Timber and Decking

Timber, particularly decorative (exposed beams, decks, feature work, etc), can be a real environmental nightmare!

Many timbers that are commonly used in and around the home are sourced from old growth forests in foreign countries. This is terrible for a number of reasons, but the main two are;

These trees take decades, sometimes centuries to grow - so whatever you use isn't going to be replaceable in your lifetime,
The amount of energy it takes to treat it and ship it all of the way to Australia is enormous!

Unfortunately none of our regulators see this as being a bad thing (or are not concerned about changing it anyway), so what can we do?

The easiest thing to do is refuse to buy it! What can you buy instead? Here are few things we did;

Find an alternate timber - for our exposed veranda beams, instead of using Jarrah or Redgum to get the colouring we wanted, we used plantation pine and stained it (looks great and is completely renewable),
Use recycled timber - there is a heap of recycled timber out there, sometimes even 'free to a good home',
Find a good timber merchant - for our decks, we found a company who sells plantation timber, ‘sustainable forestry’ timber and timber that has been left on the ground from previous logging. Not only that, but they use solar kilns to dry the timber, vastly reducing GHG emissions. Check our 'Links' page for more info or go to Australian Choice Timber Supplies website.

Don't forget, buying Australian sustainable timber not only does a favour for the environment, but it also keeps our hard earned money in our economy. When you buy without checking the origin, you're most likely propping up another country's economy instead of our own...

Site Waste & Recycling

A staggering 44% of all landfill is from the construction industry... what a huge waste of resources and money!

To be more friendly to the environment and save ourselves money we did the following things;

Followed the three Rs -
- we Reduced what we ordered down to what was actually going to be required - trades will always factor in a 5% to 10% wastage factor, we secretly ordered the actual amount they needed and pocketed the savings in wasted materials
- we Reused material that was left laying around - often large 'off cuts' were still big enough to be used in the construction of something else. Tip - when you're dealing with concrete, have a couple of small things to down with the wastage (you always have some left over), if nothing else, make some pavers
- we gave material to friends and sold material to other people so that they could Reuse our leftovers
- we set up different Recycling collection areas and made our trades separate the waste appropriately (you really need to spend time with them to help them understand what you are trying to achieve) - we set up the following collection areas;
  - Non Treated Timber (less than 600mm long) - for giving to our friends with fireplaces as fire wood
  - Treated Timber (less than 600mm long) - for landfill :(
  - Timber Off Cuts (longer then 600mm) - for reuse
  - Metal - to sell to scrap dealers
  - Concrete - to send for recycling
  - Normal Recyclables (cans, papers, plastic tubs, etc) - for normal council recycling
  - Normal Household Waste (paper coffee cups, sauce packets, pie bags, etc) - for landfill :(
  - General Waste - again for landfill :(

The hardest part of doing the above was getting the tradesmen to follow our guidelines - don't forget, they just leave it on the ground for someone else to worry about most of the time, so if you want them to gather it up, sort it and put it in the right place, you need to spend the time to explain that this is part of their contract (the best time to talk about it is right before you give them their order to proceed!).

Another thing we did to prevent larger volumes of landfill was organise for the 120m3+ of soil removed from our block to be delivered to other people as free clean fill. It saved us thousands in dumping fees and saved the recipients the same in buying it - win win situation!

Concrete, EPS and the Environment...

One thing that we really struggled with in this project was figuring out the product we were going to use for the structure. After a number of years (yes years), we finally settled on a product called EcoBlock, which is an Insulated Concrete Form (ICF).

Before we made the decision to go with the ICF structure we investigated:

Conventional Brick Veneer - too labour intensive and poor insulation,
Conventional Weatherboard - high maintenance and the caveat on land wouldn't allow it anyway,
Rammed Earth - not enough suitable product available in immediate area,
Hay Bale - concerned about chemical treatments / rodent infestation / fire risk,
Timber Frame with Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) Cladding / Hebel Wall Panels - very hard to get a good finish as the frame settles and creates movement (cracks render),
Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) - uses lots of concrete and EPS.

