Ecology - Water Quality

Given that our bodies are made of roughly 62% water, it almost goes without saying that human health is inextricably linked to water quality. However, the issues involved in creating clean/clear drinking water within a home are, ironically, somewhat cloudy.

As I planned my house I focused carefully on creating a home that would provide my family not only protection from the elements, but also a daily respite from the onslaught of urban pollutants that have become so commonplace in today’s cities.

It seemed water quality would be one of the easier ones to handle given I was relatively familiar with the commonly available filtration technologies.

However, peering beneath the surface of this topic revealed an information vortex of conflicting theories on what constitutes ‘healthy’ drinking water, alarming reports about the effects of fluoride and chloramines, and some real ‘way out’ there claims having to do with, among other things, the energetic states of water.

Taking all of this into consideration I created a 3-tier approach for my home:

1. Basic Filtration
2. Site-Specific Filtration
3. Ultimate Purification

Basic Filtration

Imagine a pristine mountain reservoir. Now how would you get the water from that reservoir to flow out of the faucets of a hundred thousand homes over 200 miles away?





The journey that water goes on from source to faucet varies from municipality to municipality but one thing is consistent, it’s nowhere near as ‘pristine’ once it exits your faucet. Crumbling pipes may have leached toxins and minute asbestos fibers into it, the disinfectants added for public safety may have interacted in unexpected ways with biological contaminants like algae, and despite strict guidelines, many of our pipes and fixtures still contain lead.

Starting where the city water line arrived at my property, I fed the house with a new copper main (I would have preferred to use PEX if it had been code-allowed) line joined only with silver solder. Recent mandates for ‘Lead-Free’ solders still allow for small amounts of lead to be present in the alloy.


A basic whole house filtration system takes care of 90% -95% of the unwanted particulate matter, bio contaminants, and some of the city-added chloramines. The fact that even the higher quality carbon based filtration systems do not remove all of the chloramines is what led me to realize (the less obvious) need for a second tier of filtration.


Site-Specific Filtration

Chloramine is a relatively new disinfecting agent that is being used now in most municipal water supplies. It replaced chlorine. Chlorine was a real stinker, however it also evaporated very easily. Sit a jug of chlorinated water on your counter overnight and presto, no smell or taste of it in the morning. Chloramine isn’t so smelly, but it also won’t leave the water on its own. Is it safe? At room temperature and under controlled tests it appears to be stable. The problem arises when you heat it up, create steam, and then breathe it in. A rare situation, right? Only perhaps a problem when someone with a head cold employs an old remedy?


Unfortunately it turns out chloramines are pretty ‘shifty’ little guys and that when heated even just to hot shower temperatures, they can change states and go from being the good guys that protect us from things like cholera in our drinking water, to some potentially nasty compounds that I didn’t want anywhere near me or my family.

So, tier-two filtration deals with what the whole house filter misses chloramines-wise, but does it only at the shower heads. There are a variety of products available on the market. I chose one with an integrated filter because I found it less unsightly.


Ultimate Purification

Lastly, and of greatest importance, is the water you ingest.



Reverse-osmosis turned out to be the only system that could guarantee the removal of all the ‘nasties’ to such an extent that what is being supplied at the faucet side is nearly pure H20. This fact is where the theories start conflicting about what is and isn’t ‘healthy’ drinking water. Some say pure H20 is too ionic and will start pulling minerals from your body other say that is hogwash. Erring to the side of caution I chose a reverse osmosis system that included a ‘re-mineralization’ filter. Little trace minerals are added back to the water just before it exits the faucet.

The added cost of this system paid for itself in three years given we would have opted for bottled water otherwise.

Crazy Filter (a 4th tier)?

I mentioned some ‘way out’ theories earlier. There has been some peculiar research done in Japan that has led to an array of claims about the energetic states of water. The claim is that water has memory, will respond to different emotions, and even react favorably to classical music.



