How to make a nursery eco-baby friendly

Conventional paint contains benzene, formaldehyde, mercury, solvents and petrochemicals, and it sends a cloud of VOCs into your baby’s bedroom. Investing in nontoxic, VOC-free paint is a wise choice that will keep nasty chemicals out of your nursery.

Find eco-friendly products at World Class Supply

A few things to keep in mind when you're selecting paint:

• Some paints carry a circular Green Wise logo on their label, which would seem like a good indication that the paint is environmentally safe. Sadly, Green Wise is green wash. The logo means only that the paint meets standards set by paint manufacturers. It doesn’t mean the paint is chemical free.
• “Low odor” doesn’t mean that the paint is free of chemicals.
• Zero-VOC paint is practically VOC free, but no independent standard exists to verify that.
• Natural paint, made from food-safe ingredients from plants and minerals, and milk paint, made from milk protein, pigments, lime, clay and water, are safe, chemical-free choices.

All-natural, nontoxic American Clay wall coverings bring a soft look to any nursery.

Removing wall-to-wall carpet, which off-gases chemicals and harbors toxins and pollutants, is the healthiest thing you can do in your nursery. If this isn’t possible, seal existing carpet using AFM Safecoat’s SafeChoice Lock Out, which keeps chemicals from off-gassing and repels dirt and stains. Cork or colorful natural linoleum, such as the kind shown here from Eco-Friendly Flooring, are also good bets.

Keep in mind when you're choosing flooring:

• If you choose bamboo, shop carefully. Prefinished bamboo flooring can off-gas formaldehyde and other harmful chemicals.
• If you choose carpet, opt for untreated 100 percent wool carpet and have it installed using a tack-down method rather than glue.
• Don’t pull up carpet yourself if you are pregnant. Pulling up the padding could expose you to a cloud of PBDEs. After the carpet is removed, have someone clean up the small particles with a HEPA-filter vacuum and mop.

by Cusano Construction Company Inc. »

Natural wood floors finished with nontoxic oils are one of the smartest choices you can make in the nursery.

by Carousel Designs »

Whether you use new furnishings or hand-me-downs, a little maintenance will go a long way toward creating the healthiest room for your baby.

How And Why To Choose Low/No VOC Paint

Excerpted from : thegoodhuman.com

March 26th, 2009

You know that smell – that freshly painted room that looks great but gives you a headache. In fact, if I am gone all day long and it’s warm out, when I get home I can still smell the paint in my house from 4 months ago when the landlord repainted it prior to us moving in. That is how long the chemicals in “regular” paint can last! That is why when I painted a room in our old apartment in California, the last time I painted much of anything, I used a Low-VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) paint, and I was amazed at the lack of overpowering smell. I was painting my home office with this paint and when I was done I actually went right to work, surrounded by drying paint. No headaches, no nothing. It was tremendous. Some VOCs are greenhouse gases and therefore contribute to global warming and others are just bad for your health. While a few VOCs occur naturally from cows and trees, many come from manufactured products such as paint thinners, paints and varnishes and dry cleaning solvents. These VOCs contribute to illnesses and have been determined to be a cause of ”˜sick building syndrome’. The EPA has found concentrations of VOCs in indoor air to be 2 to 5 times greater than in outdoor air due to paint and other products. Lucky for us, major paint companies are now making low or no VOC paints we can use, which really reduce our exposure to these chemicals. 

Mythic Paint

– This low odor, zero toxicity paint from Mythic Paints is a non-toxic, ultra low odor paint that provides the durability and coverage you expect from a premium paint without the off-gassing VOC’s and cancer-causing toxins that emit years after drying.

Bioshield Natural Paint

– The BioShield collection of paints, stains, thinners and waxes is made primarily from naturally-derived raw materials including citrus peel extracts, essential oils, seed oils, tree resins, inert mineral fillers, tree and bee waxes, lead-free dryers and natural pigments.

While there are many other products available, the most important thing you can do is pick any one of them over your “standard” paint.  Picking one of these products is safer for you, your home, and our environment, so choose wisely next time you go to paint.

