Tag: Renovation

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How to Prioritize Energy Upgrades to an Existing Home-Part 2

I purchased my home in the fall of 2018.  I could have decided to build something new or forgo all the maintenance that comes with home ownership and rent.  Instead, I chose to purchase an older home that needed updating, both in appearance and performance.

The 24’ x 32’ home was built in 1952, a Cape Cod design with the normal problems of a Cape Cod, attic knee walls that were both inside and outside the air control layer.  There was some evidence of past water damage and a few old clips on the roof where a heat tape would have been placed, suggesting an ice dam issue.  The high efficiency natural gas forced air furnace appeared to be from the 1990’s, the same year as the electric water heater.  There was also a natural gas fireplace in the small living room.  There was a weird-shaped room on the main level (behind the sun and where the sliding patio door is located, 9’ wide by 24 feet long.  Two bedrooms, and a bathroom were located upstairs, a bathroom on the main level, and an area in the basement that had an egress window well that would support another bedroom. Continue reading “How to Prioritize Energy Upgrades to an Existing Home-Part 2”

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How to Prioritize Performance Upgrades to Existing Homes

I’ve been performing a semi-deep energy retrofit to my home for the past 5 years, and at my current rate of progress, it will be another 5 years before I’m complete.  This leads to a question; how does a person prioritize the work to be done?  Are the easiest items to complete done first, or the stuff that provides the biggest return on investment a better place to start?  This blog discusses my suggested priorities.

  1. Structural decay must be dealt with first.

Continue reading “How to Prioritize Performance Upgrades to Existing Homes”

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Energy Conservation-Shallow Energy Retrofit

This post originally appeared on the Green Building Advisor website.

Several years ago, I performed a roof replacement for a customer, the customer wanted to change their older and failing asphalt shingled roof to a steel roof.  We stripped the old shingles and existing underlayment off, installed new synthetic underlayment and new steel over the 10/12 pitched roof.  I felt confident that this new roof would last many years.

The following year, the same customer asked if we would replace several windows in the upper level of his story and a half home.  The old windows were due for replacement, the single paned wood units appeared to be from the mid-1900’s.  Woodpeckers had pecked a hole nearly completely through one of the windows.  Several others were painted shut.  Again, a straight-forward job we had done dozens of times before.

The home with the roofing and window replacement that resulted in “attic rain”.

The spring after the window replacement, I received a call from the customer saying his roof was leaking.  He had water dripping in several areas in the upper level of the home.  A visit to his house did indeed show water damage, though it was not the result of a bulk water leak from the roof, but instead, air leaks from the interior had formed frost on the attic side of the roof sheathing, the home had never had this issue before.  I surmised that replacing the five upper-level windows had changed how this home handled air and moisture just enough to cause frost to form in the attic.  My first building science lesson about the unintentional effects of a shallow energy retrofit. Continue reading “Energy Conservation-Shallow Energy Retrofit”

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Rockwool-Not Your 1950’s Mineral Wool Insulation

This post first appeared on the Rockwool R-Class blog.  www.rclass.rockwool.com/blog

If you’ve been in the construction industry long enough, chances are you’ve had to remove an old mineral wool insulation product during a renovation.  I know I have.  It’s itchy, easily falls apart, and it often doesn’t completely fill a cavity bay.  I’ve had many conversations with other builders who will not consider using a mineral wool product because of their past experiences with the older mineral wool insulations.  I can tell you; the old stuff is nothing like modern stone wool.

Itchy, fragile, and does not fill an entire 2×4 cavity bay. This R-7 batt of mineral wool insulation from the 1950’s is much different than the modern stone wool equivalent.

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Construction Materials-A Less Common Sheathing

This post first appeared on the Green Building Advisor’s website.

When I first started working in the trades as an electrician back in the mid 1990’s, we worked for a couple contractors that liked to use buffalo board sheathing.  I suspect the product was given this name because of its resemblance to buffalo chips.  (If you don’t know what a buffalo chip is, you’ll have to look it up, it’s not the kind of chip you eat.)  I’ve heard it called several other names, bildrite, beaver board, brickboard, bagasse, but it is best known as fiberboard sheathing.

Continue reading “Construction Materials-A Less Common Sheathing”