by Charles Hendricks | May 22, 2013 | architecture, Building Science, Harrisonburg Architect, Indoor Air Quality
A water management system does more than just protect your home from driving rain.
A proper water management system protects from bulk moisture and vapor drive from inside and outside the home. This includes an appropriate house wrap, flashing at wall openings, and the right insulation to name just a few details.
There are many places that the durability of a home can be caused into question. However, the most important design element is getting the water management system correct. If the system is not thought through completely you could have major structural damage in just a few years.
by Charles Hendricks | May 13, 2013 | architecture, Building Science, Harrisonburg Architect, Indoor Air Quality
It is very common to find insulation in the floor joists above your head in an unfinished basement or crawl space. Unfortunately, for homes in our area, this is not where you need insulation. I will go as far to say “it is a complete waste of money.”
As a general rule the entire envelope of your home should be insulated. If your basement, attic, or crawl space has duct work in it, then it is part of your home’s thermal envelope. Insulating the walls of the basement or crawl will increase the overall efficiency and comfort of your entire home.
Insulation, specifically fiberglass insulation, is often used in the floor joists in a basement or crawl space. If it is not in contact with the floor surface above, then it does not perform as intended. If you push the fiberglass in place then you smash the R-value out of the insulation so it does not work. If you want to insulate between floor joists, I recommend using spray foam insulation, but again, just insulate the walls.
by Charles Hendricks | May 6, 2013 | architecture, Building Science, Harrisonburg Architect, Indoor Air Quality
If your home has a crawl space with plastic laying loosely on the floor and insulation above your head inside the floor joists – you are wasting energy, have poor indoor-air-quality, and could be growing mold.
In our mixed-humid climate, we should seal and condition our crawl spaces. There should not be insulation inside of the floor joist, but should be on the walls and on the floor if possible. There should be a small supply from your heating and cooling system to create positive pressure. These strategies reduce your annual energy use, protect your indoor-air-quality pushing moisture and radon out, and protects against critters getting into your home.
by Charles Hendricks | Apr 22, 2013 | architecture, Building Science, Harrisonburg Architect, Indoor Air Quality
We see it in sports all the time, if there is a weak link on the team, they cannot win the championship. It takes everyone operating at their top level and working together to achieve success and win it all. The same holds true in home construction. You have to build a complete and balanced team to actually get a green home.
There are many aspects that go into achieving your dream green home. It has to fit your budget, provide healthy indoor air, operate efficiently, be economical to build, and conserve water (just to name a few). The appropriate team depends on the complexity of the design. As I have written many times, just purchasing a plan from a magazine does not take into account the site, the climate, or locally available materials and expertise. A builder is not an expert at selecting materials that are the most efficient and affordable option to achieve your goal. Many times they will send you to a supply house to make your selections – this puts all the burden on you to determine the most economical and appropriate option. Unless you frequently build homes yourself, you should not be expected to know the best solutions.
If you don’t have a builder that understands efficient home construction, you will be paying someone to learn how to build efficiently. While it seems simple, just changing to advanced framing to be able to upgrade your insulation package, for instance, requires some understanding of all the impacts this change will have on other aspects of the home. If you don’t have an insulator that understand efficient insulation installation, you will undoubtedly pay more than you should for an insulation that does not perform as well as possible. If you hire an architect that does not understand specifications and building science, you will likely have a moisture problem in your conditioned attic. There are many considerations that need to be made. You should have a team that knows building science, design, construction, material selection, and installation.
NEST Rebuild, 2010
Don’t fall for the old trap of purchasing a plan that does not address the site, materials, your functional needs, or the climate. Don’t hire a builder that does not know and understand building science. Don’t allow installers to learn by their mistakes on your project. Don’t let a designer with little experience in efficient homes learn how to design your green home. Find a balanced team of experts and pay a little more up front if that is needed to get the best team; it will save you everyday with a job done right.
by Charles Hendricks | Apr 1, 2013 | architecture, Building Science, Harrisonburg Architect
Here are some simple ways to cut energy and water use in your bathroom remodel.
- When replacing water faucets, shower heads, or even toilets look for water efficient options. Be careful, there are still a few solutions on the market that don’t work, but with a little research you can find solutions that cut your annual water bill. Look for options with the EPA WaterSense label.