Purchase these and other earth-friendly products at World Class Supply

Who Needs 3-D Design? 5 Reasons You Do

Whether you're remodeling or building new, 3-D renderings can help you save money and get exactly what you want on your home project

As Posted on Houzz

 

Dylan Chappell

Houzz Contributor and California Architect (http://dylanchappell.com/)

 

As a client, how can you avoid paying for design work you don’t want? Making sure you know what you're getting before you have it built helps.

Today there is no better way to understand and have a feel for new design than to see it in 3-D. Rather than your having rely on imagination to see if the bathroom door will be far enough away from the kitchen, 3-D allows you to virtually walk through your home before even approving any specs or designs. Want to see that living room wall with bay windows? No problem. Want to check out the view from the window? Step right up. Changed your mind and now want no windows? Hold on a sec.
Three-D design is a fast and efficient way to get involved in every part of the design process. When architects actually design with you, the client — and present other, different or better options — you'll be better equipped to make informed decisions on a design that's perfect for you.

How do you know if your architect works in 3-D? It's always a good idea to ask when you're interviewing potential candidates, and to take a look at their examples of drawings and 3-D presentations. Three-D design is becoming an industry standard, and finding a great architect who offers it should not be hard. The good news is, most firms don't charge more for 3-D; they either have it or they don't.

Here are five reasons 3-D design can work for you.

 

by Dylan Chappell Architects

1. Understanding traditional 2-D floor plans and elevations can be difficult. Many people can get the general idea from a floor plan but have trouble visualizing how the design is going to look. Being able to see and experience your design in 3-D will help you understand how it is going to work. The more you understand the look and feel of your design, the more comfortable you'll be at making decisions.

2. Designs can change and evolve in real time, during meetings with your architect. Meetings are the best way to be included in the design process and to make sure nothing is overlooked. What does a design presentation in 3-D look like? It could be a fly-through video or multiple perspective views of your project. I’ve found that the most efficient and productive 3-D design meetings are in the conference room with everyone sitting around the flat-screen, walking through the project room by room. This usually always brings up design questions, and changes can be made to the model during the meeting for instant results.

3. Design review boards generally respond positively to presentations that include 3-D. Three-D to show how a building relates to the existing environment or to a neighbor’s home is a very powerful tool when you're seeking design approval. I’ve had great success by rallying the support of neighbors when they can understand clearly how a building is going to look and feel compared to theirs. 4. Three-D design can help cut down on changes after construction has begun. Reducing the amount of changes during construction can help save time and money. But it can be hard to do until you really understand what the space will look and feel like, which is where 3-D design comes in.   World Class Supply carries eco-friendly building, cleaning and lawn products!

How to Choose Colors with American Clay Plaster

Color Specialist, Carrie Williar, discusses how colors differ between the variety of American Clay finishes available on the market, and how to select a color accordingly.

Color Considerations - American Clay video

Uploaded on Jul 27, 2010

Purchase American Clay Plaster at World Class Supply

Also ask WCS about American Clay Installers!

Green Building Myth #1: It's More Expensive

Alex Wilson, Contributor

www.finehomebuilding.com

Excerpted From

Your Green Home

April 8th, 2010

Having written about green building for more than twenty years now, I’ve encountered lots of misperceptions. One of those is that green building always has to cost a lot more than conventional building. There are plenty of examples where it does cost more (sometimes significantly more), but it doesn’t have to, and green choices can even reduce costs in some cases. Let me explain.

Trade some quantity for quality. When someone is considering building a green home, my first, number-one recommendation is to keep the size down. Since 1950, the average house size in the U.S. has more than doubled, while family size has dropped by 25% — so you’re providing 2.8 times more area per person than you were back then. If you think you need a 3,000 square-foot house, consider whether 2,500 would suffice, or even less. There are some really great homes being built at 1,400 to 1,500 square feet — homes where every square foot is optimally used and there aren’t rooms, like formal dining rooms, that sit empty most of the time.

