Environmentally-friendly construction is a worldwide trend. Everyone wants a safe home for themselves and their children. Therefore, it is important to know what materials can be used to build an eco-house today, what is better to use for the exterior and interior.
Basic Requirements
For an environmentally friendly house to be truly such, it must be built and operated under certain requirements:
- Electricity, heating, hot water should come mainly from renewable energy sources;
- For the house to retain heat for as long as possible, it is important to observe special architectural and design aspects;
- It is necessary to build it with the use of effective insulation;
- Use of local building materials. They are quite low-cost in the method of extraction, transportation, and processing, and also make it possible to build a house without the use of heavy machinery.
- It is better to use a material that can be disposed of on-site after the construction or operation without harming the environment.
The Foundation
The foundation of the house largely determines how long the structure will last. Its strength depends on the load that the walls and roof will exert. For wooden walls and those made of modern lightweight materials, it is sufficient to use a strip foundation made of concrete. The ideal combination of the price and quality is the pile-grid base made of the armature, sand, roofing material, and extruded expanded polystyrene. It can be arranged on soils of any type.
For heavier houses, it is better to use a monolithic plate. Such a foundation is not afraid of the proximity of groundwater and can be built on any type of soil. A monolithic slab is usually used as a basement floor.
The Walls
Wooden houses are built mainly of coniferous trees: spruce, pine, larch, etc. Wooden walls are well ventilated, retain heat, and create a favorable microclimate. The disadvantage is a short life, low fire safety, susceptibility to pests, fear of moisture. Some chemicals remove these shortcomings, but in this case, the environmental friendliness of the tree is lost.
You can also use lightweight aerated concrete. It is made of natural materials with the addition of various chemical additives that make its structure porous. Due to the porosity, these materials have good thermal insulation properties. Small weight and a variety of sizes allow conducting high-speed construction. It also has high fire safety.
The Roof
The roof should not only protect the house from precipitation and mechanical damage but also play an aesthetic role. It is a decoration of any house. The copper roof is considered to be the most beautiful and prestigious. Its service life reaches 100 years, but it is one of the most expensive options.
The tile roof is not inferior in beauty and environmental friendliness. It is divided into cement-sand and ceramic (clay). Such roofs do not accumulate static electricity and are fireproof. Their service life reaches 150 years.
The Windows
The warmth and comfort of natural wood combined with excellent technological qualities (low thermal conductivity, good sound insulation, environmental friendliness, maintainability) are the main reasons for the increasing demand for modern wooden windows.
At the same time, windows made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) also meet environmental requirements. PVC is a very friendly material. It is absolutely safe for human health and is not a threat in the production of windows, such as cutting and bending window profiles. It does not emit harmful substances.
In addition to windows, PVC pipes are used to make water pipes, as well as containers for transporting and storing blood, so this material is completely harmless to the environment. An additional factor in favor of PVC windows is that old windows can be reused. PVC is suitable even for seven-fold processing, but wood is not. Glass and aluminum are also processed after preliminary separation.
The Doors
Pine wooden doors are the most popular in the construction market today. Even though the pine array used in the manufacture of door structures is pre-treated, it retains its natural properties. During processing, the strength and moisture resistance of the material increases. Ecological doors of an elite class are made of the massif of an oak or a beech — firm and durable breeds. Such wood varieties as alder, ash, and birch are also widespread.
Medium-density fiberboard (MDF) is also an excellent material for doors. Unlike the usual chipboard, MDF isn’t made with the use of synthetic glue, but on pitches of a natural origin. This feature allows applying MDF to the category of materials safe for health. Medium-density boards are usually used in the production of door blocks in combination with softwood.
Future developers always have a lot of questions about building an environmentally friendly house. That is why it is essential to carefully select the necessary materials that meet all requirements.