ECO BROOKLYN INC. » House

Two Rammed Earth Walls

Yi Deng — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:34:53 +0000

Part of being a green contractor means studying emerging technologies offering more eco-benefits than conventional construction. In this case we’re looking at old technologies: the rammed earth wall, one of humanity’s oldest building techniques.

When it comes to walls, a couple of rammed-earth techniques are available as alternatives to your standard insulation-filled 2×4 frames:

The Earthship model uses old tires as receptacles for rammed earth, and then uses them as building blocks for durable, energy-efficient walls. They use waste and locally available raw materials, so the largest investment is labor.

New company Earthco Megablock has developed an automated mechanical system to generate compressed earth blocks. Their materials leave a minimal carbon footprint (but still more than using manpower and recycled tires) and require less manpower to get the job done.

To clarify, I’m only talking about walls here: Both companies use rammed earth to make walls, but Earthco Megablock uses their technology to build “normal” 4-walls-door-and-windows houses while Earthship encompasses a whole sustainable lifestyle. You could, for example, build an Earthship using Earthco’s blocks.

Earthship saves money by relying on networks of volunteers, while Earthco reduces labor costs and building time by streamlining and automating the construction process. Earthship is good for when you have time and people, but no money. Earthco doesn’t require time or people, but you do need money…and somewhere to put their machine.

So if you’re building in, say, Haiti, you’d go with Earthship because it’s easier to truck in volunteers or laborers instead of shipping in a huge honking machine from the U.S…and that’s exactly what happened in the latest Earthship project, which you can see on their website. Meanwhile, in America, there might well be a market for the professional service Earthco has put together.

One of Earthco’s goals is to change green construction from an idealistic collaboration into a commercial presence. To quote from their web site: “While some people are not yet convinced about the need for “green” construction, everyone is into superior quality and saving money.” They have a point: the best way to make green building methods mainstream is to beat the mainstream in price and quality.

The trick is to do this without incurring the hidden costs that typical construction has (one example, the cost of new 2×4 lumber is so cheap because nobody is paying up front for the environmental costs of clear cutting a forest).

We’ve discussed Earthship before, but Earthco is a new find, so here’s a quick summary of their method, followed by some pros and cons:

Giant Compressed Earth Blocks are made by transporting proprietary machinery to your location, where local dirt is squeezed into compressed earth building blocks that are immediately built into walls.

Benefits:

Production is sustainable and affordable. Using local materials and manufacturing on site means almost no carbon footprint. Mechanized placement means less labor. In general, walls can be built at twice the speed and half the cost of conventional lumber construction.

The walls are thick and offer thermal mass that retains heat while blocking wind. Simply replacing lumber/insulation walls with block walls nets you 50% in energy savings. Building to passive house standards (ensuring airtightness) boosts savings to 90%. (But you can achieve similar results with conventional materials, which we’ve done.)

The blocks are virtually indestructible. They’re built to withstand F5 tornadoes, wildfire, and gunfire. In impact testing, a relatively shoddy block wall took a brick traveling at something like 1000 miles an hour. The bullet, of course, disintegrated. The wall hardly took a dent.

Drawbacks:

Simple earth block walls are not suited for areas with high humidity levels, as the blocks are water-resistant but not waterproof. They need to be enveloped in some kind of waterproof outer layer, such as insulation, adobe, or stucco.

You can’t run electricity or plumbing through block walls. You’d have to cut grooves to accommodate wires or pipes, or run them in through the ceiling or floor.

Personally, we wouldn’t be able to make use of this technology because we couldn’t get the machines into a Brooklyn backyard, and we’d run out of local dirt fast. Trucking in the dirt or the blocks would defeat the purpose to some extent. Tire-based rammed earth walls, on the other hand, are feasible because we could work at a smaller scale.

Eco Brooklyn has a rammed-earth wall in the cellar of our green show house. What we did was more like this, because we have people in New York, but we don’t have space, so giant compressed earth block technology wouldn’t be a feasible choice for what we do. We do a lot of retrofits on existing New York brownstones. There isn’t a lot of room for rammed earth construction in our neighborhood, though rammed earth walls can be an aesthetic option.

