When air sealing a house, begin with the biggest holes and work toward the small ones
"In order to maximize the buildable area on the infill lot, we had to go fairly deep and do some extensive shoring."
—Dan Whitmore of Hammer & Hand
Offset the joints and seal the gaps to keep air leaks out of the thick walls
This is the first episode of 7 Minutes of BS (building science). We break it down with engineers and building scientists.
What the HERS index is and how to make it work for you
Windows cannot rest on the foam, so they hang from wood bucks
Letting the brick dry evenly is the key for old masonry walls that want to leak less energy
Dr. Bailes does the math
Direct the heat toward the feet
Wide tape spans the many layers of a thick wall to make an air tight and water tight seal
Window banks need to line up neatly for the trim to work out. Foam walls add the extra possibility of compressing the backing. So there's that.
Adding brick to the outside of a house complicates insulating outside a slab. So Insulate inside.
A superinsulated sunroom might sound like an oxymoronic idea, but it is not. Just use triple glazed windows and thick foam over the wall framing and roof
A deep energy retrofit in Concord, MA illustrates everything you need to know to bring a house to energy überville
Built tight and verify. And then ventilate.
You can't stop heat flow, but you can keep your floor from becoming a big ol' heat sink
The final step: center it in the opening, and seal the perimeter
Flashing an In-Betweenie window is a lot like flashing an Innie or an Outie, only it is somewhere in between
Everything there is to know (well, almost) about blower door testing with a few engineer-y jokes along the way.
An affordable insulated slab foundation suitable for climate zones 4, 5, and 6
