Remodeling a house with the latest green technology and a touch of decoration is not for people who want things quick, easy and cheap. Not only for this product, from blue jeans insulation to recycled glass tiles - hard to find, they are far more expensive than conventional options.
Still, husband-and-wife team Kate Stoia and Rony Maoz were committed to going as green as possible in their third and most ambitious remodeling project.
Their house, dug into a hillside in San Francisco's Corona Heights neighborhood, which overlooks the Castro, wasn't much to look at when they bought it in December 2006.
A featureless box complete with dilapidated cupboards, peeling paint and drafty windows, the two-story duplex also had what appeared to be an 1906 earthquake cottage out back (the couple later found out it was built about 20 years ago), a sinking foundation and no garage.
None of this bothered the couple. They actually look for places that need foundation work and garages because as a former contractor now running a pier-drilling business, Maoz does the work himself.
The end result of the couple's 10-month project (they lived on-site during the construction) is a gleaming three-story house with a traditional exterior and thoroughly modern interior.
It includes an apartment on the bottom floor and their own two-story living space above, with separate bedrooms for son Matan, 7, and daughter Ella, 5. It also has an office, open kitchen, TV room dug out of the hillside, living room with stunning views of the bay where a rickety deck used to be, and an elevator connecting all the floors.
Fiberglass-free
The greening of the project began with the decision to forego standard fiberglass insulation - not a difficult choice because the last time they used the stuff they were itching from the fibers embedded in their skin for days.
Instead, Stoia and Maoz decided to go with insulation made from shredded blue jeans, which doesn't require gloves and masks to install. "We even let our kids play with the leftovers," Stoia said. "Going with the blue jean insulation was a total no-brainer. Fiberglass seems like an evil material."
In the kitchen, the green team shunned granite countertops in favor of those made from compressed wastepaper. Used extensively at Starbucks and other shops, the material, known as Paperstone, looks and feels like stone. It is also quite strong and can have an overhang of up to 4 feet beyond a table or counter frame without the need for a brace underneath to support it.
"It would have been easy to use granite" said Stoia, who's proud that she's using a 100 percent post-consumer waste material instead. "This is basically a beautiful piece of material that would have ended up in the landfill." Still, between the cost of the material ($5,000) and fabrication ($3,000), it was significantly more expensive than a granite countertop that she priced at about $3,000.
"It still hurts," Maoz said. "He's not a big Paperstone fan," Stoia said.
For the backsplash, they used tile made from recycled glass.
They say their greatest green challenge was installing a living roof on top of the renovated shack in the backyard. Instead of shingles, tiles or tar and gravel, the roof is covered with plants. While they're quite stunning, the main reason Stoia and Maoz wanted one was to eliminate the heat that a traditional roof reflects and can contribute to global warming.
Stoia knew living roofs were popular in Europe, but when she called local roofers and nurseries about construction and plants, she got nowhere. With guidance from the book "Green Roof Plants: A Resource and Planting Guide," Stoia and Maoz were able to figure out the process on their own.
Adding support
The first step is to shore up the roof's support beams to handle the extra weight a garden will impose. Then a rubber membrane like those used in ponds goes over the roof with another porous membrane on top so that water doesn't collect on the roof, but pours through to the drainage system. Stoia planted the succulent sedum and there have been no leaks. "It makes the roof disappear," Maoz said.
Rounding out the house's back-to-nature theme, the couple adopted four hens from their son's elementary school, where they were being used to teach incubation. They are true free-range chickens, as they have the run of not only their own backyard but the neighbor's as well. They also have their own chicken coop in the far northeast corner of the lot. Besides fresh eggs, another benefit of having chickens is the steady supply of free fertilizer - a commodity that's not always distributed by the chickens where it's wanted. To combat this problem, Maoz regularly breaks out a pressure washer to hose down his back deck.
As the crowning touch to their remodel, Stoia and Maoz planned to install solar panels, but they ran out of money, so the $15,000 panels will have to wait. (They did, however, wire the roof for solar.)
Despite the challenges of going green, the couple says they wouldn't have done it any other way, even though admit this probably won't be their permanent home. "We won't be here forever," Stoia said. "This is the work that we enjoy doing - the building and design - and trying to do it in the most responsible way."
Green resources
Kate Stoia and Rony Maoz found their building materials from the following sources.
-- For the shredded blue jean insulation, they used UltraTouch. It's available from Truitt & White lumber in Berkeley, where a 106-square-foot bag of UltraTouch R-13, the standard rating for interior walls, costs $69. The same amount of fiberglass insulation goes for $38.60. One benefit of blue jean insulation is that it deadens sound better than fiberglass.
-- Paperstone can be ordered through Ceramic Tile Design in San Francisco and San Rafael. It's sold in three thicknesses ( 3/4 inch, 1 inch and 1 1/4 inch) and goes for about $50 a square foot. Stoia and Maoz used obsidian, but it also comes in chocolate, gunmetal, grass, indigo and plum.
-- For recycled glass tiles, they went to ecofriendlyflooring.com and Ceramic Tile Design. It comes in square foot pieces that run $20 to $30 each. By comparison, ceramic tile can cost as little as $1 a square foot.
-- For the green roof, Stoia and Maoz relied heavily on the book "Green Roof Plants: A Resource and Planting Guide" (Timber Press, 2006) by Edmund C. and Lucie C. Snodgrass for tips on the construction and planting of their living roof. Properly maintained, a living roof will last twice as long (30 years) as a conventional one.
-- The hens: San Francisco allows residents to keep up to four hens in their backyards, but no roosters - they can get a little loud. While chickens like to roam, they will require a coop. Their most likely predators in an urban environment are raccoons. Dogs and cats tend to keep their distance.
