For a long time now, I’ve been in love with the beauty of bamboo flooring.  The fact that it is considered “green” is another bonus.  Yet, I’ve heard many negative things about bamboo floors as well.  Hopefully the items listed below will help answer questions you may have and rectify any possible bamboo misconceptions as well.

• Though bamboo flooring is categorized with wood floors, it is actually a grass.

• Bamboo flooring is considered ’green’ because of its ability to rapidly regenerate.

• Just because bamboo itself is ‘green’ doesn’t mean that your floor is green.  Has a forest disappeared because it was cleared for the growing of bamboo?  Have panda bears relocated because of the harvesting of the manufacturer’s bamboo?

• Ask yourself how ‘green’ you and your pocketbook are willing to go.  Check with a manufacturer and do your homework to make sure you’re getting the “green grade” you desire.  Make sure you know what you’re getting before you pay a “great deal” for it.

• What about the finish?  If your product is considered ‘green’, but a finish was added to the wood that gives off VOC’s from formaldehyde based glues and finishes, your bamboo floor is no longer as ‘green.’  Look for manufacturers that offer water-based, solvent-free finishing.

• Do you live in an arid region?  Because bamboo is used to high humidity, you will need to be sure it is properly finished and sealed to assure its durability.  The less expensive bamboo flooring may not offer the moisture resistant finishing.

• Buying pre-finished bamboo panels will reduce its susceptibility to moisture.

• The Pattern in your bamboo floor depends on the direction the grass was laid and then glued, commonly named Vertical and Horizontal grain flooring.

• Strand Bamboo flooring is a third pattern, created as the bamboo is mashed up and bound.  It is much denser than either the Vertical or Horizontal grains and said to be nearly indestructible.

• Another common complaint is that bamboo floor colors have been know to fade.  To ensure the installation color, make sure the sub-floor is cured before installing the flooring.  Also, installing blinds and keeping the humidity in your home consistent, will also protect your bamboo from fading.

• Buying pre-finished bamboo panels will reduce its susceptibility to moisture.

• Strand Bamboo flooring is created as the bamboo is mashed up and bound.  It is said to be as hard as an oak floor.

• Some believe bamboo to be a soft wood because it has been known to show dents more than the traditional wood floor.  In general, bamboo floors are slightly harder than oak flooring.

• Not all bamboo floors will perform the same.  Depending on proper installation and the product used, some will lose their color, warp, delaminate, and even split.

• Bamboo that is harvested after 4 years will be considerably softer than that harvested and milled after 6 years.  Another way to check the age of your bamboo is to measure the plank length.   According to Mike at the Green Building Center, “The ideal height is approximately 6 ft. Before that it hasn’t reached its maximum hardness, and after that it starts to soften again. So when you see flooring that only comes in 3 ft lengths you should be suspicious.”  Make sure you are buying the appropriate grade for your project.

• There are two types of bamboo flooring.  For areas with low humidity, solid  (or traditional) bamboo will help avoid some of the potential problems as there are less materials glued together.

• The other type of bamboo flooring is the engineered click system (also called plank board, floating, or wideboard), which is much like many of today’s laminate floors.  They are fairly easy to install, especially if you are DIY savy.  The long, wide boards can glide over an imperfect subfloor, making them a great choice for a renovation.

• If you’re installing your project yourself, make sure you allow enough time for your bamboo to acclimate before installation (several days), and have the temperature/air conditioning set to what you expect the normal condition to be.  This should help avoid warping, later contraction, and expansion.

• There is a range of pricing available.  I’ve seen clearance flooring at Simple Floors for a couple dollars a square foot.  There are other suppliers out there selling at more than $7-8 per sf.  My preferred local ‘green’ supplier, Green Building Center, advertises $5-6.25 per sf for Plyboo bamboo flooring.  An easily accessible supplier, The Home Depot, offers an engineered click bamboo for $3.29 a sf.

• Find additional information at the following bamboo supplier sites:

Green Building Supply
Green Building Center
Plyboo
Bamboo Flooring Biz
The Home Depot

(The photo was taken at Balance Massage & Wellness Center, located just outside of Park City, UT. The Owner Marty, made ‘green’ choices when renovating the old home.  Balance is a wonderful example of green remodeling.)

