Covering Materials

Glass is the traditional choice of covering materials. It is what appears in old greenhouses. They are the ones that remain standing decades after their owners built them. It is easy to maintain glass exteriors and they will last for quite a long time. It is a choice many people make to get the look and value of a glass greenhouse.

Fiberglass is a modern option. It is strong, yet lightweight. A good hailstorm passes it by with little impact. The quality of the fiberglass will have an impact over the years. All types of fiberglass will initially have light penetration close to that of glass. Low quality panels can begin to deteriorate after a few years.

Double-wall plastic is another modern option. The double layer of plastic provides extra insulation for the greenhouse. While light penetration is not as good as with glass, it is still high enough to provide enough light for most plants. Some versions may start to yellow over the years but in the past few years, the products have improved.

Film plastic is the option many choose for a lower cost greenhouse building material. It comes in a wide variety of quality grades and materials. The choice of this quality and material makes a big difference in the appearance and longevity of the greenhouse.

Framing Materials

Wood is the traditional framing material used in older greenhouses. It provides the strength that glass needs in a permanent structure. The biggest downside is that most non-treated wood will begin to deteriorate at some point. Even with sealing and proper glazing, the wood will get some contact with water and weather.

Aluminum is a modern option of greenhouse building material that gives the strength that glass needs without the potential deterioration of wood. It allows for a variety of forms and works in linear construction as well as curved. It works for all forms of covering besides glass.

For those that do not want to invest in wood or aluminum, a common option is PVC or other forms of plastic. Plastic usually doesn’t have the strength that glass requires. However, it works with film plastic, fiberglass, or double-wall plastic panels.

How to Choose

The choice of covering and framing materials has a significant impact on the final price and appearance. It also has an impact on the longevity of the structure. For a freestanding greenhouse, longevity is not so much a concern. However, if you want a greenhouse attached to your home, you want to make sure the structure is sound and will only add to the value of your home. A PVC framed greenhouse with plastic film will cost less than a glass one with an aluminum frame. However, the difference in appearance is dramatic.

It is important to know what you want and how long you want the structure to last before deciding on the greenhouse building material choices you make. Taking the time to select the materials will make sure you get what you want out of the greenhouse. And that is the start of a beautiful structural relationship.

 

Simplifying the Process of Pricing With Kit Homes

 

Many owner builders use packaged homes to make pricing a materials package easier. But it still doesn’t remove the need to factor in all the other costs of building a home. Don’t make the mistake of asking for the price of a package and think you’ve got a good handle on the cost to build.

 

Home building packages do include more labor than a site built home, but they only slightly reduce the need for all the other building requirements I’ve listed here. As always, I advise the use of a home building coach to accurately assess your project. 

Well there is!

Lets take a look at what some of our houses will be made from in the not to distant future.

Liquid Granite: Many builders would say it’s about time that a replacement for cement was found. Current cement takes around fifty years to cure, after that it starts to weaken. This gives the average house around a hundred years of good life.

Liquid granite will last way longer than this, but its main feature is that it will stand temperatures of over one thousand degrees. Normal cement will fail a long time before this so liquid granite will give about four to five hours of high temperature endurance, which in turn will give the main structure of the building much more chance of surviving such an event.

What is liquid granite made from? Well you will be pleased to know that nearly seventy percent of the material can be made from recycled material, which is great news for the environmentalists out there. Amazingly cement production accounts for five percent of the worlds carbon emissions and liquid granite contains less than five percent traditional cement. This is because the process of making ordinary cement requires high heat. Limestone or clay is heated until it forms a dust, then the hardening agent is added

The main constituent is recycled industrial waste in powder form with a hardening agent that allows it to cure like ordinary cement. This is the base form of liquid granite to which various aggregates can be added to form materials like mortar and concrete.

By 2020 building materials in the concrete sector will be up a predicted fifty percent, so liquid granite will have a major impact in the reduction of concretes carbon footprint.

