Featured Articles~
by Mike Guertin Clayton DeKorne
As green building grabs the attention of otherwise cautious home buyers, so does the potential for "greenwashing" — the efforts of overzealous marketers to label anything and everything "green." Selectively focusing on one feature while ignoring others, or intentionally misleading buyers about the green credentials of a product or process only threatens to diminish the concept of green building as a whole. Custom home builder Mike Guertin and editor Clayton DeKorne compile a "green" checklist to help you understand green building on two levels — the big picture and the more fine-grained details of implementation — so you can avoid the pitfalls and build green right.
by Ted Cushman
Elevated floors on pier foundations are mandated in V zones and recommended in coastal A zones. But the moisture and energy details can be a head-scratcher. Whether a builder places the floor system on pier supports or on a perimeter stemwall, he has to face interrelated problems of air sealing, insulation, and moisture protection that are neither easy nor cheap to solve. Ted Cushman looks at the issues and latest research and recommendations.
by Steve Easley
In more than 25 years of consulting with builders on ways to avoid callbacks, Steve Easley has spent his time solving problems related the heat and moisture transfer, because this is where builders — even very good builders who deliver well-appointed homes to the coastal elite — most often get things wrong. With tougher requirements for the Energy Star label substantially raising the bar for thermal and moisture building performance, however, that scenario may be changing. Easley makes a case for using closed-cell spray foam (ccSPF) to correct insulation woes as he highlights some of the most frequent problem areas addressed by the EPA's Thermal Bypass Checklist Guide.
by Bill Robinson
According to general contractor Bill Robinson, the building industry is going through a renaissance of sorts when it comes to weather protection. He predicts that as the current best practices become standardized, even more detailed requirements will be brought back to the codes. And that's a good thing, Robinson notes, because as is, the basic code is the bare minimum for coastal conditions. He outlines how to go beyond the code and manufacturer's guidelines to install state-of-the art weather barriers that will meet the coastal challenges of high winds and water intrusion.
Coastal Connection~
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