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This is a fourth blog in a series featuring Iowa companies who are making an impact in sustainable construction.   The Green Field Products of Dubuque has been making sheets used for counter tops, tabletops, fireplace surrounds or anywhere you would think of using granite.  The sheet is made of post consumer waste glass and concrete.

“How the product came into being is a most interesting story.” says owner Tim Greenfield.   An architect was visiting another company Tim owns,  Dubuque Glass Company, and asked what did they do with  the cool glass colored chips in a bin destined for the landfill.  Several years later and countless hours of experimentation later, Greenfield Stone was born.

Most of the glass comes from the waste of cutting glass from Dubuque Glass Company.  One company’s waste became another company’s supply stream.  Mixed in are accent colors like the blue vodka bottle or bottles used at local breweries.  However, the biggest seller is one called White Ash which uses different colors of gray glass.

The mix of cement, water, and crushed glass is prepared in a 5 by 10 foot by 1 ¼ inch deep bed and allowed to harden.  The sheet is then ground smooth and polished to a gloss finish.  The strength of the material is 14,000 pounds per square inch as compared to 4.000psi for typical concrete.  Tim says “It is like baking a cake, sometimes the cake is perfect and sometimes it falls in the oven.”

The product is shipped all over the US and costs about $100 per square foot installed.  That’s more than granite at $75 per square foot but instead of taking something from the earth you keep bad stuff from going in!!!

If you want to see the product in Des Moines you can find it at Renaissance Marble and Granite in Urbandale.

See the other blogs featuring Iowa companies at IowaBiz sustainable design and construction.

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The company uses high density polyethylene such as milk jugs and low density polyethylene such as grocery bags as the raw material.  PVC or PET (pop bottles) recycled waste is not found in their products.  Sue Waters, VP of sales and marketing, says it takes 7 one gallon milk jugs to make one pound of recycled product.  Therefore it takes 770 milk jugs to make a 110 pound park bench.  In fact the company makes over five million pounds of product in the course of one year….that’s 35 million milk jugs!

According to Sue finding an adequate stream of material is one of the main issues the company faces.  In the old days she says “companies would give away their waste but now we compete with China for our raw product.  China sends so many containers to the USA and wants them to return not empty.  As a result they are competing with us to buy recycled plastic.”

The lumber is great as pallet material but not as good as a structural beam.  The product expands in the sunlight or heat and may sag some.  When I asked how the 4×4 would work as a fence post she said “it would last for a long time but it tracks the sun and would bend towards the east in the morning and towards the west in the evening.” 

You can support the Iowa based company by travelling to Iowa Falls and buying a bench for your garden that will last a lifetime.  As an Iowan they will give you 40% off to boot.

See the other blogs featuring Iowa companies at IowaBiz sustainable design and construction

Architects Smith Metzger Rendering

Architects Smith Metzger has always designed custom homes and is also noticing a trend towards smaller homes.  In the past the typical home we designed was 4,000 to 5,000 square feet with basement and garage to boot.  Two recent home designs are instead in the 3,400 to 3,800 square foot range.  Clients who could probably build a larger home are making decisions to build a smaller but greener and richer in detail home.

Sarah Susanka was ahead of her time and since 1998 has promoted smaller homes that have more livable and comfortable spaces than the McMansion.  Not So Big House tells the story of a couple who hired a builder to construct a home for them,  After it was built they sold it because the spaces lacked the feeling of the cozy home they really wanted.

It seems people are yearning for a home which is a respite and retreat.  One that serves their needs and comforts them rather than consume their money and time to upkeep more than they really need.  Go ahead and buy the Not So Big House and let us know what you think.

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How big of a home would you build for your family today?  Would your answer be different if you were asked the question 5 years ago?  Send your answer to Rob Smith.

It seems the “Persian Palace”, “Garage Mahal”, or “Starter Castle” home with oversized spaces is a thing of the past.  

Wikipedia states “McMansion typical attributes include a floor area of over 3,000 square feet, ceilings 9–10 feet high, a two-story portico, a front door hall with a chandelier hanging from 16–20 feet, two or more garages, several bedrooms and bathrooms, and lavish interiors. The house often covers a larger portion of the lot.”