So why did we choose the seemingly environmentally damaging combination of CO2 producing concrete and the non biodegradable EPS? The short answer is - it is the best product for our particular circumstances. There are many things you will need to consider when selecting your product, but some of the more relevant factors for us were;

Total Lifecycle Emissions - yes, concrete production is responsible for an enormous volume of CO2 emissions, and Polystyrene is non-biodegradable, however, this house is going to be standing for decades (possibly centuries), so the emission savings related to the thermal properties of the product well and truly outweigh any increase in emissions in the first instance. Also, Polycon Structures (our supplier), use a blended concrete which is more environmentally friendly than your standard type (now most suppliers provide this option)
Recyclability (yes, I know it's not a real word) - all left over EPS product is recyclable. My supplier actually collects all waste product and takes it to a specialised recycling facility, he also minimises wastage wherever possible, in fact his latest project only has about 2% wastage!
Thermal Stability - the walls of our home contain more than 90m3 of concrete, encased in high density polystyrene, providing us with a fantastic thermal mass to help minimise temperature fluctuations
Thermal Insulation Properties - The EcoBlock product that we chose has an R value of greater than 3.7, so this combined with the Double Glazed Windows and Thermal Mass should reduce our heating and cooling emissions down to almost nothing.
Sound Insulation Properties - STC rating of 51dB
Fire Resistance - 4 Hours
Monolithic Structure - the entire building is literally a single piece of reinforced concrete (on Class M, movement and associated cracking is a factor)
Construction time - there is no need to involve Carpenters or Bricklayers, the entire structure is assembled onsite then filled with concrete by a single crew. This means that there is no 'hold time' between trades and the actual process is very fast (site time of less than 5 weeks to construct 2 storeys)
Quality of Finish - due to the unique structure of the EcoBlock product, the walls are straight, level and plumb. Also, the thermal expansion and contraction rates of EPS and concrete are almost identical, so using a quality flexible rendering system externally will almost guarantee a crack free finish for many years to come.