That said, the most practical green construction method is always the one that makes the most efficient use of resources available to the builder. Other than their use of rammed earth, Earthship and Earthco’s earth block technology are very different innovative green building techniques with the potential to bring green building to different markets.

Eco Brooklyn is a big fan of the Earthship building technique and lifestyle. The Earthco find is a nice addition to our resource list, and a company to keep an eye on.

True Green Building

Gennaro Brooks-Church — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:36:02 +0000

Unable to sleep at 4am in New York I came accross this video of an abandoned town renovated by a small group of utopians. It is one of the most inspirational green building stories I have seen in a long time. So often green building is housed withing the capitalistic context where it is just another product to be consumed by and profited from financially.

But here we see a story of true green building. For me green building is almost not about the building but rather about the framework of the people involved. If the people have simply shifted to consuming green building just like you might shift from one brand to another then you really haven’t accomplished much.

But as you see in this video the people have shifted their whole context. Green building is no longer a consumer product. Green building is a lifestyle that required a complete change in consumptive habits, a complete change in how people interact with each other and a complete change in how they interact with their surroundings.

I think this change is good. Do we all need to move to an abandoned village on a mountainside to be truly green? Obviously that might help but no. Your baggage always catches up to you no mater where you go.

It is the mentality of these people that is most important, not their place. Very simply put, they have found that a simple, wholesome lifestyle is better than any consumer product. That is the key to true green building. Waki Sabi, man.

I see the irony of consuming this on my computer in the middle of the night in the city that never sleeps. That is the nature of today’s constantly ON planet. It is not sustainable. Time to go to sleep, or at least try to. Some cycles happen by themselves, others you have to help along.

The cycle of finding a greener way of life on this planet will not happen without us helping it. Like the people in this video who worked very hard to achieve what they have.

Your Walls Could Be Filled With Mushrooms

Yi Deng — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:25:24 +0000

As New York green contractors, we’re always interested in emerging innovations, but take special interest in locally-developed technologies because we believe that green solutions should have a local focus. An effective way to build green is to ensure that each building make the best use of the environment in which it’s located.

In New York state, for example, we have hot summers and cool to cold winters. Insulation is important for keeping homes at a comfortable temperature while minimizing energy costs. We also have farmland and woodland…which means mushrooms.

Ecovative Design started out as two RPI students’ mutual fascination with mushrooms. A class project resulted in growing a mushroom-based composite that could replace synthetic materials like Styrofoam. Rather than lessening the impact of traditional synthetics, Ecovative is introducing radical materials in un-heard of ways. The innovative start-up is currently growing into one of the most promising manufacturers of green building and packing materials.

We’re mostly interested in their mushroom insulation.

It’s not quite the same as the mushrooms we buy at the supermarket: Ecovative makes their materials out of a mycelium composite. Mycelium is the thready part underground; fruiting bodies are the parts we see and eat.

Filling your walls with fungus might not sound like such a great idea, but let me tell you why it’s amazing.

Mushroom materials are as safe and sturdy as traditional insulation. They won’t melt in the rain. They achieve a class 1 fire rating without needing toxic fire retardants and have very few volatile organic compounds or none at all. There is no need for toxic adhesives like formaldehyde. They can be touched and handled with no special protective gear. There are no spore or allergen concerns, since materials are heat-treated after growing.

That’s right, growing. Ecovative grows their materials out of farm junk and mushrooms, an upcycling process that reduces waste. They start with agricultural byproducts, which are then inoculated with mycelium and grown to the exact shape needed by the client. They’re basically made from an unappreciated waste product (seed hulls, husks, etc) and a renewable resource (live mushrooms). When you’re done, they can be composted like any other organic material, leaving behind neither chemicals nor waste.

The humble mushroom is a powerhouse. In Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Save the World, Paul Stamets describes the potential for “mushroom ecoremediation,” in which we take advantage of mushrooms’ natural digestive abilities to clean up organic pollution. Mushrooms can eat through all kinds of trees and houses like nobody’s business, but they can also digest complex organic particles found in petroleum and other messy contaminants. Stamets describes an experiment where he watched oyster mushroom mycelia absorb brown gunk, slowly return to its original white, and send up robust fruiting bodies. In other words, the mycelium ate our garbage, and made extra big mushrooms–more food for us!

