Member Bulletin Board
Cool House Tour 2007
Tour some of Austin’s coolest homes on Sunday, June 24, from noon to 6:00 p.m.
These homes feature excellent energy-efficient and environmentally friendly designs, construction and landscaping. The tour includes six 5-Star homes and one 4-Star home as rated by Austin Energy’s Green Building.
The tour ranges from new homes to remodeled homes, small to large, very affordable to high-end, constructed with a wide variety of materials. At all homes you will be able to talk with the owner, architect or builder, or a Green Building staff member. A guidebook, which serves as your ticket for entry, provides maps and highlights the green features of each home. Guidebooks are available after June 1, for $10 per person, either online at www.txses.org or at both Austin Central Market locations.
The 11th Annual Cool House Tour is co-produced by the Texas Solar Energy Society (TXSES) and Austin Energy Green Building. All proceeds benefit TXSES.
Construction Waste Management: Trash to Treasure
Finding ways to manage construction waste is more critical than ever since the closure of the City of Austin's only public landfill on May 1. Although the City facility will continue to accept construction debris from municipal projects, all other construction debris must be taken to private landfills.
In Texas, construction and demolition debris accounts for 19% of all waste.* That's just under 5.5 million tons of material added to landfills. Clearly, recycling and re-using construction materials is an important part of reducing our environmental impact. Unfortunately, waste disposal is often viewed as a necessary evil by construction companies, an unavoidable cost of doing business. It doesn't have to be that way; with a little planning and site organization, recycling can be both easy and profitable. Several Austin companies are meeting the expanding need for construction debris recycling and re-use options.
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Pile of rebar after separation from concrete. |
973 Pit Materials
According 973 Pit Materials owner Jim Lozier, the pit started out as a 140-acre alluvial field;
under the top soil is 15-feet of gravel, great for use in roadbeds.
As the gravel was sold and transferred, Jim began filling the holes with material removed from the sites that he was selling the gravel to: concrete, soil, asphalt, and other rock were coming back to the pit. Eventually these materials stockpiled, leaving a mountain of concrete and a large hill of asphalt. In order to make both environmental and business sense of the situation, Lozier brought in the equipment necessary for asphalt and concrete recycling. The biggest obstacle was, and continues to be, separating the rebar from the concrete and trash. After the concrete is crushed, the rebar is collected for recycling. The crushed concrete is processed and graded according to size to be sold for use wherever aggregate and rubble are needed.
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After draining the concrete washout water, solids from the pan are processed with the rest of the recycling. |
National Washout Services
Another business housed at the pit is new to Austin: National Washout Services (NWS). Vice President of Operations Michael Liston says that NWS offers an environmentally-safe way to handle concrete washout, which has a pH of 12, the same as ammonia. As an alternative to building concrete washout basins on the construction site, NWS supplies each site with a portable container, or pan, into which concrete trucks can release their washout. Once the pan is filled, it is picked up and taken to FM 973 site for recycling. The washout water is drained from the pans and the solid debris is dumped and processed with the other concrete on the site. The washout water is treated using a series of tanks until the pH is lowered to acceptable levels. Right now they are treating 8,000 gallons a month, but NWS is poised to handle much more. The safe, treated water is used on-site for dust suppression.
DAR Construction
Proprietors David Rodewald and Karen Linnane say that their company recycles or finds a new purpose for practically everything on their demolition sites. Everything is sorted on site by a trained demolition team. DAR has invested in technology that allows concrete to be broken up on site and re-used as in-fill. Even gypsum drywall is being ground to absorb leachate at the landfill, which is a preferred alternative to using virgin material, historically the case. Practically the only thing they haven't found a buyer for is old carpet, but they say that it is only a matter of time.
River City Roll Offs
DAR's recycling practices have become so profitable that Rodewald and Linnane have decided to apply their knowledge to a sister company, River City Roll Offs, which provides dumpster rental and hauling services. The company is purchasing a new facility which will provide more space to sort and recycle the materials from any non-contaminated dumpsters removed from job sites.
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On site re-sale shop at DAR Construction. |
Re-sale of Salvaged Materials
Another exciting aspect of this business is the warehouse of materials available for sale.
Rodewald helped establish the Habitat Restore on Comal, and his extremely organized facility is set up much the same way. You can find everything from old doors complete with hardware to a kitchen sink.
David says he's no strict environmentalist, merely a savvy entrepreneur. To him, recycling works because he gets paid twice, once to remove the debris and then again by providing that same material to be re-used.
*Source:
Resources
Contact Information
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FM 973 Pit Materials
6005 FM 973 South
Del Valle, TX 78617
512-276-7575
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National Washout Services
6005 FM 973 South
Del Valle, TX 78617
866-628-9274 |
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DAR Construction/River City Rolloffs
9721 E Highway 290
Austin, TX 78724
512-832-8300 |
Woodson Place Wins Land Steward Award
Woodson Place, a conservation development in northeast Texas, has been recognized as a Lone Star Land Steward by Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPW). The TPW Land Steward Award is co-sponsored by the Sand County Foundation, a nonprofit formed by Aldo Leopold’s godson, Reed Coleman, in 1965 to protect the Leopold farm from encroaching development.
The Green Building Program consulted with the Woodson Place development in 2004/2005. We helped them design a 5-star rated home that will hopefully be used as a model for the other homes in the development. The yard and garden of the model home were designed using the Best of Texas Backyard Habitat Program. Woodson Place stresses a Wildscaping approach to landscaping and gardening, using native, low-maintenance plants and providing wildlife habitat. Homebuyers receive a five hour consultation with the development's landscape architect, Carol Feldman of Feldman Design Studios.
According to Woodson Place project manager, Chris Allen, when the project began in 1999, the 66 acre parcel of land was severely overgrazed. Good management practices, including organic methods of controlling weeds and pests, have allowed the land to recover and dramatically increased the plant diversity. The developers are now planning to restore the land to it's original native prairie eco-system.
Resources
"Conservation Development Meets Green Building" - July 2005 Green Building Newsletter article
Natural Building Colloquium 2007 Continues to Grow
Quiet Valley Ranch, home of the long-running, world famous Kerrville Folk Festival, will host the Natural Building Colloquium from October 19 - 28, 2007.
Austin's Design~Build~Live (formerly the Sustainable Building Coalition) and other natural building leaders will work with colloquium participants to improve facilities used by Kerrville Folk Festival artists, staff and visitors. In the works are a cob/native timberframe entry booth, an earthbag sound booth, a strawbale dubbing booth and a kid-sized cob cottage.
Confirmed presenters include David Eisenberg, Penny Livingston-Stark, Sun Ray Kelly, and many other amazing natural building experts. The up-to-date web site has the latest information on speakers, schedules, and other colloquium details.
Online registration is available for the full 10 day event or weekend attendance only.
Colloquium planning committees are formed but not full. Anyone interested in supporting this event with time or other resources should contact Kindra Welch at 512-663-3166.
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