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How to Go Green: Bathroom Renovation
Let's face it: the North American bathroom isn’t the most glamorous of rooms. Ranging from staid and boring to downright dangerous, with slippery showers and water hogging toilet tanks and tubs set in a poorly ventilated, water-tight box, many modern bathrooms just haven't been designed as thoughtfully the rest of our homes.
This is an odd development, given that bathrooms are one of the most expensive rooms in the house to build, averaging about $10,000 a pop. Still, for all their expense, the design hasn't evolved too far beyond shiny fixtures and his 'n her sinks: many of us are still using the five-by-eight bathroom with the three fixtures -- toilet, sink, and tub -- all lined up in a row. And while it might help maximize space, having a dirty fixture where you deposit your waste (the toilet) next to two where you clean yourself (the sink and the tub) doesn’t make for the healthiest environment.
Add to that all the water that literally can get flushed down the drain every day, the poor ventilation that plagues many a bathroom (that leads to poor indoor air quality), and all the energy that goes in to heating your water and lighting the room, and it might mean that it’s time to update your abode's commode. Keep reading to learn more about turning your bathroom from dank and rank to green and clean.
Tips from our Sponsor:
Whether you're recycling, volunteering in your community, or making purchasing decisions for your home--such as choosing Windex® glass cleaner -you can make positive choices each and every day. To help out, SC Johnson created Greenlist™, a patented process in place since 2001. The Greenlist™ process helps the scientists at SC Johnson make choices that protect the planet and its people while maintaining the high performance of familiar products like Windex®.
Try these tips from SC Johnson’s Right@Home™ e-newsletter for ways to save water and energy in the bathroom.
1. Turning off the water while you brush your teeth can save up to four gallons a minute.
2. Turning off the water while you shampoo and condition your hair can save up to 50 gallons of water a week.
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