Often, because we’re conditioned to think that bigger is better or because we’re told by a real estate agent that a house has to be large to keep its value, we build the largest home possible. By stretching budgets to maximize square footage, we’re then often forced to skimp on quality and performance. If, instead, we downsize the house, we can improve its quality (durability, detailing, energy efficiency, green features), and we might even be able to reduce the overall costs.

Bundle systems with neighbors rather than going it alone. With green building, there may be some other ways to lower costs that don’t require reducing the house size. At the development scale, if you design an onsite infiltration system for stormwater (rather than building a stormwater retention pond or installing storm sewers) that could both reduce costs and make the project greener. With larger facilities, it’s sometimes possible to save millions of dollars with such changes — paying for all of the additional green features.

Where you build can also influence cost. By clustering houses in a development, you can reduce the total amount of pavement, the length of utility lines, and other associated infrastructure costs. By putting a house fairly close to the access road, you both save costs and reduce the impacts of that additional pavement and material usage.

Use materials frugally. There are some important ways to use materials more efficiently and save money. With “advanced framing,” studs and rafters (or roof trusses) can be installed 24 inches on-center, rather than the standard 16 inches, reducing the amount of wood used in construction. By carefully planning overall building dimensions and ceiling heights, one can optimize material use and reduce cut-off waste.

And it’s sometimes possible to have a structural material serve as a finished surface, obviating the need for an additional layer. This can be done when structural floor slabs are made into finished floors (often by pigmenting and/or polishing  the concrete), or when a masonry block is used that has a decorative face, eliminating the need for another wall finish.

Find eco-friendly building materials at World Class Supply!

Look for cost tradeoffs. When it comes to energy, building a green, energy-efficient house usually does increase costs. But we can significantly reduce that extra cost — occasionally even eliminate it — by practicing “integrated energy design.” If we spend more money on the building envelope (more insulation, tighter construction detailing, and better windows) so that we dramatically reduce the heating and cooling loads, we can often save money on the heating and cooling equipment. With a really tight, energy-efficient house, for example, we might be able to eliminate the $10,000 to $15,000 distributed heating system in favor of one or two simple, through-the-wall-vented, high-efficiency gas space heaters, or even a few strips of electric resistance heat.

If, along with that really well-insulated envelope, we carefully select east- and west-facing window glazings that block most of the solar gain and provide natural shading from appropriately planted trees, we might even be able to eliminate central air conditioning.

These savings on mechanical equipment can cover a lot of the added cost of the improved building envelope. In rare cases, these savings in heating and cooling equipment (if we eliminate a really expensive system, such as a ground-source heat pump, for example), we can pay for all of the envelope improvements and even reduce the total project cost.

Building Performance and Innovation

Category Archives: better performance

The Red Igloo vs. The Autopoiesis of Architecture

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Graham McKay

This post is a mashup of my 2010 architecture fable The Red Igloo, and thoughts from Patrik Schumacher’s The Autopoiesis of Architecture.
Both purport to convey some kind of truth about architecture.

* * *

Once upon a time all Inuit people made igloos the same way.

Vernacular building relies on tradition, on well proven solutions taken for granted. The status quo does not require theory. vol.1 p35

They made them out of snow because snow didn’t cost anything, it was there, they had a lot of it, and there would always be more tomorrow. They made blocks out of snow and laid them one by one in a spiral that became smaller and smaller until it made a dome. They made a little entrance to keep the wind out. It always faced away from the wind. And they made a little hole in the wall to let the light in. It always faced the sun. It was as perfect as it could be. For a very long time, everyone made their igloos like this.    

The sole responsibility of the avant-garde architect is to mutate [to create mutations] and give innovation a chance. vol.1 p134

Every now and then there was a small change that made igloos even better. Putting a piece of plastic over the hole let the light in and kept the wind out better than a sealskin curtain. But mostly, igloos remained much the same. Nobody could really make them that much better.

Could [innovation] not be done by trial and error? Perhaps, trial and error is always involved. However, construction takes too long, and the material investment is too big to allow for an effective trial and error process unless the process is slowed down to the tempo of tradition by varying and improving in very small steps.

