GREEN BUILDING MATERIAL

The different types of green materials are:

• Natural sustainable material
• Man made sustainable material

NATURAL SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS

1. Bamboo

Bamboo is an important element which can balance oxygen and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  Its rapid growth, without chemical fertilisers, pesticides and takes 3 - 5 years to be harvested. These "green" features make bamboo a very good “green “product.

Highly renewable due to its fast growing nature, bamboo is as a plant, excellent for the environment, due to its ability to form micro climates and its incredible absorption of carbon dioxide.  Bamboo in today's time is used in our lives in various places from furniture, flooring, packing . as its one of the best green product because of its growing rate and its eco friendly qualities ,it is now being used in green interiors and architecture or in other words u can say it is one of the best green building product.

Already accepted as an extremely hard wearing, durable and beautiful flooring medium, bamboo is suitable material for framing, joists, bearers and roof trusses.  Bamboo offers incredible strength to bear the load.

Here are the few uses of bamboo, as a green building product.

Bamboo Panel:

Bamboo panel is made from 100 percent rapidly renewable bamboo. Bamboo panel consists of multiple layers of bamboo, where the middle layer can be either horizontal or vertical grain. These bamboo panel are especially interesting in those applications where the side of panel remains visible, like steps of a staircase and kitchen work tops, doors, cabinets and many other interior .

Bamboo Flooring:

Bamboo floor is an eco-friendly and environmental flooring. Bamboo floor has very wide varieties, including solid, engineered, strand woven, heating, decking, industrial and flooring accessories. It has horizontal or flat pressed, vertical side pressed and strand woven. Strand woven has higher density than horizontal or vertical. which gives a customers  who is interested in green product or green flooring.

Bamboo Fence:

Bamboo fence is produced with best bamboo poles, chosen for their consistent quality and colour. They are basically tied together with or without frame .and are made in different design and in pattern .they are basically preferred in round shape  tiered with a metal wired or with jute rope. Bamboo fence is aesthetically pleasing, durable and easy to install. The incredible strength of bamboo out-performs the very best timbers in hardness and dimensional stability.

Bamboo Edge Banding:

Edge banding is material which is used for finishing the edges of a furniture piece a cabinet , wardrobe etc. It comes in different colour ,thickness, grain, length shape(flat or little round or with some pattern). It can be polished as well.

   2. Timber

Timber is one of the most used materials in construction. Timbers are used mostly in construction (main frame work), wood work like cabinet, shelf, wardrobe, kitchen, Flooring, furniture and more interior finishes. It’s natural, renewable and flexibility quality makes it a excellent “green “ material or product.

There are many varieties of trees that can be planted in a food forest without impacting on the food producing trees. One great source of sustainable material is recycled timber.  Timber ages with time, increasing in strength and hardness.  Recycled timber actually looks better than its freshly harvested.  The downside of the increased hardness is that a lot of tradesman doesn’t like to work with it.  

Here are the few uses of timber, as a green building product.

Timber Furniture:

Most of the furniture at our house ,office etc is made up timber ,for making a green building we can replace normal timber by sustainable timber which is a renewable natural green product. Timber like pine, cork, bamboo is mainly used for making green or sustainable furniture.

Timber Flooring:

Timber flooring as we say are present in the market in a wide varieties including engineered, solid, decking flooring etc.

Structural Support Timber:

Sustainable timber can be excellent structure support of a building (home, office). They can be used in the main framing of the building. As they are consider strong, durable and can bear the load. The timber also used on display them as exposed beams or columns.

Timber door and windows:

Sustainable timber is also can be used in windows and doors. It fits well for interiors as well as exteriors. It can be easily used for windows as it has to survive the rain and heat.

Exposed beams or columns:

Sustainable timber is also used to cover exposed beams and Columns. Green timber is also used for covering wall as wall finishes.

Timber staircase:

There are a wide variety of sustainable timber used for making timber staircase due to there strong and durable properties.

