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 TimberSIL.com

OK, so it hardly ever rains in San Diego. In fact, in the summer it never rains. However, San Diego’s lack of precipitation will not stop me from writing about moisture friendly technology. RainBarrelGuide.com is chock full of helpful information to get you started in the eco-friendly business of harvesting rainwater with rain barrels. It offers tips like making sure your barrel has a lid to keep your children and pets from falling into the barrel. Other more mundane and less frightening tips are offered as well, along with some interesting facts. According to the RainBarrelGuide.com site, 10 inches of rain falling on 1,000 square feet can generate about 6,000 gallons! Saving rainwater (at least outside of San Diego) is a great way to save money and save the environment. The barrel pictured is the Rainsaver, available for about $200.

With so much waste and landfill being created by construction and remodeling, it’s great to see some eco-friendly re-use in building materials. A company called Southern Wood Floors “harvests buildings, not trees.” This immediately conjured a War of the Worlds-esque image of a giant alien robot snatching up innocent structures, but I don’t think that was their intention. In fact, they salvage beams and timbers from 18th and 19th century structures and carefully mill them for floor, wall and cabinet stock. The result is great looking wood and a clear eco-conscience.
The SouthernWoodFloors.com web site has a gallery of projects, different wood options, and even a weekly “mill specials” section.

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!
Check out Building Resources here.

Imagine being able to run your electrical meter backwards. . . . it’s a reality with many of today’s solar technologies. No longer just an “off-grid” concept, many businesses and residences are opting for solar systems that supplement, and in some cases exceed their power requirements. I continually fantasize about getting a solar power system and then watching our meter run backwards on a sunny day. Then, like the beep-beep-beep of a morning alarm clock, the prospect of investing $25,000 to do this jars me back to reality.

Thankfully, there’s some advancements to solar technology on the horizon. Nanosolar Inc., a Palo Alto, California based solar technology company is working on some innovative products. Their focus is a an ultra thin solar material that they hope will become the world’s most cost efficient solar panels. They are speculating this material will be made available at 1/10th the price of current solar panels. If that happens, I’ll be lining up to buy it! I also imagine that a very thin and flexible solar material will also open up the door to some very creative installations and applications. As of this writing, they don’t appear to be shipping product, but their website has a non-binding pre-order form available.
Nanosolar Inc

Lighting can make or break the ambience created inside and even outside your home. Color Kinetics, with offices in Boston, the UK, and China, is one of the latest firms to leverage the benefits of LED technology to create some unique lighting effects. A lot of their web samples are commercial, however many of the products are applicable to residential use as well. Whether you are looking for a subtle color wash on a wall, or you’re going for the full Las Vegas effect, Color Kinetics has you covered. Best of all, LED uses only a fraction of the energy that traditional incandescent lightbulbs use, and they last far longer.

Photo courtesy of Color Kinetics

One thing I love is replacing old crap with new stuff. Light fixtures, door knobs, load-bearing walls. . . that kind of thing. Usually a question that comes up after removing the old stuff is, “What the hell am I going to do with all this?” Well, assuming the old stuff has some value, Habitat for Humanity has come up with a great solution: donate it to one of their ReStores. This beats dumping building materials and resources into landfill, and it’s a great cause. Plus this ReStore system works both ways. The stores are also a great way to find building materials on the cheap. Some contractors unload brand new goods there too. I dropped off some cabinet hinges and other goodies I removed from our house recently. While I was there I browsed around and found loads of doors, windows, cabinets and appliances among other things. Just keep in mind they have to sell whatever you bring in, don’t even think about trying to stick Habitat with broken pieces of that 1960’s cabinet you just ripped out.

Here’s a list of ReStores in California. . . you can pull up other states at their web site.