The green product resource for your home remodel.

The momentum around eco-friendly EcoTop “paper” countertops continues to build as Klip BioTechnologies is locking up distribution agreements that will take this green countertop product “mainstream”, and make it incredibly easy to obtain for our home projects. 

As many of you know, and write often to us about, it is very difficult to easily buy “green” products for our home remodels.  Thus many of us just purchase what is most easily available from our contractors, Home Depot, or other — at the last minute.  (Come back later this week as we tell of our most recent difficulties trying to obtain UltraTouch insulation from Bonded Logic!)

Today, EcoTop is available to order by directly calling Klip BioTechnologies at 1-253-507-4622 in Washington.  At the moment all homeowners receive factory direct pricing.  Lead-times are running three weeks, for the present earth-tone neutral colors:  Snow White, Ivory, Cashew, Palamino, Pecan, and Jet Black.  Soon EcoTop will be available in a Charcoal, Concrete Grey, Espresso Brown, and Thistle Green.  

Sample Kits can be ordered from EcoTop for $30, and if you decide to purchase EcoTop the $30 will come off the price of your final order.  Klip BioTechnologies did tell GetWithGreen.com that the Sample Kits are on backorder, so contact them now if this is how you are planning on evaluating their product.

Remember that this product differs from Paperstone and other fiber countertop products in that it uses a completely new fiber system, a newly developed resin, and is manufactured with patent pending processes.

Finally, the team over at Finehomebuilding.com is running a great “paper” countertop overview in their most recent edition.  See the article at:  Paper counters look and feel like stone.  (Note: you might need to register to get the article.)

 2008 is fast approaching, and the team at GetWithGreen.com is stopping now to recognize a few of our favorite eco-friendly home improvement products for 2007.  These products are assembled together under one roof:  GetWithGreen.com’s 10 Best Green Home Remodeling Products for 2007. 

GetWithGreen.com’s 10 Best Green Home Remodeling Products for 2007 consists of manufacturers (or categories) who deliver eco-friendly products, which make our planet a greener place.  These products help us conserve, help us reuse, help us recycle, or help us become less reliant on existing harmful resources.  We also looked heavily at the popularity of these products with you, our readers.     

Let’s give a GetWithGreen.com Thumbs up to our 10 Best Green Home Remodeling Products for 2007:

1)   Cyber-Rain – “The smartest, greenest, and easiest irrigation system on the planet.”

The Cyber-Rain XCI System caused quite a bit of stir at GetWithGreen.com in 2007.  It was one of the most widely read stories, and for good reason.  Resetting the sprinkler timer at every change of season, or for un-seasonal weather changes, just isn’t practical – and we don’t do it!  Instead we just let our sprinklers turn on when it is not necessary, and we waste our most precious resource.  The Cyber-Rain XCI System made it to our list because it automatically adjusts our sprinklers depending on the weather forecast, thus greatly reducing water usage, and associated needless run-off.                                      

2)   EcoTop- The next generation recycled paper and wood composite countertop

Countertops are one of the most popular remodel topics on the web today, so it was only fitting that one material made it into the GetWithGreen.com 10 Best for 2007.  This year we’ve talked about just about every type of alternative to granite, and our top pick for 2007 is the new material called EcoTop.  Following up success at PaperStone, Joel Klippert has another winner here with EcoTop.  We expect big things from his team in 2008 as their color pallet increases, and they go broader in distribution!  Again we expect this one to be a game changer in 2008, and probably This post continues… �

Terrazzo style countertops are eco-friendly greener alternatives for your kitchen or bathroom remodel.  These countertop products are made from recycled components such as glass and porcelain, and held together with special mixtures depending on the manufacturer (usually a resin or a cement).

But how are these countertops actually made?  How are the colors mixed?  How is the glass polished so that it is not sharp?  Here is a fantastic video on the process, and a great overview of these beautiful products. 

Click here to watch the video of Tim Whaley and EnviroGLAS on NBC.

Read more about EnviroGLAS and other manufacturers on GetWithGreen.com…

• Meld USA delivers ecoX concrete to homeowners
• More on EnviroGLAS & IceStone eco-friendly countertops
• A Green alternative to the Granite Countertop

Home Improvement Magazine ran a real short article on countertops recently.  GetWithGreen.com liked the chart they used below, and wanted to share it with you!  While they get some stars for other reasons, the stone options are less sustainable. 