For a little historical context, 1,200 square feet was the average home size in America in the 1960s and grew to 1,710 square feet in the 1980s and 2,330 square feet in the 2000s.  Before the housing bubble burst in 2008 the ideal home was 3,200 square feet. Usually the square feet does not include unfinished basement or garage space.

The overscaled spaces were filled with overscaled furniture.  Chairs large enough for two people and an ottoman the size of a single bed were common place at stores.  I can imagine the surprise of some customers who owned a home with smaller spaces when they realized their new furniture would not fit in the TV room.

Rick Tollakson of Hubbell Homes and President of Hubbell Realty says “since the housing bubble in 2008 people are thinking bigger is not better.  Right after the bubble we were building smaller homes we had not built for 15 years.  We even saw a comeback of the two car garage although that is beginnning to change.”

The concern comes from LEED credits available for using a product where the raw materials and manufacturer is within 500 miles of the construction site. The goal is to encourage buying brick from the next state rather than have it shipped across the country. If everyone purchased materials this way then collectively less gas etc. would be used.

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But what about all the lesser materials like floor tile, ceilings, countertop materials like Corian, sinks, faucets, and all sorts of other products. Wouldn’t it be more sustainable if these products were at least made in the USA? A web research into various products came up empty handed. Time and time again there were pages and pages of product information but none on where the various products within one company were made. Several instances stick in my mind.

One was an obvious American company like Formica with only corporate address information and nothing on plant locations or where anything was made. Did they have a plant in China? Another example was a company with a name like “American Products Inc.” At least I could assume I found a company making goods in the USA but upon further investigation it was a subsidiary of a company from Germany; an obvious ploy in sustainable product marketing to get consumers to buy foreign products.

The only way I could get to the bottom was to call the factory representative or the company itself. Even then most did not know where their stuff was made.

Buyers beware for sure!!

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The company still makes buttons but has used button making technology and transitioned to sustainable building products.  Years ago the company looked for more sustainable ways of making buttons and turned to a biomass resin instead of petroleum based.   Buttons are made by pouring the resin into a spinning drum making a thin sheet which is peeled off the inside of the drum.  The sheet hardens and is made into buttons.  Corn cobs are used to polish the buttons after they are punched and tooled into the shape desired.

Jay McKee, fourth generation owner, says one day they experimented by adding corn cob material to the resin and voila, the Green Line of sustainable products were born.  The 22% bio content panel can be used for many uses such as shower enclosures, bathroom walls, countertops, and decorative cabinet panels.   Other options include wood chips, lemon grass, and fibers.  Since then the material was successfully used at restroom renovations at the University of Iowa Quadrangle dormitories.

The button making process allows many custom panels to be manufactured because small quantities can be easily made rather than setting up for thousands of square feet of material.

See the last blog on ReWall at IowaBiz sustainable design and construction

image via aedairy.com

The citizens of the USA dispose of 250 million tons of trash each year or about 4.6 pounds per day.  Luckily about 30% of trash is recycled.  The waxy cartons used for milk and juice account for about two million tons of trash and typically go straight to the landfill.

The Rewall Company of Des Moines is using a European process to turn the cartons into construction building panels.    The boards can be left natural where you see all the words and colors of the cartons (naked board) or a paper coating (essential board) is applied to both sides.  Either product can be painted.  You could panel your basement or go ultra-modern and make an accent wall in your living room.

The product is made from post-consumer and post-industrial waste  content found within 500 miles of Des Moines.  Rewall is working with Metro Waste to obtain post-consumer product from the Des Moines area. 

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The 8 foot by 4 foot panel is virtually inert and water resistant.  I personally soaked a piece of naked board in water for a week and the panel barely changed.  Anywhere you have used plywood or oriented strand board this 100% recycled product can be used.  Examples are under countertops, paneling, tile backer board, floor sheathing, and roof sheathing.

The product can be purchased at the Habitat Restore in Des Moines or Kinzler Companies in Ames.  You can buy 1/2” x 4’ x 8’ naked panels for $26.00 or 1/2” x 4’ x 3’ essential board for $5.75.  Tanner Kinzler of Kinzler Companies says he is always looking to replace existing products with others which perform better, cost less, and are greener.  He is excited about Rewall.