But back to mushroom as a building material. Mushroom materials can benefit builders, clients, and the environment. They’re efficient by building and safety standards. They become increasingly cost-effective as petroleum and plastic prices rise with oil prices. Their production, use, and recycling leave no mark on the environment.

The major downside to mushroom insulation is that you can’t have it yet. Ecovative’s building materials are currently under development and are not yet for sale. As green builders, we eagerly anticipate the debut of a locally-developed material that offers homeowners an affordable, safe, and eco-friendly alternative to current methods.

New Lives for Old Wood

Yi Deng — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:15:37 +0000

Most green contractors advertise their use of “sustainably sourced” wood, meaning the trees are harvested in a less destructive way. What “sustainably sourced” really means, though, can be a slippery slope. Maybe they cut down old-growth forest and plant a monoculture tree farm instead. Maybe they cut down a tree and donate a dollar to someone else’s tree planting fund. It all happens somewhere else, and is easy for clients to ignore, ethical or not. Our wood is sustainable and local, because we salvage it from New York’s dumpsters and demolition sites.

Using salvaged wood has many benefits, the obvious one being that it doesn’t cut down new trees. It lessens the burden on landfills since most of the wood we salvage was headed to the dump. Also important: our process is not based on consumption models that use new materials and leave no sustainable methods for disposing of old ones. By sourcing wood through dumpster diving or salvaging from demolition sites, we change our pattern from one of consumption to one of regeneration.

We got a big haul of great old wood last week. Look for it in future projects!

The wood floors in our Brooklyn show house were picked out of a dumpster. Now they look great next to our exposed brick accent wall.

The brownstone we just finished up in Harlem has a staircase that we built using wood salvaged from a New York City bar.

The floors are made of maple planks salvaged from a 100-year-old Catholic church. Here’s what they look like after being finished, vacuumed, and mopped–all ready to move in!

We don’t buy new materials, but we don’t compromise in the quality of our construction. We turn recycled materials into warm, livable pieces that benefit the homeowners and the planet. A green builder is always looking for synergy: many layers of benefits in one material. This maple wood floor for example has several layers of synergy:

1. The church didn’t have to pay to send the debris to the dump.

2. Since much of NY garbage is trucked out of state, no fossil fuels were burned to remove it.

3. The dump didn’t have to process it, reducing the ecological burden of processing garbage and reducing use of taxpayer money.

4. The clients got antique maple floors for the price of cheap new floors.

5. Not one tree was cut down to provide 4,000sq.ft. of flooring.

6. The materials were sourced in the city and thus no fossil fuels were burned to truck the wood from out of state or country.

7. The wood spent 100 years in the church ballroom where countless weddings, funerals, christenings and other parties were held. To say the wood has history is an understatement. It has Mojo!

Composting Toilets Demystified

Yi Deng — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:33:48 +0000

When you flush a toilet in America you have every expectation that whatever just went in there is going away forever, no questions asked.

So why would anyone want a toilet that takes your dirty business, stores it right where you put it, and hands it back to you again after a few months??

But that is what a composting toilet does. A composting toilet is exactly what it sounds like. It takes your waste and stores it in a tank, where a combination of bacteria, heat, and time slowly turn it into “delicious” compost for your landscaping projects.

Walk through the objections with me.

That sounds inconvenient.

To help the waste break down you need to add small amounts of carbonlicious material: sawdust, dirt, popcorn, etc. and crank a handle to mix everything up nicely. You have to do this weekly. It’s not as much work as having a cat and cleaning out its litter box.

Wouldn’t installation be a hassle?

Nope, individual units are completely self-contained. Put one in a closet and you’ve got a bathroom. If you want several units that lead to a central tank, you’d have to put in some pipes, but it’s simpler than dealing with wet plumbing, sewage, and/or a septic tank. Space considerations are minimal because waste loses most of its volume when water is removed.

They’re probably expensive.

