Eco-Friendly Home Maintenance Tips for Summer

When it comes time to complete home maintenance and home improvement projects, eco-friendliness can seem like the last thing on your mind. Fortunately, it’s possible to complete home maintenance and improvement projects that offer better functionality and an eco-friendliness factor. Here are a few good projects to help you get started.

Downsize Your Workspace

With many of us working from home this summer, crafting a workspace at home has become something of a big priority for everyone. But when you consider the fact that the average individual workstation has shrunk more than 50% over the last few decades, it doesn’t really make sense to dedicate a huge area of your home to your work. While working from home already has a positive effect on the environment, you can do more by consolidating your workspace. Dedicating one room or even one small section of a room with a door you can close to your work is all you really need to maintain productivity. In addition, the benefit of a door you can close means better separation between your work and your home life.

Replace Your Old Roof

Your roof is an incredibly important part of your home. And while under normal circumstances you should inspect it once or twice annually, there will eventually come a time when you need to replace it entirely. This might not seem like an eco-friendly solution to your roofing problem at first, but the truth is that certain types of roofing last much longer and have less impact on the environment than you think. For example, if you’re looking to spend less money on energy bills and save energy at home, metal roofing might be the best option for you. In fact, cool metal roofing can save you almost 25% in energy costs when compared to a dark-colored asphalt shingle roof. So if you’ve had your asphalt shingle roof on your home for about 15-20 years, it’s probably time for a replacement. And this time, you can make a more eco-friendly choice that will last you two or three times as long as your old asphalt shingle roof.

Finish Floors with Bamboo

So you’re thinking about ripping up that carpet in your home. Unless there are some perfectly preserved hardwood floors underneath, it’s very possible that you’ll have to consider redoing the floors yourself. But instead of opting for hardwood floors, consider using bamboo to meet your home flooring needs. Not only is bamboo one of the biggest trends in sustainable flooring, but it’s much more eco-friendly than hardwood for the following reasons:

It takes bamboo less than five years to regenerate to its full height after being harvested.
Bamboo is harvested sustainably and mindfully.
Bamboo can easily match any color scheme without much modification.

Bamboo is a fast-growing, easily harvested material that’s eco-friendly and easy to clean in your home. And your bamboo flooring will last just as long as regular hardwood flooring when you take good care of it.

When you want to create a more eco-friendly home with your home improvement projects, these three ideas should be able to give you a good head start. Making green improvements to your home doesn’t have to fall outside of the scope of regular home maintenance.