Q&A: A Forum for Green Building Experts and Beginners

Our condo complex recently had a major repair to one of the buildings due to water damage within an exterior wall. This required removing the brick and replacing the material behind it. The builder said he could not re-install the existing window because it was not up to current code. Can anyone confirm this as a code requirement?

Hello - can anyone tell me if Open Cell is supposed to have a "smell"? The guy who installed the foam says that the foam should have a "foam smell" to it. The closed cell has no odor and the Thermoseal 500 open cell has a distinct chemical odor. The product was installed last week and i've had the windows open and fans going ever since.

Joe

We need a new driveway and would like it to help with drainage problems. We sit at the bottom of a hill and have a big roof. The old drive slopes and has inlets and subterranean pipes to direct water from hill and downs spouts to street. The underlying soil is clay and I mean clay, as in the clay that is used to make pottery. I don't think permeable pavers would be of any use here as there is very limited percolation into the clay. Am I thinking correctly and if so what would be a good material to use to make the driveway?

Thanks

If all plumbing lines are within the envelope, and a recirculating pump is installed, what might the payback period be for insulating PEX hot water lines?

Because the advantage of PEX is that the pipes are easily curved around obstacles etc., I bet insulation coverage wouldn't be more than 90% in even careful installations.

In any case, insulation would serve no purpose whenever the wait between uses exceeded a couple of hours, no?

Is this one of those cases where the money would be better spent on more insulation elsewhere?