Green Homes News

OK .... long story but with luck a simple question.Can I (or should I) put a piece of Grace Ice and Water Shield (say 6" each way) on the corners…

The layers of my roof assembly are:80 mil PVC membrane OVER 1/4" fire protection fiberglass-faced gypsum board OVER tapered EPS over 1/2" plywood over 16" OC joists w/insulation batts (and…

I researched the best solar generator for home backup over the past few days because I am looking for a reliable power solution during outages. I went through reviews on…

I'm looking to trench in about 800' of conduit for communication cables - phone, Internet, cable TV.  This be a straight run from the street, through farm field, to my…

I’m in the process of building an addition to my existing house, which includes a new foundation/basement wall abutted to the existing basement/foundation wall. The two walls were tied together…

Two questions: 1.  In climate zone 6b/7, a warm roof for an unvented cathedral ceiling of R49 is recommended to prevent ice dams (assuming a properly designed and constructed roof). …

What to Expect When Installing PV Panels on Your Roof

Hi everyone,I am currently working on the design of an ADU located in Portland, Maine, which is in Climate Zone 6. I would appreciate some feedback on whether my proposed…

Hi everyone! I’m currently working on a project based in Portland, Maine, where I’m designing an ADU I’m planning to do a slanted roof with no overhang and hidden gutters. Because of…

What is the current recommendation for or against using foil-faced polyiso on the interior of basement walls? I know the concern with polyiso is its tendency to deteriorate when exposed…

I'm wondering if anyone with HVAC background can weigh in.The topic here is preconditioning fresh air with a ground loop preconditioner, versus an earth tube.For a midwestern climate, with hot…

We are designing a pretty good house in Wisconsin  and our wall will be masonry or siding/ furring/mineral board/ Henry blue skin/ plywood/mineral wool/intello/gypsumWe won’t have a service cavity. Whats…

So I ripped a late 1800’s early 1900’s house to the studs in Massachusetts climate zone 5. Doing a full gut and remodel and finishing the attic space as livable…

Hello! I am currently working on a project and I am trying to figure out how the framing of this building should connect between these three walls. They connect at…

Should the roof ridge be cut the entire length of the ridge? If I take the square footage of the attic floor and balance the ventilation using 1:300, I come…

Hi everyone,I'm hoping to get some advice on our bathroom ceiling assemblies for our new build. We're planning to run Hemlock T&G across the ceilings in both of our bathrooms…

In the middle of a project to redo a bathroom which is next to a knee wall attic. The roof is over the knee wall attic. Access to the crawlspace…

Hello!We are installing a FV-20VEC1 Panasonic intellibalance in the basement of a 3 story home with 7 bathrooms. Originally the plan was to have constant CFM for each bathroom, but…

A framing question for you. A lot of designs have windows directly in front of kitchen sinks, which necessitate a header (lintel in Canada) and king and several jack studs on…

I have a ~3300 square foot house in upstate New York, so climate zone 5.  When we moved in, the house had an oil boiler for baseboard heat and hot…