How to Green Your Green #3 - Paint and Carpet

How to Green your Green? #3

Paint and Flooring

Making your property “green” can help you make more money when you rent and when you sell. When I first joined Bigger Pockets, I indicated that I would like to bring sustainable principles to my rental properties. Some Bigger Pockets members saw it as a good idea.

Just to refresh your memory, let me tell you briefly about myself.

My name is Michael Purcell and I am an award winning architect and a LEED certified professional, as are many of my colleagues. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. I practiced architecture for twenty years in my own firm plus several other firms. Having my own practice was something I loved. In 2007, I became a LEED certified architect, the first LEED professional at American University.

At the time LEED came into being, buildings consumed about 75% of all energy consumed in the U.S. The founders of the USGBC (the governing body of LEED) knew that buildings were, in many cases, poorly designed and constructed with poor mechanical equipment, poor lighting and cheap materials. LEED was born. It started with LEED for New Construction and Renovation. There are now LEED designations and requirements for Contract Interiors (non-residential interiors), Neighborhood Development, Healthcare, Higher Education and K-12 Schools. There are four levels of LEED certification – certified, silver, gold and platinum. The USGBC is constantly refining and improving the certification program and requirements.

So, lets begin with what I think is probably the simplest of renovations in your rental, flip, wholesale or fixer upper – Painting and Flooring. I recently looked at a very fine condominium in Northern Virginia as an investment. It was in great shape and the only Repair Cost I used in crunching the numbers was $900.00 for painting.

The key word or phrase in both painting and flooring is VOC. Low VOC – volatile organic compounds. VOC’s, until just a few years ago, were present in almost any kind of paint and flooring you bought. It is not something you can readily detect, but comes about when finishes “off gas”, release chemicals into the environment that are part of the manufacturing process. It can do this for a very long time. They are a major irritant to asthma sufferers, small children, people with compromised immune and respiratory systems and the elderly. It can take years to detect and diagnose.

The paint industry made big improvements when it went from oil based to water based paints. Do you remember having to use turpentine to clean brushes and rollers? The early problem was that flat and semi-gloss paints were early adopters for low VOC’s, but it took hi-gloss interior and exterior paints longer to get the right consistency and finish and still be low VOC.

I think the flooring industry took the lead in solving these manufacturing problems followed closely by paint manufacturers. The start of it was really when the dangers of lead based paint were discovered and paint manufacturers had to modify their paint formulas. But, when the flooring industry began developing and producing modular carpet, some forward thinking floor covering executives changed the yarns and chemical make-up of floor coverings, especially carpet.

Linoleum has always been a natural product and the hard-surface flooring companies began phasing out VAT (Vinyl Asbestos Tile) and making VCT (Vinyl Composite Tile) to eliminate asbestos. They also changed their formulas to make linoleum like products based on more natural materials.

One of the biggest challenges facing flooring manufacturers was not changing to solution dyed fibers and other innovative yarns, but developing adhesives that would pass the low VOC litmus test. It took longer than the face yarns and floor surface materials themselves.

And, of course, cost was a big problem for a long time, but now that almost all (perhaps all) carpet and hard surface flooring manufacturers have developed low VOC products, prices are competitive and stable. So, when you talk to flooring supplier, insist on low VOC flooring products. You will reap the benefits when you rent and when you sell and some of those tenant complaints will go away.

Paint and flooring may have the two biggest impacts on your tenant and/or buyer because whoever occupies the property has to live IN and WITH those interior finishes. It would be quite difficult to buy anything but low VOC products, but make sure to check this out as well as where the product was made. Lumber Liquidators may have found out the hard and expensive way.

Does it make a difference?

Yes and if you check with your local paint and carpet store and local government office you may just find more support than you can imagine. It is a good, cost-effective and simple way to go in a renovation, buy and hold or flip.

In the following Blogs we will look at: APPLIANCES, KITCHEN CABINETS and BATHROOM VANITIES, WINDOWS AND DOORS, ROOFING, AND INSULATION AND SIDING.

THANKS!

LET ME KNOW ABOUT YOUR PROPERTY, YOUR EXPERIENCE AS AN INVESTOR AND ANY QUESTIONS YOU MIGHT HAVE.