The right home improvement products, techniques, and services:
Contractors, home improvement stores, and specialty shops in your area may not yet have a complete familiarity with the ‘green’ opportunities, products, system integration, and overall savings potential. So, you may get some resistance, since people in general are typically more comfortable recommending something that they are already familiar with rather than something new. To help break the inertia, use the information across this website like our Return on Investment Master ROI Table. Also feel free to post a question in our forum on the message board about a particular need for your home relative to your area. Our team has spent multiple years aggregating research from public and private sector performance reports and from manufacturers and homeowners across the country in order to provide you with the perspective you may need to see the initial payback and long term advantages. Environmental enthusiasts and leading institutions like the American Institute of Architects and the National Association of Realtors, see the value and link into our resources to support their members.
The Green Home:
For your overall home improvement, you can save money, improve your family’s health, and save the planet. Find out for free how much it will cost to do different types of home improvement in your home from a qualified and member approved contractor in your area. Get a FREE Quote . Plus, regardless of the size and scope of your home improvement project, save money and keep your home clean with the top rated chemical free and concentrated Green Home Cleaning Products .
Category Checklist:
Make sure to consider the latest Home Improvement products and services. If you are doing the work yourself or planning on working with a home improvement contractor use this checklist below as a guide to review and ask questions about the preferred products, details, and installation techniques related to:
Poison Control and Hazard Protection:
Household Poison Control, Hazards for Kids, Hazards for Pets, Latching and Gates, and Lead Paint. Natural Disasters and Protection: Disaster Preparedness, Fire Protection, Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Flood, Tornadoes, Wildfire, Shelters and Safe Rooms, Disaster Recovery Plan, and Disaster First Aid Kits.
Tips on Poison Control and Hazard Protection:
Naturally keep the toxins locked up or out of reach from young children. The ‘stuff’ under your kitchen sink may belong somewhere else. Read the labels and the “What to do if swallowed” section should give you some perspective on the dangers. To avoid some ‘Hazards’, you can supplement code required ‘Safety’ elements like fire detectors with extra and easily accessible fire extinguishers and second floor emergency ladders. Naturally, you also want to protect your family by fending off the invisible threats with Radon and Carbon Monoxide tests and detectors. Given that climate change is making storms stronger and wild fires wilder, you also need to protect yourself and your family. Extensive droughts and dry seasons increase the wild fires and tornadoes and flooding have started to impact regions that have not seen extreme weather in the last two centuries. Even the slightest change in ocean water temperature appears to be increasing the strength and frequency of storms. At very least, keep enough bottled water in your house for extended emergencies and make a plan on where to meet up with other family members if separated. We all know that we use too many plastic water bottles, but family safety and health is the top priority. When it comes to the utilities, show all of your teen to adult age residents where they can shut off the main electric breaker, gas, and water lines in case of an emergency. Overall, in an emergency, tell them to just get out of the house and call 911.
Home Improvement Basics:
When it comes to home improvement basics, look for interior home improvements like creating a clean, safe, and healthy home through sustainable ‘green’ furniture, home décor, zero VOC and Interior Paint, plus ENERGY STAR Appliances and Electronics. For energy and utility savings you can focus on insulation and air sealing, windows, doors, lighting and skylights, water saving plumbing opportunities, and high efficiency heating and air conditioning systems. On the outside of your house, look for exterior home improvement opportunities through landscape design and gardening plus solar energy, wind and other power sources. If you are undertaking a major home renovation, an additions, or building a new home, then take the lead to ‘go green’ in as many ways as possible to save money and the environment.