Translucent Concrete: This is a truly advanced material. Translucent concrete is a material that allows light to pass through it. The material is made by layering concrete fibres with optical fibres. The material is then mixed with a bonding agent and left to set. Once the curing process has taken place we are left with a material that looks very similar to traditional concrete, however when lit from front or behind shadows of rear image can be seen.

This is a new way of allowing natural light into structures that need to be made from concrete and also need a great deal of strength in them. Many users of translucent concrete are using it in tile form and some amazing designs can be seen in Japan where translucent concrete is most widely used.

Richlite: This material may be the most important of all as it deals with the subject of paper. Paper wastage is a massive issue in the world today but Richlite makes use of paper waste to for a hardwood like material.

There are many applications for a material such as this. You can pretty much say that anything made out of traditional hardwood like worktops and hardwood sheets can be made out of Richlite.

Richlite is made by combining paper with resin. This sets to form a hard material that can form many internal surfaces or panels. This material in particular is gaining popularity with the construction industry and many companies are looking a Richlite as a serious replacement for wood finishes in the near future.

Here are some of the specifications for Richlite

• Heat resistance- 350 degrees C
• Scratch Resistance- harder than wood and colour is solid all the way through
• Stain resistance- Cleans the same as Hardwood
• Stronger in the Horizonal plain than hardwood, allowing longer sections to laid without any bow.

However, some people would want to have a home that truly reflects them and not merely finding it from other people’s idea of a house. As a result, they would prefer to have their homes newly constructed.

Having newly constructed homes allow you to choose your own materials. You can choose it based on your design. However, a more practical way to do the selection is to base it on your region’s climate. The reason for this is that, your climate has a direct impact to your home’s comfort. When it is too cold outside, you want a home that is warm.

If you have the wrong materials, you may not be able to maintain your interior’s temperature at a desirable level. Hence, your comfort will be altered and you can incur various problems in your dwelling place.

Second reason is longevity of your homes. The kind of climate you have can accelerate the wear and tear of a certain material. Using the wrong type might lead to your homes early degradation. As a result, you may incur costly repairs and for some, they may not be able to enjoy their homes to the fullest. The last thing you want to happen is to pay for expensive repairs before reaching your breakeven point.

Third reason is energy efficiency. No one wants to pay too much for energy use, especially if you have HVAC systems in your home. To be able to attain your heating and cooling needs without paying too much, you need to build a home with good insulation. Know that your building material has a lot to do with this matter.

There are so many materials to choose from. You have wood, concrete, stones, clay and many others.

If you live in warm regions, materials you should use must have the capacity to keep your interiors cool and to allow your home to breathe. The last thing you want to happen is to trap humid area in your homes causing moisture build up that could eventually lead to mold problems. Some construction materials that are best for warm climates are wood and clay.

For colder regions, materials with the best insulating properties are great candidates. Some of these are concrete, bricks and stones. These materials are the perfect solution. Concrete has good insulating abilities. It is used in combination with other materials as a binder. However, stones are renowned to be the best. But try to be careful with your selection. To obtain the best choice, you can seek help from a stonemason.

There are also unconventional materials used for building homes: glass. Glass can be built as walls but these materials aren’t natural insulators. However, you can do something to decrease heat absorption or even heat dissipation. You can apply e-coating or tint the glass. Others also use accessories like drapes, blinds and curtains to prevent heat escape.

Remember, your goal is to make a durable and comfortable home. Try to choose materials by looking at the bigger picture. Avoid focusing on the design alone but know the performance of these materials when it is too cold or too hot outside your homes.

As strange as the concept may be to some, getting free building materials for woodworking projects is not only possible, it’s fairly common and relatively easy to do. It just requires a bit of imagination and tenacity. It can also be a fun thing to do with the family on the weekend. I’m certain many of you are chuckling right about now, or maybe even laughing out loud. But it’s true, and I can attest to this as I grew up doing exactly that. To put this into perspective, let’s consider where we are most likely to find free building materials.