The initial investment is more expensive, but you can save in the long run. For current models they can range about $1,200 for a single unit SunMar unit to $6,000 for a large house Clevus Moltrum system. Overall you save money on water (composting toilets either use very small amounts of water or are dry flush) and plumbers…not to mention gardening stuff.

What if you poop more than they can handle?

Composting toilets come in many sizes. A small stand-alone unit would be better for a vacation home, or a couple of people. A system with a central tank can handle constant use by multiple people. Pick a tank capacity that meets your anticipated need. Clevus Moltrum systems handle thousands of people a day at the Bronx Zoo.

Most importantly…What do they smell like?

Nothing. They’re vented like normal toilets.

And finally, aren’t there sanitation codes against this kind of thing?

Yes, unfortunately. They vary widely depending on what state you live in. Florida, for example, encourages the use of composting toilets while Nevada doesn’t approve them at all. Most states have vague regulations somewhere in between. New York building code currently stipulates that new construction must include a plumbing system, and we weren’t allowed to install them in our Harlem passive house.

The objection the DOB gave us when we applied to install a composting system legally was fraught with misconceptions. Basically, they didn’t know enough, so they gave us some random excuse and rejected it outright. Hopefully as the NY DOB continues to learn about green building techniques they will become less scared of them. So for now a composting system in NYC has to be installed illegally.

In NY state composting toilets are permitted in remote or arid areas, but the processed compost must be either professionally hauled away or buried a safe distance from food crops and water sources. Having to destroy the compost defeats the convenience and purpose of having a composting toilet in the first place. This is another example of a lawmaker not understanding the system and imposing incorrect restrictions on it.

Who uses composting toilets, you might wonder? These days, mostly people in remote or very dry places, where the lack of wet plumbing is beneficial. They also show up in public spaces like roadside rest stops and national parks. And was we mentioned, the Bronx Zoo uses them. As ecological awareness continues to rise, though, they’re appearing in more urban and personal settings.

Composting toilets, gray water, storm water management, low flow toilets and sinks all play an important role in NY ecology. New York City has a single plumbing system, meaning when you flush the toilet and when it rains it all goes into the same pipes. The sewer system is woefully under sized for New York so a lot of the sewer is dumped into the waterways.

This is a real problem. Eco Brooklyn is increasingly becoming a water management expert in this area. Through the use of living walls, green roofs, dry wells in the gardens and rain garden we make sure that not one drop of rain leaves a parcel of land, thus greatly reducing the burden on the sewer system each time it rains.

In the building we implement gray water systems where all the water from sinks and showers are collected instead of passed to the sewer. The gray water can then be used to flush the toilets, which is currently illegal in NYC, or to water the outside plants.

A composting toilet greatly adds to this equation by diverting water and waste from the sewer and turning waste into a valuable food for gardens.

We strongly believe that these water management techniques are the key to having NY waterways that you can swim in and eat from. As NY buildings have their plumbing upgraded it costs relatively small amounts to implement these water diversion techniques. They can be done in stages as well.

Eco Brooklyn is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to turn New York buildings green, but actually a composting toilet is neither new nor innovative. Composting toilets have been around for thousands of years. Unfortunately building codes and social acceptance have yet to catch up. We hope to one day legally offer composting toilets as an environment-friendly option for our ecologically minded clients. We offer composting toilet installation now but unfortunately it falls into the real of what we call civil disobedience.

Civil disobedience is non-violent refusal to follow laws that you believe do not benefit the common good. We strongly feel composting toilets in NYC would benefit us on many levels.

Breaking news: NY City Council enacts proposals from Urban Green Task Force

Yi Deng — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:19:46 +0000

As New York green contractors we follow the latest developments in NY building codes very closely. Yesterday, the New York City Council enacted three proposals from the Urban Green Task Force. The new codes, effective July 1, 2012, mandate more stringent regulation of waste, recycling, and pollutant filtration, representing a step forward for green building.

Introduction 0576-2011: Treat Corrosive Concrete Wastewater

Wastewater from concrete trucks or containers must either be treated on site or returned to the manufacturing plant for treatment. Rinsing and wastewater containers must be located at least 30 feet from sewers. Corrosive wastewater from construction sites may no longer be discharged into rivers or public streets.

