Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Sustainable Building Materials and Methods

Radial sawing


Radial Timber produces more timber from fewer trees and stocks a unique range of native hardwood cladding, decking, linings and screen boards.

Radial sawing maximises the recovery of sawn timber from smaller diameter trees. Most conventional saw mills recover somewhere between 20 & 40% sawn timber sections from each tree (ie the rest ends up as sawdust, wood chips or low value products such as firewood and scantling). By comparison, radial sawing can recover between 40 and 60% sawn timber and up to 80% for some products, from the same trees. Small sawlogs that conventional mills would generally consider to be fairly marginal are ideally suited for radial sawing.

Radial sawing:
1) Obtains more timber from fewer trees 
2) Reduces the need to mill logs from old growth forests
3) Improves current practices for an industry in need of an image "make-over"
4) Is the ideal method for processing plantation grown timbers 
5) Is recognised as a "sustainable" saw milling process

Products Include:
1) Sawn weatherboards 
2) Dressed Shiplap cladding 
3) Decking (including New Deck & Boardwalk Deck) 
4) Flooring 
5) Screen boards & pickets 
6) Radcon Wedges 
7) Structural timbers and large section post

Information sourced from: http://www.radialtimber.com/start.htm


Recycled Hardwood Doors and Windows

When timber is properly kiln dried & finished, it will hold its beauty for years to come. Recycled timber is a great choice because it is already seasoned, which makes for extremely stable doors and windows with no warping, cupping, expansion or shrinkage. 

Timber doors and windows offer better insulation than either PVC or Aluminium and are more environmentally friendly. From a thermal point of view, timber-framed windows perform extremely well. In fact, due to the excellent thermal properties of timber, timber windows rate better than aluminium in reducing winter heat loss.

 

Recycled Bricks

An average family home uses 12,000 bricks. If you build a new home using new bricks, 9.6 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions would be produced during their manufacture. Using recycled bricks emits just 2.4 tonnes - a saving of 75%. Recycled bricks are also generally up to 20% cheaper than new bricks.

Bricks are one of the few building materials that can be recycled and reused with minimal processing and energy consumption and look as good - if not better - than new ones.

Using recycled bricks to build an average sized 25 square home compared with building with new bricks saves 7.2 tonnes of Greenhouse Gas Emissions.

Building with recycled bricks compared with building with new bricks: 

- Uses 86% less energy 

- Produces 99% less SO² 

- Produces 43% less CO² 

- Produces 98% less NO²

ecobricks™ is a company which collects bricks from demolition sites, cleans them then resells them.

ecobricks™’ range of recycled bricks suitable for facework includes Rustic Reds, Coachhouse Greys, Clinkers, handmade bricks dating back from the late 1800s and the rare Hawthorn Black and Browns.

The information was sourced from:

http://www.thegreendirectory.com.au/green-blog/green-building-articles/


 Insulation

Pink Batts insulation produces environmentally sustainable products that improve the energy efficiency of our homes. We help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And increase the level of comfort in your home. Pink Batts are made from 70% recycled glass and save much more energy than is used to produce them

20 good reasons to use Pink Batts ...
1) Improve comfort in summer by reducing heat GAIN via walls and ceiling 
2) Improve comfort in winter by reducing heat LOSS via walls and ceilings 
3) Improve comfort by reducing noise transfer through ceilings and walls 
4) Reduce the operating times and settings of heaters and air conditioners when they are used 
5) Allow heaters and air conditioners to operate more efficiently making them more reliable and extending their life 
6) Safe due to superior fire performance - non combustible 
7) Safe to use with down-lights (when installed as per manufacturer's instructions) 
8) Safe due to bonded fibres that do not move around the attic space or enter the house 
9) Safe to use with allergy sufferers due to low VOC content. 
10) Easy to cut and install by DIY 
11) No nutritional value, will not sustain vermin 
12) Perform equally well in summer and winter conditions 
13) Will not settle - thereby providing optimum performance for the life of the home 
14) Guaranteed to perform to AS/NZS 4859.1 
15) EcoPink credentials - a sustainable product being made form 70% recycled glass and saving up to 400 times the energy that goes into making them 
16) Australian made and proud of it 
17) Save on energy bills 
18) Save on greenhouse gas emissions 
19) Save the environment

Fletcher Insulation has become the first Australian glasswool insulation manufacturer to be awarded the rigorous Good Environmental Choice Australia certification (GECA) and the much sort after Goldmark label issued by the Australia Building Codes Board. The Company has also recently achieved the Global-mark certification for its products that conform to AS/NZS 4859.2002

Fletcher Insulation also manufactures Pink Batt acoustic insulation.