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Out of the ground (Slab and underground works) The structure (Walls, windows and roof) Fit out (Plumbing, electrical, tiles, plaster & paint) The Environment Bits & Pieces
		Timber and Decking Timber, particularly decorative (exposed beams, decks, feature work, etc), can be a real environmental nightmare! Many timbers that are commonly used in and around the home are sourced from old growth forests in foreign countries. This is terrible for a number of reasons, but the main two are; These trees take decades, sometimes centuries to grow - so whatever you use isn't going to be replaceable in your lifetime, The amount of energy it takes to treat it and ship it all of the way to Australia is enormous! Unfortunately none of our regulators see this as being a bad thing (or are not concerned about changing it anyway), so what can we do? The easiest thing to do is refuse to buy it! What can you buy instead? Here are few things we did; Find an alternate timber - for our exposed veranda beams, instead of using Jarrah or Redgum to get the colouring we wanted, we used plantation pine and stained it (looks great and is completely renewable), Use recycled timber - there is a heap of recycled timber out there, sometimes even 'free to a good home', Find a good timber merchant - for our decks, we found a company who sells plantation timber, ‘sustainable forestry’ timber and timber that has been left on the ground from previous logging. Not only that, but they use solar kilns to dry the timber, vastly reducing GHG emissions. Check our 'Links' page for more info or go to Australian Choice Timber Supplies website. Don't forget, buying Australian sustainable timber not only does a favour for the environment, but it also keeps our hard earned money in our economy. When you buy without checking the origin, you're most likely propping up another country's economy instead of our own... Site Waste & Recycling A staggering 44% of all landfill is from the construction industry... what a huge waste of resources and money! To be more friendly to the environment and save ourselves money we did the following things; Followed the three Rs - we Reduced what we ordered down to what was actually going to be required - trades will always factor in a 5% to 10% wastage factor, we secretly ordered the actual amount they needed and pocketed the savings in wasted materials we Reused material that was left laying around - often large 'off cuts' were still big enough to be used in the construction of something else. Tip - when you're dealing with concrete, have a couple of small things to down with the wastage (you always have some left over), if nothing else, make some pavers we gave material to friends and sold material to other people so that they could Reuse our leftovers we set up different Recycling collection areas and made our trades separate the waste appropriately (you really need to spend time with them to help them understand what you are trying to achieve) - we set up the following collection areas; Non Treated Timber (less than 600mm long) - for giving to our friends with fireplaces as fire wood Treated Timber (less than 600mm long) - for landfill :( Timber Off Cuts (longer then 600mm) - for reuse Metal - to sell to scrap dealers Concrete - to send for recycling Normal Recyclables (cans, papers, plastic tubs, etc) - for normal council recycling Normal Household Waste (paper coffee cups, sauce packets, pie bags, etc) - for landfill :( General Waste - again for landfill :( The hardest part of doing the above was getting the tradesmen to follow our guidelines - don't forget, they just leave it on the ground for someone else to worry about most of the time, so if you want them to gather it up, sort it and put it in the right place, you need to spend the time to explain that this is part of their contract (the best time to talk about it is right before you give them their order to proceed!). Another thing we did to prevent larger volumes of landfill was organise for the 120m3+ of soil removed from our block to be delivered to other people as free clean fill. It saved us thousands in dumping fees and saved the recipients the same in buying it - win win situation! Concrete, EPS and the Environment... One thing that we really struggled with in this project was figuring out the product we were going to use for the structure. After a number of years (yes years), we finally settled on a product called EcoBlock, which is an Insulated Concrete Form (ICF). Before we made the decision to go with the ICF structure we investigated: Conventional Brick Veneer - too labour intensive and poor insulation, Conventional Weatherboard - high maintenance and the caveat on land wouldn't allow it anyway, Rammed Earth - not enough suitable product available in immediate area, Hay Bale - concerned about chemical treatments / rodent infestation / fire risk, Timber Frame with Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) Cladding / Hebel Wall Panels - very hard to get a good finish as the frame settles and creates movement (cracks render), Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) - uses lots of concrete and EPS. So why did we choose the seemingly environmentally damaging combination of CO2 producing concrete and the non biodegradable EPS? The short answer is - it is the best product for our particular circumstances. There are many things you will need to consider when selecting your product, but some of the more relevant factors for us were; Total Lifecycle Emissions - yes, concrete production is responsible for an enormous volume of CO2 emissions, and Polystyrene is non-biodegradable, however, this house is going to be standing for decades (possibly centuries), so the emission savings related to the thermal properties of the product well and truly outweigh any increase in emissions in the first instance. Also, Polycon Structures (our supplier), use a blended concrete which is more environmentally friendly than your standard type (now most suppliers provide this option) Recyclability (yes, I know it's not a real word) - all left over EPS product is recyclable. My supplier actually collects all waste product and takes it to a specialised recycling facility, he also minimises wastage wherever possible, in fact his latest project only has about 2% wastage! Thermal Stability - the walls of our home contain more than 90m3 of concrete, encased in high density polystyrene, providing us with a fantastic thermal mass to help minimise temperature fluctuations Thermal Insulation Properties - The EcoBlock product that we chose has an R value of greater than 3.7, so this combined with the Double Glazed Windows and Thermal Mass should reduce our heating and cooling emissions down to almost nothing. Sound Insulation Properties - STC rating of 51dB Fire Resistance - 4 Hours Monolithic Structure - the entire building is literally a single piece of reinforced concrete (on Class M, movement and associated cracking is a factor) Construction time - there is no need to involve Carpenters or Bricklayers, the entire structure is assembled onsite then filled with concrete by a single crew. This means that there is no 'hold time' between trades and the actual process is very fast (site time of less than 5 weeks to construct 2 storeys) Quality of Finish - due to the unique structure of the EcoBlock product, the walls are straight, level and plumb. Also, the thermal expansion and contraction rates of EPS and concrete are almost identical, so using a quality flexible rendering system externally will almost guarantee a crack free finish for many years to come.