Insulation Institute has been focusing of late on the topic of air sealing and what it takes to construct a home that is airtight using the “3 Ps,” -- People, Practices and Products. Proper air sealing is critical for meeting stringent air change rates required for green building targets such as HERS, Energy Star, Net Zero or Passive House. While...

Among the trickier areas to properly seal and insulate is around electrical boxes. These can often be sources of air leakage and are notoriously hard to properly insulate with batt products without excess compression. A new product, box shell, seeks to address both of these problems. As the site shows, the “shell” fits neatly around the electrical...

We’ve all seen the technique; it is very common in the building industry. A product manufacturer shows how their product can reduce or eliminate the need for other associated products, typically those that comprise some building system. The approach gets customers to think about costs holistically versus piecemeal. This happens in many industries,...

Energy Efficient homes are in high demand among consumers and are a business imperative for builders who want to remain competitive. Air sealing is critical to achieving energy efficiency. But, when it comes to air leaks within a home, all points of entry are not created equal. Big holes in a building enclosure are easy to avoid, identify and fix,...

A new study from Re:Vision Architects draws attention to a common flaw in research of products for the build environment: materials research and product selection typically focus on single-product performance, when very few building assemblies are composed of single products, but rather a combination of products. This simplistic approach led...

In the first of a two-part series for Builder Online, Owens Corning’s Clarke Berdan details the implications for builders (more choices!) following two sets of code changes approved during the April International Code Council Meeting. One new change enables builders to use air permeable (fiber glass) insulation in unvented attics. Previously, the...

In the 1963 film “The Great Escape”, we were rooting for McQueen, Bronson, Attenborough and crew to safely escape the Nazi prison camp. When it comes to air fleeing our homes, our hope is exactly the opposite. Codes and customers are pushing for more energy efficient homes, and that means tighter envelopes. Tighter homes have significant impacts...

Moisture is one of the most damaging elements a building can encounter and is the leading cause of construction litigation. In a recent post for Professional Builder Magazine, Johns Mansville Principal Building Scientist J.R. Babineau talks about the role insulation plays in managing moisture in a wall system and why the issue is becoming...

Back in March, we wrote about the wide array of insulation and air sealing approaches used by homes that meet DOE’s Zero Energy Ready Home (ZERH) specification. Among the approaches that can work is the use of fiberglass batts. Mutual Housing California demonstrated how to use batts to achieve ZERH certification in their Mutual Housing at Spring...

One of the things that impressed me most as a first-time attendee of the RESNET conference in March of this year was the caliber of the speakers – they all seemed knowledgeable, credible and more often than not, entertaining. I’m a big fan of soundbites, and I usually leave a meeting with a few good ones that I think capture the essence of those...