(chart from Home Improvement Magazine)

Related Articles on GetWithGreen:

- Watch the making of eco-friendly terrazzo countertop
- First there was Paperstone, now there is EcoTop
- Concrete from Sonoma Cast Stone (Part 1 of 2)
- Concrete from VitraStone (Part 2 of 2)

Working our way across the country to give you in-depth product information related to eco-friendly countertops and products, today we are stopping outside Raleigh, NC where we sit down with Michael Bustin, co-founder and lead material designer of Meld USA.

Meld USA

Since their inception over seven years ago, Meld USA has been manufacturing pre-cast concrete surfaces, furnishings, fixtures and accessories for high impact living, working and entertaining environments. Michael’s background in designer concrete came as a result of a 16 month stint in the industry marketing and selling artistic concrete products on a national level for a West Coast concrete artisan in the late 90s. With Meld USA, he and his brother, Peter Bustin, set out to deliver premium made-to-order modern concrete products and materials to clients across the nation. Since that time their business has grown, and Meld USA has delivered 35% of their products directly to homeowners and 65% to well known commercial clients such as Safeguard, Cosi, Merck Pharmaceutical, Anthropologie, Northwestern Mutual and many more.

The company’s first concrete product formula was known as extremeconcrete®, an award winning modern concrete material. Extremeconcrete was a proprietary mixture of sand, Portland cement, water, fibers and other modern concrete ingredients. Extremeconcrete began selling in 2002, was nationally trademarked in 2004, and is still available today.

In 2004, a family member, urged the two brothers to take their products one step further in an effort to do more for our environment. This post continues… �

As you know, we have done quite a few stories on concrete as a surface for your countertops.  While we have discussed several of the manufacturers such as Sonoma Cast Stone and VitraStone, we have not discussed the installation, nor the preparation for installation in depth.  Well we wanted to bring to your attention that this week you can see an installation first-hand on TV. 

This Friday night (November 9th) at 9pm, “Fashioning a Home with Clinton Kelly” on The Learning Channel (TLC) will feature the design, manufacture, and installation of a concrete countertop into a home.  The countertop provider is Concrete Encounter of Fairfield, CT.

GetWithGreen.com does not the team at Concrete Encounter yet, nor do we know their method of manufacturing (prefab or pour in place), or their eco-friendliness.  What this opportunity provides you is an chance to see what goes into the manufacturing of a concrete countertop, and its installation.  Further, we suspect you will learn a bit more about patina as well.
   

Continuing with our trend of bringing you the most up-to-date information about greener countertop materials, GetWithGreen.com sat down with Joel Klippert to discuss his new company and countertop product - EcoTop!

In the Beginning

Before we get into the details of EcoTop, we need to introduce you to EcoTop creator, Joel Klippert.  While Joel’s product is just now hitting the market, Joel is by far no stranger to eco-friendly countertops.  In 2001 Joel founded KlipTech Composites, Inc., and produced the well know PaperStone countertop product.  At the time Joel wanted a strong, durable product made out of recycled materials.  Being an early innovator in the eco-friendly countertop market, Joel’s team created the best product they could offer at time given that supporting suppliers (e.g. paper, wood, & resin) were less interested in our environment.  Pushing forward, Joel brought PaperStone to market, and since that time it has grown to what we all know it as today. 

In 2007 Joel left the PaperStone team, and went underground founding Klip BioTechnologies, LLC.  Klippert was not sitting idle, instead he was continuing his longtime goal of advancing countertop materials even further.  Joel was set on a mission to create the most durable and color fast countertop material on the market, and one that had mass consumer market appeal.  The product had to appeal to his family, their friends, and the mainstream residential market, or it was not going to be a success in his mind. 

Joel assembled a dream team of inventors and This post continues… �

GetWithGreen.com recently spent some quality time with two industry and market leading concrete product manufacturers. We gave you the scoop on one about a week ago, and today we are going to introduce you to the second: VitraStone.

As we discussed last week, both Sonoma Cast Stone and VitraStone are at the top of their game in the concrete countertop, concrete sink and concrete tile market. These products are a must see as you are preparing for your kitchen or bathroom remodel.

VitraStone, The Company

We started our first discussions with VitraStone in July of this year. The company is headquartered in Durango, Colorado, and the team has been delivering concrete products to homeowners for seven years.

Founder, Ryan Waxman started in the concrete business in 2001. His work began using ceramic cements in landscaping projects, he then began fabricating vessel sinks, soon people wanted matching countertops. He moved from one shop to the next, gradually needing more space. VitraStone now has 3,000 square feet dedicated to fabrication, and a huge This post continues… �