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December: Tool Time Your interactive guide to green remodeling. by Tom Watson Governments are not always successful at providing info to people or answering their questions. I work for government myself, and I have certainly fallen short a few times in my efforts to help people. But we're trying, and sometime we come up with some pretty innovative ideas.

Here's one that I love, so I wanted to share it with you: Our new Eco-Cool Remodel Tool.

This interactive website helps you quickly find the info you specifically need when doing a home remodel. I was not that involved in the development of this myself, but I saw how much work it was for people in our office and our consultants to put together. Their work really shows, because it's easy and fun to use, and contains a wealth of information.

Let's take a quick tour through the Eco-Cool Remodel Tool. The first thing you see is a house with the roof peeled off. You can click on six different rooms, or the garage, roof or yard. In each of those are little globes you can click on to find out about specific green-up ideas for that part of the room.

For example, in the living room, for the floor, these are two of the six tips:

• Consider carpet tiles that don't require adhesives; worn or stained tiles can be replaced individually.



• For best air quality, you may want to avoid carpets altogether and choose wood, natural linoleum or cork.

Up on the roof, these tips were especially relevant and helpful to me for our house:

• Look for recycled-content materials, available in metal, asphalt shingle or fiber cement products. Look for longer warranties.



• Avoid copper and zinc-coated materials, and those with built-in moss inhibitors, as they leach pollutants into rainwater.



• Consider spot repairs to problem areas such as around chimneys, skylights and roof vents.

Patti Southard, a green building expert here in our office who was the driving force behind this project, says her favorite room in the Eco-Cool Remodel Tool is the laundry room. Those tips include:

• For water heating, consider installing energy- and water-saving technologies, such as a tankless (or on demand) water heater, solar water heater, heat recovery or hot water circulating system.



• When buying a new dryer, look for a moisture sensor and an automatic shutoff valve, rather than just a timer.

For each group of tips, you can also click on "More information" and get a lot more details, plus links to tons of resources.

If you try out the Tool, let us know what you think. We're hoping it provides a new way
to learn about going green when remodeling, especially for folks who get most of their information online. After all, we can never have too many tools.

For more EcoConsumer resources from King County, visit http://www.KCecoconsumer.com.

For past articles, go to the EcoConsumer Archives.