Choosing to remodel or renovate your home instead of building another house with scratch is one of the most incredible choices you will make to make an impact on your community and those around you positively.
Traditionally, remodeling means making changes in the existing structure of the house to upscale it. On the other hand, eco-friendly remodeling simply means reusing the materials that you already possess instead of purchasing new ones.
This can have several benefits like preventing negatively impacting the environment by:
- Using waste materials
- Increasing energy and water waste
- Toxic greenhouse gas emissions
- Amplifying debris caused by demolition
However, preventing these side effects is only possible if you choose to remodel them in an eco-friendly manner. This may prove to be time-taking and hectic initially, but any cons in the short run will never outweigh the pros in the long run. And after you’re done, your home won’t only look aesthetically pleasing, but it will also be environment friendly.
Moreover, by designing your indoor and outdoor exterior keeping sustainability in mind, you can manage your household’s energy and water consumption effectively, this will reduce your utility bills and make the ultimate financial savings dream a reality.
Therefore, in this article, we will be discussing some useful tricks and tips to make your home environmentally friendly for better and sustainable living. So, if you’re in for an interesting read, keep on scrolling.
1. Reuse Instead of Replace
Home remodeling is a long process. However, make sure you start with the most important step: Recycling. This will not only keep you from purchasing unnecessary items for your home but also have a positive impact on the environment by saving depleting natural resources and reducing toxic gas emissions from transportation and manufacturing of new items.
2. Get a Home Energy Audit Performed by a Professional
A home energy audit is a service done by a professional that evaluates the energy efficiency of a house and also suggests better ways to improve energy efficiency in heating and cooling the house. This provides homeowners with a baseline of their present situation and assists them in taking better steps to improve their home’s energy efficiency and sustainability.
Moreover, when you bring the suggestions into action by reducing your energy consumption or taking other suitable alternates, you’ll be saving plenty of unnecessary expenses on your utility bills and can save some big bucks in the long run.
3. Ensure Gas Safety
Every single home today has plenty of gas appliances that they may not be willing to replace, which is understandable to some extent considering some gas appliances may be more expensive if you replace them with electric appliances. If that proves to be out of your budget, make sure to ensure to conduct a gas safety check by a registered gas safe engineer in your area.
A professional will inspect all the gas appliances in your home for gas leaks such as carbon monoxide. This will not only prevent a safety hazard but also make sure the environment and those around you stay protected. After the check has been conducted, make sure you obtain a gas safety certificate from the gas safe engineer. Gas safety certificates are a necessity by law if you’re a resident of the UK!
4. Recheck How You Throw Away Trash
While renovating your home is fun and exciting, it does result in accumulated trash no matter how hard you try and prevent it. But throwing away all the trash may not be a wise option. There’s no doubt that some items have to be disposed of through a trash collection service.
However, there are other options to consider that prove to be efficient to the environment and community. This can be done by donating items that could be used by other people such as the underprivileged.
So, if you don’t like that chandelier hanging in your lounge or that old chair in your dining room, take it to Goodwill or a consignment shop instead of just tossing it! This way, you won’t only be protecting your environment but also be giving back to your community.
5. Design Your Bathrooms to Conserve Water
A significant percentage of household water is consumed in the bathroom with most of it wasted. Switching to high-efficiency plumbing fixtures can help you save water, money, and energy. This can be done by installing high-efficiency water-saving toilets, showers, and faucets.
6. Choose VOC-Free Paint
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) are chemicals that are found in several items we use in home remodeling or maintaining such as paints. However, once these chemicals are used in the form of painting your house or other activities, they off-gas into the air and can cause a health hazard. Therefore, by choosing to go for VOC-free paint when you remodel your home, you will be doing a great favor to not only the environment but also every resident of your home.
7. Go Solar
There are plenty of reasons as to why so many homeowners have been switching to solar panels these days but doing good for the environment while also reducing energy bills remains at the top. The sun is a renewable energy source and full advantage should be taken of that fact.
Collecting the sun’s power through solar panels can give you the energy to last the whole night or even day. And in the end, you will be getting a great return on your investment through reducing or even eliminating your energy bills. Moreover, it may also increase the value of your property. So, we consider it a win-win.
8. Visit Consignment or Antique Shops
Antique and consignment shops are a great option to purchase household items such as decorations items, doorknobs, and lamps. Not only will they help you stay within your budget but also give your house that aesthetically pleasing look you’ve always wanted!
Eco-Friendly Home Remodeling Tips for Homeowners in 2021
Choosing to remodel your home while keeping sustainability in mind does not only help you protect the environment, but it also results in you saving up tons of money while simultaneously giving back to your community. We hope our tips help you out when you choose to opt for sustainable living!
Cover image by: Outsite Co, via unsplash
