For the price of a drywall repair, you can look inside walls with a thermal camera at insulation and air leaks

You can use your hand to detect some air leaks, but smoke puffers make other air leaks easier to "see."

Surfaces and subsurfaces are on the same team, remember?

Insulation does more than slow heat flow: it sells houses, future proofs, makes floor plans bigger, and sends your kids to college. Really.

But let me axe you this—how do they keep 'em sharp?

Soffits should be tight boxes hidden in your ceiling.

Two packages for high performance homes. Vented and unvented roof insulation retrofits and exterior wall insulation details along with rainscreen wall details for furring strips.

Water and air leaks in a building shell are difficult enough to detail on simple buildings. Complex structures can cause headaches for builders, remodelers, and architects who don't pick up their pens and trace at the design stage.

Crawlspaces offer all of the headaches of a basement and none of the benefits. 

But some buckets are more relative

Why a rain screen wall is important to the energy and durability detailing on a Passive House.

How to detail the foam at corners and connections when tightening the energy efficiency of an old house

The biggest crack in the house, revisited for #ThrowbackThursday

Roofs get wet at night—Heat flows through the easy path—Framing is a bridge.

Wrapping an old house in a blanket of insulation is a no-brainer when you're replacing the roofing and siding anyway

Electrical outlets, plumbing pipes and bathtubs are underestimated in their importance.

Covering the roof of an old house with a blanket of insulation makes the house more comfortable and it cuts energy use.

The second layer of foam is the air barrier and drainage plane.