I hate people who say "buildings need to breathe". My response is always "why do they need to breathe?" They'll say "to prevent mold and damp", to which the obvious response is "so do they need to breathe or do they need to dry?" It's generations of people who've always gone through life remembering and repeating things they've been told, a whole life of "going through the motions" without ever trying to understand anything or improve themselves; and saying "we've always done it this way" is no different than saying "I don't know what I'm doing" or "I've always done my job wrong". Sorry, but that's not an acceptable excuse.
Matt you, Steve, and Jake are invaluable to the construction industry, especially the next generation coming up behind you. I have learned and implemented many of the science based building practices that you and the team have shared with us. All of your hard work is appreciated and I look forward to watching this entire series.
Great show. This presentation explains why I have misgivings about the current home trend of parapet external walls (with flat roofs and box gutters). All it takes is for the technical drawings to be poorly expressed and an inexperienced (careless) builder or roofing subcontractor, to make one error and the home will get water ingress. This build style is unforgiving and yet so prevalent in new housing estates. Buyer beware I guess.
lol my family house kitchen window has been open since at least early 90's, rio grande tierra del fuego(argentina) here so has seen many snowy winters.. place's been breething free since!
I could listen to Steve all day long, love this series! Question, I'm in the middle of my house build, about to put up the board and batten. Do either of you offer consultation? I have a couple flashing related questions.
I would recommend having drawings first. If it's existing, take wide whole building pictures. Then walk section. Then detail. Name the pictures as a group and number them individually. Make sure its in the image in large red font also. Make it easy and plan on $600 first hour a few hundred per after that. Do that for any pro an you' ll get help.
i think now a differnt interpretation of "the house needs to breathe" should deal more with if there is water intrustion, is it able to dry out. the "breathing" is the air movement designed in a control layer to dry out any areas that did get wet. i saw a house that had mold problems because imo the house was wrapped "too tight". there was no ability for air to get to areas to dry it out. that was part of the thing with the old houses. they had that air movement so any wet areas were not wet for long enough to cause such issues. that whole "if its not dry, its gonna die" saying matt has mentioned many times
@@stevenbaczekarchitect9431 i guess that is more what i am getting at, permeability. did 3rd party inspection work for an industrial hygenist on a stucco replacement due to mold. no place for any water to get out or any vapor drive to dry out the affected area
You know I had a great roofer partner . He was extremely well detailed in the flashing. From the bottom to the top. He used to say to me all the time . Nobody thinks about the water. When it rains . Storms . And he was big on snow guards on the roof. I really like watching you guys !! Just wanted to mention that. I love construction work and especially carpentry. Keep up the great work guys!!
I will seek a roofer to flash my windows, maybe. I have just seen a barndo builder that has no flashing over his windows. He had to ask me what building science is. Where I am preparing to build I don't have many to pick from and they don't have many subcontractors and they may try to build to code but with no demand for code inspection there is no demand to keep up with code. At the very least I will have a very detailed discussion over a pot of coffee and lots of fenestration details to nail what a protected house looks like. His insulation details are the bomb for the first 2 years and he said he has not had one problem in 7 years with the system, about 70 builds. But he will. Moister whether rain driven, condensing or porous concrete can kill an intended healthy home. From the Bottom to the Top! Fortunately I live in Texas too so hopefully the long term economics per Matt, Jake and Steve will will before my designs are complete.
Why spend X selling someone something once when you can spend a fraction of X and sell them the same thing a dozen or more times? More profit that way by far. But my brand name will be ruined! It's only a few hundred bucks to register a new LLC under a new name and poof your company's bad rep is gone. But I'll get sued! Only if you write the contracts poorly. The one I signed most recently had a non-disparagement clause. Meaning that despite how crappy this house is I break contract if I mention who specifically built it.
If you truly want to convert people to having a tight house and use an erv or hrv stop using sarcastic responses like "if you truly believe that have your clients leave their window open an inch year around". The people that are on board with building tight might understand why but not the people think tlhouses need to breathe. Most people have been right about something in their life and the people trying to change their mind either didn't have a full understanding of what they were trying to explain or didn't know what they were talking about so they try to use emotions just to win the arguement, i.e. sarcasm. If you have read all that. Yes I believe in building tight. However, I have also learned that most, not all, people that have to use emotions to win an argument are not using logic.