Information sourced from: http://www.ecopink.com.au/


Timbercrete

Below are images of the timbercrete bricks and structures 

 

Living in a Timbercrete home is an absolute pleasure with its impressive sound absorption qualities and up to six times the thermal insulation of conventional bricks. This means your home can be your peaceful and ever comfortable sanctuary, whilst helping you saves both your money and the environment. Timbercrete’s unique composition gives you all the benefits of bricks, yet allows you to nail or screw into it like timber. It also has less accumulative shrinkage and expansion than concrete and clay bricks, which mean you, can avoid those nasty cracks and other problems. Maintenance is easy with the single skin range, because you never have to patch, clean, wallpaper or repaint fragile gyprock internal walls

 

Timbercrete contains more than 50% by volume of recycled sawmill waste. Timbercrete homes consume less energy for heating/cooling. Timbercrete acts as a carbon sink preventing the release of carbon dioxide from decomposing sawdust into the atmosphere, thus reducing greenhouse gas omissions.

 

Low Cost:

1) Timbercrete is more cost effective per square metre of finished wall area than brick veneer.

2) Due to single skin, load bearing construction, there is no need for roof supports, wall frames, gyprock, insulation, painting, skirtings, architraves etc.

3) Savings are also achieved on the construction and fit out phase. No timber reveals around windows and doors.

4) Savings on a typical dwelling can be over $20,000 depending on block laying costs.

 

Structural Compliance: Timbercrete meets or exceeds Australian Building Standards (as tested by several accredited testing authorities in areas including:

1) Compression strength

2) Flexural Strength of Masonry (bond wrench strength)

3) Initial rate of absorption

4) Lateral modulus of rupture (breaking point)

5) Bracing values

6) Lateral loading

7) Thermal transmission

8) Durability

9) Accelerated erosion

10) Resistance to salt attack

11) Shrinkage tests

12) Fire tests

13) Freeze thaw

As a result of these tests, Timbercrete has never failed approval for building in any Australian city or council.

 

Superior Thermal Performance

1) Timbercrete is BOTH an insulator AND contains thermal mass - cooler in summer and warmer in winter.

2) A standard Timbercrete block is R1.02 - four times brick veneer.

3) Superior acoustic barrier and sound absorbent.

 

Bush Fire Resistance:

1)      Timbercrete is the only manufactured masonry product to have ever successfully completed the full 4 hour ( FRL 240/240/240) CSIRO fire testing under load. Please see appended certificate indicating the highest possible rating. 2) Timbercrete is ideal for bush fire prone areas and is the material of preference in several local councils.

No Termite Intrusion

High Load bearing Capacity

1) Each standard Timbercrete block will bear a load exceeding 27 tonnes.

2) Timbercrete has been used in multi-storey buildings successfully. Building Made Easy Normally, eight tradespersons are employed during the course of construction with an average brick veneer wall. With Timbercrete only a builder and plumber is required, the electrician comes when walls finished.

 

Blocks can be sawn, nailed and drilled like timber - no wall plugging required. Lightweight blocks are easy to handle, especially in higher courses. Blocks accept electrical and plumbing fixtures.

Information sourced from: http://www.timbercrete.com.au


Skylights

Solatube are manufacturers of innovative and energy-efficient Natural Lighting and Ventilation systems: Award winning tubular skylights, quality roof windows, mechanical & solar-powered roof ventilation, as well as high-rise ventilation for wet rooms.

Go to: http://www.solatube.com.au

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