In New [...]]]>

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.

In this situation [...]]]>

Brooklyn homes were originally built without insulation. We often come across a situation where we are doing a green renovation of a Brooklyn building but not gutting it completely. This creates an insulation problem. We want to add plenty of insulation but that is hard if you are working with existing exterior walls.

In this situation I propose two options depending on the budget: a bare bones solution and a prefered solution.

Bare bones solution:
As a minimal solution we suggest blowing insulation into the walls. We knock 4″ holes into the plaster walls and blow cellulose insulation into the exterior wall cavity. Cellulose is about R4 per inch, and if the space is 4 inches deep then at best you get R16. But the studs pass a lot of heat in thermal bridging. So in reality a blown in insulation wall will give you an R 7 to R 12. which isn’t much but certainly a lot better than nothing.

You then patch up the plaster walls and paint.

(As a side note, when non-green contractors throw in R18 fiberglass bats in between the studs they are fulfilling all code requirements yet building a wall that is closer to R 7, which partly explains why the world has an energy crisis.)

Prefered Solution:

The ideal solution would be to blow insulation into the walls as above then lay an air barrier layer so that no air gets into the house. Then we lay PolyISO insulation board over the air sealed walls. We then apply sheet rock over the insulation. We attach the sheet rock by drilling screws through the insulation board to the studs of the old wall.

This would improve the comfort and energy savings drastically due to reduced thermal bridging and increased insulation. If you use 2 inches of PolyISO the R value of the wall would be 19 to 24 which is a much more acceptable number. The air barrier further decreases air leaks and improves the insulation value even more.

Some insulation specialists would choose to remove the old plaster wall because it is easier to install insulation between studs rather than blowing it into the wall cavity. But then you are sending more trash to the land fill and paying for it. I think it is better to leave the trash where it is. Of course if you really needed the extra R value you could tear down the old plaster and put PolyISo between the studs which has at least two R values more than cellulose. But that is overkill for most jobs.

Below are details of the layers involved.

They call us up because we are Brooklyn brownstone insulation specialists.

Here are my observations having seen and fixed extensions for a while now.

There are two types [...]]]>

This is the season of phone calls from clients needing Eco Brooklyn’s help with their brownstone extensions. The problem is always the same: they are cold.

They call us up because we are Brooklyn brownstone insulation specialists.

Here are my observations having seen and fixed extensions for a while now.

There are two types of extensions. The first was built when the original brownstone was built and its side walls are brick like the rest of the brownstone. It is usually sitting on a thin concrete slab on earth.

The second kind of extension is one that was added on later and is usually built out of wood framing and stucco. It usually sits on a flimsy wood structure a couple inches or a foot off the ground.

Beyond those differences the Brooklyn brownstone extension suffers from the same issues, namely lack of insulation, bad design and bad weather sealing.

The extension is not protected on both sides by neighboring buildings so it has three walls where it loses heat. It is not protected above by another floor and it is not protected below by the cellar or basement. So above and below it is losing heat as well.

All in all the extension is not an energy efficient design.

The other issue is that rarely does the extension have any insulation at all! It is just one massive heat sink.

To make matters worse the brownstone usually has many little air holes all over it’s envelope, from cracks in the cellar to cracks in the brick wall near the roof.

Above: The holes in walls from plumbing and electric are common places for air leaks

These cracks create what is called the stack effect, where hot air rises up a stack. In this case the stack is the house itself.

Hot air escapes out of the cracks in the top floor and roof. The hatch going to the roof, the leaky air space in the attic crawlspace, the cracks in the brick walls around the chimney chute, all these are places where hot air escapes (since hot air rises).

Hot air leaks out this attic via badly weathesealed drop doors.

This lost air out the top of the house creates a negative pressure at the bottom of the house that pulls cold air in. The coal chute, the cracks around doors and windows, vents in the boiler room, cellar doors, these are all places where cold air gets sucked into the house.

This cellar door is badly weathersealed and lets in cold air

This stack effect makes the bottom of the house, especially the extension very cold.

