Can a House be too Air Tight?
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- Опубліковано 6 жов 2024
- Can a house be too Air Tight? People always want to know how tight is too tight in a house for air control? Well we finally run a blower door test on the Best House...and we are tight. Building Science says make your home as air tight as possible, so you can control what air comes in and out of your home. What are your thoughts?
Big thanks to Minneapolis Blower Door, (The Energy Conservatory) for running the blower door test, Randy Williams (@northernbuiltpro7197 ) for his Building science wisdom and support, and Dan Edelman (@danedelmanrw on IG) for making it all happen with Rockwool.
Best House Building Plans as well as other Post Frame Plans
rrplans.bigcar...
The Energy Conservatory
Minneapolis Blower Door
store.energyco...
What a beautifully done ua-cam.com/users/postUgkxYGamVaHfdHiPlAQaLa7zkwR02OKpGYDU ! The instructions and the photographs are brilliant. It is thorough and genuinely informative. Ryan got another winner! No one does it better!
Kyle, post frame doesn't have an advantage over conventional traditional framing for air sealing and blower door test scores. The reason for your excellent scores is that you and Greg pay attention to every detail and build a better building with each successive project. Your exterior sheathing and taping is very good, your interior air sealing and taping is very good and your detailing of all of your penetrations is very good. Because you care and actually try to do a very good job you end up with a very good building. Give your plans to a production builder and they would build the post frame structure just as poorly as they build their conventionally built homes. The bottom line difference is that you and Greg give a $*it and the results reflect it. Very nice workmanship! Thanks for sharing... 😁👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Amen!!
Well I appreciate that but I will argue post frame is an “easier” detail to perform
@@RRBuildings Please don't get me wrong here as I agree with you. However, that being said, if you and Greg built an exact duplicate of that building, footprint, wall height, trusses, etc. and finished it out the same way, I think that you would end up with the same results. It's your quality workmanship and attention to details that seals the deal... I love post frame and very much respect your opinion and am in no way trying to stir the pot. The simple rectangle well sealed inside and out is very hard to beat regardless of the framing method. I am a GC, a long time subscriber and I greatly appreciate your work and your UA-cam channel. Keep up the great work. You are a rising ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I would argue there are some major advantages - some advantages could be worked into conventional framing if you can get the crews on board - but having the entire interior one open spaces - no structural load wall that you have do plan and deal with (youd have to leave strips of the vapour layer for the framers to place in as the wall adjacent framing is attached).
with post frame - you can frame everything as normal - then get specific guys that can handle the entire air seal - get a real test there to ensure quality (avoid taped seems like they had one there) - and your done.
You'll still have to coordinate with the other trades - pipes and other penetrations are a lot simpler with butyl circular seals that you can put on DURING INSTALL - then you don't have to deal with the tape situations there as much. So it'd be much easier to roll out a higher quality product than having to retrain carpenters (the carpenters aren't getting a pay raise to do more work, and won't feel like it's their job and have no reason to do a good one - it's harder to change people then just modify the process a bit).
@@jonathanburr9798 JB, all of your points are correct. However, any framing crew would be able to conventionally frame a rectangle, set trusses and create the same open space. The shear panels and air sealing we be almost identical. I have done it both ways and it is simply all about the details. You definitely have to make sure that everyone involved is committed to the objective and that they understand each and every step. It is really fantastic that so many can learn and exchange ideas in a positive manner thanks to the light shined on the subject by Kyle and Greg. Great work all around. Great buildings and great videos. Many thanks to all contributors! 😁👍
4 ACH is code…1 ACH and Kyle says still ain’t good enough we can do better! It’s that kind of pride in your work that makes the work you guys do so damn desirable.
I built my last house too tight. IAQ was horrible and we had to constantly leave windows open. Eventually had to install a HRV to gain more ACH.
A passive house has to be .6ACH,, which if your not building to passive house standards then your not building a good home.
