What is a Healthy Home?

Why Should I Build a Healthy Home?

Does it Cost More to Build a Healthy Home?

AJ's Case Study

News Articles

AJ Stones is a Trained, Lead Safe Renovator who can remodel, restore or renovate your home in a heatlhy, lead-safe manner. He specializes in clean, environmentally conscious remodeling:

Why Should I Build a Healthy Home?

New homes are constructed with products and materials that are either made of, or have been treated with, a whole host of dangerous chemicals. But you can now build the same home with high-quality, durable, non-toxic products and materials, at no additional cost! The EPA has stated that the air pollution levels inside the average new home in the United States is 2 to 5 times worse than the air pollution levels outside. Indoor air pollution from dangerous (and often toxic) chemicals has been linked to the dramatic rises in childhood asthma and respiratory diseases, and chemical sensitivity in adults. Relatively few of the chemical compounds used to create or treat conventional building materials have been tested for their effects on humans, and almost none for their effects on children. Many of the most dangerous compounds (e.g. pesticides, mildewcides, urea formaldehyde, vinyl chloride, chromated copper arsenate ) are commonly found in conventional building materials. The energy crisis we experienced in the early 70's lead to the construction of airtight homes and office buildings that keep heating and cooling costs down, but also trap these chemicals inside with us! Paints, carpets, insulation, caulking, adhesives, composite wood products, soil treatments, and fumes from natural gas appliances all contain toxic volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In addition, there are a number of natural VOCs and other toxins, like molds and radon, found in most homes due to poor construction and design. The question should really be "Why not build a healthy home'? If you could protect your family's long-term health and financial assets, without spending any more to build your new home, why wouldn’t you? Non-toxic alternatives to conventional products and materials are now produced by most major manufacturers, available everywhere, and cost no more to purchase. And mold is preventable, eliminating a potential threat to your family's health and your home's value. For these a other personal and financial reasons, AJ believes it makes no sense to build anything other than a healthy home.

Your home should be a sanctuary. It should be a safe, comfortable, inviting place to retreat from the stress and pollution of the everyday world. While it is challenging to build a home that is completely free of any pollutants, using some Healthy Home Construction guidelines will drastically reduce the toxins in your home.

Does it Cost More to Build a Healthy Home?

Most non-toxic materials now cost no more (and sometimes less!) than conventional products, thanks to increased demand and production. Labor costs may rise slightly if the builders are not familiar with the materials or with healthy building techniques, but even then the total increase is typically just 1-3% of total cost to build. Energy savings alone will make up for the extra cost in a year or two, and provide significant savings thereafter. In addition, the real estate industry currently estimates that a healthy house is 5-15% more valuable than a conventionally-built home, providing a substantial gain if and when you decide to sell.

The health and well-being of your family members, and the avoidance of costly medical bills in the future, are the best reasons to build a healthy, non-toxic home.

AJ's Healthy Home Case Study

AJ's Healthy Home remodeling project received certification in the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED™ Green Building Rating System and is featured as a case study on the Green Building Alliance's website: http://www.gbapgh.org/casestudies_HealthyHome.asp AJ's Healthy Home Project like all other buildings that recieve certification from the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED™ Green Building Rating System is LEED™ certified, documents high performance, helps to establish our region as a leader in green building, and integrates green goals into the planning and design.		The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System™ is a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings.
Pennsylvania Home Power Boosters: A Guide to Home Energy Savings (80 page pdf)Green Builders Alliance Related Links Building Green: Energy Efficiency Takes Root at Habitat for Humanity  by Bill Thorness


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News Articles

Environmentally friendly homes save money in the long run, experts say By Bob Karlovits TRIBUNE-REVIEW Saturday, February 12, 2005
	A.J. Stones demonstrates how the heating system is installed in the flooring of a home he is renovating in Baldwin. He says the home can be heated for about $500 a year. Heidi Murrin/Tribune-Review
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/search/s_302941.html Excerpts from the article... Efficiency in cost and in operation is the soul of green construction, experts in Western Pennsylvania say. "Green" construction also involves designing homes that take advantage of sunlight, use good insulating methods, have energy-efficient windows, are driven by stingy heating and cooling systems and use materials that do not fill living areas with toxic gasses. Many builders and architects insist that adding "green" features pays off by lower energy bills in the long run... ...A.J. Stones, a designer headquartered in Level Green, Westmoreland County, believes the owner of a home he is renovating in Baldwin will be able to heat it for about $500 a year.

