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Illinois & the Fight over the ERI Path

Tomorrow, Wednesday March 18th, the Illinois Energy Conservation Advisory Council will hold session to hear various sub-committee recommendations and possibly move to vote on the their final recommendations for the adoption of the 2015 IECC. Originally there was a huge fight to simply skip this code cycle due to the “limited performance gains” making it seem largely […]

Creating a Box Beam Work Bench / Desk Top

One of the lessons we quickly learned was when one builds a work bench and you don’t want issues with sagging, it is best to utilize a box beam (aka torsion box) type design. While I didn’t have a work bench that needs to be built, we decided that we needed to add a built in desk in […]

BS4D: Redlining plans

Just what is a “redline?” Well yesterday Bob Borson wrote a great piece on Architectural Redlines (which included some great pictures like this one) and how they should be used. One of his comments about “making them bleed” got the wheels spinning as the fact is most people only know about the redlines that the […]

Wacky Weds: Sliding Snow on Shingles?

While it is common to see snow draping off a roof, most only see that as a metal roof issue. To prevent sliding snow from damaging property or the building itself (as some of these shelves can get into the hundreds and even thousands of pounds), snow guards are installed on metal roofs. The reality […]

Installing an Interior Barn Door – Lessons Learned

It seems one of the biggest trends lately is installing a “barn door” inside to either add a decorative element, add some privacy, or in our case cut down on noise. We recently removed a pocket door and left the doorway open as we knew we were going to install one in that location. Here […]

Come join us at Illinois B4 Conference – Feb. 26 & 27

Welcome to the start of conference season. The biggest one for builders & designers happened last week with the newly merged NAHB IBS (International Builders Show) & KBIS. Depending on your interests, like Energy Efficiency / Building Better / Green you could probably attend at least one a week for the next few months or like my friend Allison go […]

FAQ: Where should I place a Stand-Alone Freezer?

I don’t have room to put a freezer there… can I leave it outside on my back porch, in an unheated garage, the basement, laundry room??? What happens if it isn’t in the house & temperatures soar or dip below zero, will I have any issues? Convenience First: One of the first considerations is not only where will one fit […]