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Are multifamily buildings one building or a bunch of individual buildings sharing the same structure? Should services and systems be shared or individual? The passions regarding these questions are… Read More

Air flow in buildings is one of the major factors that governs the interaction of the building structure with the mechanical system, climate and occupants. If the air flow at any point within a… Read More

Water comes in four forms: solid, liquid, vapor and adsorbed. All four forms can cause grief to building owners, designers and contractors. When water causes building problems investigating and… Read More

Adding outdoor air in hot humid climates causes moisture problems right? Sometimes. It depends on the condition of the house before you start to add outdoor air. Contrary to popular belief, most… Read More

The function of a vapor barrier is to retard the migration of water vapor. Where it is located in an assembly and its permeability is a function of climate, the characteristics of the materials that… Read More

Controlling rain is the single most important factor in the design and construction of durable buildings and in the control of mold. Drainage planes are used in the design and construction of… Read More

Buildings used to be constructed over cellars. Cellars were dank, dark places where coal was stored. People never intended to live in cellars. Now we have things called basements that have pool… Read More

Attics or roofs can be designed and constructed to be either vented or unvented in any hygro-thermal zone (Map 1). The choice of venting or not venting is a design and construction choice not a… Read More

I have recently written about some aspects of the German Passiv Haus1 housing standard (see BSI-025: The Passive House Standard and the GreenBuildingAdvisor.com) as it applies to cold climates (that… Read More

The Passivhaus (PH) standard is a set of voluntary criteria for an ultra-low energy use home. Originally developed in Germany for houses and low-rise multi-unit residential buildings, the standard… Read More