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What is an Insulating Concrete Form?
ICFs (insulating concrete forms) have gained popularity but still live in that middle ground with SIPs and geothermal heating: move further than 10 feet outside the energy industry and homeowners...
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Fiberglass vs. Cellulose
The two least expensive and most commonly used residential insulation are fiberglass and cellulose. Granted fiberglass is about 50 times more common but a distant second is still second. Unless the...
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How Much Insulation Do You Need?
OK…We’re back after that brief incident of real life. Besides the obvious answer – MORE (but you knew that just based on your heating bills, didn’t you?), how much insulation do you need? There are...
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Journal of Poor Homebuilding v.12 – The One That Got Away
While going through the archived photos, I had a few specifically in mind. Some old boilers, specific construction issues I’d seen, etc. But one image I keenly wanted was from a Westbrook turn of...
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Journal of Poor Homebuilding – Blobs of Cellulose Mold
This was a first. I’ve never seen dense pack cellulose in a basement. The sills had been netted and packed with cellulose. The netting and been pulled down in some places but the packed...
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The Worst House Ever Audited (Was Built in 2008) Part 3
To recap: Last post I started reviewing possibly the worst house I ever audited. The house had built in 2008, which hit one of my pet peeves: That new automatically means good. But to reiterate a...
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Reader Questions – Basement Ceiling Insulation and Moisture
Erik, I have been trying to educate myself so that I may finish my house. I have a garage/basement that is above ground. Above that is the finished house. I want to fire safe my house, i.e.....
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5 (Fairly) Simple DIY Projects to Save Energy
I like simple projects because, hey, simple. It’s like whipping up a nice tortellini and pesto dish versus tackling a full blown chicken mole (and for the non-culinarily inclined, check out this...
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Problems with Crawlspaces – Venting and other Underhouse Ills
Crawlspaces are like the Loch Ness monster; talked about, rarely seen and potentially a bit scary. The crawlspace is that empty, barely accessible pit under the house filled with swampy water,...
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Should I Insulate My Basement Ceiling – Infrared Chimes In
The most popular post on this site is,’Should I Insulate My Basement Ceiling‘. Yay, 1st spot on Google searches! The number of reader comments is also a pretty good measure and I get a number of...
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