We just prepared a Brooklyn brownstone for a green roof installation. It was your typical Brooklyn brownstone: 750 square feet or tar. At least the owners had the foresight to cover the tar with reflective paint. The roof had 100 years of tar on it. There must have been almost three inches of the stuff: […]
Preping Brooklyn brownstone for green roof Read More »
Whenever we do a green roof installation in Brooklyn we get our sedum from Motherplants. They just sent us some pics of other green roof installations they supplied plants for. The installations were not Brooklyn based but the climates were similar which means they can easily be done in Brooklyn too. This one is really
Brooklyn Green Roof Installation Ideas Read More »
The materials needed for a Brooklyn green roof are varied. If you are dealing with a brownstone there are real weight requirements to contend with. We have removed the roof and built a stronger one but that is cost prohibitive in many cases. Simply removing the 80 years of accumulated tar is often a simple
Green Roof Materials For Brooklyn Brownstones Read More »
Old Fashioned Milk Paint is having a special on their paint right now. We are using it in our Brooklyn Green Show House and highly recommend it. It is in my opinion much healthier than any of the low VOC paints out there which are still loaded with chemicals. Check out their special. They also
Safe Paint Milk Paint Read More »
Who says Brooklyn isn’t full of wild animals??? They just have local tastes.
Brooklyn Wildlife Eating Peanut Butter Read More »
We have an interesting challenge on a green roof we are installing. The roof is a typical brownstone roof in Park Slope. But the facade of the building goes higher than the building so there is a steep sloped roof at the front of the building. We’re investigating the best materials to use on that
Sloped Green Roof in Brooklyn Read More »
We just added another bike to our small fleet of Green Building Transportation. Unlike new construction (yuk!) where you can plan the process better, working in a Brooklyn Brownstone has a lot of surprises. So it is common to need a small thing to keep the job going – a certain size screw, some brackets,
Here is a great idea for nice wood seating. Of course you could use new wood, but the use of smaller pieces means you have more chances of finding good salvaged wood for the job. We like salvaged wood from old Brooklyn brownstones because the wood is so much nicer and stronger. It is hard
Salvaged Wood Seating Read More »
The Passive House guidelines are the best benchmark I know of right now for building a house. According to the Passive House Planning Package, there is no requirement that a house be designed by an official Passive House Consultant. The main requirements are: 1) Maximum of 15 kWh/(m^2a) heat load 2) Maximum of 0.6 ACH(50)
A green builder is a humble builder. They listen to the land and surroundings and take their cues from that. They see what nature is offering in the locality and use those resources, thankful for the gift. They build as a servant to the local nature, not a conqueror of it. Like hunters of yore
Green Building as Humility Read More »
