewhere around the Mediterranean, a nameless visionary was the first to use an olive oil plaster finish to embellish the home. This simple preparation is applied in one or two coats. Over a Venetian plaster finish, it brings out the texture and adds color. Mix the juice of half a lemon with one liter of olive oil. Grind about 50 g of pigment using a painter's knife and ceramic tile (or even better, marble). Apply with a wide brush, avoiding any overlapping or splattering. An Introduction To Porous Pavement. Terasa Young, Water Resources Agent, Clemson ExtensionMay 2013 Fig. 1.
Porous asphalt illustration. Credit Cahill Associates, Inc. Porous pavement, or permeable pavement, is an engineered hardscaping surface that allows water to flow through it. This differs from traditional types of pavement, which are impermeable and convert most rainfall to runoff. Types of porous pavement There are three basic types of porous pavement, which are generally suitable as an alternative to the traditional impermeable surface: Tools And Resources For Energy Efficiency. Looking for tools and resources for improving resource efficiency in your building or buildings?
If so, you’ve come to the right place. While there are several excellent tools and resources available, we have selected our favorite public ones. Since new tools are constantly emerging, we invite you to return to this page periodically or follow us on twitter. Jump To Your Area of Interest: Building Energy Software Tools & ResourcesPassive HouseFinancial AnalysisSplit IncentivesIntegrative DesignBuilding Energy Transparency & BenchmarkingLife Cycle Assessment Overview: Design teams use energy and daylight analysis to compare performance and inform design.
The Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy maintains a website that lists over 400 building software tools for evaluating energy efficiency, renewable energy and sustainability. Sustainable Sources: 19 Years Of Online Green Building Resources. U.S. Green Building Council. Green Building Professionals Directory. Sustainable Building Codes Blog. Sustainable Building Article Directory. This directory links to hundreds of free sustainable building articles on the Internet.
In many cases these links point directly to the article, saving time and effort searching through entire websites. Websites with lots of articles are listed under Major Sites. Enjoy! Search these articles: Adobe Adobe Adobe Builder.com Newsletter Archives Adobe and Super Block Technology Some Thoughts on Adobe Codes Agricultural Fibers Agricultural Fibers Agricultural Fibers For Use in Building Components Agricultural Residues: A Promising Alternative to Virgin Wood Fiber Arundo Donax Biobased Structural Composite Materials for Housing and Infrastructure Applications Biocomposites from Engineered Natural Fibers for Housing Panel Applications Fiber Futures Leftover Straw Gets New Life Cellulose Insulation Blown-in Cellulose Insulation Cellulose Facts Cellulose Insulation Winning Market Share in Colorado Earthbag Building With Earthbags Earthbag Earthbag Dome Building The Honey House.
Sustainable Architecture. Sustainable Design DIY- Buildipedia.com™ Upgrade your home’s insulation and air-seal gaps and cracks sooner rather than later.
Geiger Research Institute of Sustainable Building Home Page. Frost-Protected Shallow Foundations (FPSF) View the ToolBase TechSpecs- Frost-Protected Shallow Foundations for an overview of this technology.
Frost-Protected Shallow Foundations (FPSF) provides protection against frost damage without the need for excavating below the frost line. An FPSF has insulation placed strategically around the outside of a foundation to direct heat loss from the building toward the foundation, and also to use the earth's natural geothermal energy. Traditionally, foundations are protected from frost-heaving damage by placing the footing below the frost line. Frost Protected Shallow Foundations.
Soil Tests For Earthbag Building (PDF) How To Build A Reciprocal Roof Frame: Building A Cob House. A reciprocal roof frame This is a long-delayed post about building my reciprocal roof frame.
This entry documents the details of building my reciprocal roof frame, including the type of wood I used, the number of rafters, and the work process itself. I hope that this will be useful for individuals who want to attempt building a similar frame. With the general lack of information about reciprocal roof construction on the internet, I hope this will become a primary resource. Here we go… Raising the reciprocal roof A reciprocal roof is a beautiful and simple self-supporting structure that can be composed of as few as three rafters, and up to any imaginable quantity (within reason, of course). The Pavilion: Reciprocal Roof Frame. Welcome to the Pavilion! The Pavilion is a unique structure located near the west entrance of the Pinawa Suspension Bridge which crosses the historic Pinawa Channel.
It's construction evolved over a period of two years beginning in 2000. It was officially opened on July 11, 2002. It is a magnificent structure that only exists because of the dedication of numerous volunteers from the community of Pinawa.