Green Building For Your Garage?

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by: Elise.Fendmeyer
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Everybody talks about green homes and green design but many a time people forget about their garages. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found that an attached garage creates a large amount of in-house pollution and affects the health of the occupants. Indoor air quality is almost certainly affected because the interface between the garage and the house is poorly designed. Thus, you may have all the green features incorporated in the house, but if you neglect the garage, those green features come to naught.
The single largest contributor is the noxious exhaust generated by the car which enters the house through doors and cracks in the garage walls. It is important to use proper low-formaldehyde sealing agents to ensure that garages do not leak their toxic fumes into the house. Other materials found commonly in garages too give off poisonous vapors. The list includes turpentine oil, benzene used by lawn mowers, cleaning agents, and pesticides used for gardening. Investing in a garage exhaust fan that can suck out noxious air is a good option.
An innovative green design which will help in improving the overall green quality of your house is installation of a green garage roof. Grass, plants or other vegetation can help cover green roofs. Several US companies offer the services of building a green garage roof. In a green roof building process, an environmentally friendly water proofing material called Thermoplastic Polyolefin (TPO) forms the first layer. Then layers for water retention and filters are put. Next comes the top most layer, the growing medium, which is a light weight mixture of rock and soil. Plants with shallow roots, which are drought resistant, are then planted in this medium. The environmental advantages of a green roof are many. Green roofs help reduce noise pollution, filter rainwater and reduce the cost of cooling your house. Respiration of plants helps reduce ambient heat in the surroundings. Since plants absorb sunlight; they prevent the heat from being absorbed by the rooftop thus increasing its life. According to a recent study, a green roofed garage can produce enough oxygen for 25 people and also remove eight kg of pollutants annually. A green thatched garage not only improves aesthetics but also attracts birds, which increases the biodiversity of your area.

About the Author

Find more information regarding green design, goto www.aia.org/WalkTheWalk.

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<h1>Green Building For Your Garage?</h1> <p> Everybody talks about green homes and green design but many a time people forget about their garages. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found that an attached garage creates a large amount of in-house pollution and affects the health of the occupants. Indoor air quality is almost certainly affected because the interface between the garage and the house is poorly designed. Thus, you may have all the green features incorporated in the house, but if you neglect the garage, those green features come to naught. <br />The single largest contributor is the noxious exhaust generated by the car which enters the house through doors and cracks in the garage walls. It is important to use proper low-formaldehyde sealing agents to ensure that garages do not leak their toxic fumes into the house. Other materials found commonly in garages too give off poisonous vapors. The list includes turpentine oil, benzene used by lawn mowers, cleaning agents, and pesticides used for gardening. Investing in a garage exhaust fan that can suck out noxious air is a good option. <br />An innovative green design which will help in improving the overall green quality of your house is installation of a green garage roof. Grass, plants or other vegetation can help cover green roofs. Several US companies offer the services of building a green garage roof. In a green roof building process, an environmentally friendly water proofing material called Thermoplastic Polyolefin (TPO) forms the first layer. Then layers for water retention and filters are put. Next comes the top most layer, the growing medium, which is a light weight mixture of rock and soil. Plants with shallow roots, which are drought resistant, are then planted in this medium. The environmental advantages of a green roof are many. Green roofs help reduce noise pollution, filter rainwater and reduce the cost of cooling your house. Respiration of plants helps reduce ambient heat in the surroundings. Since plants absorb sunlight; they prevent the heat from being absorbed by the rooftop thus increasing its life. According to a recent study, a green roofed garage can produce enough oxygen for 25 people and also remove eight kg of pollutants annually. A green thatched garage not only improves aesthetics but also attracts birds, which increases the biodiversity of your area. <h2>About the Author</h2> Find more information regarding <a href="http://www.aia.org/WalkTheWalk/" Title="green plumbing, green building design">green design</a>, goto www.aia.org/WalkTheWalk. </p>

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