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Home improvement ideas and costs for green homes

carpet

Home improvement ideas

If you’ve just purchased a home, a few simple, inexpensive home improvements can add value to your home and bring it more in line with your tastes.

Make basic repairs: 

repairs

Go ahead and fix things that are broken before or shortly after you move into your home.

Paint 

If you plan to live in your home for a long time, paint your house with colours of your choice in every room, including kitchen. But if you might only live in your home for a few years, keep resale in mind and choose neutral colors that will appeal to a large pool of buyers, while still remaining stylish.

Install new floors

eco-friendly-flooring

If your home has carpeting or linoleum that still looks dingy even after a thorough cleaning, new floors could be considered. . Hardwood is a very durable but expensive option.  If you want the look of hardwood without spending more, laminate flooring is a great alternative. And there’s also cork, carpet tiles, vinyl and many other options to suit all tastes and budgets.

Spruce up your ceilings 

Popcorn ceilings were once all the rage, but these days, they make a home look outdated. Just visit a local hardware store for a solution to soften the texture, and then scrape the popcorn away and bring back the contemporary look without spending a lot and with least effort..

Update fixtures and hardware 

fixture

Outdated lighting, faucets and doorknobs can really affect the overall look of a home. If your home’s brass chandeliers make you feel like you’re stuck in the ’80s, replace them. Even inexpensive options can give your home a much more chick look.

Add low-cost landscaping 

Select shrubs and colorful plants that beautify your home, with minimum of effort, by choosing those that are native to your region or water-conserving, drought-tolerant vegetation. These require less water and maintenance, which means you’ll save time and have a little more green in your yard without a big hole in your pocket.
Go green 

solar panel

Eco-friendly home improvements are a great investment because they add value to your home and save you money in the long run. There are lots of ways to make your home more energy efficient, ranging from simple fixes like adding weather stripping to doors to keep drafts out, to large updates like installing solar panels or a thankless water heater.

Energy – efficient doors

One of the great ways to increase the energy efficiency of your home is to replace the exterior door.

Energy Star Certified doors could help you save up to 10% on the cost of heating and cooling your house.

You would need to choose the type of door in order to have the existing door replaced. The most durable and energy efficient are steel and fiberglass.

Upgrading to Non-toxic carpets:

carpet

One must be aware that not every new carpet is the same. A lot of these may contain chemical adhesives called VOC’s also known as Volatile Organic Compounds. These compounds make them bad for the environment and also result in symptoms like fatigue, nausea and dizziness.

The market however has vast variety of non-toxic, eco-friendly carpets which offer a number of benefits over laminate or wood floors: carpet provides comfort and is a relatively cheaper option. Carpets are much better at noise damping and energy conservation as carpets can provide warmth during the winter time without necessarily turning up the heater.

Carpets made from natural fibers such as jute, wool, sisal or sea grass labeled “low VOC” can be ideal choice when going for green carpeting solution. Light weight carpets without petroleum padding could be ideal.

Upgrading Water Heater to tankless:

Tankless water heaters are a big trend this year demonstrating customer inclination towards to energy efficiency. These heaters tend to have high initial purchase costs, averaging from $2000 to $2500.   However; post installation they tend to reduce energy bills by at least 20%. Some government estimates even indicate that energy bills have drastically been reduced by 50% for well-placed and strategically installed tankless water heaters.  Rather than storing water and making sure it remains hot all the time, tankless water heaters provide hot water when needed. These last longer as compared to Tanked water heater; upwards of 20 years to be precise and they take up less space too.

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