Author: Randy

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Winnie Pretty Good House-Working with Huber’s Zip-R Sheathing

As builders and designers, we have so many ways we can improve the performance of a wall assembly.  Deeper wall cavities will allow for more insulation, double wall construction gains you the ability to move the air and/or vapor control to the middle of the wall leaving the inner framing cavity free for mechanical/electrical/plumbing (MEP) equipment.  Then there’s Building Science Corporation and Dr. Joe Lstiburek’s perfect wall, with the right ratio of continuous exterior insulation to interior cavity insulation that lessens the worries of vapor control.  Continuous exterior insulation can be designed in several ways, foam-based products, ridged mineral wool, wood fiber insulation, or nail base products.  And then there’s Huber’s Zip System R-sheathing, what we call on the jobsite, Zip-R.

Zip-R isn’t new, I first became aware of the product back in 2014.  What makes this product unique is that the continuous insulation layer is located between the exterior wall sheathing and framing.  This location simplifies the installation of CI and wall sheathing compared to the traditional location of the insulation, which is exterior of the wall sheathing.  And to add to the advantages of the product, in most applications, it is still a structural sheathing product when installed per Huber’s manufacturer’s instructions.  (Consult a structural engineer if there are any questions or concerns on a specific design or building location.)

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Comparing Your Home’s Energy Use to Your “Neighbors”

This post first appeared on the Green Building Advisor Website

Part of an energy auditors’ job is energy analysis, which includes analyzing historical energy consumption data to determine if usage is as expected.  One method is to compare a home’s energy use to some average (the local rural electricity provider I contract with calls this “compared to your neighbor’s”).  This average could be the national average, but it’s better to compare at a more local level, such as by state.  There are a few sources of this information, one that I have been using is: U.S. Energy Information Administration – EIA – Independent Statistics and Analysis.  This dashboard provides me with several different energy consumption metrics, expressed in MMBtu’s and kWh, broken down by state and also displays national averages for the US (sorry my Canadian friends).

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How to Design a Frost Protected Shallow Foundation System

My brother has an upcoming construction project on a property he owns that he’s asked for my help in both the design and construction of the structure.  There are portions of the project that are planned to be covered by Fine HomeBuilding Magazine plus I will be writing several blog posts for Green Building Advisor, Rockwool, and for my blog, Northern Built.  One of the first tasks is to plan the foundation system, in this case it will be a frost protected shallow foundation (FPSF).  The illustration below shows both the foundation and wall construction ideas.

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How to Attach Cladding When Using Continuous Insulation

This post originally appeared on the Green Building Advisor website.

One of the challenges with continuous insulation (CI) is how to attach cladding.  The cladding type and weight along with the type and thickness of the continuous insulation can affect the cladding attachment details.  This blog post will go over a few of the code requirements and discuss how the manufacturers of both the CI and cladding can help with prescriptive code compliance.

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What is a Blower Door Test? An Introduction.

This blog post first appeared on the Andersen Windows ProViews Blog

We’ve known for a few decades that improving the air tightness of a home and installing a properly designed mechanical ventilation system can greatly enhance the performance of a home.  Having the ability to verify the airtightness of the structure is key, we perform verification by using a tool called a blower door.  This introductory blog will answer the questions; what is a blower door test?  Why do we perform blower door testing?  How is the test performed?  How do we interpret the test results?  What else can a blower door be used for?  Are there codes relating to blower door testing?  Before we dive into those questions, let’s start with that first question, what is a blower door test?

A blower door test is a test to confirm the continuity and integrity of a structure’s air barrier.

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How to Track Appliance Electricity Use

This post first appeared on the Green Building Advisor Website.

Part of my job working as an energy auditor is educating homeowners on electricity usage, reviewing and analyzing historical electricity usage is part of the process.  Checking service conductors and individual branch circuits in an electrical service panel is also sometimes needed.  This information lets me know if an appliance, motor, or other device is operating as expected.  How about electricity usage of an appliance or other equipment over time?  My visit to a home is usually under four hours, hardly enough time to figure out how often a device operates.  For this, we need tools that can record data.

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A Crash Course on the Four Control Layers

This post first appeared on the Andersen Windows ProViews Blog.

Shelter is a human necessity.  A place to be warm and dry.  A place to be safe and healthy.  These are the main purposes for every new home that gets built.  As our species has moved out of caves and into, first, stone structures, then concrete and mass wood structures, and finally to what we live in today, our expectations for health and comfort have increased.  We want our homes to stay dry, but not too dry.  Temperatures are expected to be comfortable, and sometime consistent with little variation throughout the home.  The quality of the indoor air should be healthy to breathe.  And we want our investment to last for a long, long time.  A newer expectation is that we do not want to spend a lot of time, effort or money maintaining the structure.

This new, solid stone home has a much different longevity expectation than the traditional wood framed home. Then again, both the cost (about $10,000,000 and time to construct (3 years) are much different than the typical home we build today.

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Where to Locate the WRB when using Continuous Insulation-Inside or Out?

This post first appeared on the Green Building Advisor Website.

Right now, there’s a lot of interest in the residential construction market around continuous insulation (CI) strategies.  CI adds a layer of complexity to a build, and with it, questions.  How much insulation do I need?  How to fasten the insulation?  How to fasten the cladding?  How to integrate windows and doors?  What about vapor control?  And, this question, should the water resistive barrier (WRB) be at the sheathing layer or outboard the insulation?  The answer, it depends, but you have a lot of choices.

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Concrete Free Slab on Grade House – Five Years Later

This post first appeared on the Green Building Advisor website.

In June of 2019, we began a project we called “The Concreteless Slab on Grade Home”.  Kiley Jacques, (now the editor of Green Building Advisor), covered the project in an article she wrote back in early 2020.   Another Take on a Concrete-Free Slab – GreenBuildingAdvisor   I wrote a piece on the project for this blog, Construction Design-Concrete-less Slab on Grade – Northern Built.  This year is the Five-year anniversary of the start of that project.  I thought it would be a good time to revisit, discuss what worked, what I would change, and talk about a very unexpected series of events that could have been a major problem.

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Do You Always Need to Stick with a Manufacturer’s Family of Products?

For the most part, I’m a fan of using a manufacturer’s family of products throughout an assembly.  For instance, if I’m working with Huber’s Zip System sheathing, I prefer to use the Zip family of tapes throughout the assembly.

The Winnie Pretty Good House using Huber’s Zip System for both the walls and roof.

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