Go Green Builders First Video

Hi All,

We are very excited to have our first video up on You Tube. Check it out..

shower walls, countertops, backsplash

Temperature Sensitive Glass TilesMoving Color is an innovative technology which takes glass tiles to new heights in terms of interior design. These are temperature sensitive textured glass tiles which change color with the ambient, body or water temperature. So when someone touches them or if warm water from a shower hits them, the tiles then literally “bloom with color”! How neat is that?

Bathroom materials

Choosing to refinish your bathroom floor using eco friendly sustainable flooring products is a sensible choice to make and it is not surprising that manufacturers are providing eco-friendly building product alternatives for homeowners living environments. These days going green doesn’t have to be a big investment. Eco friendly flooring should not only be made from natural materials but should be durable, recyclable and long lasting as well. When choosing materials you should consider the toxicity of the products as well as the way those items were created. Linoleum, glass ceramic tile and bamboo are three eco friendly flooring products you can use when creating that perfect green bathroom oasis.

Go green builders saves engery with Hunter Douglas Window treatments

Hunter Douglas is the worldwide leader in creating innovative, energy-efficient window fashions that save valuable energy resources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As our products serve this larger purpose, they also make home interiors brighter, more beautiful, more private and more comfortable.

Significant energy efficiency improvements at the window began with our invention of Duette® honeycomb shades back in 1985. Air contained within the honeycomb cells proved to be an effective insulator, keeping heat inside in winter and keeping it out in summer.

The huge success of the Duette brand has spawned other energy-saving innovations — including Silhouette® window shadings, Vignette® Modern Roman Shades,Luminette® Privacy Sheers and Pirouette® window shadings. Our most recent creation, Duette Architella® honeycomb shades, takes energy conservation to a whole new level. The patented honeycomb-within-a-honeycomb design forms three air pockets to dramatically reduce heat flow at the window. If installed in every window of every American home, these shades have the potential to cut our annual energy consumption by 2½%. That may not sound like much, but it’s the equivalent of a 33% increase in fuel mileage for all passenger cars on U.S. roads — which would save about 450 million barrels of oil annually and reduce CO2 emissions by almost 200 million tons!

Go green builders is working with Carlisle recycled wood flooring

At the beginning of the year, Carlisle Flooring came to us, with their incredible story, and the need to find Quality dealer in the North County San Diego area.

When you here the term Reclaimed / Recycled wood flooring Carlisle comes to the top of the list. Carlisle offers a broad variety of wood floors including old growth heart pines, premier hardwoods, hand-sculpted woods and FSC Certified 100% Post-Consumer Reclaimed Antique woods. Put simply, Carlisle believes that the living surface they create inside your home should reflect and respect the living surface nature created outside your home.

Go Green Builders New Line, Eco-Leader by Refin Ceramiche

Keeping up with the latest efforts in "Green, Sustainable Building Products" is a 7/24 effort at Go Green Builders. It is with this ever-constant desire to “keep up” in mind that we made the choice to bring in one of our newest lines, by Refin Ceramiche, Eco-Leader.

Eco-leader is a color-body porcelain tile; manufactured using 40% pre-consumer recycled material. It is this 40% recycle content which enables Eco-Leader to meet the requirements for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, the most important and strict American certification for conservation of energy and the environment.

Although many have tried, Refin is the first Italian factory to create a tile awarded LEED certification. It is this first step–and Refin’s commitment to their mission of becoming a forerunner of environmental policies through conscious consumption and production–which sets them apart from other tile manufacturers. Eco-Leader comes in four sizes and colorways, each taken from Mother Nature’s color book; Sand, Ink, Ground and Stone.

We at Go Green Builders appreciate all that Refin is doing for the earth and look forward to seeing the many places Eco-Leader will be installed.

Working with Broken Bottles at Go Green Builders

Glass Act: Broken bottles turn to polished pebbles

Tucked in an odd-shaped parcel of port property between railroad tracks and cargo ships sits a slice of inspiration.

At the Red Shovel Glass Co., trash becomes treasure. Tons of discarded bottles, otherwise rejected by recyclers, find new life as brightly colored "stones," perfect for paths and garden decoration.

Broken mirrors, unwanted doors and windows, chipped dishes and glass tabletops, fallen roof tiles, smashed flowerpots: All are reborn into polished pebbles.
Red Shovel Glass Company of San Francisco, turns old recycled bottles, tile and terra cotta into beautiful landscaping materials. The glass is tumbled in water and turns out like polished agate. It's become a big hit with landscape designers, who use it in paths, water features and other accents,

Tumbled smooth, the finished products sparkle like gems in colors rare in nature but common in trash bins.

"All this stuff would otherwise end up in landfills," explains Matthew Levesque, who oversees Building REsources and Red Shovel Glass Co., its recycled-glass offshoot.

This nonprofit operation grew out of materials that couldn't otherwise be recycled. That includes an awful lot of colored or tempered glass.

Recycled countertops in Solana Beach

Countertops are a great place to consider using recycled materials.

There are a myriad of choices for countertops for the modern kitchen — from granite to quartz to ceramic tile to laminate — but for those looking to build a green kitchen, recycled countertops offer an alternative to stripping stone from the earth. Countertops using recycled paper, glass and aluminum offer a variety of looks and price levels. Another alternative is a concrete countertop, which can be tinted and is popular for its durability.

I have been working with One Source Stone. One Source Countertops have many great edge details & product selection for green countertops.

