The complete source for building, designing, and remodeling green homes
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Bonus Room Problems
If your house has an attached garage, you may have a bonus room — that is, a bedroom above the garage. For new home builders, bonus rooms make sense: including…
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Getting the Right Minisplit
Curious readers regularly post questions here at GBA on how to size minisplit heat pumps and how to select the right equipment. Although our web site contains dozens of articles…
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Deep-Set Brickmold Trim for ‘Innie’ Windows
If you install flanged windows on the exterior side of a sheathed 2x4 or 2x6 wall, and you then install exterior rigid foam, you end up with an “innie” window.…
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Energy Retrofit Advice From Ohio
Long-time readers of GBA are familiar with Nate Adams. He’s the home-performance contractor who has published several opinionated blogs on GBA, including “The ‘Low-Hanging Fruit’ Fallacy” and “Hard Truths of…
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Prickly Mountain and the Design-Build Movement
Almost all branches of American art and culture, including music and architecture, experienced a remarkable explosion of creativity from 1965 to 1975. While I can’t explain the causes of these…
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Insulating Behind Kneewalls
Although I wrote a 2012 article for Fine Homebuilding on ways to insulate the cramped attic behind a kneewall, I’ve never written such an article for GBA. So it’s clearly…
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Three New Books on Green Building
Three new books crossed my desk recently, each with a shiny cover and the promise of useful information for green builders. One turns out to be a gem, and the…
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Another Look at Embodied Carbon
What is "embodied carbon"? I tried to answer that question in a 2018 article called “Carbon Emissions By the Construction Industry.” The issue is complicated, and requires builders to make…
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More Bad News on Ventilation System Effectiveness
When researchers look at the effectiveness of ventilation systems installed in new homes, what do they find? To some extent, the answer depends on what area of the country you’re…
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Sandwiching Roof Sheathing Between Two Impermeable Layers
Many builders have heard the phrase, “Walls should be able to dry in at least one direction.” The rule usually makes sense. If you want to install rigid foam on…
