If the number of events on this topic is any indication, 2017 will go down as the year that Greenbuild became all about products. Why? Here’s my take on it:
A new focus on embodied carbon and LEED v4 are driving designers to dive deep into what we choose for our buildings
Simple folded metal solves a common moisture problem
I first “learned” about VersaDry when a colleague of mine here at BuildingGreen — our materials and product expert, Brent Ehrlich — sent me the photo reproduced at right.
Early on in our work on energy-efficient homes, the connection between airtightness and sound centered on airport noise; now a new technology reconnects acoustics and air leakage
Back in the early days of airport noise mitigation programs, there was a pretty strong link between air leakage and sound.
There is mold on the factory-primed, latex top-coated wood clapboards on the south but not the north side of our house
Whenever my wife starts a conversation with, “OK, Mr. Building Scientist,” I know I am in some kind of trouble. That proved to be the case one day when we were out hanging laundry on the south side of our house.
How well do Zip and ForceField sheathing integrate a structural panel with bulk water and air management?
There are a lot of different ways to get continuous air and water control layers on the exterior of a building enclosure. You can use housewrap, taped-and-sealed rigid foam insulation, liquid-applied membrane, or either the Huber Zip or Georgia-Pacific ForceField system. Each approach has strengths and weaknesses.
We asked architects how they evaluate someone’s sustainability literacy in a single question.
How do you measure someone’s sustainable design literacy? As we discuss in Sustainable Design Literacy: A Foundation for Transformed Practice, no single exam or other measure tells the whole story.
Architects and designers want to do exceptional, challenging sustainability work. Why are we waiting for the unicorn client?
I regularly speak with architects who would really love to do a Living Building Challenge project, or net-zero, or another progressive project. All they are waiting for is a client to ask for it. So here we remain, stuck in a self-fulfilling pattern that looks a bit like this.
Of course the best way to waterproof any below-grade assembly is from the exterior—but what works if you have to go from the interior?
Negative-side waterproofing (NSW) is a tough topic that I have frankly been dancing around for quite some time. Manufacturer claims and homeowner anecdotes of successful interior waterproof solutions for basement walls and slabs did not completely add up. But I did not think that I understood the topic or the physics well enough to challenge the claims or explain my skepticism.
What I learned from the University of Wisconsin's “Commissioning Building Enclosure Assemblies and Systems” course
I have been advising architects and builders on high-performance design, materials, and construction — particularly for residential buildings — for many years. But to do this work on commercial buildings, a building science training and credentialing program seemed really important (yet elusive).
Where did the water and blue-green staining on this fireplace support column come from?
A new client called me, saying that his insulation contractor urged him to contact me about some moisture problems in the home before they actually embarked on a major energy upgrade. (That was gratifying.) Many years ago the home had been moved off of a failing rubble foundation to a new concrete masonry unit (CMU) foundation on a different site.
TEC did its homework: its new blower door package is a well-engineered and integrated equipment system
We asked sustainability professionals what message they would put on a billboard. Here’s what we heard.
“If you could put one simple message on a billboard, what would it say?” During the recent BuildingEnergy conference in Boston, BuildingGreen set up a camera at our booth and asked sustainable design and building professionals this question.
Our interviewees ranged from a professor of sustainable design, to a sustainability manager at an architecture firm, to a green home builder, to a creator of an online green building directory.
Humidity sensor recommendations for building professionals and homeowners
Author’s Note: I can’t even start this blog before thanking Lew Harriman of Mason-Grant Consulting. Lew very patiently and gently hammered me into a much better understanding of humidity in air and its measurement. While any errors or lack of clarity regarding humidity and its measurement are mine, much of the insight and many of the resources mentioned here are Lew’s.
A simple PC-executable file can be used to understand the relationship between stack effect and mechanical ventilation
In 2003, as part of their presentation (“Ventilation Myths and Misconceptions”) at the Affordable Comfort conference, Collin Olson and Paul Francisco debuted a software tool they developed called SEE STACK. (If you want to experiment with the software, you can safely click here to download the virus-free executable file and training manual from The Energy Conservatory).
Where the oft-quoted statistic comes from, and what the underlying study says about health in buildings
Given the intense interest in the architectural community on health and wellness inside buildings, and in the related WELL building standard, you’ve probably heard someone tell you recently that we spend 90% of our time indoors.
