Green Means
Minimizing Construction Waste
By Shannon Scott
Good green
home designs maximize use of materials and minimize construction waste. Honing down on scraps means planning well
during the design process, not when cutting the first sustainably harvested two-by-four. Design a home that maximizes every inch of
lumber, pipe, concrete, and wiring.
You’ll build green and save money.
Build Up
To minimize
foundation and roofing materials build a multi-level home rather than one large
single story. Building up is simply less
expensive than building broad – you get more square feet for your foundation
and roofing investment. You’ll not only
save materials, but you’ll reduce the home’s footprint - the amount of land the
building covers. By creating a smaller
footprint a home disrupts less land and reduces its overall environmental
impact. So you’re protecting resources
on several fronts.
Minimize Angles and Curves
Many artful and interesting
homes are rid of curves and complex angles.
Every time a corner is added, estimate an additional 3% in cost. Five extra corners means 15% greater bottom
line in materials and labor. More
angles, means more cutting of materials.
More cuts, more waste.
Think:
Frank Lloyd Wright the deity of clean lines and simple geometric shapes. A more contemporary designer that follows
Wright’s influence, and some hail as the leading residential home designer in
the U.S. today, is Sarah Susanka, author of The Not-So-Big House and
other books on home design. Wright and Susanka both created inviting, artful,
functional spaces without multitudes of complex angles, steep slopes, or
rounded anything. While their homes may
realize higher costs per square foot due to first-class finish materials, such as
expensive hard woods, their designs don’t waste much of anything anywhere. Green builders don’t either.
Think Even Numbers
Generally,
think in terms of even numbers when designing.
Odd numbered lengths lend themselves to a bit more waste. Consider standard dimensional lumber. Typically, lumber is cut in lengths from 8 feet
to 20 feet in 2 feet increments. So when
planning ceiling heights, think 8 ft., 10 ft., 12 ft. etc. depending upon your
style and budget. Don’t decide upon a
ceiling that is 9 ft., you’ll be cutting and wasting nearly an entire foot off
every framing member that goes up.
Reuse and Recycle
Reuse and
recycle lumber and other materials when possible. When or if you build concrete forms out of
two-by-sixes, two-by-fours, and plywood take special care of them. After stripping the forms from the poured
foundations and/or slabs scrape off any obvious concrete that may have stuck to
the lumber and reuse clean boards elsewhere in framing. This reduces the total amount of lumber
you’ll ultimately need to purchase.
Estimate Accurately, Order Conservatively
Order
slightly less materials than you need.
As you near completion of a stage and can determine more exactly how
many more boards, pipes, or whatever then order the exact number.
The
exception to this is tile. When tiling
there is a lot of cutting, and often pallets or boxes contain some broken
tiles. The general rule of thumb is to
order 10% more. So when tilingan area
that’s 20 feet by 20 feet or 400 square feet, order enough tile to cover 440
square feet. You likely will have some,
but not much, left over and you can always find a decorative use somewhere for
excess tile.
Lumber Yard Returns
Should you be long on excess materials make sure the local
lumber yard will take back and credit you for what you didn’t use. Most reputable places will be fine with this
since they want repeat business.
Hired Help
Granted this column is more
geared to do-it-yourselfers, but for those hiring carpenters or other
construction labor, make sure they have waste reduction in mind. Often, hired laborers will not take care to
plan well, cut precisely, or consider your bottom line philosophies or
dime. Insist that anyone working on your
project understands green building methods and materials. Explain that you are minimizing waste, using
select premium sustainable materials, and that anyone working for you must
adhere to seeing and following your vision.
They don’t have to share a green mindset, but hired help needs to do the
job according to your specifications. It’s
still common to come across a number of building and construction supply
professionals that pooh-pooh green building practices. These too will go the way of the dinosaur as
local codes insist more and more on sustainability.
Extra Material
Recycling
any leftover materials will save you money, and avoid adding to already over
burdened landfills.
One use for
plain lumber, not chemically treated, is fire wood. You might not have a wood stove, but someone
near you likely does and would be happy to have the ends and pieces.
What might
you build down the road? Are you going
to need stakes for gardening? I still
use leftover two-by lumber pieces that are 4 - 8 inches long for placing in the
bottom of large planters so not as much dirt is needed to fill them. Water drains better from the pots and
repotting is much easier as hardened potting soil comes out much more
easily.
When mixing
smaller batches of concrete for exterior steps and concrete counter tops, I
used any leftover “mud” to make stepping stones for the garden. Simply, form the concrete into 2” thick
patties of the desired shape and size. They work great for keeping out of the mud
when weeding, planting, or watering.
A
little planning and thought goes a long way.
Think green, sustainable, and conservative when designing, you’ll be
glad you did.
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