Materials and resources

Wood and organic materials

Two new options of mass timber panels

Two new types of mass timber panels similar to cross-laminated timber are hitting the North American construction market. The commercial construction sector has warmly embraced cross-laminated timber (CLT) in recent years, taking advantage of it as the base structure, but also as a design feature. The assembly of…

Wood and organic materials

Which is better, OSB or plywood for roofs, walls & floors?

Both plywood & OSB have benefits & drawbacks, with much misinformation about permeability - Ecohome investigates the latest data for new code to help make the best choice. OSB v plywood - which is best? Odds are, that if you pass a housing development of wood-framed houses, it will have OSB (oriented strand board)…

Recycled and Reclaimed Materials

Recycled and reclaimed materials

Recycled building materials can add character to a home while you save money and reduce building waste in landfills. The cost of every item we purchase is determined in part by the price of oil. This includes products that are in no way petroleum based, since material extraction, manufacturing and transportation…

Wood and organic materials

All about wood

The sight of a tree falling can easily trigger something even in the most unlikely environmentalist. Ignoring that visual, wood can be a much greener material choice than many others if you put some thought into selection. Finding sustainable wood: We live in a country with over 400 million hectares of forest, so…

Wood and organic materials

Wood frame construction

Undeniably the most ecological framing material, wood is both a renewable resource and one that serves to reduce greenhouse gas emissions when used in place of other materials. The environmental advantages of wood frame construction: As a renewable building material, wood has many advantages over other materials…

Recycled and Reclaimed Materials

Reclaiming sunken timber from the log drive

Salvage companies are pulling up logs from the bottoms of rivers, where a century and a half of log drives has left behind a lot of great wood. As a kid growing up along the Gatineau River in Quebec, watching tugboats pulling log booms down the river was commonplace, and logs that got loose were a great source of…

Concrete and masonry

The definitive history of ICF blocks and ICF construction

The history of Insulating Concrete Forms or ICF for construction in North America from 1932 to 2023 is an interesting one. Often compared to building with Lego, Ecohome will soon be looking into at the future of ICFs for sustainable home construction. The Definitive History of ICFs - Contents What is the history of…

Recycled and Reclaimed Materials

The rise of urban logging

Felled trees in residential areas have most often been either burned as waste, or taken to landfills. With the help of portable mills and tree salvage companies, better use is being made of this valuable resource. Milling lumber from your own trees It's always a bit sad to watch an old and seemingly healthy tree…

Recycled and Reclaimed Materials

Old airplane fuselage is finding a new life as recycled building material.

Decommissioned aircraft getting second life as recycled metal is used as exterior cladding. They might be parked a little more precisely than an auto wrecking yard, but that doesn’t mean theses planes will ever fly again. Decommissioned aircraft have been declared so, because they have reached the end of their safe…

Recycled and Reclaimed Materials

Building with recycled shipping pallets

built with 105 recycled shipping pallets, this innovative structure by b sq. Design Studio Inc. included walkways, a playhouse, a water feature, and vertical herb gardens that delighted visitors at the flower and garden festival. b sq. Design Studio Inc. is a Toronto-based landscape design and build firm that…

Recycled and Reclaimed Materials

Turning waste plastic into useable fuel

An emerging technology that can make use of waste plastic. Though we all diligently cart our plastic to the curb for recycling, the sad reality is that only about 7% of it is commercially viable for recycling, the rest ends up as landfill. Plastic is a petroleum product that until now has been very inconsistent and…