Inuit people still tell stories of a man called Biisaiyowaq. He is famous. He is part of the history of igloos. This is what happened. One day, when Biisaiyowaq was out hunting, he came across a dead polar bear. He took two bowls of its blood, mixed it with about a cubic metre of snow, and used it to make a red igloo for himself.

Architecture is a discourse that is geared to permanent innovation, keeping up with and promoting a dynamic society. The societal need for a permanently updated building environment – inevitable in a society that expands and transforms relatively rapidly – is first the evolutionary attractor for architecture’s crystallisation and then the selector for its further innovation.

A short time after, people came to look at what Biisaiyowaq had done. They all looked at his red igloo and thought the same thing. The first person to say it out loud was a child. The child said, “It’s red! Everything else is white. It’s DIFFERENT!”

The avant-garde work is primarily addressed to an expert audience of other architects, with only a minimal and indirect engagement with a larger, non-expert audience. vol.1 p99

Everyone was quiet for a while.  Then one of the adults suddenly said, “It’s NEW!” Almost at the same time, another said, “It’s MODERN!” Another shouted, “It’s BEAUTIFUL!” People were now all saying things at the same time. “You’re a GENIUS!” “It’s so ORIGINAL!” “You’re so CREATIVE!”

One man holding a pencil and paper said, “IT IS A TRULY BOLD AND ORIGINAL ARTISTIC STATEMENT!”

Accountability exists primarily with respect to the internal avant-garde expert audience that largely controls the system of architectural reputations. vol.1 p99

One old woman said, “I remember a story my grandmother once told me about a red igloo. You have brought this story alive, made it real for me. “It RECONNECTS US with our history!” Another person said, “People, we all know it’s not all white out there. There’s polar bear blood, whale blood, walrus blood and seal blood everywhere. Red is WHO WE ARE! Red is HOW WE LIVE!” While everyone was thinking this over, someone at the back said, “I don’t like it.” Another said, “Me neither. That IS NOT an igloo!” 

This evaluation of the mainstream in terms of … a compromise of tectonic/aesthetic principles misses the point – the raison d’être of the division of labour within the profession. vol. 1 p134

The man with the pencil and paper said, “Don’t you see? This red igloo opens up A NEW WORLD OF POSSIBILITIES for igloos! IT REDEFINES IGLOOS FOR OUR TIMES! IT MAKES US THINK AGAIN ABOUT WHAT AN IGLOO IS.”

The very act of publication implies the claim that the presented work is worthy of attention. … Published architecture always implies an ambition to act in the name of architecture, and always claims the mantle of contributing to the innovation of architecture. vol.1 p107

Bisaiyowaq went inside his igloo and sat down. He remembered how much EASIER it had been to shape the snow when it had polar bear blood mixed in. It had saved him a lot of time. He thought about all the time everyone else could save. They could spend that time hunting for more food, or inside their igloos eating ice cream and sharing stories with their friends and families. He remembered how much STRONGER the red snow had been. He hadn’t needed to use as much of the pure white snow. He had been able to leave more of it where it was, looking pretty. He remembered how polar bears stayed away from his red igloo and how much SAFER he felt because of that. He thought about how much safer everyone else could be too. He remembered how the red snow made the inside of the igloo WARMER. He didn’t know why, but he knew he didn’t have to use as much whale oil to keep it warm. He thought about all the whale oil the others would save. He thought about all the whales that would not have to be killed.

Experimentation requires a certain distancing from immediate performative pressures and the demand of best practice delivery. vol.1 p135

He remembered all these things but, most of all, he remembered how simple it had been. All he had to do was tell everyone to mix two bowls of polar bear blood into about a cubic metre of snow. He stood up and went outside.

There was a big crowd now. They all rushed towards Biisaiyowaq. “I want a red igloo!” “I want one too!” “We all want one!” “Please show us how to make them!”

They stopped talking when they saw Biisaiyowaq was about to speak. Biisaiyowaq said, “I’m sorry, I can’t teach you. This is something only I can do. You have to know how to choose the right polar bear and kill it in a certain way and at a certain time. I can’t explain how I know this, but I do. It’s an art. Trust me.”