Landlord remodels houses with chemical sensitivities in mind By Kevin Kirklan Post-Gazette Real Estate Editor Saturday, February 15, 2003
	A. J. Stones gutting the duplex unit that is unfinished. He expects its renovation to take at least a year. (Bill Wade, Post-Gazette photos)
http://www.postgazette.com/homes/20030215healthy0215p8.asp A. J. Stones didn't set out to create a healthy home in Trafford. But when a remodeler who specializes in environmentally conscious construction decides to rehab a rental unit, it just comes naturally. Stones was mainly looking for ways to make two duplexes as low-maintenance as possible. After all, it can get pretty expensive to repaint and replace carpeting every time a new tenant comes in. Once he decided to pitch the carpet, it became clear that what was good for the landlord could be good for the tenants, and for their health. "I wanted to prove everybody wrong, everybody in the construction industry who says you can't do this and Realtors who wonder who would want a healthy home," he said. In 2000, Stones bought the two next-door duplexes, whose two center units are occupied. Working on weekends and around his other remodeling work, the Jeannette resident gutted the outer units to make two, four-bedroom, one-bath townhouses that he will rent for $680 a month. That may be a little high for Trafford. But finding four bedrooms isn't easy and finding a 2,000-square-foot home where a family with allergies or chemical sensitivities can live comfortably, well, that's nearly impossible. Stones, a certified remodeler and past president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the National Association of the Remodelers Industry, brought to this project the skills and interests he has developed during 16 years in the business. Much of his work involves residential renovations, additions, kitchens, bathrooms, porches, decks and window and door replacement. In his work, he takes special care to contain or safely remove lead, a harmful substance routinely added to paint until 1978. Any house older than that probably has some paint or other finishes containing lead on its walls or woodwork, he said. It can be spread as dust created when old wood windows and doors are used or during remodeling projects, both by do-it-yourselfers and professionals. "The hardest part is trying to get through to people that most lead poisoning isn't kids eating paint chips," he said. "It doesn't just happen in places like Wilkinsburg. It happens in Mt. Lebanon, Upper St. Clair, Fox Chapel -- any place with older homes. A.J. Stones Design Contractor can be reached at 412-241-6042 or http://www.ajstones.com. For more information on The Greater Pittsburgh Chemical Sensitivity Network, e-mail Marie Clark at starspeak@adelphia.net. The group is an affiliate of the Human Ecology Action League, http://members.aol.com/HEALNatnl/index.html. Real linoleum floors are found throughout Stones' renovated unit. Carpeting can hold dust, mold and other pollutants that could bother someone with allergies or multiple chemical sensitivity. Certified by NARI in lead-safe remodeling, Stones regularly mops down work sites to reduce dust and uses a vacuum equipped with a High-Efficiency Particulate Air filter, which traps 99.97 percent of airborne particles. He also promotes energy efficiency and sustainable development and helped start the 10-year-old Green Builders Alliance. On his duplex units, one of which is finished, Stones followed his usual procedures. He headed off any future problems with lead, soot and other contaminants by removing all the old plaster, lath and woodwork. He also replaced all the wiring and added cable for television and Internet service to every room. He replaced the plumbing with Wirsbo AQUAPEX, a flexible polyethylene tubing with none of the deposits or lead problems of metal pipes or off-gassing associated with early plastic plumbing. The walls and roof are insulated with cellulose and Icynene foam insulation, which he says better fills cavities and releases no fibers into the air, like fiberglass. He removed all carpeting and four layers of flooring to put down Forbo Marmoleum, a type of true linoleum made from linseed oil, wood flour and other natural materials. Real linoleum, which has been manufactured for more than 100 years, is making a comeback. Stones said it costs $30 a yard, about the same as high-end vinyl flooring, and is more durable. He likes it so much that he also used it in the kitchen and bathroom as a back splash and as a decorative insert in the chair rail. To eliminate basement dampness that could lead to mold development, he rerouted downspouts and installed a system of French drains to divert runoff from the hillside in back. For general air quality, he installed a Broan Nutone HEPA filtration unit on the gas-fired furnace and central air conditioner. The ventilation unit, which operates constantly, uses no more power than a 100-watt light bulb, Stones said. Some of the changes he made in the duplexes are more about maintenance than about tenants' health. The doors between rooms and on new closets are made of Masonite, a very hard composite material. For added durability, Stones had the doors painted with automotive paint and a top clearcoat. The only rug is a thin runner on the stairs which he will replace with each new tenant. The duplexes have Traco aluminum thermal windows and will have vinyl siding soon. The lighting throughout the house is fluorescent and compact fluorescent fixtures with electronic ballast and T-8 bulbs, which use less energy than incandescents. The T-8 bulbs cost about twice as much as the more common cool white T-12s, Stones said, but use less energy and do not hum. He gets some of his ideas from John Bower, a designer, builder and consultant on homes for chemically sensitive people and author of several books on "The Healthy House." Stones' efforts win guarded praise from Marie Clark, co-founder of The Greater Pittsburgh Chemical Sensitivity Network. She said finding safe, affordable housing is one of the biggest problems for people with multiple chemical sensitivity. "A.J. has a good heart and wants to do a good job. But a blanket approach isn't necessarily the way to go. There's so much variation in how much and what kinds of things we tolerate," she said. Clark said some people with MCS are OK with gas-fired vent heat while others can't tolerate it and must have electric heat. Still others have problems with the weak electromagnetic fields created around electrical appliances and must have radiators. She said the absence of carpeting in the duplexes is a good thing because it off-gases formaldehyde when new and traps dust, mold and other contaminants in the house. But drywall and other building materials, unless specially ordered, also contain formaldehyde, she said. The HEPA filter in the HVAC system is a plus, she said, because many people with MCS often have allergies to mold, dust and other non-chemical substances. Clark said Stones is "probably the most progressive" of the contractors she knows and that people with MCS may be willing to pay a premium for a home rehabbed like his duplexes. But many people with MCS no longer work, she said. "A person on disability couldn't afford it. ... When you compound illness and no money, that's a devil of a problem," Clark said. Stones said that beyond rent, his units would be comparatively inexpensive to live in. He said electric bills during the hottest months and gas bills during the coldest would average $30-$40 a month. It would be an ideal home for a family with children who have allergies, he said. "The trick is finding them."

