The complete source for building, designing, and remodeling green homes
Product Guide
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A Look at Home Air Quality Monitors
The World Health Organization attributes a long list of chronic illnesses and millions of premature deaths annually to polluted air inside and outside the home. Instead of offering a refuge…
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Working With ZIP System R-sheathing
Paul DeGroot is an architect in Austin, Texas. His projects tend to be on the modest side in a city that has its fair share of high-end custom homes. He’s…
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Best In Show
I attend many trade shows, both national and regional. This year, for example, my calendar includes nineteen events. It will increase in the next few weeks. You see, I teach…
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A Vent for Every Roof
A freshly immigrated Norwegian carpenter built our two-story house in 1931. It has a walk-up attic that can be aired out in the summer with a pair of windows in…
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How to Choose Insulation
Insulating a new house used to be a no-brainer. It was that step between installing windows and hanging drywall, when the crew spent a few days stapling fiberglass batts between…
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A Composite Alternative To Concrete Foundations
A Wisconsin-based company has developed a way to replace cast-in-place concrete foundation walls with insulated composite panels that can be set in place in just a few hours. Epitome foundation…
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Multipoint Locking Hardware
We have three entry doors in our home: the front door, the back door, and the side door that opens to the basement. Oh, and since the back door leads…
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Is Using Closed-Cell Spray Foam Worth the Trade-Offs?
Closed-cell polyurethane spray foam is amazing stuff. It’s a great insulator, with a higher R-value per inch than almost any other commonly available material. (Polyisocyanurate foam can be equivalent, but…
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Choices for Roof Underlayment Continue to Expand
Builders once had one choice when it came to roofing underlayment: asphalt-saturated felt. OK, two choices—#15 asphalt felt and #30 asphalt felt. These days, there are dozens of brands of…
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A Case for Composite Wood Siding
Wood is one of the most environmentally benign building products. Not only does it extract carbon during tree growth and then sequester it as lumber, it provides us with a…
