Water, Water Everywhere, and Not a Drop to Drink

As a designer I have always specified Kohler or Sterling products because they are well made, beautiful products and made in America. Their faucets, sinks and toilets have been  on the cutting edge
of  technology for conserving water. In taking some courses in LEED certification a few years ago, I learned that “Kohler has been concerned since the 1970’s about water conservation and have global teams of engineers working to improve water efficiency with beautiful designs, excellent performance and keeping them affordable.”

Kohler’s faucets have water saving aerators. The faucets with the WaterSense label will save over 14,700 gallons of water each year, unlike older faucets.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense program reviews manufacturers products and gives awards to those whose products conserve water. In 2008, Kohler was named as a Manufacturing Partner in the WaterSense program. To obtain this prestigious award, there must be demonstrated overall excellence in the water-efficiency arena as well as increase the awareness and advance the overall mission of WaterSense. So why would a plumbing manufacturer get involved in this?

In their brochure, Kohler states “that less than 1 percent of the world’s water supply is accessible for human use. Nearly one billion people in the world lack safe drinking water.” By the year 2013, at least 36 states in the United States anticipates local, regional or statewide water shortages.

Toilets account for 25 percent of daily indoor water use in homes in the United States. Out of that, one-half of all toilets in homes in United States are older, less efficient models, which waste approximately 1.6 billion gallons of water each day. For a single individual, a High Efficiency Toilet can save 16,500 gallons of water a year.

What does this mean to you?

If you are paying for your water, multiply the rate they are charging you by 16,500 (per toilet in your house), and that is how much you could save by replacing your toilet. Do the same with the faucets you have in your house. If for no other reason than saving money, it is worth changing out your old toilets and faucets.

Altruistically, by conserving water we all work towards a better future for our families and our children’s children. After all, 2013 is not that far away. Kohler, in addition to creating water conserving products, also reclaims and reuses the rise water in their faucet facility and product testing labs, thereby saving millions of gallons of water.

Do you believe in doing business primarily with those companies that practice and produce environmentally conscious products? Are you thinking about replacing any of your toilets or faucets in the near future? Will you consider WaterSense labeled products?

Exterior and Interior Home Maintenance Check Points for Spring

Along with warm weather comes the eyesore of winter wear and tear on your home. Before it is time to plant your flowers and trim your shrubs, take a closer look at the exterior elements of your home. Tuck pointing – or the lack there of – is something that I noticed this season on my own home. When it comes to expansion and contraction, cement feels all the pain. Think of pothole season.

This spring I am working on an exterior home checklist. It may help those of you who don’t know quite how to deal with handyman issues. If you are not capable of doing these things yourself, hire a professional to help. Ask a neighbor for a recommendation. There is nothing worse than feeling used and abused by a handyman!

Hopefully this checklist will assist you in when you are hiring help:

• Check cement for cracks. Temperature changes can implement cracks. Simple cement caulk can mend smaller cracks.
• Use sealants to protect decks, porches, railings and fences from the blistering sun and heat. This also improves their appearance.
• Install ceiling fans to circulate cooler air and help reduce air conditioning costs.
• Clear outdoor drains of debris.
• Clean fireplaces and chimneys using a professional chimney sweep.
• Inspect the roof for wear and tear.
• Service AC unit – coolant levels should be checked.
• Inspect basement and crawlspaces for water damage.
• Check and maintain indoor/outdoor plumbing. Extreme temperatures can cause leaks.
• Evaluate insulation within your home and replace if necessary.
• Clean clothes dryer exhaust duct, damper, and the space under the dryer.
• Inspect and clean dust from the covers of your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.
• Change batteries in smoke detectors.
• Clean lights and glass fixtures, especially on outdoor lights. Keeping these clean will ensure optimum light output.

The good news is that although you may have “Spring Fever” now, if you follow a few steps on the list above I can assure you that you will have a happier, longer and more relaxing summer!

What are your Spring cleaning tips? Is there anything I missed that you feel is vital to check and keep up on?

How to Save Water with Your Toilets

Looking for ways to save money on your water bill? Or do you have to replace your toilet soon? Have you considered going “green” with your replacement?

Depending on how old your home or office is will determine what gallons per flush (gpf) your current toilet is. I would recommend consulting with a licensed plumber or engineer to determine how to save the most water with your replacement fixture. If you are in an office building, water-use reduction calculations can be done that are determined by the number of full-time, part-time, and transient’s occupants.

If you have decided to install a water-saving toilet, there are several options that may work for you. The standard water closet is 1.6 gallons per flush (gpf); this is what the majority of people are going to have in their homes and offices.

If you are looking to save more water than this without making a big change, then the duel flush toilet might be the option for you! This allows for the user to select if a half-flush or full flush is needed to dispose of the waste. Most residential duel flush toilets have 2 buttons on the top and you can select which one is needed. Many commercial buildings have a lever that you either push up or down. Often a sign with pictures is posted to tell you which way is which. Sometimes a green handle is installed as an indicator that this fixture is different than the norm.

If you are looking to save water without the complication of selecting with button or lever you need, then a high-efficiency, single flush gravity toilet that is 1.28 gpf may be the option for you. This uses less water than the conventional toilet but still works great! The lowest water consumption toilet option would be a single-flush, pressure assist that is 1.0 gpf.

Now, if you are really “green,” a nonwater toilet may be perfect for you, in so many words that is a compost toilet. This is only for those that really want to be the most environmentally friendly. There are special cleaning instructions and maintenance procedures for this toilet. Personally, I am very environmentally friendly, but I wouldn’t be caught cleaning this toilet!