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We had the pleasure of meeting with Sarah Graves from modwalls at the West Coast Green show this week.  Modwalls is a a manufacturer of recycled glass tile, located in Scott’s Valley, CA.

modwalls just announced the availability of their Viridian recycled glass mosaic tile modwall glass tile.  The Viridian line is SCS Certified for a minimum of 98% pre-consumer recycled content.  Contents include old windows and windshields.  The Viridian recycled glass tile series comes in two lines: Viridian Pearl & Viridian Industrial.

Viridian Pearl Viridian Pearl Series recycled glass tile consists of 1″ tiles that carry an iridescent sheen.  The display at the show was beautiful.  The tiles are attached to mesh, and carry a price tag of $25.95 sq. ft retail.  The finish on the Pearl line appears to be targeted for walls and backsplashes.  There are eight different colors available today.  It seemed a bit slick for a bathroom floor.  That is where the Industrial line comes in!

Veridian Industrial Like the Pearl Series, the Industrial Series recycled glass tile is made of 1″ tiles attached in a square foot mesh.  These tiles carry the same $25.95 retail price tag.  The difference is that Industrial line have a non-slip matte finish that will work nicely on your remodeled bathroom floor.   The Industrial line also has eight different colors.

For a lot more on recycled glass tile, see our list of 6 other recycled glass tile providers on GetWithGreen.com

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At West Coast Green this week, Light Concepts is showcasing the L7XFD: a dimmable, 6″ fluorescent recessed downlighting fixture. The latest innovation in recessed downlighting offers the energy savings and lamp life of a fluorescent fixture, and delivering that in a dimmable fixture.  We are told this product is now available and retailing for <$100 per can.

According to the company, the L7XF dimmable is compatible with almost any dimmer switch and boasts a wide selection of trims. ENERGY STAR qualified and Title 24 compliant, Lighting Concepts says homeowners can save $100 against its incandescent counterpart, based on operating three hours per day at $0.10 per KwH over the life of the fluorescent versus incandescent bulb.

The company is also showing seven other fixtures for the decorative fluorescent market, including award-winning Elliptis and Izoro winners of the ALA Lighting for Tomorrow award in 2007 and 2008, respectively.  The products can be purchased on their website.

The company offers quite a bit of information on their site about how to work with the color of fluorescent lights.

Lithonia Lighting: an Acuity Brands Company (NYSE: AYI), is North America?s largest manufacturer of lighting equipment for commercial, industrial, outdoor and residential applications. Acuity Brands, Inc. owns and operates Acuity Brands Lighting. With fiscal year 2007 net sales of approximately $2.0 billion, Acuity Brands Lighting is one of the world’s leading providers of lighting fixtures and related services and includes brands such as Lithonia Lighting®, Holophane®, Peerless®, Mark Architectural Lighting®, Hydrel®, American Electric Lighting®, Gotham®, Carandini®, SpecLight®, MetalOptics®, Antique Street Lamps?, and Synergy Lighting Controls®.

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As you are demo’ing your house in preparation for your remodel, stop before you take that used refrigerator or freezer to the dump! There are organizations that will haul away your refrigerator or freezer, pay you a rebate, and then recycle it!

Southern California Edison (SCE) is one such organization. They will pay you to recycle your old refrigerator or freezer. You will receive a $50 check for that working refrigerator or freezer. And, by swapping your old appliances with new, energy-efficient ones or disposing of a spare unit, you can save up to $292 per year on your energy bill says SCE (savings based on 2006, assuming average use and conditions. Actual savings may vary according to SCE).

To be eligible, you must be an SCE customer. The appliance must be picked up at your SCE service address. The appliance must be in working condition at the time of pick up. The size of the appliance must be between 10-27 cubic feet.

Check your local utility for similar rebate and recycle programs for appliances, such as refrigerators and freezers!

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Looking for eco-friendly flooring options for your home?  We’ve talked carpet, Marmoleum, bamboo, concrete and more here on GetWithGreen.com.  The team at Designing Spaces produced this nice nine minute video on options that you can consider for your remodel.  Watch and learn about lifespan, recycling, and installation.

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So you say you want to go “tankless” for your water heating needs?  Let’s get started!  There are at least 7 different well marketed tankless water heater manufacturers on the market to choose from, and many more lesser known.