Still, husband-and-wife team Kate Stoia and Rony Maoz were committed to going as green as possible in their third and most ambitious remodeling project.
Their house, dug into a hillside in San Francisco's Corona Heights neighborhood, which overlooks the Castro, wasn't much to look at when they bought it in December 2006.
A featureless box complete with dilapidated cupboards, peeling paint and drafty windows, the two-story duplex also had what appeared to be an 1906 earthquake cottage out back (the couple later found out it was built about 20 years ago), a sinking foundation and no garage.
None of this bothered the couple. They actually look for places that need foundation work and garages because as a former contractor now running a pier-drilling business, Maoz does the work himself.
The end result of the couple's 10-month project (they lived on-site during the construction) is a gleaming three-story house with a traditional exterior and thoroughly modern interior.
It includes an apartment on the bottom floor and their own two-story living space above, with separate bedrooms for son Matan, 7, and daughter Ella, 5. It also has an office, open kitchen, TV room dug out of the hillside, living room with stunning views of the bay where a rickety deck used to be, and an elevator connecting all the floors.
Fiberglass-free
The greening of the project began with the decision to forego standard fiberglass insulation - not a difficult choice because the last time they used the stuff they were itching from the fibers embedded in their skin for days.
Instead, Stoia and Maoz decided to go with insulation made from shredded blue jeans, which doesn't require gloves and masks to install. "We even let our kids play with the leftovers," Stoia said. "Going with the blue jean insulation was a total no-brainer. Fiberglass seems like an evil material."
In the kitchen, the green team shunned granite countertops in favor of those made from compressed wastepaper. Used extensively at Starbucks and other shops, the material, known as Paperstone, looks and feels like stone. It is also quite strong and can have an overhang of up to 4 feet beyond a table or counter frame without the need for a brace underneath to support it.
"It would have been easy to use granite" said Stoia, who's proud that she's using a 100 percent post-consumer waste material instead. "This is basically a beautiful piece of material that would have ended up in the landfill." Still, between the cost of the material ($5,000) and fabrication ($3,000), it was significantly more expensive than a granite countertop that she priced at about $3,000.
"It still hurts," Maoz said. "He's not a big Paperstone fan," Stoia said.
For the backsplash, they used tile made from recycled glass.
They say their greatest green challenge was installing a living roof on top of the renovated shack in the backyard. Instead of shingles, tiles or tar and gravel, the roof is covered with plants. While they're quite stunning, the main reason Stoia and Maoz wanted one was to eliminate the heat that a traditional roof reflects and can contribute to global warming.
Stoia knew living roofs were popular in Europe, but when she called local roofers and nurseries about construction and plants, she got nowhere. With guidance from the book "Green Roof Plants: A Resource and Planting Guide," Stoia and Maoz were able to figure out the process on their own.
Adding support
The first step is to shore up the roof's support beams to handle the extra weight a garden will impose. Then a rubber membrane like those used in ponds goes over the roof with another porous membrane on top so that water doesn't collect on the roof, but pours through to the drainage system. Stoia planted the succulent sedum and there have been no leaks. "It makes the roof disappear," Maoz said.
Rounding out the house's back-to-nature theme, the couple adopted four hens from their son's elementary school, where they were being used to teach incubation. They are true free-range chickens, as they have the run of not only their own backyard but the neighbor's as well. They also have their own chicken coop in the far northeast corner of the lot. Besides fresh eggs, another benefit of having chickens is the steady supply of free fertilizer - a commodity that's not always distributed by the chickens where it's wanted. To combat this problem, Maoz regularly breaks out a pressure washer to hose down his back deck.
As the crowning touch to their remodel, Stoia and Maoz planned to install solar panels, but they ran out of money, so the $15,000 panels will have to wait. (They did, however, wire the roof for solar.)
Despite the challenges of going green, the couple says they wouldn't have done it any other way, even though admit this probably won't be their permanent home. "We won't be here forever," Stoia said. "This is the work that we enjoy doing - the building and design - and trying to do it in the most responsible way."
Green resources
Kate Stoia and Rony Maoz found their building materials from the following sources.
-- For the shredded blue jean insulation, they used UltraTouch. It's available from Truitt & White lumber in Berkeley, where a 106-square-foot bag of UltraTouch R-13, the standard rating for interior walls, costs $69. The same amount of fiberglass insulation goes for $38.60. One benefit of blue jean insulation is that it deadens sound better than fiberglass.
-- Paperstone can be ordered through Ceramic Tile Design in San Francisco and San Rafael. It's sold in three thicknesses ( 3/4 inch, 1 inch and 1 1/4 inch) and goes for about $50 a square foot. Stoia and Maoz used obsidian, but it also comes in chocolate, gunmetal, grass, indigo and plum.
-- For recycled glass tiles, they went to ecofriendlyflooring.com and Ceramic Tile Design. It comes in square foot pieces that run $20 to $30 each. By comparison, ceramic tile can cost as little as $1 a square foot.
-- For the green roof, Stoia and Maoz relied heavily on the book "Green Roof Plants: A Resource and Planting Guide" (Timber Press, 2006) by Edmund C. and Lucie C. Snodgrass for tips on the construction and planting of their living roof. Properly maintained, a living roof will last twice as long (30 years) as a conventional one.
-- The hens: San Francisco allows residents to keep up to four hens in their backyards, but no roosters - they can get a little loud. While chickens like to roam, they will require a coop. Their most likely predators in an urban environment are raccoons. Dogs and cats tend to keep their distance.
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