Green Glue Sandwiches Are Yummy
August 7th, 2007 by Marcos
On a recent quest to better soundproof a room, I stumbled upon Green Glue. This innovative new product works as a damping material between surfaces. Green glue is used between two sheets of common drywall or subflooring materials and can be used in walls, ceilings and floors. I would wow you with my scientific analysis of Green Glue, but the company that makes it beat me to it! Their web site is chock full of independently conducted scientific analysis about how useful Green Glue is for soundproofing. My summary of those tests: Green Glue works. And it works less expensively and with less hassle than many other soundproofing methods. However, their MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) seriously discourages actually eating green glue sandwiches. Green Glue comes in standard sized caulking tubes and is sold in cases of 12 tubes for about $180 per case. Available from the company itself and their distributors. Their web site is also a wonderful resource for soundproofing in general. I ordered 3 cases for my project and will be posting a follow-up review once the room is completed. More details at GreenGlueCompany.com
Although there are a lot of different types of tile out there, sadly many of them are just plain boring. Thankfully the team over at Green River Stone Company is here to save us from the tile doldrums. Green River uses fossil-rich calcium carbonate shale from their own private quarry in Southwestern Wyoming. Do not ask me how they got their own private quarry, but I think I would like one just because it would sound cool. “Oh these tiles? Yes, they are from my quarry.” All while smoking a pipe and lounging in a Hugh Hefner style robe. Anyway, back to the stone. Green River uses stone, deposited 50 million years ago as sediment in a large freshwater lake. They then produce individual fossil specimens, artistic fossil murals, and other products for museums, private collectors, interior designers and architects. Prices available by request (which I’m guessing means more than $5 a square foot). Hey, it took earth 50 million years to make these, so they probably should not be cheap anyway. You can check out some of their beautiful tile, fossil and stone-work at 
A friend of mine living in Australia tipped me off to J-B Weld and he swears by the stuff. Touted as the “world’s finest cold-weld compound”, J-B Weld is a clever liquid steel/epoxy resin that gets mixed with a hardener. I am picturing that bad liquid Terminator, but in two tubes. It bonds to just about any porous or non-porous material, including a variety of metals. Best of all, it’s rated at 0% for shrinkage. Frankly, no one likes shrinkage. 
Have you ever looked into the toxic metals and material that go into some pressure treated lumber? If so, you have reason to be concerned, and so is a company called TimberSIL that was created by environmental scientist Karen Slimak. According to Karen, TimberSIL not only replaces the hazardous copper, chromium, and arsenic-based preservatives that were used in the past, but it also outperforms them in the areas of leaching, corrosion, and mold & mildew resistance. TimberSIL is non-toxic, fire retardant, stainable/paintable and contains no heavy metals. You don’t want heavy metal in your wood anyway, do you? Insert 80’s big hair, heavy metal band “Poison” joke here. Wood treated with TimberSIL is supposed to be cost competitive as well. TimberSIL was just written up in This Old House magazine, so you may want to wait a bit before contacting them for more info or purchasing. In the meantime, you can learn more at 
I have tried a few kinds of wood glue in the past, and nothing seems to live up to Gorilla Glue. This stuff bonds wood, stone, metal, ceramic, etc. It is totally waterproof, paint-able/stain-able, easily sanded and has a long open working time. It also contains no carcinogens and does not release fumes. If bonding wood, Gorilla Glue recommends dampening the wood slightly. You only need a little glue since it “foams” and expands a lot. In fact, it is good to be careful with it near finished surfaces. You may find it foams a little too much if you are not sparing with the application. Gorilla Glue creates a great, strong bond. Available at most home improvement stores. 
Sometimes finding period building materials can be a challenge. Vintage Woodworks, located in Quinlan Texas, hopes to help. Their web site is chock full of interior and exterior trim, brackets, headers, casings, corner blocks and even screen doors. If you installed just one percent of what they offer on-line, you could spend the next ten years meticulously painting it! Vintage Woodworks offers a number of wood options, all at reasonable pricing. If you are restoring an old home with a lot of wood and architectural details, put down the Victorian spandrels you are trying to hand carve and surf over to 
Who says Heavy Metal is dead? Not the folks over at Decorative Iron. I stumbled across DecorativeIron.com while researching metal supplies. Our house has a fair amount of wrought iron and I was already contemplating learning how to weld. But honestly, I don’t like the welder’s masks. . . . they are just too hard to see out of. Plus I don’t trust myself around high voltage and metal. Much to my relief, DecorativeIron.com has a treasure-trove of iron and metal goods. From cast iron balusters, to gate hardware, and stairway parts to forged steel cut-outs. Those of you lucky enough to have welding skills will probably love this site even more. 
Sometimes stained glass looks great, other times it really looks bad. We have not quite figured out if the we like the stained glass on one of our windows. If it is original to the house, we think we like it. If it is from a 1970’s remodel, we don’t like it so much. Translation, it is ugly, but we are suckers for keeping things original when we can. Our lack of enthusiasm for the stained glass led me to a local custom stained glass company that also ships nationwide. StainedGlassWindows.com is a company based in Imperial Beach California that sells both pre-made stained and bevelled glass, as well as custom work. Typical custom prices are $50 to $65 for each square foot of glass within your window, although jobs that are 2 square feet or less, or those with very intricate patterns are priced higher and quoted on a job by job basis. They can even make windows to fit custom shapes. 
Building resources is an eco-friendly non-profit located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Among other things, they provide used materials donated by homeowners, remodelers, contractors, etc. They accept tax-deductible donations of clean, reusable materials. Building Resources even has their own bio-diesel powered truck to pick up select donations inside San Francisco city limits! Free workshops are offered, all in the name of art, environmentalism, and practicality. Sounds like a fun place to visit if you’re one of the few who can actually afford to live up there!