Natural, Green and Healthy Building

If Renovating or Considering Construction

Prescriptions For a Healthy Home: A Practical Guide for Architects, Builders and Homeowners

by Paula Baker-Laporte, Erica Elliott, John Banta, Lisa Flynn (New Society Publishers, 2001)
This invaluable guide for the homeowner or builder takes the mystery out of healthy home building by walking you through the construction process. It explains where and why standard building practices are detrimental to your health, what to do instead, and where to obtain alternative materials and expertise. Prescriptions for a Healthy House shows how to design interior end exterior space, and select construction materials that enhance and promote physical well-being. The team of authors, an architect, a medical doctor and a healthy home specialist, cover everything from theory to specification language in a way that can be applied to any construction project. Highly recommended!

The Healthy House: How to Buy One, How to Build One, How to Cure a Sick One

by John Bower, 4th Edition (The Healthy House Institute: Indiana, 2000).
This book identifies the numerous real hazards in both existing and new construction such as lead paint, arsenic in pressure-treated lumber, and outgassing from synthetic materials airtightness and ventilation, mold and moisture, wood and wood products, and their noxious and toxic potentials. Bower covers the house from top to bottom, explaining potential problems and offering safe solutions. A number of brief sidebars written by leading healthy house experts elaborate on the text. The six most common household pollutants- lead, asbestos, radon, mold, combustion byproducts, and volatile organic compounds are covered in particular detail. A huge list of suppliers (including their web addresses) and a bibliography are also included.

Healthy House Building for the New Millenium: A Design and Construction Guide

by John Bower, 3rd Edition (The Healthy House Institute: Indiana) 2000.
With over 200 photos and illustrations, as well as a complete set of detailed construction drawings, Healthy House Building for the New Millennium shows you the important how-to information necessary to build or remodel in a healthy manner that can be applied to any house. This third edition has been expanded to contain an update at the end of each chapter with new building products, techniques, options, and web sites - and there's a brand new chapter about the author's own new healthy home.

The New Natural House

by David Pearson, (Fireside, 1998).
The Natural House book first published in 1989, originated the phrase "natural house" and established the presence of the green movement in home design. Author David Pearson has updated and expanded this eco-aware homebuilders classic with new resource listings, a new photo-essay, and revised text describing the latest developments in natural construction. The first part of the book deals with the interaction between the home and the external environment, the second part with the home's components, and the third part with the design of the living space itself.

Throughout the book, illustrations and numerous photographs show how enlightened home design makes Green living easier by encouraging builders and residents to take advantage of natural light and heat. They're also a powerful tool for convincing those who might not yet be committed to natural living, as many of the homes are luxurious and warm looking. (The natural bathrooms are so beautiful and comfortable, one can only wonder why anyone settles for the prefab "luxury master baths" that the construction industry pushes on new homebuilders.) It's truly a book that takes a larger view, appealing not only to those with fewer resources who have always wanted to live simply, but also to those who can afford to live where they want, in effect saying to them, "Our way is better--for the environment and for you."