No doubt someone will soon start selling whole-house Beethoven filters!

"House Rules"

The experience of building a house is a very fluid one, requiring a continually evolving process of evaluation and decision-making. It is the skill in navigating this stream of choices that ultimately determines the quality of a finished project.

A builder's job is to deliver an elegant solution that is as cost-effective as it is beautiful, functional, and well-made. As I strive to master evermore nuanced relationships within the art of building, I regularly return to a self-imposed set of of principles or "House Rules":

Efficiency
-Is each building decision the simplest one that works?
-Is the house the smallest one that 'gets the job done'?
-Is the house low maintenance?

Energy
-Have I minimized the building's embodied energy?
-Will the house be as energy efficient as possible over time?

Ecology
-Is the house healthy for its occupants?
-Is the house healthy for the planet?

Esthetics
-Is it beautiful?
-Does it have soul?

The articles that follow reflect the application of these principles as experienced when creating the house I know best ... my own.


I offer then, an insight into not only what decisions were made and why as I lived through the project, but how these decisions have affected the occupants' (my family's) quality of life over time. Along the way I will also share my thoughts on current technologies and practices in the emerging Green Building field.

Ecology - Termite Free AND Poison Free

In every corner of every continent, with the exception of perhaps Antarctica, if you are building with wood you need to think about termites.

The modern mainstay of protecting your home from termites has for generations been chemical treatments of the soil and building. If you are dreaming of a truly green house like I was, then using toxic stuff to solve the problem is not an option!

There are some encouraging low toxicity and non-toxic solutions emerging built around increased understanding of the biology and behavior of termites.

When I was building my non-toxic home I focused primarily on the physical barrier approach because, based on my geography, I only had to be concerned about subterranean termites.



It turns out that grains of sand of a specific size and shape are extremely irritating to the termites in my location. If they head toward the sand bed, grains cut the termites’ fragile skin and they simply turn around … and walk away from the building!

My house was designed with a slab on grade foundation, so my strategy was to put 4” of graded sand under the entire footprint of my home.

Subterranean termites don’t like the open air – it dries them out. So if they must move from underground they build tubes – tiny little mud structures, to move through. So, on my home, between the foundation and the sill plate, I also added a continuous metal shield around the entire perimeter. With regular inspections it is a very simple task to see if any little mud tubes are being built on this metal barrier.




When I decided to try the graded-sand method for termite resistance, the idea was still very experimental. In the ten years that I have lived in my house, I have not once seen a single mud tube being built on the metal barrier, yet a tree stump at the back of my yard is clearly being broken down by termites. So I suppose in my situation one might say they are actually working for me productively as tiny ‘composters’ right where they belong!

Epilogue

In the ten years since pouring my foundation, there have been some advances in technology that I would likely include if I was doing it again today.




From the land down under, where termites grow the size of small dogs, comes a product called Termimesh, and now that there is a US supplier, it would be worth comparing cost and ease of installation to that of my graded sand solution.

I would also probably treat the framing with borax as a backup plan.

What is Green?

Green has always been a band of visible light that falls in the spectrum somewhere between blue and yellow.

For over nine hundred years green has been a single syllable five-letter word.

For at least a decade, Green has been The New Black.




And at long last, every builder and his brother is going green … are they really?

Well, one thing is certain, there is an industry-wide green shift afoot and I say no matter how you slice that, it is a good thing.

For nearly 30 years I have been exploring, studying, and practicing the techniques required for mastering the art of making buildings.



One thing that I have discovered in my explorations is that all master builders are green builders by definition. The deeper I dive into the art and science of making buildings the more obvious it becomes that:

...of course buildings should be as energy efficient as possible.
...of course buildings should be as healthy for their inhabitants and the planet as possible.
...of course buildings should be made of as many reclaimed materials as possible.
...of course buildings should use the minimum amount of materials that will get the job done.

A truly Green Builder is one who by their nature is living the process of mastering their work…