Air sealing is the first line of defense against wasting energy in your home and protecting your indoor air quality. Air sealing is the practice of filling all those gaps, cracks, and holes in your thermal envelope. This tightens the home’s air pressure giving you a solid thermal envelope.
Air sealing is the most effective way to reduce energy consumption in your home. It will also help protect indoor air quality in your home and the durability of your building materials. In a typical home, air leaks through walls, crawl spaces, attic, around windows, and doors. This air is not filtered and leads to dust particles and potentially dangerous chemicals in the indoor air. Making your home air tight also stops moisture moving through building materials. Bulk moisture migrating through building materials could lead to rot or mold growth.
The most common materials used to air seal your home is a latex or silicone caulk. Other materials that can be used include expanding foams, weatherstripping, or dense insulation materials like cellulose. Done right with a holistic approach to building science, these strategies help create a high performance building solution.
As of 2010, according to National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), there are almost 99,000 public K-12 schools in America. In 1999 (the most recent data available), the average public school building in the U.S. was 42 years old. We build our public building, particularly schools, to last a long time. Building to only meet the current code (the absolute worst possible building you can build by law) is a short-sighted approach to the health of our community. Our building codes are updated and most often strengthened every three years in the Commonwealth of Virginia. So why not try to build a building that will perform better than code over the next 50 years.
A Zero-Energy building was once a very expensive proposition that was only achieved by very few specifically using alternative energy. Now with the costs of traditional energy sources going up, alternative energy technology reducing, and building science understanding becoming mainstream, zero-energy buildings are very achievable. This approach to school construction acknowledges the need for a holistic long-term building solution that sets an example for the children attending the school. A Zero Energy Building solution shows the community that our leaders care about future costs to run a facility, tax burdens imposed on community members, and the health of our environment. More important, it shows that our community cares deeply for our children and their future.
The benefits of a Zero-energy school are many including:
1. Reduced energy costs
2. Material efficiency (comes from understanding building science and efficient thermal envelope)
3. Increased economic benefits (alternative energy, building science, and service jobs)
4. Thermal Comfort (better thermal envelope reduced energy required and increases comfort inside)
5. Indoor Environmental Quality (natural light goes hand in hand with this approach to design)
6. Indoor Air Quality (better building construction provides better air quality)
7. Increased attendance (many studies have shown a better indoor environment resulting from high performance construction improves the health of those using the building)
The rain screen is an important element of your wall system that is very often forgotten in home construction. A rain screen is the air space behind your cladding that gives a second line of defense against moisture intrusion. This allows moisture that passes through the cladding a path back out and allows for air to circulate to dry the back of the cladding and the surface of the air barrier. A rain screen should be viewed as a wall durability system that protects your homes indoor air quality. In our design area that averages 35+ inches of rain a year, this layer of defense is a vital part of a healthy, energy-efficient, and durable construction. This is a common detail in a brick veneer wall construction.
“A rotary phone is to codes compliant building as a smart phone is to a high performance building…” When you are thinking of your next project, hire an architect. Buildings are complicated, perhaps the most complicated and expensive machines you will ever control because there are many details that need to be considered beyond aesthetic considerations. The knowledge of building science principles has evolved over the last ten years, as have the evolution of building materials. One cannot rely on past solutions to continue to cooperate with the materials and systems used today.
If you have the opportunity to make decisions about how a building will perform before it is built, take care to do it right and hire an architect. There are many paths to get a building built; you can rely on “because that is the way we always do it” as your source of decisions, or you can base your decisions on the latest understanding of building science.
Look for an architect that has a proven record of successful high performance building solutions. A basic check of third-party certified “green” projects (LEED, EarthCraft, and Energy Star) for example. Take a look at our portfolio to better understand the impact of design.
We hear about Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s) all the time in marketing of paint. That new paint smell that we have suffered through for years in the construction industry, well it turns out, is not good for you. Who would have thought all those air fresheners we added to our cars in the 90’s to get a new car smell was emulating chemical off gassing that is potentially causing us to get sick. The same off-gassing in cars happens in new homes.
A volatile organic compound is a chemical offgassing of a man made product. It has been shown in studies that breathing these chemicals has the potential of causing cancer. While these studies have been conclusive, it is still unclear to many of us in the industry what the real health impacts are and how the new products are impacting our bodies. Of course avoiding anything that has been shown to be harmful is virtually impossible – watching television, using the microwave, breathing…, using products that have reduced or removed VOC is clearly better for your health. The warning is that you need to do careful research for a replacement product to make sure it will be durable and meet the intended goal.
We hear about Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s) all the time in marketing of paint. That new paint smell that we have suffered through for years in the construction industry, well it turns out, is not good for you. Who would have thought all those air fresheners we added to our cars in the 90’s to get a new car smell was emulating chemical off gassing that is potentially causing us to get sick. The same off-gassing in cars happens in new homes.
A volatile organic compound is a chemical offgassing of a man made product. It has been shown in studies that breathing these chemicals has the potential of causing cancer. While these studies have been conclusive, it is still unclear to many of us in the industry what the real health impacts are and how the new products are impacting our bodies. Of course avoiding anything that has been shown to be harmful is virtually impossible – watching television, using the microwave, breathing…, using products that have reduced or removed VOC is clearly better for your health. The warning is that you need to do careful research for a replacement product to make sure it will be durable and meet the intended goal.
“A rotary phone is to codes compliant building as a smart phone is to a high performance building…” When you are thinking of your next project, hire an architect. Buildings are complicated, perhaps the most complicated and expensive machines you will ever control because there are many details that need to be considered beyond aesthetic considerations. The knowledge of building science principles has evolved over the last ten years, as have the evolution of building materials. One cannot rely on past solutions to continue to cooperate with the materials and systems used today.
Look for an architect that has a proven record of successful high performance building solutions. A basic check of third-party certified “green” projects 