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Remodeler: Conservation no selling point with clients   December 2, 1995 By Kelly B. Casey TRIBUNE-REVIEW
	This article was from a decade ago. We've come a long way!
It's printed on his business card. It's painted on the side of his truck. It's spelled out in the Yellow Pages. But most people don't seem to notice or care about the "green" component of AJ Stones' design contracting business. For two years, Stones has been marketing himself as an environmentally responsible home remodeler who specializes in energy-efficient products. But people who hire him to remodel their bathrooms, kitchens and decks or renovate their older homes choose him for roughly the same reason: They hear from a reliable source that he gets the job done well. "I have yet to have something come my way that's green," said Stones, a husky 27-year-old Plum native and a resident of Jeannette, Westmoreland County. No one, he says, has hired him for an energy efficient project using environmentally-friendly materials. "The problem is the market is so small and people don't really know it's out there. So you're sort of having to reinvent the wheel," he said. Stones is part of a small but growing segment of the construction industry that has realized sustaining a healthy environment can prove profitable. Pittsburgh officials are in the early stages of designing a "green" mall, envisioned as a showcase for sustainable technology. An environmentally-friendly store, The E House Co. on the South Side, specializes solely in nontoxic, recycled products. And after paying to have it hauled away for a few years, the city now is making money on each ton of its recyclable garbage. Stones' business is growing, too - but it's not easy being green. He predicts it will take another decade before he'll be hired on his merits as a conservationist. "People don't realize how much healthier the environment can be, how much more money they can save and how much more comfortably they can live," he said. Green consciousness won't become more widespread until it becomes more economically viable, Stones predicted. Rising energy and landfill prices will boost the sale of energy-efficient products and the recycling industry. This already is evident in the use of flooring material made from wood pulp - lumberyard scrap - as lumber prices continue to climb, Stones said. Today, though, Stones still sometimes is branded an "environmental wacko." Clients sill sometimes give him confused or apathetic looks when he starts talking about low-flow shower heads and compact fluorescent lights - items that not only are good for the environment, but also save money for the consumer. A single bulb may cost $15 to $20, for instance, but in the long run it pays for itself because it uses fewer watts of electricity to produce the same amount of light. Despite all of his preaching, Stones has converted few. Regis Gaughan, 73, of Monroeville, who recently had his kitchen and bathroom remodeled, said he listened to Stones' talk about efficient commodes and light fixtures and said: "It doesn't much matter to me." The retired department store manager said what mattered most was that Stones was prompt and cleaned up after himself. Still, Stones talks about his green conversion like a born-again Christian. "It's my religion," he said. He recycles all cardboard, scrap wood and fixtures he replaces - everything except dry wall, because there's no market for it. On the side of his shiny white van, Stones had painted in bold green letters: "We do not inherit the earth, we borrow it from our children." Stones said for as long as he can remember he's been aware of alternative energy sources that are less harmful to the environment. He started his design business eight years ago after graduating from Plum High School and spending a short time in college. His green convictions were strengthened four years ago when he attended a Building On Earth conference in Washington, D.C., where he first met others who shared his beliefs. At another conference a year later, he met local environmental leaders and decided to market himself as "green" after he joined the Green Builders Alliance, a consortium of area environmental leaders, government officials, architects and developers interested in promoting environmentally responsible development.

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