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Nothing "Green" about
synthetic stucco.
Earth friendly ?
Don't believe it! Nothing earth friendly about
synthetic stucco finishes or EIFS.
According to TOTAL WALL, a
synthetic stucco manufacturer, Goggles must be worn,
also rubber gloves, and full coveralls when using
their synthetic finish. If not in a well
ventilated area, you must wear a mask with
"dust/mist/ fume cartridges. This finish also
contains carcinogens, known to the state of
California to cause cancer.
All this information is on their web site. Click
here to view a PDF file.
STUC-O-FLEX, another large manufacturer of syntetic
finishes says to use wear NIOSH approved organic vapor
respirator, provide adequate
ventilation, as well as wear chemical resistent gloves
and goggles or safety glasses with side sheilds.
They also say, "Prevent from entering waterways,
sewers, and/or low areas.".
Also, their finishes are high in VOC's
Here is the quanity of VOC's contained:
Coating VOC = 27 g/L
Material VOC = 20 g/L
I don't know what is high VOC's or low VOC's, but this
seems high to me. VOC's are volitile organic compounds
which could emit gases. The point of green
construction is to use materials with low or no
VOC's. Don't believe me ? All this information is on
the Stucoflex website: Click
here for a pdf file.
Manufacturers
of materials are required to provide Material Safety
Data Shetts, of MSDS's, wit information about
hazards of using their material.
These MSDS's are usually available on the
manufacturer's web site, or by request.
I know of someone
(not mentioned here), that is receiving a Leed's
Certification
and government grant for a house with synthetic
stucco. In other words, the federal government is
paying them to build an environmentally friendly
house, that isn't environmentally friendly at all,
but environmentally hostile.
Cement stucco, that is, cement, lime and sand are
about as environmentally
friendly as you can get. Cement and lime are made from
rocks, which come from the earth and go back to the
earth because it is earth.
Cement and lime are caustic, but not toxic. The reason
cement and lime can cause burns is because they are
high alkaline, the opposite of the pH scale from acid.
Burns from cement and concrete can be neutralized with
an acid, like vinegar, for example.
The difference between cement mortar and concrete is
that concrete has gravel,
another earth friendly material. If concrete was
toxic, I'm sure no one would
build water reservoirs, dams, aqueducts, etctera, from
concrete.
We do work with a chemical that is toxic, and that is
the acrylic additive we use
for a bonder in recoating old stucco, and bonding to
concrete, etc. Bonding admixtures, however contain no
VOC's, and are far less toxic than a layer of paint on
a house. I am not professing to be 100% earth
friendly, but real stucco is about as earth friendly
as there is.
It does really
infuriate me to see "Green" building and earth
friendly on
synthetic stucco houses. They only thing "green"
here is the money somebody
puts in his pocket. You may turn green from breathing this
stuff.
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