PROCESS OF RECYCLE TIMBER:

Once the timber has been brought to the factory then all the nails and metal bolts are removed ,that are lodged in the wood. This whole process is very labour intensive. The timber is then dried after which it is cut into planks and skimmed. Depending on the timber, it may need a further period of drying after skimming. Different type of timber needs different amount of time to get dry. This may take a period of few days to finish the recycle.

3. Straw

Straw is considered one of the very important sustainable products. Straw is basically obtained from rice and wheat. As it is rice and wheat peal it is used in various places in construction as well as in making a lot of interior products.

Here are the few uses of straw, as a green building product.

Particle Board:

Straw is used in manufacture of particle board. Particle board is mainly used in inner walls and is sound absorbing. It has very good mechanical strength and water absorption.

Straw Board:

Straw board is made from straw as the name itself says. It is used for walls and roofing after mixing it with binder and is covered with outside layers like timber.

Cement Bonded Board:

Cement bonded board is made after combining or bonding both the materials (cement and straw). It is a excellent building material as it is cheaply recyclable building material and provides thermal insulation. It is used in building block for construction and it is also used in ceiling panels.

Thatched Roofs:

Straw is also used to make thatched roof by mixing binders. It is considered very low cost, durable, and it is fire hazard.

4. Jute

Jute is basically a vegetable fibre used that can be spun into strong threads and then into rope It is a strong, durable, colour and light-fast fibre. It has UV protection, sound and heat insulation, low thermal conduction and it is anti-static. Jute fibre is 100% bio-degradable and recyclable and thus environmentally friendly. It is also easily available, affordable, and jute fibre and threads are used in various places. It can be grown in 4-6 months that can meet most of the wood need. Jute is the most environment-friendly fibre starting from the seed to expired fibre. The expired fibres can be recycled more than once.

Here are the few uses of jute, as a green building product.

Carpet & Rugs:

Jute is a very important part of making carpets and rugs . Base of most of the carpets and rugs are made up of jute. Jute Mats & Rugs are made both through Power loom & Hand loom.

Furniture:

Jute plays a very important role  in couch and sofa making. All the inner upholstery is done with jute as, it has a high tensile strength, which means it stretches a lot before tearing. It has natural fire-resistant properties, and the material is lightweight and very inexpensive.

Upholstery: 

As mentioned above jute has a high tensile strength, which means it stretches a lot before tearing. It has natural fire-resistant properties, and the material is lightweight and very inexpensive, because of all these reason jute mixed with cotton or some other material is widely used for a lot of different type of upholstery like sofa covering, curtains, cushion covers, chair covers etc.

MAN MADE SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS

1. Solar Panels

Solar panel is considered best sustainable invention, as it traps down the best source of natural energy (solar energy). With the help of trapped solar energy a huge amount of energy can be saved .

It can be used at office, houses, school ,hospital, hotel etc. The efficiency of a panel determines the area of a panel given the same rated output - an 8% efficient 230 watt panel will have twice the area of a 16% efficient 230 watt panel. Because a single solar panel can produce only a limited amount of power, most installations contain multiple panels.

   2. Ferro Panels

Ferro cement is basically a product which is made by sandwiching a wire mesh between 2 layers of cement – sand motor. Ferro cement is normally used in roofing, partition. Ferro cement’s thin mortar layer is basically laid over wire, which acts like a reinforcement. It is not that expensive in other words it is relatively cheap, strong and durable. Ferro cement is made up of reinforcement mixture of sand, water cement and also has wire distributed throughout the structure which gives structure more strength and flexibility compared to normal cement.

   3. Metal Tiles

Metal flooring tiles are mostly made up of aluminium, these tiles are extremely durable, heat resistant up to 300F and don't hold fingerprint marks like stainless. The manufacturing process in creating these tiles is much the same as all other aluminium recycling. The metal is ground into small pieces then melted down and checked for impurities. Once the recycled material has been cleared, it's moulded into large frames that are then flattened to the desired thickness. 

