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healthy materials
Healthy Home Artisans choose to build with ecological materials, committing to promoting built environments that are good for our health, the planet and future generations. Using low impact materials translates to less carbon emissions, less pollution and less toxins inside of our homes and structures. Low impact building materials are ones that can regenerate, have low embodied energy, are natural, non toxic and can enhance the indoor environmental quality; leaving its inhabitants living a much healthier lifestyle.
Low embodied energy materials are ones that use less energy when extracting raw materials, use less energy when manufacturing materials, less energy to transport, less to build with and less to maintain. Most of the energy sources in our country are from fossil fuels which contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and our current climate crisis. The building industry contributes to a large portion of that. Choosing better building materials where we can will help offset our impact on this planet, allowing the earth to regenerate.
Our team aims to offset the damage conventional building materials tend to do to the planet. We use locally sourced materials that are sustainable, green, eco, natural, ecological…whatever alternative building industry word you may read about. Conventional materials like cement and plastics have their place. However, it is our job to merge conventional with ecological building to create structures that can be healthy and last more than the typical 20 year house. We have the whole systems, life cycle mindset when choosing what and how we will build.
Healthy Structures
Our team works together to provide a environmentally friendly structure with lower energy costs, healthy indoor environmental quality and low carbon footprint. Lower energy costs are provided by incorporating highly insulative wall systems that do not leak air into and from within your building. Good insulation will slow the flow of heat through your wall; keeping the indoor temperatures comfortably between 65-72 degrees. This paired with good design, adequate overhangs, shade options for summer, and a sustainable heat source with thermal mass for winter leads to less mechanical heating and cooling needs. Which then leads to less money spent on heating and cooling those spaces, thus saving you thousands of dollars during the lifetime of the structure.
Healthy Home Artisans designs and builds for healthy indoor environmental quality. What this means is choosing to build with materials that enhance the space through humidity regulation, inhibition of mold growth, eliminating toxins, buffering EMFs, containing no VOCs, acoustical enhancements leading to improved indoor air quality. Our systems are not only healthy for you but these materials bring a softness and beauty to any space. And to top it off, most of the natural finishes that we use take very little energy to produce contributing to a lower carbon footprint.
Speaking of lowering our carbon footprint. A lot of materials that Healthy Homes chooses to use have less embodied energy and actually have the ability to store carbon, keeping it from releasing into the atmosphere. Our prime example is a strawbale; rice, wheat, rye and barley are plants that absorb co2 from the atmosphere and store it over the course of their lifetime. By using them as insulation in our wall systems we are essentially storing carbon in our walls that would otherwise be released during the decomposition process. Utilizing a whole systems approach through our design and build process allows us to plan for human health, planetary resources and create long lasting spaces for future generations.
We love building beautiful homes, but that is not all that we do:
Tiny Homes, Natural Fencing, Outdoor Kitchens, Saunas, Outbuildings, Eco AirBnBs, ADUs
We also work with many Homeowner - Builders, plugging in on stages that need guidance.
Have a project in mind? Contact us today to begin planning for your dream space!