Green Bathroom Remodeling Info

Low-Flow Toilets

• If you could reduce one portion of your average water consumption by more than half each day without even thinking about it, you would probably want to do that. You can accomplish that by installing a low-flow toilet in your bathroom. A low-flow toilet uses less water per flush, and can significantly reduce the amount of waste water you'll send into your sewer or septic system as a result. According to the U.S. Green Building Council website, toilet flushing accounts for nearly 30 percent of the average home's daily water use per person. Upgrading your toilet from the typical 3.5 gallons per flush type to a low-flow toilet that uses just 1.6 gallons per flush could reduce a person's flushed water by nearly 15,000 gallons annually.

Leaks and Drips

• If you have a sink or shower faucet that constantly drips, then you are wasting water unnecessarily. Leaky faucets can be annoying, and may even make a noise you can't bear to hear in the night. But often, the bathroom is located where you don't notice the noise unless you are using the facilities. This can encourage you to ignore the problem rather than fix the issue. Over the course of a year, a dripping faucet may waste many gallons of water, depending on the speed and volume of the drip. Replacing washers or buying new faucets entirely as a remodeling project in your bathroom will improve the green factor in your home.

Conserving Showers

• There's nothing like a nice hot shower in the morning or just before bedtime. This relaxing ritual is something no one wants to give up for the sake of water conservation, but you can get it done with a lot more efficiency if you install the proper equipment. The typical non-green showerhead spits out 5 to 8 gallons of water each minute. You only need a fraction of that to get the job done. Without sacrificing water pressure, low-flow showerheads conserve water by aerating it and reducing the expended water to around 2.5 gallons per minute. According to the Shower Store website, some brands claim a family could save up to $600 in water bills by switching to this type of showerhead -- in addition to being able to conserve fresh water.

Toilet Paper

• If you've never thought about how the toilet paper you flush down the toilet affects the environment, then you should start thinking about it. The softest, thickest and most popular types of toilet paper are often the most damaging. The average toilet paper of this type requires two whole trees to produce the paper needed each year for one house with four people living in it. Multiply that by the number of households in America that prefer this type of toilet paper, and the numbers of trees sacrificed for toilet paper will be staggering. When remodeling your new green bathroom, remember that one of the most important changes you can make to the room will be to stock it with recycled, thin and environmentally friendly toilet paper.