Using green building materials is a great way to lower your environmental impact. Here are 3 energy-efficient building materials that we recommend for every home project. Source: Pixabay

If you’re concerned about the impact you’ll have on the environment when building your home, then you should strongly consider using energy-efficient building materials. The following are three energy-efficient building materials that we highly recommend for every home project:

1. Recycled steel – Wood is not a very environmentally-friendly option, and a house that’s 2,000 square feet large would require between 40 and 50 trees to build. Instead, use customized recycled steel beams and panels, which also happen to be incredibly durable and resistant to high winds.
2. Cool roofing – Cool roofing materials tend to be a little more expensive, but they help reflect heat during the summers, helping to keep your home cool and efficient. This helps cut down on that expensive electricity bill.
3. Insulating concrete forms – These are basically concrete walls that are cast in place and that are inserted between two layers of insulation. Insulated concrete forms can end up cut down your energy usage by 20 percent.

These are just a few of the green home building materials that we recommend you use for your home building project. For all of your home building needs, be sure to contact us at Trilogy Builds today.

Could your home use a little bit of extra space? If so, why not build an addition to your home? If this seems like the right solution, then make sure that it’s a green home addition by working with us at Trilogy Builds. The following are a few ways in which we will create a green home addition:

Source: Shutterstock.com

• Green demolition – In order to build an addition we’ll most likely have to tear down a few things. Every addition tends to have some construction waste. We will make sure that the old materials we tear down are either reused or recycled.
• Green windows – When building an addition, we will install double-paned low-energy windows that are more energy efficient and therefore more environmentally-friendly.
• Green plumbing – Most additions require new plumbing. We will insulate your pipes to help reduce the loss of heat. We can also install more water-efficient fixtures, such as low-flush toilets and reduced-flow faucets.
• Green insulation – We will make sure the addition is properly insulated so that you won’t lose warm or cool air and keep outside air from leaking in.

For more information about our green home additions, contact us at Trilogy Builds.

Timber Frame Reclaimed From Railroad Trestle

I’m very pleased to announce that we at Trilogy will be collaborating with noted architectural photographer, Roger Wade on a design book tentatively titled “Old Into New – The Use of Reclaimed and Recycled Materials in Modern Architecture.” I have had the pleasure of designing quite a few homes now where we used reclaimed and recycled materials, such as barn beams and posts from old bridges, granary flooring from Chicago, and siding made from everything from redwood to cedar to douglas fir. These weathered, aged, and far from perfect reclaimed materials bring a richness, authenticity, and beauty to new homes that is not possible with “new” materials. I thought it was time we documented some of these truly magnificent homes in print, and on the internet. So stay tuned as we publish, on this blog, chapters one at a time featuring some of the nations most extraordinary homes and their use of reclaimed and recycled materials. Roger, stylist Debbie Grahl, and I worked together on the Architectural Digest article about the Steamboat House.

Were you to build a dream home, would you consider using old, rather than new, as a design element?