Sources for Getting Free Building Materials

This is where having an active imagination comes in handy, and one of the things that makes this a potentially fun family outing. Think about the industries in your area. Try to remember where you saw a commercial building or a house being torn down. If you live in the country you’re really in luck, because many farm building have fallen into disrepair and are no longer in use. If you’re looking to build a new garden shed, old barns are a rich and abundant source for planking and some really practical hardware and other materials.

Watch for garage and barn sales. These are often plentiful sources for scrap lumber or other building materials. You may have to spend a bit, but it won’t cost close to what you’d pay for new materials. Involve the kids in this “game”, and they’ll feel like they’re part of the project, and that their input has value. They often, as my siblings and I did, come up with the best and most creative ideas! Get the kids excited and involved and you may be surprised at the resources they learn about at school. Driving around looking for these freebies is a lot of fun.

A Real Life Example or Two

I must confess that although I grew up as a city slicker, I found my true liking when my family moved to a farm when I was 13. I really enjoyed farm animals, and raised cattle and chickens. I was always asking Dad for money for building materials I needed for chicken coops, rabbit hutches, cattle sheds and other farm related structures. My dad grew tired of handing over cash, but came up with the “game” I’ve previously described. The family got involved and we had many memorable experiences together searching for free building materials.

One I remember vividly is when we drove past a farm and noticed a man pushing down some fairly nice, commercial chicken coops with a dozer. We approached him and discovered he intended to burn the piles of lumber. It didn’t take much persuading to convince him to let us remove the lumber instead. It took some work for sure, but we harvested enough free building material to build a number of farm buildings, including a brand “new” chicken coop. Once they had a new coat of paint, no one could ever tell we built them from re-purposed materials that we got for free!

Well let’s get back to the city for a moment. I’ve also found plentiful supplies of free building materials in shipyards and other industrial areas. Businesses often pile scrap lumber along the front of their properties with “free wood” signs attached. Sometimes it’s usable, sometimes it’s not, but it’s always free. At the very least it makes great firewood. And the drives through the country and even the industrial areas are interesting and fun adventures for the family.

I hope these tales inspire you to get your family involved in your building projects, and to save huge dollars in the process. It truly can be fun and rewarding, and yes, getting free building materials is possible.

Copyright 2011, Arne James, All rights reserved

You can buy green drywall for damp places like showers bathrooms cold rooms etc.

You can also buy a sound deadening drywall to prevent sound from going through.

You can buy fire resistant drywall to the aid against fire.

The way drywall is made, it has a relieved edge, so when you put two pieces of drywall together side-by-side you will have approximately a little over an inch of depressed drywall little thinner than the rest of it so when you put drywall compound on there and apply tape over the joint you won’t have a hump in the drywall this depression allows you to smooth sand it flush.

Taping drywall

I usually tape all the drywall connections first with the fiberglass mesh tape, the mesh tape has a self-adhesive so it will stick to the drywall. Now that you have the whole wall or room taped with the mash, the next thing is to cover all the tape mesh with drywall mud. When the mud has dried, you can sand the high spots and the rough spots off or out and we apply another coat of mud (known as plaster). When the second coat is dry again you might have to do a little sanding and with a finishing trowel pass a wider and thinner coat of plaster over it. This should give you a nice smooth joint with little sanding. Quick note; don’t sand these joints to the point where you are creating a depression at the joint, sand with the head of the sanding pole perpendicular to the joint.

Priming drywall

After sanding the drywall you can roll and good quality latex primer over the bare drywall. Since the primer soaks into the drywall quickly it causes the primer to dry quickly leaving any imperfections on the drywall, so be careful in rolling your drywall primer not to leave heavy lines from the edges of the roller. The best way to do this is get about a medium pile roller and roll evenly with applying equal pressure on both sides of the roller not to push too hard on either edge. After you rolled a couple of feet forward then roll the same couple feet backward to even everything out and make sure that all the drywall is covered with primer.

Once the primer has dried, you can now sand the drywall to make it smooth and not gritty.

Inspect drywall

Now you can inspect the drywall for imperfections in your plaster work. If there’s any edges or dents in your plaster work this is where you can find them. Once corrected you can re-prime the spots and you’re ready to paint.