The client’s immediate interests are served only inasmuch as they coincide with the new, generalizable interests of contemporary civilisation that the avant-garde exploration tries to address. vol.1 p134

Everyone was disappointed. One big person suddenly shouted, “It doesn’t matter! I’ll pay you to make a red igloo for me.” Another, bigger one, said, “I will pay you more!”

The man with the pencil and paper (who was actually bigger than them all) said, “Once I tell everyone else, you will be FAMOUS. You will never have to hunt again!” And he rushed off to tell everyone else.

Accountability exists primarily with respect to the internal avant-garde expert audience that largely controls the system of architectural reputations. vol.1 p99

And so it came to be that, apart from killing the occasional seal for blood to make his red igloos, Biisaiyowaq never had to hunt again. 

Success in the market and the new responsibilities that come with it sometimes prevent avant-gardist challenges from being taken up once more. vol.1 p104

Thus the theory of architectural autopoiesis identifies the innovation of the built environment of society as a defining aspect of architecture’s societal function. vol.1 p99

Find materials for your Red Igloo here (no animals are hurt in these materials)

OSMO Top OIL Demo & Review

Peter Parfitt, professional woodworker and woodworking magazine author from the UK, provides us with a nice review and demonstration of OSMO Oils.

Osmo make wood protection products for both inside and outside use. This video shows their indoor Door Oil and Top Oil and their outdoor Clear and Oak UV products. I am now an Osmo fan after trying these finishes.

Peter's Demo of OSMO Top Oil

Special oil-and-wax mixture used as a clear treatment for furniture and wooden kitchen workshops

The wooden surface retains its natural matte finish and becomes resistant to common household substances such as wine, beer, carbonated drinks, fruit juices and water, according to DIN 68861-1A (German Industry Standard)

Water-repellent and non-abrasive

Available in 0.5 liter cans

A 0.5 liter can will cover about 65 sf in two coats

Osmo Oils are available via World Class Supply

What does WCS offer beside Intus windows?

World Class Supply has a wide range of no and low toxin products as well as highly renewable wood replacement offerings!  For example, no need for mined granite with eco-friendly beauties made from PlyBoo,  Richlite or Paperstone!

Here is the World Class Supply quick list:

AMERICAN CLAY

·        Gives off healthy negative ions

·        Made in the USA (not China)

·        100% Natural, VOC-free and non-toxic

·        Absorbs odors, mold-resistant, and moisture controlling

·        Temperature and humidity buffering

·        Resists fading due to the natural mineral pigments

·        Durable and covers a variety of substrates

·        Easy to repair and clean, resists dirt and grime

BIOSHIELD CLAY PRODUCTS

·        Because Clay Paints are made with natural occurring earth-born clays and pigments, and capture the warm ambiance of aged adobe as well as clay and lime plasters

·        Clay Paints can simulate everything from real clay plasters to lime stucco

·        Clay is one of the oldest and cleanest building materials available

·        Can be applied to most interior surfaces, including previously painted  surfaces, gypsum board (drywall), various plasters and masonry

·        Self-priming, spatter resistant and extensive coverage

·        Moisture regulating and odor reducing properties

·        Optimum breathability and are no-odor, non-toxic, no-VOC

ECO TIMBER

·        Part of TW Flooring Group, which includes Tesoro Woods, Dasso USA, Wood Floor Resource Group (WFRG).

·        Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified. 

·        Wood products that come from 3rd party independently audited sustainably managed forests

·        Also offers recycled and rapidly renewable products such as bamboo and cork.

·        High-quality, beautiful, and healthy products that are free from toxic materials.

KIREI BOARD

·        Strong, lightweight, durable, environmentally friendly substitute for wood

·        Intended for wall coverings, cabinetry, furniture, flooring and other decorative and finished products.

·        Environmental Benefits - reduced forest clear-cutting, air pollution (zero VOC) and landfill use.