You will quickly find that each manufacturer has at least 7 models (often double that).  Tankless water heaters for indoor installation…tankless water heaters for outdoor installation…tankless water heaters for commercial use…tankless water heaters for residential…gas…electric…   Before your head explodes while doing research, it is not really that hard.   Gary Gudbranson from Cottage on the Edge breaks down 6 Criteria for Selecting a Tankless Water Heater, and we’ve added one more here at GetWithGreen:

7 Criteria for Selecting a Tankless Water Heater

1. Determine your Hot Water Requirement (flow rate and simultaneous users)
2. Single Application, or supply for the Entire house.
3. Powered by Electricity or Gas
4. If Gas, Propane or Natural
5. Indoor or Outdoor Installation Location (Venting Configuration)
6. Venting Location
7. Read more about Tankless on GetWithGreen (see links below)

Gary goes into details for all of the above in his article.  It’s a quick read that will help you during your investigation.  Take a look.

More on Tankless Water Heaters from GetWithGreen.com:

• Velux introdues new tankless water heater
• GE introduces tankless water heater product
• In defense of tankless water heaters

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Today Linksys (a division of Cisco) announced that they are jumping on the greener bandwagon with the delivery of eco-friendly packaging around their home networking gear, as well as ENERGY STAR compliance for some of their router products. 

Just about every one of us homeowners will put in a new network during our remodel.  On the list will likely be a wireless router.  As you are looking, look harder at those manufacturers who are doing just a bit more like this.  

So what is so “green” about the Linksys packaging:

1. Linksys has removed the “sleeve” (outer packaging that contains all the printing and information about the product).  Instead of having a “sleeve,” Linksys plans to print all the information on the box itself, eliminating the extra “sleeve” material.
2. Linksys also reduced the size of the box its products come in.
3. All packaging and internal documents are printed on paper that is made from 80% recycled content and we now use vegetable and soy inks.
4. Internal packaging is transitioning to more recyclable material.
5. The use of plastic bags is being eliminated where possible.

The nice part is that Linksys is a leading provider of these products, and the scale of this effort across their market really does add up to some environmental savings.  The new eco-friendlier packaging and materials provides more than 40% reduction in waste materials compared to the previously offered packaging.  Linksys believes this is estimated to be equal to the following based on the sources the quote:

• Saving 790 acres of pine or fir forest trees (per year)*
       –1.3 million trees planted in a 5 ft by 5 ft space configuration**
• Taking 3,000 cars off the road (per year)*

The eco-friendlier packaging will be available this month throughout select retailers such as Best Buy, Circuit City and Wal-Mart and online retailers on the Wireless-N Routers (skus: WRT310N, WRT160N, WRT610N, WRT110, WRT54GS).

How does Linksys comply with Energy Saving Standards?

Linksys received ENERGY STAR certification on more than thirty of its consumer networking products including wired and wireless routers, gateways, game adapters and modems.  This means these products meet strict energy efficiency guidelines set by the Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of Energy.

The energy consumed by the power adapters has been cut almost in half.  For example, a router used 4.6 watts of power and a new router with one of the ENERGY STAR certified power adapters can use as little as 2.6 watts of power.**** This equates to a power reduction estimation between 14MW and 17MW (based on Linksys’ top 10 shipping product volume, which is approximately 11,000,000 units). That is enough power to light 14,000 houses for one full day.***

The ENERGY STAR certified products will be rolling out this month.   Look for the logo on the packaging of their products. 

*Source: Wal-Mart Sustainable Scorecard, Linksys and Moduslink
**Source: Warnell School of Forest Resources
*** Source: CNN.com 1MW is equal to lighting 1,000 houses a day.
**** Reference example only. Actual power consumption depends on environmental conditions, usage patterns and other factors.

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Several weeks ago, I was walking Magneson Loop (neighborhood street near my home), and the green grass of a charming little bungalow caught my eye. The lawn was perfectly groomed as if cut by artists with scissors.

After further close inspection, I determined that the lawn was actually synthetic grass! While GetWithGreen hears of these products often from manufacturers, this was my first real life experience with this type of eco-friendly product, and from a distance greater than two feet I could not tell the difference between this artificial sod and traditional sod.