I read the entire Ryan's ua-cam.com/users/postUgkxGqOCINHE0Z0E5gxzSdNi9NWGugRY5Hm2 Plans and was able to make a shed plan. Using Ryan's Shed Plans alone, the shed itself is great. Where I wish I knew more is with respect to ground preparation and foundations. Maybe that's beyond the scope of Ryan's Shed Plans.
Always great to see blower door testing, and retesting after making improvements. It would be great to see a follow up video for the resulting HVAC equipment sizing for this home.
Yes please
Awesome video. Thank you. I really appreciate you running the test once, showing the diagnosis of what type of mistakes were contributing to the result, then running the test again to show what improvement you could make after remediating those areas. I'm trying to fine someone to build a high-performance home; this video is a great example of the level of care and attention to detail I'm hoping to find.
Next step is doing an ASHRAE calculation for ventilation and design a "Balanced Air" Ventilation strategy for the structure and its occupants. Explore Heat Recovery Ventilation and/or Energy Recovery Ventilation. You are doing great, brother!
Impressive baseline number without using sprayfoam and before drywall is applied. If you're OCD about air tightness, look into the Aero Barrier product. Matt Risinger is big on it.
Aerobarrier is not the best approach - its a "I did a bad job and really need this fixed" use or "I can't do a full tear apart but doing a full interior reno on an existing".
It's cheaper and more future proof using the systems as above.
Aerobarrier is just caulking - it has a lifetime and may have a failure rate 30 years down the road. Its also hard to say where the holes it fills are - meaning if you renovate in the future and move walls around - you might have removed areas the aerobarrier fixed. The tape and membrane systems become true materials after the adhesive fully set - meaning they will last longer then the house will, and would have better shear and tear resistance so "house shifting" problems are lesser - so the value will be true even as the house ages.
Matt is big on anything he’s paid to be big on. He just drooled all over a tesla solar roof and I hope people are listening because I make an absolute killing chasing down installation issues and maintenance once tesla abandons the customers
Matt risingburg is my conservative daddy, I subscribe to all the products he uses even the tp ask my gfa wife
I spent many years working on air tightness as an Engineer on specific Engineering projects. Tight enough that we had built in installations for CO2 scrubbing at a minimum and even special environmental candles and other high tech air monitoring systems. So yes you can be too tight for human habitation. As so one of the comments have suggested you require the HVAC to maintain habitable conditions. I must have a look to see if you have done a video on the HVAC installation checks you carry out. I would appreciate if someone could point me to these HVAC checks you do.
In my job we were able to readily test for Radon and CO2. I am assuming in a High Radon area you install Radon membranes and check the HVAC pressures to ensure the basement or the ground floor rooms are set up to have the lowest HVAC DP's? Even ventilate ground air spaces out with the living area. If you google it between 3 and 14% of all lung cancer deaths can be attributed to Radon in homes and I have seen higher percentages than this in the past being quoted. So proper ventilation is so important in some areas. Especially in basements due the properties of radon and its sources.
An interesting test if someone in your house likes burning scented candles is to buy ain inexpensive CO2 monitor and watch how the CO2 rises in your living space. I did a test in our own house and it soon rose to about 3000 ppm from the background of approx 400ppm. Your local building codes usually will recommend 1000 ppm to 1500ppm as a maximium certainly a max of 5000ppm would be advised.
The use of drywalls with high levels of Strontium Sulphate (Sulfate) could also be a problem in house with good air tightness and improperly set up HVAC systems.
I was also interested in the discussion on a wind factor in the calculation. As many of you know wind loading can increase a pressure on the outside wall but also a negative pressure with a venturi effect in action especially on gable ends of buildings.
The systems I worked on that had cable penetrations were installed into wall glands with a testable interspace which was a maintenance item for us. I see in the comments suggestion that rubber will deteriorate over time. Though we had to repair some over the years it did not tend to be an issue.
