John M. Lee: More 'Green' Home Remodels

The green movement has been gaining steam in the world of real estate. In our area of San Francisco, we can almost never build from the ground up, so our opportunity of going green is when we do major remodeling. There are contractors who specialize in that field.
What is going green? It is an all encompassing approach that emphasizes making a home healthy, comfortable and energy efficient. The homeowner and contractor pay special attention to indoor quality, energy and resource conservation, reduced material waste, and the use of materials that are better for the environment and people.
Going green is easier on the Earth. It lowers ongoing costs for homeowners and provides a healthier home to live in. Some sources claim that housing alone, using electricity for appliances, gas to cook with, water to bathe, and other normal household uses, consumes up to 20 percent of America's energy. People who choose to remodel green can lower their energy consumption by up to 30 – 50 percent.
Remodeling green also means incorporating recycled materials, which will help preserve the Earth's natural resources. Green remodeling has become more popular as we consider health issues, skyrocketing energy costs and limited resources.
The average home utilizes systems for heating and ventilation. Since most of our homes in this area were built more than a half century ago, they were not built as efficiently as they are currently. The easiest ways for making improvements when remodeling are buying energy efficient appliances, installing programmable thermostats that can be set at different temperatures for different times of the day, replacing lights with energy efficient lighting, insulating hot water pipes and tankless water heaters, and improving insulation. Other, more expensive, fixes are to replace single pane windows with double pane ones and installing solar panels for heating.
Green remodeling also involves improving indoor air quality. Many sources contribute to deteriorating air quality inside the home. They include pollutants brought in from outside, toxic chemicals within the home, tobacco smoke, smoke from burning fireplaces, toxic fumes from sealants or chemicals from cleaning products, lead paint, and a whole host of other items. Green remodeling seeks to remedy these problems with better ventilation systems and using wood, paint and sealants that are non-toxic.
While remodeling, there is often a large amount of construction waste. Green contractors focus on reducing this waste by reusing material and recycling as much as possible. Also, they put more emphasis on using local materials, building with engineered lumber and using recycling companies to remove waste during remodeling.
Many products and practices used in the remodel project have negative effects on the environment. From chemicals and materials that pollute the air to the disturbing of the surrounding landscape, a whole countless number of actions taken can cause harm. In building green, care is taken to minimize or eliminate products that could harm the environment or the occupants during a remodel or after.
The good part about going green is that you do not have to do everything at the same time, but can do it in phases as your budget allows. As going green gains popularity, there are many resources available and contractors who are constantly getting educated on this topic.
John M. Lee is the top-selling broker at Pacific Union and specializes in the Richmond and Sunset districts. For real estate questions, call him at (415) 447-6231 or e-mail him at johnlee@isellsf.com.