Nevertheless, there is always T.I. work to be done and remodels for homes. So, how do you get these clients in to buy from you? Well a robust yet inexpensive marketing and advertising program might do the trick. Let me explain; you see, direct-mail and direct-mail marketing coupons work very well for building material stores.

These direct-mail marketing pieces should be sent out to all the households and businesses within a 15-mile radius of the building supply store. It is recommended that direct-mail marketing pieces be sent out every three months and contain within them discounts on various popular items.

A building supply store, which also has free seminars on; How To Do, home projects can get a double whammy from such direct mail campaigns as well. This will insure constant traffic even when the economy is not doing so well or the real estate market is in an economic decline. Please consider all this in 2006.

If you do not want to have a home filled with toxic and harmful building materials, you should think of a way to find environment-friendly supplies that you could use to construct your home. Here are some characteristics of sustainable building materials that you should watch out for while canvassing for the best construction products.

Minimal energy needs

One of the most important characteristics of sustainable building materials is their minimal energy needs. This means that they do not need to consume a lot of energy while they are being processed, harvested, or delivered to your location. Local materials that could be immediately located in your local area possess this characteristic. Since they are found in almost any corner of your area, they would have less need for transportation and nonrenewable oil.

A perfect example of a local material that fits these characteristics is adobe. Since it is found almost anywhere in neighborhoods, it has minimal energy needs for transportation. In addition, it could also serve as an insulator that could reduce intense heat and cold inside your home. Hence, its thick nature would allow you to minimize the need for using air conditioners during summer and furnaces during winter. You would definitely feel the difference of living in a home made from adobe once you see how much money you were able to save due to its insulating properties.

Renewability and Reusability

Other important characteristics of eco friendly construction materials are renewability and reusability. Renewability pertains to their capacity to renew themselves after a period of harvest. Unlike nonrenewable products such as oil, renewable materials are not susceptible to depletion or complete exhaustion.

On the other hand, reusability pertains to its potential to be used for other purposes or for future construction plans. Another example of a material that fits these qualities is adobe. Its ability to withstand almost any temperature makes it possess a long shelf life. Once you were not able to use up all your adobe supplies for your home, you could still safely reseal them and use them for other future projects. A few mixing and stirring would make it come back to its elastic and flexible form.

Absence of toxic emissions

As previously mentioned, more and more modern homes have been relying on materials that emit toxic chemicals to our surroundings. Examples of such products are chemicals found in paint, sealants, and glues. Once their harmful chemicals are released into the air, any person who accidentally ingests such toxins through his nose and mouth would experience health risks and problems.

Always remember these qualities when looking for sustainable building materials. Keep in mind that your green home would never be complete once you fail to find the best sustainable building materials that suit your budget, needs, and noble goals.

If you are in the business of building materials production or if you need any sort of information, there are thousands of websites available on internet that provides information on building materials. And if you are looking for any other website which either deals in the sell and purchase of building materials or connects you to the seller or buyer such as building contractors or builders then you must log on to online classified websites.

Sand, wood, thatch, clay, and stones are the raw materials and metal, glass and cement, tiles, and paint are the man-made products, which we create in building industries. Any raw material or man-made product, which is used for construction purposes are the building materials. The quality or durability of any building reflects with the material which is being used to construct it. There are two types of building materials one is natural resources or raw materials and second is man-made products.

One very good example of recycled or salvaged building material is steel. This is because steel is 66 percent recyclable, and can be derived from scrap metal, including old automobiles, machines and old steel buildings. This means that using steel does not require e mining because it can be derived from recycled metals. In addition, precious resources such as trees are also preserved if steel is used to build structures instead of wood. Apart from being good for the environment, using steel also has other advantages. Steel is stronger and able to withstand extreme weather conditions, and it is cheaper than most building materials. It is also fire resistant, resistant to termites, rotting and cracks.

More and more people are becoming aware of environmental issues and new environment-friendly innovations are being developed. The development of alternative building materials used to build structures like homes is an example.