When it comes to green building materials, the push – at least here in the United States – has increased by quite a bit. The focus on the health and overall condition of our environment has become considerably heightened in recent years, and for good reason. Without taking action, our environment will, to put it very bluntly, die, and we are the only ones who can stop that from happening.
There are many ways in which we can help save the environment, if only by just a little bit. For one, you can bike or walk to work instead of taking your car (and if you live too far away, public transportation also often provides a good alternative). You can also simply take shorter showers and make more of an effort to turn the water off while in the middle of brushing your teeth or doing the dishes. Using reusable bags when going grocery shopping is a small change to make, but one that is likely to save you money in the long run, as taxes for paper and plastic bags have become commonplace in many parts of the country.
The use of green building materials can also have a significant impact. Green building materials are not only high quality and long lasting, but green building materials are also likely to even cost you less than other types of more traditional building materials. There is certainly no doubt about it that green building materials are making an impact, as there are now more varieties of green building materials to choose from than ever before.
One such green building material is that of insulated concrete forms, known more commonly as ICF. And the advantages of using green building materials like ICF and ICF materials are simply immense. For one, ICF systems have been proven to be incredibly reliable. As they have been in use for more than half of a century – around sixty years, to be more exact – there is no doubt about it that ICF systems are widely and fully trusted in the industry of construction.
ICF systems are also considerably less expensive than other methods of construction and this can be seen clearly in a number of ways. For one, the construction on a basement using ICF materials and systems will cost nearly fifty percent less (forty percent less, to be more exact) than using traditional methods of construction, and this is directly linked to the fact that the number of steps in the overall building process can be reduced considerably.
On top of this, the construction of concrete flooring when building decking will be forty percent heavier. Because ICF decking is so much lighter, is able to provide far superior insulation. And as many people know, better insulation is likely to provide considerably lowered costs in the long run – and ICF systems will provide lower costs in the short term as well. When ICF construction has been used, heating and cooling energy costs are likely to be lowered by as much as twenty five percent – and typically no less than twenty percent. In fact, ICF systems have been known to reduce total costs by as much as seventy five centers per square foot in comparison to more traditional methods of construction.
If you needed anymore convincing as to why you should use green building materials like ICF systems, take a look at just how durable buildings made using ICF systems are. In areas that are prone to natural disasters, ICF systems are more than ideal, as they can withstand winds that reach up to four hundred and two kilometers per hour. In part because of this but for other reasons as well, it has even been estimated that buildings made using ICF systems are as much as nine times as strong as a building that was made through the use of traditional construction methods using traditional construction materials.
Green building materials are hugely important to use whenever possible, and ICF building materials provide us with many reasons that we should do so here in the United States.
