Guest guest Posted March 18, 2010 Report Share Posted March 18, 2010 Hello, I need to get a roof replaced and I found non-toxic shingles, but all the ice and water shields for laying beneath the shingles are petroleum based. I learned they used to used felt, but now even the felt is soaked in a petroleum based product first. Is there a safer ice and water shield on the market? Elyse Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 20, 2010 Report Share Posted March 20, 2010 Elyse, I'm not sure where you live, but I doubt that any roofing products would be able to affect the inside of your house. Of course, I am no expert and do not know how sensitive you are. There should be plywood underneath whatever you lay the roofing materials on and my lay-guess is that it should not off-gass into the house. Even if you have no enclosed attic, I would assume that you'd at least have inner walls underneath the plywood or partical board. I'd be more concerned if you lived in a very hot climate like AZ where some friends have mentioned the heat in summer being so strong that they need to sat inside as alot of things off-gas in the heat. But even then it would be affecting the outside air and the shingles would be totally covering the felt or ice and water shield as the heat makes the shingles adhear to any sub-roofing material. The felt or iws should effectively be sealed in between the plywood and the shingles. If you had to replace the plywood, then maybe that would be of concern as both commercial plywood and even more so, partical board has alot of formaldehyde. In our home, we have an accessable attic. If we had to get new plywood, I would look into the type that has less formaldehyde. I think that some companies sell it w/o either the urea formaldehyde or phenol. I don't think that there is a kind that is totally formaldehyde-free. There is a distributor of non-toxic products in Charlottesville, Va that sells this kind of wood and you'd be able to get better info on it than my memory can offer. Do stay away from partical board as that is really dosed with formaldehyde. But if you are considering ice and water shield that I'm guessing you must live in a cold climate? Most of the time, even then, I think that ice and water shields are used around the perimeter of the roof and not all throughout. I'd personally be really interested to know where you've been able to get non-toxic shingles. Hopefully those more knowing can confirm, add to or refute anything I've mentioned. Hope this is helpful, Sam Hello, I need to get a roof replaced and I found non-toxic shingles, but all the ice and water shields for laying beneath the shingles are petroleum based. I learned they used to used felt, but now even the felt is soaked in a petroleum based product first. Is there a safer ice and water shield on the market? Elyse Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 21, 2010 Report Share Posted March 21, 2010 Sam, Good point about the wood, if any needs to be replaced it could be a problem finding non chemically treated wood. I am more sensitive than most people, I'm affected by things that many aren't (like fabric softener and other everyday things that people use) which is why when other people are not affected it doesn't mean I won't be. Technically the roof is supposed to be sealed and toxic materials should not be able to get through to the house, but there's no way to know for sure. I wish there was a way to know how good a seal in the roof is and if formaldehyde would sneak through to the house. It's very difficult to find safer versions of all the possible materials that might be used. Maybe like you say because I'm not in a very hot climate it might be ok. Our summers do get hot and very muggy in Canada, but not nearly as hot as Arizona, and they don't last as long either. Metal roofs are non-toxic, but would be noisy when it rains. I found shingles from two places. One is www.enviroshake.com and the other is www.authenticroof.com which are supposed to be made from an inert recycled plastic and last much longer than typical shingles. (both supply only shingles, not iws or other materials. Btw I think the iws goes over the whole roof, not just the edges). Do you know the name of the company in Charlottseville that sells the better wood? They might be able to put me in touch with a supplier. Thanks, Elyse On Sat, Mar 20, 2010 at 3:58 PM, Sam <yaddayadda53@...> wrote: > > > Elyse, > > I'm not sure where you live, but I doubt that any roofing products would be > able to affect the inside of your house. Of course, I am no expert and do > not know how sensitive you are. > > There should be plywood underneath whatever you lay the roofing materials > on and my lay-guess is that it should not off-gass into the house. Even if > you have no enclosed attic, I would assume that you'd at least have inner > walls underneath the plywood or partical board. I'd be more concerned if you > lived in a very hot climate like AZ where some friends have mentioned the Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 21, 2010 Report Share Posted March 21, 2010 Hi Elyse, I had to dig around for the name of the company. But finally found it. It is called Nature Neutrals. " http://www.natureneutral.com/php-bin/ecomm4/categories.php?category_id=30 " In the same website you can look up AFM Safecoat. Just click on the link that says " sealers " and it will take you there. AFM SafeSeal is something that supposodly you can use to seal in any offgassing that might come from treated plywood and might work as an overall way to seal in any possible off-gassing. Of course if you are senstive, you might want to buy this or any other sealer that you find and paint a sample on something you know doesn't bother you. Then keep it near your bed for a few days and see if you react. At one point we thought we were going to have to replace the plywood on our home, and I did speak with the people at Nature Neutrals, who gave me the best price and quality plywood. If I recall correctly even the non-toxic plywood has some amount of naturally occuring formaldehyde or some lesser type that may still be used. I think the really bad stuff is urea formaldehyde and lesser of the evils is the phenol formaldehyde. Maybe someone more versed could explain it to you better than I can. If you find the safeseal really works well, you might be able to use regular plywood and save some money. I would not recommend using particle board as it is way more toxic than plywood. I'm no expert, but I doubt that there would be serious enough off-gassing within your house in the Canadian climate at any time of year. Of course though experts like Carl or Jeff would be better versed in building issues by far. Perhaps you need to check with a consultant to get an expert idea. Either way, if a sealer of some kind seems compatable with you, maybe the thing to do is to at least for easing your mind would be to seal in the inside of the plywood? Here is AFM website which would have more info and you can also talk with their tech support. " http://www.afmsafecoat.com/ " The enviroshake shingles look very interesting. Thanks for sharing. Sam --- On Sun, 3/21/10, mec <macedgeca@...