So next time you throw a milk carton in your recycle bin, you may see it next in your kitchen remodeling.

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While shopping at Barnes and Noble for the holiday I stumbled on a book I have been meaning to buy for years, Not So Big House by Sarah Susanka.  Originally published in 1998, it tackles head on the premise that bigger is not always better when it comes to homes.  As a result, the house is more sustainable because much less materials are used to build perhaps 30% to 50% less home.  Ongoing energy costs are also greatly reduced.

I can speak to this firsthand as my wife and I look for our next home.  Many houses have lots of space with no detail or character to make a house a home.  So much space the exterior became mostly vinyl or metal siding.  Compare that to the entry of a home from the Not So Big House which is rich in detail.  Can’t you see yourself sitting on the porch for hours?  The same concept from years ago is found in areas of Des Moines such as Beaverdale where small brick homes are still in demand.  Many feature built-ins and craftsman detail throughout. 

Consider if homes were more appropriately sized the amount of wood and concrete which would be conserved.  Imagine the amount of resources saved if houses were just 10% smaller?  With nearly 7 million homes built per year at an average size of 3,000 square feet a 10% savings would save 2.1 billion square feet of home construction.  That’s a lot of carpet and space which did not require heating or cooling.

So next time you or someone you know thinks about a new home, pick up a copy of Not So Big House and think about being more sustainable from the get go!

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More and more new commercial buildings are going geothermal as a viable means to reduce energy costs. The 40,000 square foot Central Iowa Shelter & Services building, currently under construction south of downtown Des Moines, features a geothermal system. The mechanical engineer for the project, Alan Langley of Alvine Engineering, says “the trend in Iowa is more buildings are using geothermal systems, in fact about 80% of the schools we design use geothermal systems. Offices and healthcare are good candidates also.” 

Alan also adds “the trend started in Iowa when the utility companies started to provide hefty rebates for energy conserving systems like geothermal”. Basically, the utilities pay companies to lower their energy usage rather than bring on a new power plant costing millions of dollars.

A commercial system costs $16-$20 per square foot so the cost for a geothermal system for a 10,000 square foot building would be $160,000 to $200,000. The payback is typically 5 to 7 years and from day one heating and cooling costs should be reduced by 35%-45%.

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A geothermal system takes advantage of the earth’s constant temperature. The diagram shows the earth’s temperature near the surface in Iowa to be about 52 degrees. Therefore, the temperature of water when circulated through a closed system of vertical or horizontal loops nears a constant 52 degrees. The loop is tapped into by mechanical equipment which either transfers heat to the loop during the summer or takes heat from the loop during the winter.

An amazing result of the loop is the potential transfer of energy within a building during the winter. The interior zones of a large office building many times require year round cooling while the perimeter usually requires heating. Mechanical equipment removes heat from the interior zone and transfers the heat to the loop. Mechanical equipment at the exterior zone reverses the process and removes the heat from the loop and provides heat where it is needed. Now that is being green!!!

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I have always enjoyed a daylight filled room and the warmth of the sun in the winter.  One of the first things people ask for when I am designing their dream home is lots of windows.  I translate that to mean “give me south facing windows so I can be warmed by the sun as I have my coffee and watch the snow fall.”

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Yet it amazes me, when I see the McMansions in the suburbs of America, how few pay any attention to the direction of the sun.   The shadow cast on this behemoth suggests the large blank wall could face south.  What a shame!  The owners are robbed of one of the easiest sustainable design principles; passive solar energy by just letting the sun shine in and heat the space during the winter.   This is an example of using a stock plan with no attention to the orientation of the house. 

The best orientation for a house is with windows to the south since it is easiest to shade glass during the summer and let it shine in during the winter.  The next best is east so you get light in the morning and not the beastly sun in the summer afternoons.  Since the back of the house typically has the most windows, that means 75% of homes do not have the best orientation and 50% are a disaster (since homes have an equal chance of facing any one of the four directions).

Finally, I was looking to move to the country and was amazed time after time how a new home was built on 10 acres and still faced the street.  Certainly with that much land one could have oriented the house to take advantage of the sun.  I saw many huge windowless walls facing south…must have been the walk-in closet.

Next home, think about the benefits of the sun on your pocket book and state of mind!