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

Im redoing my partial basement, to make it all into usable living space, which involves digging out half of it and removing a current half slab to increase headroom, and adding to the foundation/footing as needed. Is there any real reason to pour a slab after this is all done?
I would love input from someone who has put a vapor/water barrier, some foam insulation between 2=4 sleepers, and then used some form of wood flooring that would work for higher humidity situations.

I appreciate any help I can get on this: We recently built an energy-efficient greenhouse and the mason just finished building the concrete block raised beds. We need to seal or install a liner inside the raised beds to keep water (from the soil) from leaching through the seams of the concrete and we also need this sealer/liner to be safe for growing edible plants and trees (i.e. not leaching contaminates into our soil). We will mostly be growing fruit trees but plan on growing vegetables as well. Can anyone give us advice one what products would be appropriate?

Hey everyone,

I am designing a small commercial building for a client in Climate Zone 5A.
The design calls for largish overhangs on the south facade, and I am playing around with some ideas on how to build these.

Traditionally, the interior structure (in this case, timber frame) would bear on the interior, and the top chord of the truss or rafter tail would cantilever out to create the overhang. However, with this design there is automatic thermal bridging, and the building envelope is compromised.

We are building a new house and in research insulation options I decided on dense-packed cellulose. My builder seems very opposed to it. He uses blown-in fiberglass. He said he had problems in the past with settling. He also thinks the R-value is probably higher with blown-in. Any advice would be really appreciated.