I had brief conversation with a field worker today from our excellent utility company, Cedar Falls Utilities. He had questions about green building, sustainable materials and energy efficiency that is now being incorporated into new homes.
After some thought several past images came to mind that I thought were good examples of what was done in the past and how its done today. Everyone always thinks that building green is a really hip new concept. Sorry for the 70's talk. Well for many customers and some new builders it is a new concept, but I was thinking back to when I was a young guy working with my dad. When we got done with a framing a new home if we hauled a full pickup truck load of wood and scrapes to the landfill that was it. Today we all have or are required to have huge dumpsters, 30 Cubic yards!!!, on site to contain debris and many times they are filled 3 times before a home is done. I am sure we were greener only 25 years ago.
When we ran out of nails we didn't run down to the hardware store and buy more until we had collected bent and lost nails on the site and sat down on the floor and bent all the nails straight and used all those up. When I explained that to this service worker he had to laugh and wonder are we really greener now then we were years ago. Unless as a builder you are taking the time to recycle all of the packaging that shows up on the site, cardboard, pallets, paper, plastic, wrappers and more.
We can go back to those days if we choose to make an effort to look at products in a different way, lumber need not be looked as a disposable product. 30 years ago a builder from Omaha called all the short 2x4 left around the site beer stud. He said for everyone he used he could have a beer. If we looked at those scrapes as $$$ to be saved or recycled for areas of a home where only a short piece is needed imagine the savings in job and home costs that can be passed onto the home owner. Maybe the home owner would like to help in the process to save money or just help do more with less. Imagine the impact!!!! I can build the same house 10 times and will get 10 different uses of quantities on materials if I use 10 different framers. The expense or savings has been as much as $3,000 to $5,000 difference on just an average 1500 square foot home.
Most of the time it is just a matter of saving time or so many think, we never notice that it takes any longer to use material wisely rather than handling the scrap 4 or 5 times and then it still ends up in the landfill. Only recently have some builders in the country considered recycling the used lumber that ends up on site to turn into other uses, like grinding up pallets and other wood products to use as mulch to incorporate into the yard so it needs less water to keep in in good health.
Just a thought!!???
Like our energy prices today we will only consider how we use commodities when the cost is exorbitant!!!!! And as for the picture, thats me at age 3, the only energy used there is ONE BOY POWER, hows that for conservation!!!!!!
Oh by the way my daughter just gave birth to a baby girl Zoe' today, she lives in the Netherlands, more about that later.
Craig the Builder
After some thought several past images came to mind that I thought were good examples of what was done in the past and how its done today. Everyone always thinks that building green is a really hip new concept. Sorry for the 70's talk. Well for many customers and some new builders it is a new concept, but I was thinking back to when I was a young guy working with my dad. When we got done with a framing a new home if we hauled a full pickup truck load of wood and scrapes to the landfill that was it. Today we all have or are required to have huge dumpsters, 30 Cubic yards!!!, on site to contain debris and many times they are filled 3 times before a home is done. I am sure we were greener only 25 years ago.
When we ran out of nails we didn't run down to the hardware store and buy more until we had collected bent and lost nails on the site and sat down on the floor and bent all the nails straight and used all those up. When I explained that to this service worker he had to laugh and wonder are we really greener now then we were years ago. Unless as a builder you are taking the time to recycle all of the packaging that shows up on the site, cardboard, pallets, paper, plastic, wrappers and more.
We can go back to those days if we choose to make an effort to look at products in a different way, lumber need not be looked as a disposable product. 30 years ago a builder from Omaha called all the short 2x4 left around the site beer stud. He said for everyone he used he could have a beer. If we looked at those scrapes as $$$ to be saved or recycled for areas of a home where only a short piece is needed imagine the savings in job and home costs that can be passed onto the home owner. Maybe the home owner would like to help in the process to save money or just help do more with less. Imagine the impact!!!! I can build the same house 10 times and will get 10 different uses of quantities on materials if I use 10 different framers. The expense or savings has been as much as $3,000 to $5,000 difference on just an average 1500 square foot home.
Most of the time it is just a matter of saving time or so many think, we never notice that it takes any longer to use material wisely rather than handling the scrap 4 or 5 times and then it still ends up in the landfill. Only recently have some builders in the country considered recycling the used lumber that ends up on site to turn into other uses, like grinding up pallets and other wood products to use as mulch to incorporate into the yard so it needs less water to keep in in good health.
Just a thought!!???
Like our energy prices today we will only consider how we use commodities when the cost is exorbitant!!!!! And as for the picture, thats me at age 3, the only energy used there is ONE BOY POWER, hows that for conservation!!!!!!
Oh by the way my daughter just gave birth to a baby girl Zoe' today, she lives in the Netherlands, more about that later.
Craig the Builder
Yep, I would have to agree. We may have been greener back then.
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