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DIY/Home Improvements
The perfect time to introduce more environmentally friendly materials into your house.
DIY/Home Improvements
Reclaimed materials are often the most environmentally friendly building materials to use. Sites offering reclaimed building materials include www.salvo.co.uk and www.ebay.co.uk. When we knocked down our garage I sold ten old timber struts full of nails for £80!
Using local materials (e.g. Kirkstone Slate www.kirkstone.com) is a good way to be environmentally friendly as their manufacture involves less CO2 because the materials don’t have to be transported very far.
www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk is devoted to supplying green building materials including natural paints, FSC certified windows and doors manufactured in the UK. Rendoza does eco-friendly emulsion and Sanderson does ‘spectrum environmentally friendly waterbased eggshell.’ Or try ecomerchant.co.uk. www.treehouseclapham.org.uk has ideas on how to build in an environmentally friendly way, also the TV personality Penney Poyzer has retro fitted a terraced Victorian house in an eco-friendly way, see www.msarch.co.uk/ecohome
If you have things to offer for free when redoing your house also look at www.freecycle.co.uk which is an online market place for people looking to get rid of unwanted goods. There is no money exchanged but you get the satisfaction in knowing your goods were reused by someone and didn’t just go into landfill.
If you do buy new, and it’s made out of wood, make sure it’s FSC certified wood www.fsc-uk.org who are dedicated to responsible management of the world’s forests.
Grants
There are grants available for installing microgeneration technologies such as solar panels through the government’s low carbon buildings programme. For more information go to www.est.org.uk and click on Housing and Buildings.
Green Buildings
Visit www.greenbuilder.co.uk or www.aecb.net which has a discussion board on green building and provides contacts for green builders, architects and suppliers. Also www.newbuilder.co.uk offers news and publications on green building.