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Adding a new 21″ H fieldstone wall at the bottom of our front yard incline that’s about 3ft high. New concrete footing is 30″ deep. Wall is about 30 ft long. Options given were:a) Leave as is due to very sandy, quick-draining nature of the soil. Use gravel only below the level of the sidewalk; […]
I am planning to “fix up” the situation over my 70’s kit homes exterior walls. I’m in Colorado climate zone 6 around 7,000’ft. The roof is a 4/12 pitch. I want my “improvements” to make things better, not worse. The section uncovered in the photos is on the north side over a bathroom with no […]
We’re in the process of air sealing the inside of a new construction home. For wider cracks, we’ll be using canned closed-cell spray foam (Great Stuff Gaps and Cracks or Great Stuff Window and Door), but I’m wondering what the best option is for smaller gaps, seams, and penetrations where caulk would be more appropriate. […]
We’re using a Coravent rain screen system, and our builder needs to fur out the windows about ¼ inch to meet the siding. He suggested using rigid foam for the furring strips instead of wood, one of his reasons being that the foam will never rot. Our concern is that rigid foam isn’t as structurally […]
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in Fine Homebuilding Magazine, Issue 225, back in February/March of 2012. I did a deep energy retrofit on my barn 16 years ago. Building Science Corp. was young and growing, and we needed a bigger office. The barn would be that office for the next 10 years. In fact, […]
Dürr Builds CO₂-Efficient Paint Shop for Volkswagen in Mexico Dürr has delivered a turnkey paint shop at Volkswagen’s Puebla plant featuring electrified drying systems, driverless transport, and advanced overspray separation to cut CO₂ emissions by 40 percent. By Stasia DeMarco Sep 05, 2025 Dürr has completed a turnkey paint shop for Volkswagen in Puebla, Mexico, […]
Musings of an Energy Nerd Misunderstandings about vapor barriers and vapor retarders are still common By Martin Holladay | September 5, 2025 The best place to put polyethylene is under a slab on grade. Unless you live in Alaska or one of the colder regions of Canada, you shouldn’t install polyethylene in your wall. [Image […]
Large shop … 4500 sq ft … 16 ft walls … one man build … First … I have three rolls of Tyvek here …10 x 100 .. about 5 years old but they have been stored inside the house so I am guessing they are OK? Because I am such a slow builder (I […]
For our “Money Pit Cottage” project to rebuild a 1946 one-story cottage, we’re adding a Broan 150 cfm HRV. We had no reasonable alternative to installing the unit in the attic. We’ll build an insulated “box” around 5 sides and connected to the thermal envelope that otherwise is across the living space ceilings. We have […]