Obviously the inhabitants on that floor raise the heat……

And that simply speeds up the process. The boiler goes on overdrive to make more heat, which rises even faster and subsequently sucks more cold air into the house faster.

Eventually the top floors get too hot and somebody opens a window. This speeds it up even more, the boiler works harder, the heat rises faster and the lower floors get colder.

Above: The stack effect on a leaky Brooklyn brownstone

And all the while money is being wasted in fuel bills to heat the air ABOVE the building.

The solution?

Contrary to what the clients think, insulation is not the lowest hanging fruit. Sealing the leaks is the first line of action. But people often don’t even realize the house is leaking.

A trained eye or a thermal imaging camera can see the leaks easily, though. For example the image below shows the blue spots where cold is seeping into the house:

Red is hot, Blue is cold. The window and sill is leaking.

To address this issue you need to do weather sealing on the house. With caulk, foam, tape, plaster and weatherstripping, the weather sealing expert combs the house with a scientific eye in search of any place where air can move. Anyone can do this but I trust somebody who really knows what they are doing to do the job well.

Once the air movement has been stopped it is amazing how much more comfortable the house it.

The next step is to insulate the extension. Above, below and on each side it must be insulated as best as possible. In the walls and ceiling it is easy to open up holes in the sheet rock and blow in cellulose insulation.

The ground might be more difficult to solve. If there is a crawlspace then you either staple up fiberglass under the rafters or lay a vapor barrier on the earth and blow cellulose onto the barrier.

If there is no crawlspace and the floor sits on the earth then there are two solutions. One is to dig out the floor a foot, add vapor barrier, 4 or 5 inches of XEPS waterproof insulation, a concrete slab and then tiles.

Variations on the above is to put an earthen floor instead of concrete. Earthen floors can be made so they are very resistant to wear. They are more aesthetically pleasing than concrete, have a warmer more homy feel, and they can serve as the main floor instead of tiling it over.

Above: An Earthen Floor For a Brooklyn Brownstone

Another option is to put radiant floor heating, either in the concrete or the earthen floor.

The second alternative to digging down is to simply build on top of the existing floor. This is slightly cheaper but you can only do it if you have the head room. In this case you add a vapor barrier, insulation, stringers and plywood. You can cover the plywood with wood or tiles.

Once the house has been weathersealed and the extension has been insulated your heating bills go down and the comfort goes way up. The extension no longer feels like an ice box while the people on the top floor are sweating their butts off.

Eco Brooklyn is focused on redefining how a brownstone gets renovated. We use the Brooklyn Green Show House as an example of a renovation template that works for [...]]]>

The way Brooklyn brownstones are currently renovated does not work. It does not work for the environment nor for the inhabitants’ comfort and utility bills.

Eco Brooklyn is focused on redefining how a brownstone gets renovated. We use the Brooklyn Green Show House as an example of a renovation template that works for the triple bottom line: People, Planet, Profit.

I think all contractors in Brooklyn need to change the template of how a brownstone is renovated. The current template does not work and we’re screwing ourselves and the planet each time we renovate like this.

Here are some basic outlines that Eco Brooklyn follows in our green brownstone renovations. It is a template and anyone can do it.

> Only renovate what you have to
> Only buy what you have to, salvage everything else
> Never buy new wood. Yup, seriously
> Lots of insulation, and then more insulation
> Excellent windows and not too many (even consider closing up north facing windows)
> Airtight, like obscenely airtight
> Controlled ventilation preferably to every room
> Most efficient lighting and appliances practical
> Direct largest proportion of modest window area to the south
> Add the lowest cost and lowest pollution heating source (eg that usually is not electricity but can be in some situations)
> Green roof if possible
> Gray water if possible
> No concrete in front or back yard
> Build It Forward, aka build for a hundred years
> Did I mention insulation?

Their view [...]]]>

A few weeks ago the EPA held a webinar on the safe use of spray foam insulations titled “What You
Need to Know About the Safe Use of Spray Polyurethane Foam (SPF)”. We at Eco Brooklyn are not crazy about spray foam so we watched what the EPA had to say closely.

