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The temperature atop Chicago's City Hall building on an average summer day is usually 14 degrees to 44 degrees cooler than the county office building across the street. The reason: the county building has a typical black-tar roof, while City Hall has a green roof planted with grass, plants, and...
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Combining foam insulation and siding in a single product gives vinyl siding solidity, provides a vapor barrier and an energy-saving capability of around R-4, according to manufacturers.
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Lately, manufacturers have been introducing vinyl siding lines with traditional profiles and with features that offer performance improvements over products of the past. Deeper, darker color palettes and insulated panels also continue to proliferate.
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Any product junkie knows many innovative developments happen overseas. The international community's willingness to experiment with cutting-edge materials has yielded architectural favorites such as fiber-cement siding, wood-resin exterior panels, and cellulose-wood laminated cladding.
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There's no doubt about it: Green building is red-hot today. But despite all the hype, the reality of "going green" is still confusing for many. "Developers want to know if green building is a far-out utopian dream with waterless toilets and solar heating, or if there is a practical application that...