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NICOLE FACCIUTO: Hi, I'm Nicole Facciuto, and today we
are in Fort Lee, New Jersey, where we're about to meet the
Backer family.
The Backers are a family of four who are looking to
greenify their home in order to reduce
water and save energy.
Now, with the help of designer Kylie Egge, they're looking to
revamp their master bathroom and upgrade all of their
fixtures with Kohler high-efficiency products.
We'll show you some simple improvements that will help
lower their environmental impact and help turn their
townhouse into a home that's built green.
GREGG BACKER: Hey.
JENN BACKER: Hello, hi.
NICOLE FACCIUTO: Thank you.
So you have four bathrooms that you're going to be
replacing fixtures in?
JENN BACKER: Correct.
NICOLE FACCIUTO: Right?
JENN BACKER: And the master bath was
all mirror and marble.
GREGG BACKER: With the bathrooms being 25 years old,
we noticed our downstairs bathroom was
a five-gallon flush.
And the upstairs was a three-gallon flush.
And we weren't being very water efficient.
We use a lot of water.
NICOLE FACCIUTO: You're planning on bringing in all
new fixtures, right?
So all sorts of water conservation fixtures and
high-efficiency pieces?
GREGG BACKER: All the faucets will be changed to
high-efficiency faucets so that we don't waste water.
The shower heads will all be changed to high-efficiency
shower heads.
Obviously, the toilets will be dual-flush toilets.
NICOLE FACCIUTO: I was just going to ask--are you going to
do any dual-flush?
JENN BACKER: I had never heard of that, but that sounds
really neat.
NICOLE FACCIUTO: So I want to see these bathrooms.
JENN BACKER: All right, come right up.
NICOLE FACCIUTO: Can I get the tour?
JENN BACKER: Yes, come on up.
NICOLE FACCIUTO: Wow.
JENN BACKER: Here we go.
NICOLE FACCIUTO: You weren't kidding when you were talking
marbles and mirrors.
Holy cow.
Well, you have a lot of space.
JENN BACKER: We do, and that's what I love about it.
It's giant.
But the shower's really tiny, and the fixtures are old, and
not efficient, and not so pretty.
NICOLE FACCIUTO: It's going to be really nice to literally
gut this whole space and start from scratch again.
JENN BACKER: I can't wait.
NICOLE FACCIUTO: In the US everyday, an estimated 1.6
billion gallons of water are wasted due
to inefficient toilets.
The Backers are doing their part, an effort that will save
water and money.
SHANE JUDD: 25% of the water that's consumed indoors is
consumed in your toilet.
So that presents a fantastic opportunity to get out old
water-guzzling toilets and put in high-efficiency toilets.
Now, when you couple that high-efficiency toilet with a
high-efficiency shower head and a low-flow aerator in your
bathroom faucet, the opportunity is to save 40,000
gallons of water per year per family of four.
JENN BACKER: I think, in all of the bathrooms, the fixtures
are just really outdated.
That's my biggest complaint.
And also, we're very focused on trying to be more water
efficient and conserving energy, so maybe there's
something you can do to help with that, too.
NICOLE FACCIUTO: Right.
Kohler has this beautiful faucet called Stillness.
The Stillness faucet is not only beautiful, it adds to the
water-conserving element of the space.
It has a 1.5 flow aerator, which is basically a small
mesh that restricts the water flow.
JENN BACKER: OK.
NICOLE FACCIUTO: So you're not wasting the water.
JENN BACKER: Perfect, I love that.
NICOLE FACCIUTO: Another really great way to add a
water-conserving element to a bathroom is,
of course, the toilet.
So Kohler makes these incredible dual-flush toilets.
Dual flush has two button options.
The first button, actually, is a full flush.
The second button is a half flash.
JENN BACKER: Wow, very cool.
I like that idea.
NICOLE FACCIUTO: So to put this in perspective, your
toilet currently, every time you flush, it uses
3.5 gallons of water.
The full-flush option only uses 1.6.
JENN BACKER: Wow.
NICOLE FACCIUTO: Where the half-flush uses 0.8.
Very modern, very stylish, so you never have to sacrifice
style for the water-conserving element.
JENN BACKER: Great, I love it.
NICOLE FACCIUTO: Great.
Well, I'm going to get to work.
JENN BACKER: OK.
NICOLE FACCIUTO: And now, with the help of Kohler, we're
going to get this project off the ground.
-First thing we're going to do is demolish the showers, so
the plumbers can get going on their rough.
Then we're going to take the toilet out, and we're going to
take the sinks out, all the mirrors, and start breaking up
all the marble.
We love wrecking things.
It's the greatest part of the job.
NICOLE FACCIUTO: Stay tuned for our next episode, we'll
renovate and reveal their brand-new bathroom.
And we'll show you a variety of ways of how you can
conserve at home-- all coming up on Built Green.
ERIKA STORM WASSER: Love home and design?
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