My dad is an old school builder who still believes that 'buildings need to breathe'. He's totally closed off to learning new things which frustrates me to no end because I believe in Building Sciene and i've been trying to incorporate these ideas into my RV Camper build. He just shakes his head and walks away.
He's wrong. That's no big deal. Take him for a tour of a top tier home. My dad built a trucking company and doesn't believe in self driving trucks. We already have self driving trucks in Colorado. I'm going to take him for a test drive in a Tesla X or semi. Brother in law builds muscle cars and Harley, I took him for a Tesla 3, and he said, "I want one." within 2 min of driving one.
I’m baffled by the lack of wildlife mitigation on homes, new homes included! Located in central florida here and it amazes me how many new construction homes have raccoons, rats, squirrels and more living in their attics!
Have you ever worked with any builders in the North Dakota region? My husband and I are looking to build in a couple years and LOVE your work. We just want someone who you can vet for us
I am in Fargo and growing my network of like-minded people regarding building science. Looking to start a construction company marrying modern building science and classical/vernacular design in the next few years. We should connect!
I would love to hear these guys talk about how they would build if there were no building codes. Could they build a more durable home? If there are places in the US (or world) with relative freedom from codes, I'd love to see what they would do.
Again I am wondering if anyone will make face mounted windows and doors. Instead of setting a square inside a hole in the wall that is larger than the square, the wall and window would interface on a flat plane. Also, the window would be sized to match the thickness of the exterior insulation. Almost all the details that normally fail would be handled in a factory.
If homes don't need to breath, why do we need HRV's and ERV's? My energy audit requires at least 40 cubic feet per minute of air exchange.. Sounds like breathing to me.
Your ERV/HRV is comparable to your respiratory system. Dedicated fresh air systems that are filter and temper incoming outside air that has pollutants, contaminants, moisture, and allergens. Air leaks are like if you had a bunch of holes in your body and expected to breathe out of those. Also, overventilating with those systems can also cause moisture problems. This is part of the problem with the lingo of the industry, as it generates a lot of confusion.
People need to breathe. Exterior walls don't need fresh air. Better to have good air sealing and bring in fresh air than having air come through exterior walls and bring contaminants.
The best insulation would be a vacuum between the interior and exterior walls... That would take some sealing. The key point of building science is being in control of the exchange. Proper perm rating, sealing, drying in vs drying out.. etc.. control. The point still stands. Once we started sealing buildings, we needed to add controlled air exchange.
Buildings in Japan in Kyoto made from wood and paper are only still there because the US specifically chose not to firebomb Kyoto. Tokyo on the other hand...
How would you sheath SIPs Matt. Seems a great option but vulnerable to water like and must be kept dry. Would Zips be overkill what would be a economical choice that guarantees it stay dry?
Pumicecrete is by far the best building material on the planet Pumicecrete is a mixture of pumice cement and water mixed and poured into a set of reusable forms walls are poured from 12"to 24" thick pumicecrete is fireproof termite proof rust rot and mold proof non toxic and has a high R value and good sound attenuation solid poured walls means no critters can live in your walls Pumicecrete can be built for a fraction of the cost and time and pumice is one of the few building materials that can go directly from the mine to the job site ready to use without any additional possessing and zero waste Google all the walls of my house are made of pumicecrete Take care Ray
I hate people who say "buildings need to breathe". My response is always "why do they need to breathe?" They'll say "to prevent mold and damp", to which the obvious response is "so do they need to breathe or do they need to dry?"
It's generations of people who've always gone through life remembering and repeating things they've been told, a whole life of "going through the motions" without ever trying to understand anything or improve themselves; and saying "we've always done it this way" is no different than saying "I don't know what I'm doing" or "I've always done my job wrong". Sorry, but that's not an acceptable excuse.
I think you may have summed up the residential building industry - that's WHY Matt and I set out on this venture.....
Matt you, Steve, and Jake are invaluable to the construction industry, especially the next generation coming up behind you. I have learned and implemented many of the science based building practices that you and the team have shared with us. All of your hard work is appreciated and I look forward to watching this entire series.