Maintenance and Green Building in Solana Beach

Go Green today, before you come in to start your remodeling project review these simple ideas:

• Turn down the heat one or two degrees: Care2 writes that "each 1-degree drop for an eight-hour period reduces your fuel bill percent," saving you money and cutting down on electricity usage
• Use fans: If you can, install ceiling fans to cool down the library without overusing the A/C.
• Take advantage of windows: Strategically placed windows will provide natural light and may help with heating or cooling costs.
• Use eco-friendly light bulbs: Switch to eco-friendly light bulbs that save money and electricity.
• Use Energy Star products: Products with the Energy Star have been approved by the U.S. government as energy-saving products.

After you saved some electricity, how about coming in and let's talk about a solar installation?

Go Green Builders' Flooring Manufacturing Partners

• Anderson Wood Floors
• Carlisle Wood Flooring
• HartCo Wood Flooring
• Kraftmaid Cabinets
• Preimer Flooring Solutions
• Teragen Bamboo Flooring
• Wools of New Zealand Carpets

Thinking about Eco-Friendly - What does it mean...

The NY Times had an interesting article about balancing Green Stuff vs. Green Performance. At Go Green Builders we look to help on both fronts.

.... the downturn seems to be making more homeowners interested in efficiency — a new motivation for exploring “green” ideas, even when they involve higher upfront costs. For now, notes Sal Alfano, editorial director of Remodeling, a trade publication, “green is alive and kicking.” That said, there are hurdles to this theoretical new normal. For one, remodelers who specialize in eco-friendly projects say many homeowners still tend to focus on green rather than green stuffperformance. It’s easier to imagine friends being impressed by the virtue of your recycled-glass bathroom tiles than by properly sealed air-conditioning ducts, even though more systemic projects have “orders of magnitude” more impact, says Paul Eldrenkamp, president of Byggmeister Inc., a builder in Newton, Mass. But since redefining what’s normal is invariably a step-by-step process, maybe one small green decision can lead to another.....

Click here for the article

The Environmental Impact of Wood Floors is Minimal

If you are looking for products for your home that will reduce your impact on the environment, look no further than real wood floors. Wood floors are a flooring option that has little impact on the environment in terms of raw materials, and in terms of the natural resources required to harvest the trees and manufacture the lumber into a finished product.

The National Wood Flooring Association conducted a life cycle analysis of solid wood flooring, from its beginning as a seedling in the forest to harvest, from harvest to manufacture, from manufacture to installation, and from installation to end of life when the material was no longer useful as flooring. The report found that of all flooring products available, wood floors came from the only renewable raw material: trees. In addition, the process of manufacturing the lumber into flooring uses less water and energy to produce than other flooring options. In many cases, the waste material not used in the final product is often recycled for other uses. The water is reused in boilers to help heat the manufacturing facilities, and the wood and sawdust not used for the final product is often burned to provide energy for the manufacturing process. In other words, very little waste material ends up in the landfill, and the minimal material that does find its way there is totally biodegradable.

To learn more about the environmental benefits of wood flooring, visit the National Wood Flooring Association's web site at www.woodfloors.org.

Bamboo Floors Increase the Value of your house

If you are looking to increase the value of your home, replacing old carpets or tile with a beautifully laid bamboo floor will certainly help. And if your home isn’t up for resell and you just want to have beautiful flooring, using bamboo is an elegant and affordable way to go.

Bamboo flooring may only be a little over ten years old, but its beauty and environmental factors have spoken for itself. And, floor experts have discovered that bamboo is actually harder than hardwoods such as Maple and Oak. Not only that, bamboo is extremely eco-friendly, and stands up the look, feel, sound, and warmth of its hardwood peers.

When we think of bamboo, we see reeds of tall grasses growing in tropical locations. So how does a grass become transformed into a wood floor? For starters, only Timber bamboo is used. Once bamboo poles reach 40 to 50 feet in height, they are harvested and dried. The drying process is slow, typically four years in the sun. The bamboo is then sliced into thin uniform strips and planed on all sides. The pieces are converted into flooring made of either two or three layered horizontal or vertical laminated pieces. Bamboo can either be nailed to a wood subfloor or glued directly to a concrete sub-floor. Floating is not recommended. There is a variety of moldings made available as well to hide expansion gaps and for staircases.

Bamboo flooring comes in a variety of colors. Pretreated, coloring choices are natural and smoky amber. If the product comes to the states untreated, stains can vary from pinks to a variety of browns. Because bamboo is a grass rather than a tree, its finished appearance is very distinctive. Most distinctive is the eye-catching pattern of slightly darker bands produced by its nodes – a feature that clearly sets it apart from wood. Bamboo’s other aesthetic features include the tightness of its grain and the uniformity of its color.

These untreated and stained pieces of bamboo flooring are then given a final coating, typically made up of an aluminum oxide and polyurethane scratch-resistant topcoat. Coatings can be matte or glossy, with glossy tending to scratch more easily than matte.

Bamboo’s popularity has continued to grow with its discovery. The fact that it is a grass, a quickly renewable resource that yields a product 25 times faster than timber, has been of primary interest to the environmentally conscious. The beauty is an added bonus. With the cost of bamboo equivalent to oak flooring, it isn’t hard on the pocketbook either. Bamboo is also easy to clean and considered ideal for allergy sufferers, as they do not harbor dust mites.

So if you are ready to transform the look of your home, putting in bamboo flooring will give you a huge start.