Archive of posts tagged moisture
Native Gardens Save Water and Offer Many Benefits
California just got some relieve from four year of drought with an almost normal rainy season. However we are not out of the woods yet. Water conservation is still on every body’s mind. Many people have told me that they use a bucket to catch the cold water from the shower instead of letting it […]
Remodeling with Passive House Approach
Kevin Stamm, general contractor based in San Francisco, wanted to apply many of the Passive House techniques to achieve high degree of energy efficiency when he started to renovate his home. While the project is still work in progress, he offered to pass his learnings along. He hosted a tour of his project on March […]
Wrapping the House for Air Tightness
When we decided to rewrap the house and replace the siding, we looked for a high performing house wrap. We chose the SIGA Majvest. This product is waterproof, windtight, tearproof while vapor porous. We will use a companion SIGA product, the Wigluv, to seal everything off. These SIGA products have been used widely in Europe […]
How To Clean Up Mold
Most of this blog is from the “Help Yourself to a Healthy Home” guide from HUD. We generally suggest hiring an established remediation company with professionals certified by the IICRC but many cannot afford to pay for that service or don’t feel it’s necessary. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for Mold Protect yourself when cleaning up […]
Sealing The Basement
Sealing a crawl space prevents moisture getting into the house from the ground. It is also a very effective way to reduce air infiltration, particularly around the rim joists and seams of the stem walls. Tom’s crew has laid polyurethane liners down on the basement ground and up the stem walls. While 6-mil to 10-mil […]
Mold in the Home – What to Do?
What to do about mold in the home, how to avoid it, how to clean it up, is mold testing a good idea? etc. This blog focuses on residential mold tips. Many of these best practices are drawn from the following government-sponsored resources on healthy homes: Help Yourself to a Healthy Home, US Department of […]
Is Gas Cooking Safe?
The safety of gas cooking has long been investigated by the research community. Gas burners can produce nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and other pollutants. Here are highlights from two recent specific studies. A project by the Lawerence Berkeley Laboratory (paper submitted to the Environmental Health Perspectives earlier this year) found that these pollutants […]
Energy Improvement Opportunities
This is a 100+ year old house. Obviously there are many energy efficiency shortcomings (hence many improvement opportunities). The house has been vacant for over 2 years so we don’t have the latest operational information. Exterior Walls. Before taking the walls apart, we already expect little to no insulations for houses of this age. The […]