Big Green: RE: Galvanized handrails...good, bad or ugly???

[Peter Reppe]

Buyer beware:  Watch out for industry association issued reports on the 
"greeness" of their own products....especially when the first paragraph 
ends with "Zinc and the hot-dip galvanizing process is sustainable."

P

Mike O'Brien wrote:

> Hi, CEB--
>
> The American Galvanizers Association has a web site with information  
> and a "sustainable development" paper you can download.
>
> www.galvanizeit.org/showContent,314,358.cfm
>
> Best,
>
> Mike O'Brien
> On Aug 24, 2006, at 5:06 PM, Carrington Barrs wrote:
>
>> We have a condo project under construction that calls for a  
>> stainless steel
>> mesh guardrail system at all balconies.  In an effort to cut costs, a
>> galvanized alternative has been suggested, but I'm not sure of the
>> environmental side of hot dipped galvanizing.  One supplier of ours  
>> said,
>> "the galvanizing process is extremely taxing on the environment and  
>> the city
>> (Portland, OR) is beginning to crack down on companies that use this
>> process, making it expensive to do, hopefully prohibitively expensive,
>> ultimately causing companies to quit using this process".  Any  
>> thoughts on
>> this?  Would a powder coating or baked-on enamel maybe be a better
>> alternative???
>>
>> Thanks for your comments.
>>
>> Carrington Barrs
>> Principal, Barrs & Genauer Construction, Inc.
>> 4244 NE Alberta Street
>> Portland, OR  97218
>> p: 503.232.6004
>> f: 503.232.5177
>> c: 503.704.8133
>> ceb at bandgweb.com
>>
>>
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>>
>
> _______________________________________________________________
> This green building dialogue is provided as a public service by Drew 
> George, along with Environmental Building News 
> http://www.buildinggreen.com. For instructions see 
> http://www.biggreen.org/discussion.html
> _______________________________________________________________


-- 
...............................................
Peter Reppe
Solarc Architecture/Engineering
223 W. 12th Ave.
Eugene, OR, 97401

www.solarc-ae.net

ph: 541.349.0966