OFT or Optimized Framing Techniques is taking the best framing techniques that fit the house you are building & utilizing them to not only save resources but to also have a strong, durable structure that uses a minimal amount of connectors. Ah, but isn’t that what one might call OVE or Advanced Framing? Well before […]
Common Sense Building: Making Sense of Radiant Heat (FAQ)
We originally started this series on Radiant Heat with an article entitled “Don’t just jump on the bandwagon” & followed it up by a guest post from Todd Vendituoli on his installation of an under the slab system & the benefits of a Radiant Hydronic System. As promised we are into our third article on […]
Common Sense Building: Radiant Hydronic Heating
Heating ones house via radiant heat has been around for over 5000 years & is generally credited to the Koreans with their “ondol” system and is still in use today. The genius of this system & the later “hypocaust” systems developed by the Romans is that one heated one’s whole house from under the floor […]
Common Sense Building: Don’t just jump on the bandwagon
Contractors rightfully get a bad rap sometimes for not wanting to change or embrace new technologies. “I have been doing it this way for years & never had an issue.” Some that do embrace change have learned the hard way that it is best to tread carefully after being bitten by some new product that […]
Common Sense Building: The Cool Roof Concept
When one starts talking about roofs you will quickly run into a whole bunch of jargon; hot roof’s, cool roof’s, vented, unvented, green, flat, hybrid & the list goes on & on & on. Needless to say this can & does cause quite a bit of confusion especially when regional differences in naming conventions pop […]
Common Sense Building: A new series for On the Grid & Off-Grid houses
As many of you may recall, back in May we decided to take a break from the “off the grid” series & decided to look at “common sense” methods for designing & building new homes. We decided to go this route as it doesn’t matter if a house is on the grid, or off the […]
Ten Rules of Roof Design: Really?
Just like clockwork, this last Friday Martin Holladay posted his weekly blog article under the by-line of Musings of an Energy Nerd on Green Building Advisor. While I generally am always looking forward to seeing what he has to say, I was particularly looking forward to reading this one on Martin’s Ten Rules of Roof […]
Building Green Homes: Looking back & Lessons Learned
I guess I can credit some of my desire to learn about and utilize energy efficient designs, green buildings, & solar power with the area I grew up in. I can recall some of our schools field trips where we would go see new houses being built with photovoltaic panels, and eating food cooked on […]
Energy Efficiency vs. Conservation – what is the real issue?
I have to admit, I was originally confused by some of the attitudes or opinions given about those in the Energy Efficiency fields. I grant you that there are quite a few individuals in the green community that are five cans shy of a six pack, but the following quotes come from some of the […]
Remodeling Right: A Hedge Against Changing Technology
When having your house remodeled, you as a homeowner you have so many choices to make and so many things to consider. How many nights have you spent worrying about your project, hoping that you and your contractor have thought of everything? As a contractor, I can honestly tell you that many of us go through the same thing. In some […]