Certainly an interesting and thought provoking video that has me away looking into how different places and industries deal with these sort of issues.
I look forward to the next.
As
video
Great result !
You need to look into penetration membrane flanges. Basically a rubber sheet with tape around the edge. You push the pipe through a smaller hole than the pipe. Like a 1 inch pipe through a 3/4inch hole. Saves a lot of hassle with tape.
What's the lingevity on that? Surely the rubber will get stiff and fail ling after tape curls up aand falls off.
Impressive results. To put the NLR value in some context....
The PHIUS+ 2015 air leakage target for this type of building would be 0.25 litres/second/sq. meter @ 50 Pa. This home's NLR (0.023 cfm/ft^2 @ 50 pa) was half that target: 0.11684 L/s/m^2 @ 50 Pa!!!
The ENERGY STAR for New Homes air leakage target (Canada) for a detached home is 0.93 L/s/m^2 @ 50 Pa, this home is ~ 8x tighter than that target.
Congrats to all of the trades involved on this project, clearly everyone's efforts resulted in a very tight enclosure!
Love the intentional holes you guys left to really help quantify your efforts in detailing everything - not only for us but for you and Greg as well. Congrats guys!
Wow! Impressive job guys. If the air barrier stays intact through the plumbing and HVAC you have a winner!
We already knew you and Greg are fantastic builders. This is the proof. And your willingness to accept that we all make mistakes is a learning experience in itself. Well done. You should have a very happy client!
Great job Kyle. Love the blower door testing it shows the high level of craftsmanship that you and Greg have
I love this stuff, Kyle.
Controlling the air shouldn't JUST be up to the HVAC guys.
Build it right, build it tight. Then, HRV/ERV it.
wow, awesome demo, Kyle! This is a first for me, so I was very impressed with the equipment used to check for air leaks! I'm glad you left some pipes unsealed as well as overlooked some tape on the wrap. It actually made the whole test make more sense. I never knew double hung windows had so much air leakage, but it makes sense, and I have never been a fan of sliding doors, and this test just goes to show that you lose a little energy not matter how much you spend on them. Thanks for doing the demo. I'm 57 now, and I grew up framing residential homes with my dad from the time I was 11 on up. I'm an electrician now for the last 11 years; just another facet of construction. Again, great demo.
I’m not a builder - at best a moderately competent DIYer. But there’s something about watching experts do their thing and explain it to me that I just can’t get enough of. Cheers guys
Living in rural Colorado mountains where wood burning is main source of heat, I don't want a tight insulated house , It needs to breath and let fresh air in.
The main thing I need and every house needs is to filter the air. Which I do with diy filter box made of 5 merv 13 furnace filters and a box fan.
I keep my windows open year round. Pure fresh air straight from outside is healthier than air coming through an hvac exchange unit that needs constant maintenance.
You must not live in a big city 😉
You will hardly ever be sick in a fresh air environment. Tight houses make sick people
When I was a kid in Iowa, our bedroom was a converted porch. One winter, I woke up with a snow drift next to me, it wasn't air-tight but we were healthy and never went to the doctor.
I think a lot of your fans said it before, but dude you smashed that test. Great results man.
Nice Demonstration I remember Building the McDonald’s and setting the air pressure because of the exhaust fan’s and Roof Top AC ya wanted Positive Air pressure to keep Fly’s from coming in the Doors and DT Windows!
And it keeps the smoke out during forest fires in the area.
That’s an awesome score man! I wanted to use the Majrex, but my drywaller said he couldn’t glue to my studs. Having a secondary interior wall is a huge advantage of your method with post frame. Hopefully your compounding success will allow you to only take on the jobs you’re super passionate about. Love your channel!
Way to go RR Buildings. I learn so much from watching your videos and listening to your commentary.
Excellent job guys!