   4. Rubber Tiles

Rubber flooring is a good choice for areas that receive a great deal of wear and tear. School gyms, or a child's playroom are all places where this type of flooring tile would be perfect.. Recycled rubber absorbs noise and is slip resistant. It is very quick to install, rubber tiles also have the added advantage of being easy to clean.

   5. Cork Tiles

Corks tiles are made from cork wood. Cork is a very durable material that has a lot of give and holds heat very well. The tiles are waterproof and can be used in wet locations like bathrooms or around a swimming pool. 

   6. Agri fibre

AGRI FIBRE is a fibrous material  generated from agricultural/ bio- based product. It can be used with binders to create bio-composite agri board.

Example includes wheat Salk/chaff, sunflower husk, hemp, biogases(sugarcane),

And other residues that traditionally are send to landfills/incinerators or ploughed back under the field. Generally wood is not included in this definition.

   7. Adobe

Adobe is one of the oldest building materials in use. It is basically just dirt that has been moistened with water, sometimes with  chopped straw  or other fibres  added for  strength and then allowed to dry in the desired shape. The best adobe soil will have been between 15% and 30% clay in it to bind the material together, the rest being mostly sand or larger aggregate.

   8. Hybrid Adobe

Hybrid adobe is a revolution building material used to create low – cost insulated

homes, sculptures .domes, garden walls, and more. Its sustainability makes it appealing  to green builders. Its adaptability makes it more appealing. Hybrid adobe combines recycled paper with earth. sand and a binder to create a sustainable ,in expensive , strong ,fibered material that can be poured , sprayed ,or sculptured to form blocks, logs, panels, walls, and an infinite variety of creative  shapes.

   9. Composite Material

Composite material are made up of two or more complementary substances. It is normally used or applied in a place where they can be removed and can be reused. Wood is a an example of composite material which is used in various places in construction. In old times most common man made composite material were straw and mud combined together to make or form bricks for constructions.

   10. Compressed Earth Blocks

Compressed earth blocks or CEB are basically construction blocks made up with clay, sand and materials like Portland cement. Sand is the most important component in CEB as it increases the strength. Now a days compressed earth blocks are considered as new “green“ which is used in constructing different type of building.

CEB are made up of soil whose ideal composition is:

15% gravel.

50% sand

20% clay

   11. Dimension Stone

Dimension stone is a natural stone or rock which is always selected and made into specific shapes and sizes. The selection criteria for dimension stone depends on colour, texture , surface finish and different patterns  .There are other factors as well which effect the selection criteria like the durability ,maintenance , strength, resistance to decay and appearance.

  12. Fly Ash

Fly ash is basically a fine glass powder generated from the gases of burning coal during the production of electricity. These micro sized parcel elements consist of silica, iron and alumina. One of the benefits of using fly ash in construction is to make it “green”. As fly ash bricks is used in construction . When every single ton of cement will be replaced with fly ash, it is said it would not only eliminate waste from the planet but also reduce the emission of 0.85 tons of  CO2 into the atmosphere. At present day fly ash is actually adopted by all over the world  by leading organisation as it is at forefront amongst the green technologies.

   13. Non Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC's)

Volatile organic compound also know as VOC are substance that evaporate from paint allowing it to dry and very toxic to human. Even after paint dried, VOC can release from paints for years and years and effecting the health of the people around it .Solution is to

Use paints that do not contain vocs and instead contains  a non harmful drying agent.

Paints with low VOC are the ones which use water as a carrier instead of petrol based agents which makes it more appropriate for our health.

   14. Oriented Standard Board

Oriented standard board also know as OSB ,water board or exterior board. This board is a high strength , structural board wood panel formed by binding wood strands. Oriented standard board can be created from low valued small diameter tree. By using OSB we will be saving higher value species and older grown trees and this makes OSB an environment  friendly material.