Thank you for joining in - very much appreciated
Great show. This presentation explains why I have misgivings about the current home trend of parapet external walls (with flat roofs and box gutters).
All it takes is for the technical drawings to be poorly expressed and an inexperienced (careless) builder or roofing subcontractor, to make one error and the home will get water ingress.
This build style is unforgiving and yet so prevalent in new housing estates. Buyer beware I guess.
Doing a remodel 20 years ago, I hired the concrete contractor based on their motto "We understand that water flows down hill". They delivered.
I just want to say how important this series is. Thank you Matt and Steve!
Very welcome
"...utilizing physics rather than chemistry"...COULDN'T AGREE MORE and yet said no local builder ever. LOVE your content.
Thank you
lol my family house kitchen window has been open since at least early 90's, rio grande tierra del fuego(argentina) here so has seen many snowy winters.. place's been breething free since!
Congrats, this is good for 99% of the incompetent architectes in Canada.
OK KINDA FUNNY LOL
I could listen to Steve all day long, love this series!
Question, I'm in the middle of my house build, about to put up the board and batten. Do either of you offer consultation? I have a couple flashing related questions.
How about they do a video on flashing details for board and baton. Many people have questions
I would recommend having drawings first.
If it's existing, take wide whole building pictures.
Then walk section.
Then detail.
Name the pictures as a group and number them individually. Make sure its in the image in large red font also.
Make it easy and plan on $600 first hour a few hundred per after that.
Do that for any pro an you' ll get help.
i think now a differnt interpretation of "the house needs to breathe" should deal more with if there is water intrustion, is it able to dry out. the "breathing" is the air movement designed in a control layer to dry out any areas that did get wet.
i saw a house that had mold problems because imo the house was wrapped "too tight". there was no ability for air to get to areas to dry it out. that was part of the thing with the old houses. they had that air movement so any wet areas were not wet for long enough to cause such issues. that whole "if its not dry, its gonna die" saying matt has mentioned many times
There is a line between permeability and airtightness, and you may be combining the concepts.......
@@stevenbaczekarchitect9431 i guess that is more what i am getting at, permeability. did 3rd party inspection work for an industrial hygenist on a stucco replacement due to mold. no place for any water to get out or any vapor drive to dry out the affected area
You know I had a great roofer partner . He was extremely well detailed in the flashing. From the bottom to the top. He used to say to me all the time . Nobody thinks about the water. When it rains . Storms . And he was big on snow guards on the roof.
I really like watching you guys !!
Just wanted to mention that. I love construction work and especially carpentry. Keep up the great work guys!!
I will seek a roofer to flash my windows, maybe. I have just seen a barndo builder that has no flashing over his windows. He had to ask me what building science is. Where I am preparing to build I don't have many to pick from and they don't have many subcontractors and they may try to build to code but with no demand for code inspection there is no demand to keep up with code. At the very least I will have a very detailed discussion over a pot of coffee and lots of fenestration details to nail what a protected house looks like. His insulation details are the bomb for the first 2 years and he said he has not had one problem in 7 years with the system, about 70 builds. But he will. Moister whether rain driven, condensing or porous concrete can kill an intended healthy home. From the Bottom to the Top! Fortunately I live in Texas too so hopefully the long term economics per Matt, Jake and Steve will will before my designs are complete.
Why spend X selling someone something once when you can spend a fraction of X and sell them the same thing a dozen or more times?
More profit that way by far.
But my brand name will be ruined!
It's only a few hundred bucks to register a new LLC under a new name and poof your company's bad rep is gone.
But I'll get sued!
Only if you write the contracts poorly. The one I signed most recently had a non-disparagement clause. Meaning that despite how crappy this house is I break contract if I mention who specifically built it.
If you truly want to convert people to having a tight house and use an erv or hrv stop using sarcastic responses like "if you truly believe that have your clients leave their window open an inch year around". The people that are on board with building tight might understand why but not the people think tlhouses need to breathe.
Most people have been right about something in their life and the people trying to change their mind either didn't have a full understanding of what they were trying to explain or didn't know what they were talking about so they try to use emotions just to win the arguement, i.e. sarcasm.
If you have read all that. Yes I believe in building tight. However, I have also learned that most, not all, people that have to use emotions to win an argument are not using logic.