Reading through all the "too tight" and "house needs to breath" comments reminds me that the general public has a lot to lean re erv/hrv. With ach in a typical home, "fresh" air is pulled in through the wall system, any off-gassing of building materials is brought right in to breath. With an erv/hrv, the fresh air is brought in directly from the outside, and preheated /tempered with outgoing air - not the efficiency loss many commenters fear.
The question becomes what are we gaining? The only real advantage is the fact that we can now filter said air. The energy cost is very similar once you add the entire cost of the erv/hrv.
@@jimjohnson515 bug/rodent sealing ... filtering air is a huge benefit if you live in a wildfire prone area, city with a lot of air pollution, and are allergic to pollen
they just showed you that it doesn't take a million dollars to create a great house ... you just need builders who care and actually focus on the details
also keep in mind that if air is going from the inside to the outside it will bring moisture with it ... that will get trapped inside the wall cavities and mold might form or you might have condensation issues
@@jimjohnson515 were gaining the ability to control the volume and source of fresh air. Also, to increase fresh air flow is a tiny fraction of the cost of opening a window, as an HRV is ~85% efficient at capturing heat from outgoing air. Equipment running costs are inconsequential with a small ecm motor.
Gaining so much more than just energy efficiency. Quality of air, less dirt, bugs, mold being trapped in a wall cavity due to leaky walls
@@RRBuildings First and foremost you and Greg have built a great post frame home in these videos. You have gone to much greater lengths than most builders and subs ever would to create a quality product! Here in the southeast however the tight air approach to home building introduces more issues pertaining to moisture, mold and condensation. The outdoor air in most of the US is 2 to 5 times better quality than indoor air according to the EPA so, filtering indoor air is of much higher importance than filtering the incoming air. That being said any filtration you use is a good thing especially if you suffer from things like seasonal allergies, asthma etc. Bugs and dirt can be avoided with "proper" conventional building techniques. As you have shown in this video air is entering the wall in many places and you are depending on the Majrex at the drywall level to stop the flow therefore, (IN MY OPINION) mold isn't any less likely to be trapped in the wall cavity than a "leaky wall cavity".
P.S. I built and live in a "tight air" home (well under 2 ACH 50). I initially installed just an ERV and humidity would regularly get above 65%. This forced us to install a whole home dehumidifier to be comfortable in the summer.
A friend of mine here in South Dakota builds SIP homes. He has his own BLower door and tests all of his houses. In the counties we live in, nobody is enforcing ACH, yet he does it for his clients. He generally heats the houses he builds with Electric in floor heat.
Sips are also fanstic the challenge is getting uniform foaming on the joints.
Great job Kyle and Greg always enjoy watching you guys Happy for you with your new blower test
Hopefully you address humidification now with a tight building and fresh air changes. Use hrv and erv with these builds, lexel the base of inside exterior walls for next level tightness
I bet you can get that number down after drywall
Absolutely wild, but a testament to your level of detail. I’m totally sold on building my own post frame using this system.
Awesome guys... Im still building ours air tight... Keep it up brothers
Pretty wild that two people did so much work in this house. Around Little Rock, AR, the are huge crews that blow through, build a house as fast as possible and then move on to the next one.
I'm so pumped to build our post frame home.
Any plans on doing the blower test again once drywall is up? I’d imagine the score would drop even lower. Job well done Kyle and Greg!
😅 Kyle was upset at the first reading. Lol. Did amazing and was let down.! Great job
All this without spray foam at all. Amazing work.
Spray foam has a lot of issues people ignore in favour for air tightness. I'm glad they can show it isn't required!
@@AmandaComeauCreates absolutely my thoughts too!
@@AmandaComeauCreates what issues?
@@FJB2020 so while spray foam can create a great air seal (only if installed correctly and a lot of factors to a great install are hard to control namely moisture and temperature of the air and surface being sprayed. Even technique can make or break an install) there is one fundamental characteristic I run away from. It's R value drops at a very early 'halflife'. So even if installed perfectly, the moment you are done installing and curing is the highest r value you'll ever get. As it ages, you'll have less and less. And the rvalue per inch isn't high enough for that product to hold 'code' rvalue for the life of the building.
