Sustainable DIY: Creative Wood and Concrete Solutions
Do it yourself, or DIY (“Do It Yourself”), is an increasingly widespread practice: making, repairing and modifying objects with your own hands allows you to express your creativity, save money and relax your mind. From clothing to electronics, from decoration tohome decor, DIY can refer to the most diverse areas, involving very different materials such as wood, cement, epoxy resins, recycled wool, cardboard, cables and paints of all types.
It goes without saying that DIY is not always sustainable, indeed. The use of virgin raw materials, resins, glues and solvent-based paints for creative projects only increases our environmental impact. However, there are good practices that allow you to make your hobby environmental friendly, also thanks to the use of innovative products that eliminate solvents and polluting chemical substances from the equation.
The Golden Rules of Sustainable DIY
Il sustainable DIY aims to minimize the negative impact of this much-loved activity and is based on some good practices that everyone can follow:
- Use waste and recycled materials, such as old clothes and woodworking waste;
- Reduce waste through careful planning of work;
- Avoid using materials that are difficult to recycle such as epoxy resins when not strictly necessary;
- Use Eco-friendly paints and glues free from toxic substances;
- Avoid the use of motorized tools, which can be replaced by manual and electric tools.
The use of recycled materials, creative reuse and the restoration of old objects and furniture are among the activities that most easily lend themselves to a 100% sustainable approachIt's all in the choice of materials and tools.
Reuse, restoration and sustainable DIY: where to start?
Give one second life to furniture and other objects, repairing rather than replacing can help a lot to reduce waste and the consumption of resources. In the case of furniture and home decorations, then, DIY can also prove to be an excellent ally of the wallet. A new finish or paint, for example, can make a ceramic artifact or a wooden furniture, prolonging its life and in some cases increasing its value.
As all DIY enthusiasts know, a restoration project can only start with a good preparazione, which almost always involves the removal of the most superficial layers of paint and a careful degreasing of the surfaces to be worked, a necessary step to ensure the correct application of the different products.
Before moving on to eliminating defects and applying the primer, materials such as wood and concrete must be thoroughly cleaned, taking care to eliminate any dust and all residues of old treatments. If the surface is painted, it will be good practice to first equip yourself with a paint stripper free from chlorinated solvents, preferring mechanical paint stripping when possible.
For a sustainable DIY, you will then need to choose a degreasing product that is effective on residues of fillers, resins and greases and that it is suitable for the material to be treated. In many cases, especially when dealing with natural materials, it is possible to opt for products formulated with Raw materials and surfactants of vegetal origin. Even better if certified Ecocert, a European brand that ensures compliance with environmental and social sustainability standards.
DIY Wood Restoration: Natural Oils and Innovative Formulas
Talking about DIY wood restoration, the first rule of sustainability is to use recycled materials as much as possible, such as old furniture and manufacturing waste. Even the most damaged wood, with the right operations, can shine again. And with careful restoration, its new life can last decades.
The first thing to do, in this case, is to make sure you work well on a structural level, going to consolidate the wood. Even in this case it is possible to make a sustainable choice: in addition to the classic beeswax, there are innovative polymer-based formulations completely free of solvents and harmful substances.
After having consolidated the wood and possibly sanded it, we move on to the surface treatment, which will serve to protect the wood from water and oily substances. For an authentic and natural final effect you can choose a unique protective impregnator which also acts as a finish, which is solvent-free and possibly based on waxes and emulsions of natural oils such as safflower oil, linseed oil and tung oil.
If you want to change the colour of the wood or give it an antique effect, you will first need to think about the protection and then the actual painting, which must always be carried out rigorously with water-based paints free from chemicals.
Sustainable DIY: Creative Concrete Protection
The spread of the industrial style, increasingly popular in the home and garden, has made concrete a widely used material in DIY projects: resistant, economical and with an unmistakable appearance, concrete is also quite easy to work with. creative concrete, in particular, specifically formulated for artistic and decorative purposes, it allows you to create extremely personalized objects: unlike construction concrete, in fact, it can be easily shaped, adhering perfectly to the molds.
For a sustainable DIY with concrete, we start right from the molds, which can be made with recycled materials such as old buckets and plastic containers, avoiding purchasing plastic modelling materials for this purpose. Even the cement mixing creative can be eco-friendly, especially when working with small quantities of material: just replace the drill with a stick that will allow you to mix the cement manually.
Once you have made your concrete objects, it is important to make sure they have a long life: Outdoor pots and containers can be protected with some specially designed finishing waxes for porous materials with a rough surface. This treatment, in addition to protecting the artefacts, can also give them an even more particular appearance by adding a shiny or satin touch to creative concrete.
After a few years, our beloved concrete vases homemade – especially if exposed to the elements – can start to show some defects, crumbling at the corners and losing compactness. This does not mean that we have to get rid of our creations: in fact, there are some consolidating formulated for stone, terracotta and concrete that allow you to restore the original resistance of the materials and significantly extend their life.
Again they exist greener solutions of others: the consolidants based on polymers in aqueous dispersion, for example, may be completely devoid of Solvents and plasticizers.