- Turn off the lights. Natural light will make you feel better and allows you to cut off the lights. Install a window if the bathroom is located on an outside wall or a solar tube if a window is not possible.
- Replace your outdated water heater by a Heat Pump Water Heater or an on-demand unit. These units are very efficient and will reduce the amount of energy used to heat your water. Even more efficient – install a solar thermal heating system utilizing an on-demand unit for supplemental heat in times of high demand.
- Replace your incandescent and Compact flourescent lights with LED’s. These lights use a fraction of the energy of traditional lights or even CFL’s and last longer.
- Skip gadgets like heated floors and heated towel racks – a properly insulated home with a well designed heating and cooling system will be comfortable year round.
by Charles Hendricks | Mar 25, 2013 | architecture, Building Science, Harrisonburg Architect, Indoor Air Quality
Spring is a great time to get started on your home remodeling project. So where is the best place to get started? Who should you call? What will it cost? How long will it take? What is the best solution? Here are some things that I have learned over the years doing many residential remodeling projects:
- Have a complete plan before starting construction (or even before getting a contractor to give you a price). There are many variables in renovation projects and you will be making thousands of decisions. Get them out-of-the-way early: know the color paint, counter top faucet, and flooring before getting started.
- Don’t make changes (at least minimize them). Having a good plan in advance of construction will go a long way towards this goal. This is the place where budgets get out of hand, schedules get lost, and projects go bad – avoid making changes during construction if at all possible.
- Allow your contractor to purchase materials. The last thing you want is to order the studs for the addition and not have enough the day the framers are standing there waiting on the materials or even for the cabinets to be delivered a week early. Contractors know how to order materials, get special pricing from supply yards, schedule deliveries, and at the end of the day, you want them responsible for all aspects of the work being done.
- Listen to your professionals. Your architect and contractor are there to serve you and to help you make the best decisions possible. If they say, “you can do it, but I would not recommend it” LISTEN. If it is too expensive, too complicated, or simply not a functional solution, they will tell you in most cases. Take their professional advise; after all that is why you are paying them.
- Have a contingency budget of at least 5%. Remodeling work is the highest risk work for contractors. There are many concealed conditions and it is impossible to know what you are getting into behind the drywall before you get behind the drywall. There is almost always a surprise in every remodeling project.
- Take a vacation – if at all possible, move out while the work is being done. This will help your nerves and allow the contractor to have full access to the project and schedule without worrying about bothering you by showing up too early or staying too late.
- Get out-of-the-way – Again, you have hired professionals to do what they do for a living. Don’t try to micromanage the process. Of course everyone in the process wants you to be happy and wants to hear you concerns. However, there is a means to their madness and letting them do things the way they think is best is usually the most efficient solution.
- Design Matters – Don’t just slap something together. Hire an architect to think through the design that will understand the desired function / goals and plan a project that meets your needs. Proper planning on the front end is always less expensive than planning / figuring it out during construction – or worse, trying to fix it after construction is done. Beauty, function, energy efficiency, durability, and healthy solutions are all possible, but not typical in the construction industry unless an architect is involved.
We see it in sports all the time, if there is a weak link on the team, they cannot win the championship. It takes everyone operating at their top level and working together to achieve success and win it all. The same holds true in home construction. You have to build a complete and balanced team to actually get a green home.
If you don’t have a builder that understands efficient home construction, you will be paying someone to learn how to build efficiently. While it seems simple, just changing to advanced framing to be able to upgrade your insulation package, for instance, requires some understanding of all the impacts this change will have on other aspects of the home. If you don’t have an insulator that understand efficient insulation installation, you will undoubtedly pay more than you should for an insulation that does not perform as well as possible. If you hire an architect that does not understand specifications and building science, you will likely have a moisture problem in your conditioned attic. There are many considerations that need to be made. You should have a team that knows building science, design, construction, material selection, and installation. 
Spring is a great time to get started on your home remodeling project. So where is the best place to get started? Who should you call? What will it cost? How long will it take? What is the best solution? Here are some things that I have learned over the years doing many residential remodeling projects:
Listen to your professionals. Your architect and contractor are there to serve you and to help you make the best decisions possible. If they say, “you can do it, but I would not recommend it” LISTEN. If it is too expensive, too complicated, or simply not a functional solution, they will tell you in most cases. Take their professional advise; after all that is why you are paying them.