It's also prone to damage by insects and water, rodents chew thru it, and while it is a superior air barrier - it is my firm opinion that used as an air barrier in conjunction with a batt insulation as the primary insulator is the best option.
@@AmandaComeauCreates I have seen many "flash and batt" installs and some suffer from issues. Mainly not installing the spray foam correctly and/or leaky post frame buildings. In regards to the half-life, do you have any supporting documents, I just looked and I can't find anything on the LTTR of it and at what rate it degrades.. Thanks
My Dad was a home builder back in the 70’s and built one of the first solar homes. He actually went to school just to build this house.
After the build the new owners we’re trying to have a fire in the fireplace. The fire kept smoking up the house and it took my dad weeks to figure it out. 🤔
He finally realized there was nowhere to draft the fire because the house was to “Air tight” I will never forget that
Phenomenal videos. I just wish we could find /boom this type of quality in my area.
I live in Minneapolis and I've never even heard of this. Very interesting that's for sure.
You can also while they do the blower door they can spray a arousal into the air that will seal holes up. Very cool video.
Interesting video that showcases the new way of building insulated houses.
You know that Siga makes special Fentrim sleeves, sort of neoprene socks, that you put around pipes and cables to make them airtight very easily.
For sealing conduit, there are special silicone seals to put in conduit where you can run cables thrue, your electrical specialist should be able to supply this, it is also used in acoustic applications, where conduit and HVAC pipes are known sources where sound goes through.
Electrical installation manufacturers have all kinds of solutions for these kind of special applications, often the fire safety is such a specialism that is overlooked, but has a lot of solutions that help building airtight as well.
The confirmation that you guys are building awesome stuff! Good job Kyle and Greg.
Great score Kyle! Well done man! 👍😁👍😁
Great video to show the improvement. We've also been testing before drywall to find the best ways to air seal. Our conclusion is to take the air barrier to the exterior. You already have a sheathing with a built-in WRB. Why not just focus on that? We've been doing that and ignoring air-sealing on the inside except for fire and are getting less than .3 ACH50 with a hard focus on the sheathing only.
No a house can not be too air tight, but once it is tight you need very controlled air management. What air quality sensors are you going to use for IAQ? Nicely done! Great attention to detail. When building how much of a cost adder is this extra attention to detail? The low bid guys would have been happy with 4 to meet code. You are 10x tighter, which will save $$$ HVAC. Humidity management is now an important thing vs older houses with high air exchange.
Kyle - have you considered using @aerobarrier instead of just s blower door? Aerobarrier includes a blower door plus an adhesive spray system that fills in air gaps by fogging up the house. No hunting for leaks. Thoughts?
No such thing as too tight as long as you have an HRV or ERV installed. Without one, then Yes, Indoor Air Quality can become downright dangerous if too tight.
Yes and so can a barn, my inlaws had one built recently and it was all sealed up and not ventilated. The first time we went into it in the spring after it being closed all up all winter we nearly passed out to gasoline fumes from vehicles stored in it. It took over a day with the doors open to comfortably be able to enter it again without smelling gasoline.
That doesn’t sound like a good thing
@@RRBuildings I am a timber frame designer, I have not been part of one of these tests but I would like to see how it compares with SIP walls as we typically specify air exchangers due to how well they are sealed up.
Kyle, I want to give credit where credit is due. It's a great video! Love the attention to detail you guys have. I can appreciate you guys always trying to outperform your last project. I try to instill that practice with my crew of carpenters. The trades need more professionals like this. Good job!
Wow - Huge value add for your customer
Build as tight as you can and install an Air exchanger and humidity control.
Take control over your building envelope.
This should be the building standard of the future. It is insane how in efficient our homes are in the US. Just small efforts like this can make a massive difference!
