A HomeTo Stand The Test Of Time (NAPSA)—Whether you’re building new or remodeling, your home can take a big chunk out of your budget. There are a variety of new high-performance materials, that can cut down on costs over the life of your home andhelp create a safe durable environment for your family. From the ground up, a new form of construction that’s replacing stick frame is structured-insulated-panels, or SIPs. These pieces are created with two rigged pieces of wood sandwiched around a solid plastic foam core, much like that found in coolers. This unique application can be installed by a single crew, and you’ve got a premade structure ready to go: tight, efficient and durable environment for your family. To heat a homeproperly, try an old method made new: radiant heating. Flexible plastic tubing is snaked between the floor joists, and by running hot water through the tubes you turn your floor into a thermal mass.It creates an efficient way to heat your home, which can lower utility bills and no radiators and baseboards for kids and pets to burn themselves on. If your outdoorlist this summer includes decks, docks, patios, or fencing, plastic lumber is a popular way to go—a very durable product usually madeof recycled materials. It doesn’t splinter, helping to create a worry-free environment for children’s safety. There’s no chance of termite infestation, so soap-and-water maintenance is Plastics can be used to improve the performance of windows, roofs, decks and more. almost all that may be needed over the 30-year life of the product. Look for the moisture spots in your home, this is where problems can develop and hasten the decay of your structure. By installing solid vinyl or vinyl clad windows incorporated with vapor barriers, you can cut down thermal conductivity, tighten up that environment and cut down on that condensation, helping to create a healthy environment for your family. If flat roof construction is part of the equation, whether residential or commercial, you might think about expanding plastic foams. This is either a spray application or pre-form panels that are applied to the roof to increase Rvalue, and help makeit weathertight for your family or your merchandise. To learn more about how plastic materials can be used in various aspects of home construction, visit greenbuildingsolutions.org.
