Concrete Homes Are Environmentally Friendly
Natural Materials Make Concrete The Healthy Choice For Environmentally
Responsible Homebuilding
Concrete...The Natural Building Material
In this age of vanishing resources, we must choose our building
materials more wisely, balancing the expenditure of natural resources
with the benefits of a material over its useful life. Concrete draws
upon some of the earth's most common and abundant minerals for its raw
materials. The amount of land used to extract the materials needed to
make concrete is only a fraction of that used to cut down our forests
for lumber.
Building concrete homes helps save our precious
forests.
Concrete homes are more energy efficient than wood-frame homes and
therefore require less energy to heat and cool. This reduces the amount
of so-called green house gases produced by power generation plants.
 Concrete Uses
Recycled Materials
Portland cement, which makes up about 10 percent of concrete, is
manufactured from limestone, clay and sand. Scrap tires and other
combustible waste that would otherwise take valuable land in landfills
are often used as a fuel source in the cement manufacturing process.
Sources of aggregates are diverse and plentiful: sand, gravel, crushed
stone, and an ever-increasing array of consumer and industrial waste
products - fly ash from coal burning electric power plants and blast
furnace slag from steel mills. Crushed concrete from demolition is
often used as aggregate for concrete. Concrete's nearly inert matrix of
materials makes it an ideal recycling medium, with absolutely no
degradation of strength or performance.
Limitless Possibilities
Concrete can create any shape or size home you can imagine. Because
concrete takes any shape or form, it can create an unlimited variety of
curves and angles. Concrete's strength can be used to create large open
spaces - offering total flexibility in designing your home's floor
plan.
Healthy Living
Concrete promotes a healthier indoor atmosphere, since it is
practically inert, and requires no volatile organic-based preservatives
like wood does. It's naturally waterproof and fire-resistant, so it
doesn't need special coatings or sealers. Concrete can also be easily
cleaned with organic, non-toxic substances.
Built To Last
Since wood rots and decays, and is extremely susceptible to natural
disasters, it is central to a wasteful construction cycle of frequent
disposal and replacement. Concrete, on the other hand, requires little
or no maintenance, stands up to hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and
fires. It can't be eaten by termites and won't rust or rot. Concrete's
sheer durability over decades of use goes a long way towards waste
reduction.
That's The Beauty Of Today's Concrete
With volatile wood prices, logging's high environmental price tag, and
a growing shortage of high quality lumber, concrete offers a variety of
products and construction techniques to provide cost effective, quality
alternatives to wood-frame home construction. The basic virtues of
concrete - beauty, strength, durability, low maintenance, energy
efficiency, environmental friendliness, and peace and quiet can be
yours today. With a DBG built concrete home, you can rest assured that
your beautiful home is built to last.
CREDIT: Portland Cement Association
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