Is there a way to upgrade -easily- on your house, i.e., blocks to brick (once you have them of course)?
Built a huge stone house and really cringing at the idea of changing out all the blocks... and then there is the problem of what to do with all the blocks.
Can you recycle the old blocks or grind them up to use for streets or bricks?
External link →it's the greenest building, that's looking from an energy efficiency standpoint. the labor already spent making the building, the labor demolishing it and shipping away waste, and the energy consumed manufacturing, shipping, and building a new building will almost never be overcome by the energy savings new construction technology will provide.
I cannot even agree to that. Old buildings are extremely energy inefficient with heating and that regularily goes as far that rebuilding it is better. It's also what is done if its not a historical landmark or just a 30 year old building you can make better with some foam around it - at least in my country. The stuff from the old building is then reprocessed for usage in new buildings. (And recycling is indeed missing from Eco, but will come)
This is my field (architecture - adaptive reuse). The quote I've shared is not something I made up, it's a common industry phrase. Consider this blurb from the National Park Service - "Historic buildings can be energy efficient. Per square foot, historic commercial properties rank among the best in terms of energy consumption. However, there is always room to improve a building’s energy performance."
There's a few factors that contribute to this. due to the inefficiency of early heating (and non existence of cooling), buildings were designed to maximize their efficiency for the time. the worst offenders are mid century buildings, but even modern buildings are often built to be totally reliant on their HVAC systems inside their sealed envelopes rather than existing with the environment like historic design did. solid masonry has much more thermal mass than modern buildings. The biggest issue is wood framed residential buildings - historic residential bldgs are typically 30% less efficient than modern, per the NPS. These have a lot of issues with air leaks - the biggest problems are typical the attic and the walls, which are uninsulated and typically cause as much as 50% of all energy waste in historic bldgs. blow in insulation is not ideal and there is some debate about if this can cause moisture down the road, but for our ECO situation we can assume we have safe means to install batt or foam insulation and install a new interior wall surface. Even without insulating wall cavities (attic is pretty necessary and easy due to the exposed nature) with gaskets and careful sealing wall performance can be improved. Ultimately, due to construction style differences, commercial buildings are usually towards the top of efficiency, and residential buildings can be brought to modern standards with a few key updates. to think the answer to energy efficiency is widespread demolition and reconstruction in frankly irresponsible from both an energy standpoint and a cultural standpoint. some further reading:
https://www.architectmagazine.com/aia-architect/aiaperspective/existing-buildings-the-elephant-in-the-room_o Both of those links are from the former president of the American Institute of Architects, who coined the "greenest building is one that is already built" phrase.
https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/books/is-the-greenest-building-one-thats-already-built-a-uw-professor-investigates/ among other good points, she notes that 43% of construction waste goes to landfills.
https://www.presnc.org/files/2014/03/energy_efficient_historic_bldg.pdf a useful guide to historically sensitive energy upgrades for residential properties.
Not telling you you're wrong. I'm not from the US though and what I notice here is not following that.
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