Introduction 0578-2011: Use Recycled Asphalt

At least 10% recycled asphalt must be used in heavy duty construction applications, and at least 30% in constructing new streets and buildings. Allowing asphalt diverted from the construction waste stream to be reintegrated into new asphalt reduces construction waste and consumption of new materials.

Introduction 0592-2011: Filter Soot from Incoming Air

Heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems will be required to filter out soot and other pollutants at a rating of MERV 11 or greater, increasing the quality of indoor air by restricting the concentration of outside pollutants.

The Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value (MERV) measures performance of air purifiers treating air for entire houses or buildings. Scores range from 1-16, and up to 20 in special applications. Filters are rated based on the efficiency with which they remove particles of varying sizes from the air. Purifiers rated at MERV 11 are capable of trapping auto emissions and smog, among other urban pollutants.

We’re excited to see New York moving forward with more green considerations in city-wide construction. We pride ourselves on being the most innovative green contractor in the city, but we’re looking forward to a day when green construction practices are no longer innovative, but commonplace.

Click through for more detailed summaries of the new codes on the Urban Green website. Search by proposal number or topic to find them.

Dual flush toilets in American homes

Yi Deng — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 19:55:06 +0000

New York green contractors and homeowners are applying a modern innovation to an age-old technology.

The body creates two types of waste, so the logical approach is a toilet capable of two types of flush: a gentle gurgle for liquid waste and a more generous gush for solid waste, resulting in water conservation through more efficient performance.

Dual flush toilets originated in Australia and have gained popularity through government rebates for homeowners converting from old single flush toilets. In America, dual flush toilets are also catching on among conservation-conscious green contractors and policy-makers.

The Energy Policy Act of 1992 mandates that toilets must use no more than 1.6 gallons per flush. Dual flush toilets push this limit further by using only a half flush, less than a gallon, for liquid waste and reserving the full flush for solid wastes.

Dual flush toilets are also widely available for the homeowner: leading brands like Kohler and American standard offer many models, and while dual flush toilets tend to be more expensive and complex than their single flush cousins, Amazon now sells retrofitting kits that allow homeowners to convert their own toilets for as little as $22.95.

As a practical downside dual flush toilets generally need more frequent cleaning, but homeowners can also refer to a toilet’s Maximum Performance (MaP) score to purchase a toilet that meets their needs. Scores range from 250-1000: the higher the number, the more powerful the flush. A high efficiency toilet, which can use as little as 1 gallon per flush, is required by the EPA to operate at a minimum MaP score of 350, sufficient for daily household use.

Let’s calculate each toilet’s daily water consumption, assuming the average person defecates once and urinates six times during the course of the day.

Single flush: 7 flushes x 1.6 gal/flush = 11.2 gal

Dual flush: (1 flush x 1.6 gal/flush) + (6 flushes x 0.8 gal/flush) = 6.4 gal

High efficiency: 7 flushes x 1 gal/flush = 7 gal

The dual flush toilet still wins out in overall efficiency (0.91 gal/flush), but only when used properly. High efficiency toilets are another great option that simplify the process and can potentially be cheaper to purchase. Either way, as green-conscious builders and homeowners in America struggle to catch up to Australian and European counterparts, expect to see many more of these innovative toilets replacing standard ones in both public buildings and private homes.

Harvard installed dual-flush toilets as part of their commitment to moving toward sustainable facilities and maintenance. Click through for more examples of energy-efficient and green technology in Harvard’s buildings.

Hi-Performance Tape

Eric Ansanelli — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 17:20:03 +0000

At Eco Brooklyn, we do energy-efficiency retrofits that involve huge amounts of air sealing, air barriers, vapor barriers and insulation. We aim for the super stringent Passive House building envelope standard and net-zero energy consumption. This is as radical it gets in energy conservation.

Sealing the home in an airtight shell requires a bit of patience and a lot of tape. You wouldn’t believe the number of tiny pinpricks that managed to perforate our plastic membrane, and their aggregate effect on air leakage is equally surprising.