There is also a new company that uses a machine that basically aerosolizes caulking and they pressurize the building and then pump that aerosol in the air and it finds all the leaks and seals them for you. Obviously it has some limitations but all the smaller gaps and whatnot will be sealed. It's pretty coll system although it is new and I'm sure will be improved on as time goes by but it's a cool thing to check out
After the sick building syndrome, They had the people with pocket protectors analyze the available data. They determined a building needs one air change per hour, per human inhabitant. That is what i read many years ago.
Double check when you ordered your windows what the dp rating is. Andersen has an option to upgrade the performance depending on requirements/design pressure.
Operable windowsalwaya will have some air leakage because they need to be able to drain water through weep holes. That being said you have to find the balance of how easy you want doors to operate and how tight of a building you have because the higher dp rated windows have extra weather stripping which then causes more friction and they don't operate as smoothly. You might get a more tighter window but they won't operate as smoothly. The real test would be to check the fixed windows. They should have no leakage at all for the most part.
Randy opening the sliding door during the smoke test looked like a dude in a Cheech and Chong movie.😂
There's a big ol' gap at the top of the blower door the entire test. Really wonder how much that affected the results. It's right above his head in the video.
We tested with smoke… it didn’t equate to enough to worry about… if we were trying to get even lower maybe we could have sealed it
@@RRBuildings Maybe you'd have hit that 0.43 instead of matching the 0.44 from the last build! haha.
But yeah, just wondering if I was seeing things or if the blower-door wasn't quite fully sealed. Thanks for the great video and great explanation of the process here.
You didn't answer the question, lol. How tight is too tight? I'm guessing that you will now need a "make up air" system to keep out mold buildup and have fresh air in the house. That's what I hate about tight buildings. You end up doing away with the tight seal for healthier air inside. It's like a never-ending cycle. All that code regulation and you end up destroying the sealed interior for fresh air.
He opens the slider like cheech and says, "HEY MAAAAN" holding back a cough... 🤙
I've seen caulking blown into the air inside the house and when the house is pressurized the calking is blown into the holes, sealing the home.
They even showed how a 1/2" hole was closed off with the caulking.
It was developed to find the holes, the human eye couldn't find/see/locate, giving the house a full and complete seal. As such they had to install a system to all air into the home, but that air was clean, etc to make for a completely healthy air exchange
It's called Aerobarrier. Matt Risinger has a couple of great videos about it. ua-cam.com/video/CV5elSvasic/v-deo.html
It's called aerobarrier
Blown away! Amazing technology but I’m curious how much people standing directly in front of the blower affects the data gathered
Probably shouldn't affect it since it's based on pressure and people will affect air flow.
I love the fact he quotes Steve Basik
ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!! I just wish there was a way to adapt post frame to FL building codes more easily. Guess I'll just have to build further north.
FL gotta have block 1st floor for what should be obvious reasons
@@mattbrew11 lots of single and multi family residences are being built stick frame from the ground up in FL.
Here is a simple explanation for how a blower door test score is calculated. These step are a simplification of what the machine does but is still an good example.
First you make a chart with pressure on the horizontal axis and volume flow on the vertical axis.
Then you read pressure and air volume on the machine and make a point in the chart.
Once you have collected many points you then try to draw a curve or a line in the centre were the dots are most concentrated. When you have the curve you can use it to find at 50 Pascal of pressure I will have this air volume. This also works for all pressures which you have been able draw in the curve.
Maybe last step would be aroseal or airobarrier not sure what’s it’s called but the spray aerosolized silicone mist and it seals minute cracks. But .44 is freaking awesome.
One of the benefits of the 1960 build home was the 2 to 3 times a day total air exchange passing through modestly air tight walls. Got moisture in the walls? No problem as it would dry out fairly fast. R factor of fiberglass insulation was dependent on moisture level. So those 1960 houses leaked hot air to the atmosphere but were nice, warm and very dry.
As an owner of an old, leaky house, the energy bills are awful.