Their view in a nutshell is: more information is needed and it isn’t as safe as people make it out to be.

Their presentation was a good non biased overview of spray foam and what is needed to make it safer. They have some good info (although not exhaustive). You can view the full report and slide show online (links below).

Key points from the presentation:

• SPF is one of the fastest growing products in building and construction
• Companies make misleading marketing claims: “No off-gassing”, “non-toxic”, “safe”, “green” and “environmentally friendly”, “is plant-based”, “made from soy beans”

• The ingredients of spray foam and their side effects:

1. Amines (catalysts) – sensitizers; irritants; can cause blurry vision (halo effect).
2. Flame retardants – some are persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic
3. Blowing agents – global warming potential and other considerations
4. Isocyanates – cause asthma and are the leading attributable cause of work-related asthma. Isocyanates are potent lung and skin sensitizers (allergens) and irritants. Isocyanates can trigger severe or fatal asthma
   attacks in sensitized persons at low levels.
5. MDI – a hazardous air pollutant – Clean Air Act. NIOSH issued an Alert in 2006 to prevent MDI exposures for a similar spray application. The European Union has issued new regulations for consumer products containing MDI.

• Long term stability of polyurethane foam:

1. Fully cured polyurethane foam is not considered a problem unless disturbed.
2. Heating, welding, or grinding generates free isocyanates and other hazards.
3. Fires and thermal degradation can generate and release hydrogen cyanide, carbon monoxide, amines, and isocyanates.

• Alternative Technologies are:

1. Fiberglass, cotton, and mineral wool batts.
2. Fiberglass and cellulose mixed with an adhesive can be wet sprayed into wall cavities and have an R-value per inch similar to low density SPF.
3. Polyisocyanurate rigid foam boards can have similar R-values per inch as high density (2 lb) SPF.
4. Cementitious and tripolymer foam products can be poured into walls or behind special netting.
5. A new class of hybrid non-isocyanate polyurethanes (HNIPU) in development

The “112″ page presentation is available on EPA’s Design for the Environment site:
http://www.epa.gov/dfe/

Or, here is the direct link to review or download the pdf of the slides:
http://www.epa.gov/dfe/spf_presentation_2009_epa_osha_niosh_cpsc.pdf

At Eco Brooklyn our own experimentation on green brownstone renovation shows the same thing the EPA says. We actually find Polyisocyanurate rigid foam boards (PolyISO) to be a BETTER alternative than spray foam. They can be sealed at the seams to create an effective insulating and air barrier.

We use salvaged PolyISO that is in good shape and otherwise would go to the landfill. This means that not only are we not using up new resources but we are making energy efficient brownstones that literally REMOVE garbage from the landfill.

Space is a big issue in brownstones and that is why the high R value per inch of PolyISO is so great for walls. In the floors and ceilings where there is more space we like to use cellulose insulation. Again it is a recycled product without the off gassing and petrochemical issues of spray foam.

The dust is a problem with cellulose, and we don’t know much about the dyes in the paper although we suspect current newspapers don’t use heavy metal dyes like they used to, but we like to think that is only an issue during the day of installation since we try to make sure the cellulose is contained behind the walls. The benefits of cellulose outweigh these comparatively minor considerations when you compare them to the health and ecological impact of spray foam.

Check out [...]]]>

Here is a great powerpoint on how to blow in cellulose into a wall. There is a real trick to doing this. Your generic blower rented from Home Depot does not have the power needed to dense pack to 3.5 pounds per cubic foot. But there are ways to work around this.

Check out the Dense Pack Cellulose Installation File.

We are insulating an entire house in Brooklyn right now and the tutorial was helpful to us, and we consider ourselves seasoned cellulose installers of Brooklyn brownstones. One of the main things is understanding how to use the blower to blow through the cracks in the house so that the cellulose dust fills them. You achieve this with a hole, among other things.

This book, like all Build Like a Pro [...]]]>

The book Insulate and Weatherize is published by Taunton and is part of their Build Like a Pro Series – Expert Advice From Start to Finish. It is advanced weatherization and insulation techniques for a residential home in the North and Mid East United States.