·        Reduced Waste & Deforestation – stalks that once were discarded or burned causing landfill waste & pollution are now substituted for wood

OSMO HARD WAX OILS

·        Flexible color variation using different shades.

·        Ideal for solid wood, cork, composites and oriented strand board surfaces.

·        Derived from sunflower, soybean and thistle oil, carnauba and candelilla hard natural waxes.  Uses just enough highly refined mineral spirits to allow easy application.

·        High humidity room applications such as kitchens and bathrooms.

After OSMO application on surface, the wood surface will be:

o   Natural in appearance and feel.

o   Become hard-wearing, non-abrasive, water-repellent and dirt-resistant.

o   Be protected against everyday accidents of liquids, etc.  

o   Be touch up after minor damage with no visible brush marks.

o   Benzene, Biocide and preservative-free.

PAPERSTONE/RICHLITE

·        Sustainable composite made from 100% post-consumer recycled paper

·        VOC-free, including formaldehyde, and emits no radon gases, the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States.

·        Extremely dense, yet relatively light-weight

·        Potential LEED points

·        Price competitive with other solid surface products

·        Ease of workability can equate to savings on installation

·        Natural earth-tone colors that are soft to the touch and offer a warm, distinctive ambience to any room, unlike the cold feeling of granite, marble or other solid surfaces and laminates.

·        Non-porous surface provides a lifetime of stain resistance and the product absorbs virtually no water.

·        Surface cuts or mars may be sanded or rubbed out with a Teflon pad and treated with PaperStone® Finish or other quality hardwood finish products.

·        Contains no petroleum-based chemicals such as Polyester, acrylic or bauxite (coal) fillers.

·        Superior strength allows innovative, cantilevered design capability and up to 18” unsupported overhang with 3/4” material.

·        Emits no radon gases.

·        Heat resistant to 350°F.

·        Certified  ‘food safe’ by NSF

MYTHIC PAINT

·        The World’s first high performance, zero-toxin, zero-VOC paint.

·        Up to 50% of the toxic gasses and carcinogens from VOC containing paints leak into your home up to six years after it dries on your wall. 

·        Compliant with the CDPH emissions standard specified for low-emitting Paints and Coatings under the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) and the LEED programs.

·        Mythic Paint is the only paint manufacturer chosen by the U.S. Regenerative Network as part of their sustainability and resource sourcing efforts in the US.

POLYWHEY by VERMONT NATURAL COATINGS

·        Popular natural alternative for wood and surface applications.

·        Reduces the dependence on petroleum-based products

·        Turns a by-product into a new natural product.

·        Whey, a by-product of cheese making, has a high BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) that can increase the burden on waste treatment facilities and can pollute rivers, lakes, and even the ocean.

·        By reformulating whey into a durable, natural wood finish, a potential waste product is taken out of the waste stream and put to a useful purpose.

·        Features:

·        Durable coating seals and protects

·        Scratch and chemical resistant

·        Can be applied over oil or water-based stain or finishes

·        Non-yellowing

·        Clear finish for maximum visibility of wood grain

·        Easy, single product application

·        Dry time in under 2 hours

·        Neutral odor

·        Fast, easy cleanup with soap and water

·        Made from a renewable resource

THERMALLY MODIFIED WOOD

·        Zero toxicity

·        Medium to dark brown color (here is where the chocolate comes in)

·        Soft grey color with uncoated exterior TMW

·        Dimensional stability

·        Highly durable

·        No warping, very stable

·        Pleasant odor

·        Brittle, not for joists and posts

·        Holds glue well

·        No rotting

·        No pests

RECLAIMED WOOD

·        Old growth beams re-purposed into flooring

·        Mostly White Oak, Chestnut, Hickory, Heart Pine

PLYBOO Architectural Plywood

·        100% rapidly renewable bamboo. This plywood

·        Can be cut, sanded and formatted as with conventional woodworking equipment and excellent dimensional stability.

·        Open-grained material that takes stains and finishes exceptionally well.

·        Formaldehyde-free FSC-certified bamboo products.

·        Wide range of grains, colors and sizes through World Class Products.