Currently, there are both European and American companies that specialize in several unique kinds of tape for different stages of the envelope sealing process. Onetape, for example, has a soft fabric edge that allows the builder to plaster it airtight against masonry surfaces like brick walls. Another is made for simple, airtight patching over those small pinprick holes.

At the Harlem Passive House we used products from Siga andPro Clima. We’ve purchased custom tapes through Four Seven Five, a new distributor based in NY. 3M has some special tapes but the European products above are still much better; we hope the US companies will catch up.

Green Contracting and Universal Design – What’s the connection?

Debbie Pierce — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 17:05:22 +0000

Green design is a broad term. In an attempt to narrow it down, we are looking at how green design and “universal design” or lifespan design are linked. First of all, you’re probably wondering what universal design means. Here are the seven principles that define universal design, according to North Carolina State University (check out the link here http://www.ncsu.edu/project/design-projects/udi/):

1. Equitable use
2. Flexibility use
3. Simple and intuitive use
4. Compatible and perceptible information
5. Minimal hazards
6. Minimal physical effort required
7. Size and space appropriate for use

But how are these related to green design? Focusing on numbers 1, 2, and 7 will show how green design and universal design are similar. Being sustainable and “green” are all about sharing, being resourceful, and generally creating a solution that can be sustained through changes that may come in the future. According to adaptiveenvironments.org “Green design focuses on environmental sustainability, Universal Design on social sustainability”. However, I think that both environmental and social sustainability are two sides of the same thing – sustainability overall. Sustainability calls for fair outcomes, both for people and the environment. Universal design calls for a sustainable space that can be continually and easily used by people for changing purposes. At the heart of green design is sustainability – using recycled materials, and installing green roofs are all steps towards an overarching goal of conserving resources for the future.

Universal design is about using your existing space for different things. For example, a couple moves into a small house. Then they have two children, but instead of moving into a larger house, they adapt their space to accommodate their children – building an extra room within a larger room, or adding one on. They can also child proof their house with simple amenities such as adjustable counters, or by adding carpets. Basically, both green design and universal design are about using what you have and working with it.

If you would like more information about the concepts of green building and universal design, check out Yes! Magazine at yesmagazine.org, and specifically http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/sustainable-happiness/how-to-build-a-tiny-house, for an article on green houses and universal design.

Is Citrus Solvent Natural?

Gennaro Brooks-Church — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 18:02:40 +0000

We use Citrus Solvent mixed into Tung oil to make a really great wood sealer. It works great on wood floors.

Citrus solvent is a “natural” substitute for the more toxic turpentine. Citrus solvent dilutes the Tung oil and allows it to seep deeper into the wood. The solvent also acts as a drying agent because it evaporates quickly, thus helping the tung oil to harden faster.

And yes Citrus solvent is derived from the citrus fruit.

However in many ways Citrus Solvent (d-Limonene) is similar in toxicity to turpentine because they are in the same family of chemicals.

This is one of those cases that just because they are natural doesn’t mean they are harmless. Try rubbing a lemon in your eye! Or rub orange all over your hands. You’ll see how it will dry them up in no time.

So even though it can be a nasty skin, eyes and respiratory irritant, once it evaporates, it’s gone.

During the application process, like all products containing mineral spirits – they should be applied with good ventilation until dry.

And as with other wood finishing solvents, avoid direct contact with the skin and don’t use it where the fumes are concentrated. Good ventilation, plastic gloves and maybe a carbon filtered mask with eye protection couldn’t hurt.

Not that we use this stuff. We find that the occasional tung oil application isn’t enough to cause chronic exposure and we apply the citrus solvent/ tung oil mix without any protection. If we get citrus solvent on our skin we wipe it off because it feels uncomfortable (oily and a little hot) but it doesn’t cause any damage to our well worn workers hands.

This isn’t to say some people can’t have severe reactions, but that applies to many things, like peanut butter or shell fish for example and is a rare exception.

The bottom line is that citrus solvent is MUCH healthier than turpentine for example, both in the use and in the production. And besides, it leaves a nice citrus smell! The citrus solvent/tung oil combo is definitely a key material in this New York green contractor’s bag.

Salvaged Mahogany wood with a tung oil finish