Doing nothing is always one of the options, and it is often the greener option.
We are quick to want some eco-freako enviro friendly finish on our walls or floors or countertop, but what are we covering up? Often times the structure, dealt with properly, is as beautiful and durable as anything we may cover it up with. My current project offers a couple of examples...
The kitchen and dining room for this project are part of a slab-on-grade home (thats a fancy way of saying the floors are concrete). We are not covering the concrete with marmoleum or recycled glass tile or FSC certified hardwood. We have chosen instead to make the concrete itself
the finished floor. We pitched color hardener as we were trowling the concrete. When it cured we cut control lines. What we have now looks like huge Satillo tiles. Very fun, an incredible look and without the extra waste of covering up a perfectly durable surface. We planned it that way...
What we didnt plan was leaving the bearing posts exposed. I had planned to box over them in medex and paint them. Mid project the homeowners decided they liked the look of the 6x6 posts. So now, before we stain, I have to sand off the pencil marks that have all my cabinet measurements. It would have been better to plan ahead.
other examples;
A yoga studio from three years back that used their OSB subfloor as finished floor. Lightly stained blue and with a clear coat finish.
A kitchen from last year where we used a structural beam as the wine bar. Stained dark to match existing structural beams.
Plaster walls where color is mixed in the plaster so no paint is needed later.
Ditto with stucco.
We are building cabinets for a commercial space where we are using wheat board and sunflower seed board. They will not be painted.
Anyway... you get the idea. If you dont cover something up, you use less material. So watch for structural elements that are beautiful in their own right.
Josh Bogle
608-9788