> wrote Sam, Good point about the wood, if any needs to be replaced it could be a problem finding non chemically treated wood. I am more sensitive than most people, I'm affected by things that many aren't (like fabric softener and other everyday things that people use) which is why when other people are not affected it doesn't mean I won't be. Technically the roof is supposed to be sealed and toxic materials should not be able to get through to the house, but there's no way to know for sure. I wish there was a way to know how good a seal in the roof is and if formaldehyde would sneak through to the house. It's very difficult to find safer versions of all the possible materials that might be used. Maybe like you say because I'm not in a very hot climate it might be ok. Our summers do get hot and very muggy in Canada, but not nearly as hot as Arizona, and they don't last as long either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 22, 2010 Report Share Posted March 22, 2010 I put a green addition on my home a few years ago and used NO plywood anywhere. You do not have to use plywood on a roof, plain spruce boards will work just fine. D > > Hi Elyse, > I had to dig around for the name of the company. But finally found it. It is called Nature Neutrals. " http://www.natureneutral.com/php-bin/ecomm4/categories.php?category_id=30 " In the same website you can look up AFM Safecoat. Just click on the link that says " sealers " and it will take you there. AFM SafeSeal is something that supposodly you can use to seal in any offgassing that might come from treated plywood and might work as an overall way to seal in any possible off-gassing. Of course if you are senstive, you might want to buy this or any other sealer that you find and paint a sample on something you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 Sam, Thanks so much for the website address. I've heard very good things about AFM as well. It's possible the amount of offgassing form wood or an iws might not be a problem, but there's no way to know for sure. It's not the kind of thing that can undone, so I'll try to get whatever safer materials possible. On Sun, Mar 21, 2010 at 12:21 PM, Sam <yaddayadda53@...> wrote: > > > Hi Elyse, > I had to dig around for the name of the company. But finally found it. It > is called Nature Neutrals. " > http://www.natureneutral.com/php-bin/ecomm4/categories.php?category_id=30 " In > the same website you can look up AFM Safecoat. Just click on the link that > says " sealers " and it will take you there. AFM SafeSeal is something that > supposodly you can use to seal in any offgassing that might come from > treated plywood and might work as an overall way to seal in any possible > off-gassing. Of course if you are senstive, you might want to buy this or > any other sealer that you find and paint a sample on something you know > doesn't bother you. Then keep it near your bed for a few days and see if you > react. > At one point we thought we were going to have to replace the plywood on our > home, and I did speak with the people at Nature Neutrals, who gave me the > best price and quality plywood. If I recall correctly even the non-toxic > plywood has some amount of naturally occuring formaldehyde or some lesser > type that may still be used. I think the really bad stuff is urea > formaldehyde and lesser of the evils is the phenol formaldehyde. Maybe > someone more versed could explain it to you better than I can. > If you find the safeseal really works well, you might be able to use > regular plywood and save some money. I would not recommend using particle > board as it is way more toxic than plywood. > I'm no expert, but I doubt that there would be serious enough off-gassing > within your house in the Canadian climate at any time of year. Of course > though experts like Carl or Jeff would be better versed in building issues > by far. Perhaps you need to check with a consultant to get an expert idea. > Either way, if a sealer of some kind seems compatable with you, maybe the > thing to do is to at least for easing your mind would be to seal in the > inside of the plywood? > Here is AFM website which would have more info and you can also talk with > their tech support. " http://www.afmsafecoat.com/ " > The enviroshake shingles look very interesting. Thanks for sharing. > Sam > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 23, 2010 Report Share Posted March 23, 2010 Great tip on the Spruce Diane, thanks. On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 1:58 PM, dianebolton52 <dianebolton@...>wrote: > > > I put a green addition on my home a few years ago and used NO plywood > anywhere. You do not have to use plywood on a roof, plain spruce boards will > work just fine. D > > > > > > > Hi Elyse, > > I had to dig around for the name of the company. But finally found it. It > is called Nature Neutrals. " > http://www.natureneutral.com/php-bin/ecomm4/categories.php?category_id=30 " In > the same website you can look up AFM Safecoat. Just click on the link that > says " sealers " and it will take you there. AFM SafeSeal is something that > supposodly you can use to seal in any offgassing that might come from > treated plywood and might work as an overall way to seal in any possible > off-gassing. Of course if you are senstive, you might want to buy this or > any other sealer that you find and paint a sample on something you > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 24, 2010 Report Share Posted March 24, 2010 I got to where I don't like the AFM Safeseal. If you don't use it all at once, it can go funking on you. I think it gets bacterial contamination, or something? Anyway, I got to liking AFM's Hardseal better. It has alcohol in it, so it can't go funky. The alcohol will definitely bother you, if you are sensitive. But it goes away in a few days. For me, it was worth the trade off. Todd in Tenn. ======================================================= > > > > Hi Elyse, > > I had to dig around for the name of the company. But finally found it. It is called Nature Neutrals. " http://www.natureneutral.com/php-bin/ecomm4/categories.php?category_id=30 " In the same website you can look up AFM Safecoat. Just click on the link that says " sealers " and it will take you there. AFM SafeSeal is something that supposodly you can use to seal in any offgassing that might come from treated plywood and might work as an overall way to seal in any possible off-gassing. Of course if you are senstive, you might want to buy this or any other sealer that you find and paint a sample on something you > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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