They keep talking about water flowing down from the roof..i thought thats what gutters were for. What am i missing
My dad is an old school builder who still believes that 'buildings need to breathe'. He's totally closed off to learning new things which frustrates me to no end because I believe in Building Sciene and i've been trying to incorporate these ideas into my RV Camper build. He just shakes his head and walks away.
He's wrong. That's no big deal. Take him for a tour of a top tier home.
My dad built a trucking company and doesn't believe in self driving trucks. We already have self driving trucks in Colorado.
I'm going to take him for a test drive in a Tesla X or semi.
Brother in law builds muscle cars and Harley, I took him for a Tesla 3, and he said, "I want one." within 2 min of driving one.
Very interesting!
what about simply saying, its not that they don't need to breathe as much as it is we need to control how much it breathes?
I’m baffled by the lack of wildlife mitigation on homes, new homes included!
Located in central florida here and it amazes me how many new construction homes have raccoons, rats, squirrels and more living in their attics!
They have politicians in their attics? OH MY!
Thank you for continuing to discuss this- I am listening.
GREAT!!!! but you should be talking too, as we all should.....
Want to Gain and Maintain Control Over Time
What app is Steve using?
We have Marvin Windows in town with us. Do you know any local builders you can vet for us?
Have you ever worked with any builders in the North Dakota region? My husband and I are looking to build in a couple years and LOVE your work. We just want someone who you can vet for us
I am in Fargo and growing my network of like-minded people regarding building science. Looking to start a construction company marrying modern building science and classical/vernacular design in the next few years. We should connect!
I would love to hear these guys talk about how they would build if there were no building codes. Could they build a more durable home? If there are places in the US (or world) with relative freedom from codes, I'd love to see what they would do.
Searcy Cty, AR has no codes except for in the capital city which has the county's sole traffic light.
Again I am wondering if anyone will make face mounted windows and doors. Instead of setting a square inside a hole in the wall that is larger than the square, the wall and window would interface on a flat plane. Also, the window would be sized to match the thickness of the exterior insulation. Almost all the details that normally fail would be handled in a factory.
Almost all new construction windows are installed exactly how you said.
If homes don't need to breath, why do we need HRV's and ERV's? My energy audit requires at least 40 cubic feet per minute of air exchange.. Sounds like breathing to me.
Your ERV/HRV is comparable to your respiratory system. Dedicated fresh air systems that are filter and temper incoming outside air that has pollutants, contaminants, moisture, and allergens. Air leaks are like if you had a bunch of holes in your body and expected to breathe out of those. Also, overventilating with those systems can also cause moisture problems. This is part of the problem with the lingo of the industry, as it generates a lot of confusion.
People need to breathe. Exterior walls don't need fresh air. Better to have good air sealing and bring in fresh air than having air come through exterior walls and bring contaminants.
The best insulation would be a vacuum between the interior and exterior walls... That would take some sealing. The key point of building science is being in control of the exchange. Proper perm rating, sealing, drying in vs drying out.. etc.. control. The point still stands. Once we started sealing buildings, we needed to add controlled air exchange.
@@asiridesigns5344 I kind of like the lung analogy. A "leaky house" is like sucking chest wounds - yes, air moves but not in a way that is beneficial.
Buildings in Japan in Kyoto made from wood and paper are only still there because the US specifically chose not to firebomb Kyoto. Tokyo on the other hand...
How would you sheath SIPs Matt. Seems a great option but vulnerable to water like and must be kept dry. Would Zips be overkill what would be a economical choice that guarantees it stay dry?
Pumicecrete is by far the best building material on the planet Pumicecrete is a mixture of pumice cement and water mixed and poured into a set of reusable forms walls are poured from 12"to 24" thick pumicecrete is fireproof termite proof rust rot and mold proof non toxic and has a high R value and good sound attenuation solid poured walls means no critters can live in your walls Pumicecrete can be built for a fraction of the cost and time and pumice is one of the few building materials that can go directly from the mine to the job site ready to use without any additional possessing and zero waste Google all the walls of my house are made of pumicecrete
Take care Ray
Ok boomer
No volcanos in Australia 😢
@@peterbeyer5755 New Zealand and the floating pumice raft
Consider using punctuation. Seriously.