Cup of Joe's

Cup of Joe - Betsy Pettit and Joe Lstiburek on How to Get to Net-Zero

To get to zero energy conservation takes us most of the way…and the last bit is the renewables piece.  We get 70 percent of the way to “net zero” with conservation….  Guess what…we changed the… Learn More

Cup of Joe - Joe's Take on Manufactured Housing and Robotics

It is all about the connections…industry trends….we have seen them before…manufactured housing was supposed to win the game….the problem is having to move the box from the factory to the site…not… Learn More

Cup of Joe - Continuity of Control Layers

Pretty easy…just connect the water control layer of the roof, wall and foundation to each other…the air control layer of the roof, wall and foundation to each other…vapor control layer of the roof,… Learn More

Cup of Joe - Second Law of Thermodynamics

This is most important of all the laws of thermodynamics…. Of course the crazy way we speak about the Second Law does not help: “In an isolated system, a process can occur only if it increases the… Learn More

Cup of Joe Flow-Through Assemblies

Can it be so easy that all we have to do to make the perfect wall more perfect is leave out the vapor control layer and allow the all to dry in both directions? Ah man, why do you ask these types of… Learn More

Even More Airtightness!

So where are we after a half century? We went from the interior to the exterior with air barriers. And we went from combining the vapor barrier with the air barrier on the inside to combining the… Learn More

Airtightness - How did we get here?

Things have evolved considerably since the Eisenhower and Diefenbaker years. Hutcheon taught us about air flow that decade but it took more than a half century to get it right. We needed air control… Learn More

Stucco Problems

How can you take a system with thousands of years of history and screw it up?  Easy.  Keep improving it until it does not work.  Babylonians used it. Egyptians used it. Greeks used it.  Romans used… Learn More

Rain Screens

We have learned to add holes and drainage in tall buildings in order for them to work. The lesson learned in tall buildings is that we can’t keep the rain out so we drain it out after it has entered… Learn More

Capillarity in Concrete and Wood

One moisture transport mechanism that is often overlooked in building construction is capillarity or capillary suction.  Capillary suction acts primarily to move moisture into porous materials.  For… Learn More

Below-Grade Waterproofing and Water Control

It is pretty weird to dig a big hole and drop a building into it.  A one story house with a basement is really a two story house that you dropped into the ground burying one story.  Think about it…… Learn More

Open-Joint Cladding Systems

The basis of the current ongoing Canadian Civil War between pressure equalization and ventilated and drained claddings (open-joint cladding systems). Old school engineers like me were taught by Old… Learn More