Green Finishes

ABOVE: Ash Verdigris by Pots of Paint (potsofpaint.com)

The most noticeable feature of any house is its finishes, which stamp a final mark of quality and set the tone for the rest of the building. Most people creating a sustainable home will want to advertise its eco credentials, and covering it with rainforest timber and chemical-based paints and stains is hardly a good advert for the sheep’s wool insulation and FSC timber underneath. But there are alternatives – and plenty of them – which will help keep your house firmly on the green path.

Plastering

Alternatives to gypsum are lime plaster or a lining board that doesn’t need plastering, like Fermacell. For interiors, a coarse lime-render mix will give a fairly smooth surface, with a final coat richer in lime and polished up to a smooth, close finish.

Fermacell board is like plasterboard but is ready for decoration without plastering. For a ‘glass’ finish use FST (fine surface treat - ment), available from Fermacell, to apply a skim coat finish. Or use it for touching up joints etc.

Painting

All paints contain three main components: pigment (colour), a binder (holds the paint together) and a carrier (disperses the binder). With many modern paints these ingredients are made using potentially toxic chemicals. Cadmium, lead and chromium are used in pigments; petrochemicals, solvents, benzene, formaldehyde and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are used in binders and carriers.

Natural paints are the only true non-toxic paint since they contain almost no VOCs, and are made from natural ingredients such as water, vegetable oils, plant dyes and natural minerals. The main binders used are linseed oil, clay, lime and milk protein. Lime and milk paints give an authentic period look, and are often used in antique restorations. Chalk is used as an extender to thicken paint; turpentine (distilled from pine trees) is used as a solvent; essential oils from citrus fruits (d-limonene) are used as a solvent and fragrance; and natural mineral and earth pigments are used as colourants.

VOCs Explained: Most paints, stains and varnishes are based on solvents containing VOCs (volatile organic compounds) that are emitted when the solvent evaporates. Prolonged exposure to VOCs has been linked to health problems including allergies and respiratory problems. Even when the finish is dry it will continue to give off VOCs. Non-toxic finishes are often called ‘low- VOC’, ‘zero-VOC’, ‘odourless’, ‘natural’ or ‘organic’. There are no set standards for defining these labels, and they can be very misleading. With paints and finishes, it’s more a matter of degree: even zero-VOC formulas contain small amounts of toxins. Look for products associated with the European Union Eco-label.

Wallpaper

It may come as a surprise that PVC is often used in wallpaper, principally to give extra strength when it is wet with paste. But there are now a few ranges of PVC-free papers. Check out Harland Organic Furnishings (organic-furnishings.co.uk) for chemicalfree wallpaper made entirely from chemical and PVC-free paper from sustainable, FSCcertified sources.

ABOVE: 1. Lime is generally the preferred wet plastering material — it can be polished to a smooth finish; 2. Bodj’s fair trade terracotta tiles are handmade in Cambodia (bodj.co.uk); 3. Eluna’s 100% glass recycled tiles are sourced from the waste stream (eluna.org.uk); 4. Ebony and Co’s reclaimed Barnwood (ebonyandco.com); 5. Veneered mouldings from W Howard are FSC certified. See whowardtimber.co.uk for further details.

Mouldings

By this we mean architrave, skirting boards, dadoes and the like. The majority of the cost of these products goes in the moulding process itself rather than in the raw material, so there is little excuse for using anything other than FSC-certified timber. But beware, there are ranges of veneered mouldings where the veneer is anything but sustainable — often rainforest timber.

Tiles

As a mark that virtually every component of the house can come from a sustainable source, floor and wall tiles are now available from recycled glass, CDs, tyres, leather and even recycled tiles.

Recycling is second only to re-use in terms of sustainability, and sourcing these energy- and resource-rich products with recycled material is a great step forward.

Fired tiles, such as clay, from an ethical, responsible source are also a good option.

Flooring

Legislation is slowly coming forward that will control the use of PVC and other chemicals in carpets, and to control the disposal of these materials, especially concerning landfill. But for now, there is a huge range of sustainable alternatives — from natural linoleum to bamboo.

Wool carpets have always been considered the better quality alternative to acrylics, but now they are the sustainable option as well. French oak is increasingly a managed crop; there is even some managed English oak available. But think about species like ash, beech, birch, or maybe even sweet chestnut. Visit trada.co.uk for suppliers.

The most often ignored, but perhaps most interesting source of timber flooring is the local salvage yard. Exploration will reveal old, interesting and beautiful wood, ideal for flooring or even doors and mouldings.

Stains, waxes and oils: Many natural oils and waxes and waterbased stains and varnishes are available, and while in the past they have been criticised for not performing as well as their toxic kin, issues such as flaking have now all but been eliminated.

Further reading:

• A Guide to Internal Finishes
• Green Paints
• Green Design Ideas for Kitchens and Bathrooms