According to the Association of Artificial & Synthetic Grass Installers, homeowners installing artificial lawns reap the following benefits:

• Goes where no natural lawn dares to and thrives under almost any condition
• Low maintenance just keep it clean with a blower
• No need for watering, No need for mowing
• Never trim, edge, aerate, seed, thatch, or feed the lawn again!
• Thrives in full sun or shade
• Won’t stain, fights fading & discoloration
• Can handle high traffic and heavy weight
• Great installed on practically any type of surface
• Safe and environmentally friendly
• Non-allergenic

So who makes synthetic grass? NewGrass, is one leading manufacturer. The company offers four varieties of artificial lawn; Premium Rye ($5.99sq/ft), Rye ($4.99sq/ft), Fescue ($3.99sq/ft), and Sport ($3.79sq/ft).

NewGrass claims their products are 100% recyclable, and if/when you decide to replace your lawn they will come out to your home, and remove it for recycling — free of charge (NewGrass carries a 10-year warranty). The company’s EnviroCel backing material replaces traditional petroleum-based polymers found on previous generations of artificial grass, with bio-based compounds derived from domestically-grown soybeans. In addition, for every square foot of NewGrass installed the company makes a donation to the Carbon Fund.

New grass is installed presently across the U.S, so weather is not an issue for these types of alternative grasses. Existing sod is removed, crushed aggregate serves as a foundation for NewGrass, the grass is then put down. (See an installation of NewGrass on Bob Villa)

How else can you save? It turns out that many communities across the U.S. offer rebates:

• Arizona – Flagstaff, Tempe, Glendale, Phoenix and Scottsdale
• California has several active and pending programs
• Colorado has several active and pending programs
• Oregon has programs under consideration
• Washington has programs under consideration
• Nevada has several active and proposed programs
• New Mexico has rebate programs

The NewGrass website offers a list of NewGrass installers and distributors.

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SolarFrameWorks Introduces Solar Panel Maintenance Solution

While we haven’t tried this at GetWithGreenwe wanted to bring you this News, SolarFrameWorks, a manufacturer and distributor of photovoltaic technology, last week introduced a solar panel cleaning agent, PowerBoost®. PowerBoost is a touchless, biodegradable solution that is said to repel debris from solar panels to maximize solar power production and lower utility costs. According to SolarFrameWorks, PowerBoost provides an immediate and dramatic increase in power output.

Available for both residential and commercial applications, PowerBoost can be applied within minutes using a standard garden hose to clean your solar panels. The foaming solution contains surfactants that remove grime thereby in theory increasing the level of solar insulation that is able to reach the solar cells. The company says that PowerBoost works on all types of glass, such as the tempered glass layered on the top of most crystalline solar panels. Additionally, the product is said to not only enhances the cleaning process but leaves behind a specially-formulated coating to reduce the number of cleanings required.

?Last year, I installed solar panels to fuel my electricity,? said Richard Loesch, a Carmichael, California resident. ?In light of the wild fires raging throughout the state, I grew concerned about how I would be able to properly maintain my solar panels with all the ash and soot left behind. After using PowerBoost, my concern is gone. It?s very easy to apply and works instantly. In even the harshest environmental conditions, I am confident in the effectiveness of PowerBoost and highly recommend this product.?

Pricing and Availability
PowerBoost is available in both industrial and residential strength formulations. For more information, visit http://www.solarframeworks.com/powerboost.html or call 1-888-90-SOLAR.

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We covered the energy efficiency of the Knoll Systems multi-zone audio amplifiers earlier this year.  Just this week the company won Electronic House’s 2008 Product of the Year Award for the GSZ67 multi-room audio controller amplifier!  Congratulations!!

The GSZ67 is an amplifier that controls multiple speaker “zones” in your newly remodeled home.  The multi-room controller allows you to plug in 7 different audio sources (e.g. Sonus, iPod, Sirius, XM, Comcast, etc.) and play a different audio source in up to 6 different places in your home (or backyard). 

The significance of the GSZ67 is the innovative Knoll Systems Eco-System circuitry that, unlike other multi-zone amplifiers, dramatically reduces power consumption when zones in your home are not being used!   This reduction in energy usage, also contributes less to heat creation, further reducing your cooling needs.

If A/V is part of your remodel, take a look at the GSZ67.  We also hear there are some more great power saving audio innovations coming from Knoll at the CEDIA show in September!!

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