If you choose to replace your current toilet with a water-saving fixture, make sure to have a preventative maintenance program set-up. This includes plumbing fixture and fitting inspection to find any leaks or sensor issues. This will make sure that your flush and/or flow is appropriate at all times to save you the most water possible

Have you tried any of these alternative toilets? Which is your favorite? Would you ever consider choosing a compost toilet?

What were they thinking?! Bad Design Layouts

When you buy a home, you don’t expect everything to be the way you want, but you expect some thought to have gone into the planning. How about a home on the lake with no bathroom in the walkout basement? That’s right – everyone has to run through the basement and up the stairs to the bathroom or up through the deck, through the dining room and kitchen to the bathroom.

The bathroom, because it would be in the basement or walk out part of the house, meant that the toilet plumbing had to flush up rather than the typical gravity fed systems you find in homes. A great deal of research was done and pricing was obtained. The most recommended suggestion was the breaking up the basement concrete floor to put in a sewage ejector system, which means you break up the concrete basement floor and put in a plastic pit to use a sewage ejector pump to remove the waste. I was uncomfortable with this idea. And then we found the “Saniplus” system. It handled the toilet and sink. (In fact it handles four fixtures – toilet, hand basin, shower and bathtub.)

The pump, which was in a box fastened to the back of toilet, had to be connected. The toilet tank had to be connected to the water supply. The sink was connected to the pump using a 1 ½” plastic pipe, and the pump had an air pipe connected with the other end being put through the wall. It was connected to the electrical supply.

The “Saniplus” system is activated when the toilet is flushed. The micro switch within the pump box starts the motor, ultimately pumping the slurry up to a maximum of 12’. As soon as the water level in the pump box goes down, the micro switch deactivates and the toilet is ready for use again. It takes about 15-18 seconds for the entire flush process.

It was a day and a half job to get a toilet installed in the basement. It uses only 1.6 gallons of water per flush, so it uses less water than older toilets. Have you ever had a need for a bathroom in a lower level? What about any “What were they thinking?!” design problems have you run into?

What Was I Thinking?! My Bathroom Building Experience

We have the basement bathroom toilet installed. We could have just done a pedestal sink, but oh no. I wanted to have a cabinet so there could be storage for soap and toilet paper, some hand towels, you know the drill. And it couldn’t be just any cabinet; it had to be the one we used as our dry sink in the dining room before the new furniture because I am all about recycling and reusing everything I have. So we moved that bad boy to the basement and began the reworking.

There is the drilling of the hole in the top so the sink can discharge. Then there was the plumbing from the “Saniplus” system at a slight incline so we could determine where the plumbing would come up inside the cabinet. Then there was the connection between the bottom of the sink to the outflow pipe. Sounds easy right, well that part was, but because I wanted a glass sink to sit on the dry sink and a faucet that came out of the wall…things got a little tricky.

First, basement walls are typically poured concrete, so we built a fake wall. Now the wall couldn’t be a typical wall thickness because that would have made the room too narrow, so we built a 2” fake wall (just thick enough to hold the water lines). Because I wanted a faucet that came out of the wall, we had to figure out how to attach the faucet to a finished wall while having part of the wall unfinished to do the plumbing.

We dry walled only the top half of the wall. We attached the faucet to this part and dropped the flexible water lines down the wall. Have I told you how much I love flexible water lines? We would be still working on this job if we had to use rigid lines.

We then hooked up the water lines in the not yet dry walled area of our wall and proceeded to dry wall the lower part of our wall. That only took us a couple of weeks to figure out all of the parts and pieces to make it work.

The plumbing goes through one of the drawers in the dry sink, so we took the face off the drawer and permanently attached it to the dry sink.

Now I have 1 drawer and ½ of the dry sink for storage. It looks great and we have had a lot of complements on it. Have you ever thought up a project that ended up  taking a lot more effort and time than you originally thought it would? Tell me one of your “What was I thinking?!” projects.

How to Pick Your Drywall

If you have been reading my articles, you may have discovered by now that I am a bit of a “do-it-yourself-er.” I have had experience in selecting drywall in my professional life and now in my own bathroom. The difference is now I get to hang it myself!

My husband and I had some difficulty with a leak in our chimney, which caused some semi-severe water damage to a bathroom in our home. Selecting building materials can be challenging if you are not sure what to purchase. Drywall comes in all different thicknesses, sheet sizes and variations of paper components.

I discovered this wonderful product that worked perfectly for the situation that we had with the water damage. Typically, the drywall panels have a thick-paper wrapping that protects the gypsum core from impact and abrasion damage. But the paper readily absorbs water and can transmit it to the gypsum inside the panel. When this happens, the panel loses its rigidity and either falls apart or it becomes very mushy. For example, the drywall used around this utility sink should have been the special water-resistant drywall. Instead, the homeowner has had to initiate damage control by sealing the peeling-paint spots on the wall with clear urethane.

Green backerboard drywall has been in use for the past 25 years and many manufacturers have their own take on the components used to create the product. We were lucky enough to have time to research as we tore out the existing plaster months ago to allow the wall cavity to dry out as much as possible. We found this product to use and my oh my was I happy! Not only was it going to resist the spread of a mildew problem, it was light weight for lifting and installing overhead on the ceiling.

1/2″ Gold Bond® BRAND XP® Gypsum Board with Sporgard ™ was developed as an improved moisture resistant board offering the same advantages of a traditional moisture resistant board with added mold resistance in the core and paper. XP Gypsum Board panels consist of a specially treated, fire resistant, gypsum core encased in a heavy mold/mildew/moisture resistant, 100% recycled, purple paper on the face side and a heavy, mold/mildew/moisture resistant, 100% recycled, gray paper on the back side.

I highly recommend considering this type of drywall in rooms that contain plumbing fixtures: bathrooms, utility rooms, laundry rooms, kitchens etc.

Next, it is time for installation!