This book, like all Build Like a Pro series, is geared towards the handy DIY homeowner or small general contractor. It is expert advice to the expert or near expert home builder. We are pretty educated Brooklyn green builders. We take lots of classes, read lots of books and have been building for years, and we found this book helpful in our quest to create the perfect Brooklyn green brownstone.

The reason is that this particular book focuses on possibly the most effective and green approach to green building: insulation and weatherization. No other aspect of home building and remodeling gives you more effective returns in energy savings and comfort for the dollar invested. It is very much the low hanging fruit and this book really helped us remember that and refine the skill.

For very little money it is possible to insulate and weatherize a home, be it a Brooklyn brownstone or a cape cod frame house, and notice real changes in the monthly energy bills and overall home comfort.

Esencially the book focuses on the simple concept of, “find hole, seal hole.” And then it replicates that many ways with lots of nice pictures and side notes on how to do it best.

In terms of your time, this book is one of the best uses of it if you want to learn concrete green building techniques that show a real change in building renovation.

Of course for good contractors these skills have always been there and were never called green, they were just the right way to build, but now that the green revolution is upon us these techniques have been thrown in the forefront of the movement.

And for good reason. For example here in Brooklyn, where we have old Brownstones with cold brick walls and drafty attic crawlspaces, energy conservation is so important if you don’t want to freeze in the winter and bake in the summer. It is more important than Solar PV, condensing boilers, low e windows, green roofs or chickens in the back yard. If your house is not a super efficient tight envelope you are wasting time and money.

So even though the Insulate and Weatherize book does not talk specifically about Brooklyn brownstones, it is easy to apply their technique to improve the quality of a Brooklyn brownstone.

It is easy to do: Just find the hole and seal hole.

Buy some spray foam, some caulk, and a bag of cellulose insulation and you are half way there. Then just go around finding the holes and plugging them up. If it is a small hole use caulk. If it is slightly larger us spray foam. If it is a large hole like an uninsulated wall studd then use cellulose insulation to fill it.

It really is that simple. It may not be sexy like solar PV and a green roof but like any woman in high heels will tell you, the alure of sexy fades real quickly if it is expensive and uncomfortable. What you eventually want is a nice pair of sweat pants and insulation and weatherization is the pair of sweat pants for the house.

Then, and only then, can you focus on big ticket items like condensing boilers, new windows, whole house insulation retrofits etc. And the book talks about that too.

It is a good book and something you will refer to more than once because of its useful instructional value in specific situations. Want to know the best way to seal a window? The book tells you. Around a pipe? Chapter Two.

His email: The foaming agents of small cans of foam [...]]]>

Here is an email from a fellow green builder, Keith Winston, on the cons of spray foam. No matter how great they are for sealing, they have too many drawbacks IMO. The same sealing can be done with good tape, vapor barriers and caulk.

His email:
The foaming agents of small cans of foam (i.e. Great Stuff) are isobutane or propane. The foaming agents of proportioner-applied spf is the effect of heat, ambient moisture, etc (that is, there are no added gaseous foaming agents, either flammable as above, or refrigerants — see below). The foaming is done by a combination of a heated hose, pressure developed by pumps, and the mixing process (if anyone wants to give me more gory details about this part, I’m all ears). The trade-off is a big, expensive, somewhat delicate instrument called a proportioner, that takes up a truck or large trailer by the time all is done.

The other option are variations of refrigerant-blown foams: the “builder-packs” of foam, of say 600 sf, that come in (2) 5 gallon propane-style tanks (parts A & B), or in much larger 50 gallon compressed tanks etc. These are horrible, in my opinion, since these refrigerants (with high Global Warming Potential, though low Ozone Depletion Potential) are (by design) released 100% into the atmosphere during application. It can be the equivalent of several tons of CO2 for one kit.

I suspect that these are one of the fastest growing segments of the construction foam industry. I’d encourage people to try to get the word out and discourage use of these kits.