The complete source for building, designing, and remodeling green homes
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Case of the Missing Spray Foam
Aun Safe settled on spray polyurethane foam as the best way to turn his attic into a conditioned space. Although the open-cell foam between the 2x8 rafters would not be…
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Tracking Down a Stubborn Leak
GBA reader Megnchris is experiencing one of the more frustrating parts of home ownership—dropping a chunk of cash on a repair doesn't necessarily make the problem go away. Writing in…
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Attic Ventilation for a Revamped Timberframe
Jonathan Sinclair's home, a 225-year-old timber frame in New Hampshire, is getting a facelift. Sinclair is residing the building with fiber-cement lap siding, and he plans to install the siding…
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Air-Source or Ground-Source Heat Pump?
It's been a great 31 years, but the single-zone HVAC system has finally reached the end of the road, and gtmsmith has narrowed the search for a replacement to two…
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Building Strategies in a Hot, Humid Climate
AlbertoArriaga33 is wrestling with plans for a new home in a tropical location. He doesn't say exactly where, but conditions are certainly challenging: high heat and high humidity, with nighttime…
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Rainscreen Details for a Board-and-Batten Retrofit
One thing on Drew Goldsack's spring cleaning punch list this year is removing the vinyl siding from his Alberta home and replacing it with cedar board-and-batten siding. As he explains…
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Hedging Bets on a Heating and Cooling System
Brenton is building a new house in southern Maine (Climate Zone 6) that he currently plans to insulate with a combination of open- and closed-cell spray foam plus a continuous…
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Energy Upgrades on a Budget
Andrew Bennett is giving his 1991 home in eastern Tennessee an efficiency upgrade, as time and budget permits. He has a long list of improvements he'd like to make—new windows, sealing…
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What Happened In This Roof?
James Fugate's intent was to insulate the roof of his Rochester, New York, home and make the attic part of the conditioned space. What he got instead was a mysterious…
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Hiding a Ductless Minisplit Head
Ductless minisplits have become the standard for heating and cooling in many high-performance houses. These air-source heat pumps have many advantages over more conventional HVAC equipment, and also what some…