Warm and dry but expensive to heat
... It takes much less energy to dry fiberglass through humidity control than it does to dry it by leaking warm air 😂
RR, the Rolls Royce of buildings!
Take that Matt Risinger!! 😂 Job well done by the boys.
I'd hate to do one of these tests on the house I live in now. The results would be awful, well done guys👍👌🇦🇺
Very interesting. Thanks and well done.
we just had a problem with a 400 series Anderson patio door one seal on the fixed panel seals the whole door we had to call Anderson because wind driven rain was going through the seal and there was standing water on the inside
Really curious how much extra cost is involved in taking it to that level. Whatever it is, there is a payback period in terms of energy use. If that can be clearly explained to a client, like with solar projects, that'd be where the benefit to the builder happens. They pay you up front instead of paying the energy companies forever.
Also curious if this is an extra cost over spray foam - especially closed cell to get that “air seal”. I would think potential cost savings gets eaten pretty quick with the time needed for detailing. I do think this will have a longer efficiency life. Maybe factor a ROI with the r-value losses of foam over time compared to this method.
If I ever win the lotto, Kyle and Greg will have a blank check to come build my places. Awesome stuff fellas. And Happy Birthday, Kyle!
Let me know loo
One question I would have is if you build the house and then use spray foam, instead of using the siga product what is the cost comparison between the two? Which one is cheaper?
Would you comment on the climate control ERV/HRV system for this house?
Maybe a future video
That does it for me. I'll be building my walls out of Rockwool but my roof with SIP's. Not sure what I'll be doing for my under slab insulation just yet.
Spart foam can be applied under and around slab.
@@ShotGunner5609 Don't you mean spray foam?
I find it amazing how air tight it is . But I also ask myself is it really healthy. Yes I know use installing equipment to move the air ,I just not sure.
Must add make-up air. But that will come in at one controlled location with filtration to keep outside contaminants from coming in. Much better than dirty air seeping through all the cracks and crevices picking up particles of insulation. During the forest fires it would be nice to have controlled air intake.
That is awesome. Keep it up
Impressive to say the least. Attention to details shows and both Greg n y’self have yr hearts in the job for the clients. It’s so rewarding to watch such positive results. Yr. Client must-will be super happy with the product yr delivering.
Great job, great team work and a joy to watch n see.
Great video. I learned a lot.
Great job! I hope the client wants to put an erv system in and I’m curious to know how they will cool the house.
Would it have made a different in the score if you did two inches of closed cell spray foam?
*HRV
Definitely getting an hrv/erv this house won't need much of an HVAC system.
One other note: I would love to have my own Blower door but they are like 5k and the energy auditors that do your score are typically in and out fast (unless you are a youtube influencer) and dont stick around to find the leaks and if they do get your wallet out. However, you can make a DIY blower door easy with a large fan/floor dryer to pressurize/depressurize the house and do your own leak detection before blower door guy ever shows up. Its not going to give you all the fancy numbers like a true blower door but it will work just as well to find all the leaks in combination of with a smoke machine. Typically I would do it reverse as shown. Depressurize the house (suck air out) and blow smoke from outside directly onto building and see if it gets sucked in. This will be easy to spot and wont fill the entire inside with thick smoke and any dampers for things like kitchen/bath exhaust fans wont be getting blown open.
If you have a decent temperature difference between interior and exterior you would be able to see leaks with an IR camera as well.
yes you can but IR cameras are still pricy. I do have one but smoke does work better. As you point out you need a large temperature difference and depending on the camera there are other issues such as reflected heat. Just fyi you can use on of those insect foggers and put smoke fluid in them. They are cordless, cheap and produce a good amount of smoke. @@WTFUSERNAM44
my inlaws built their dream home and its too tight...all sorts of condensation, water issues. THey have to run their AC all the time and plug in dehumidiers everywhere. I am of the mindset that the house needs to breath like everything else.
Faulty HVAC design. Sounds like they need an HRV/ERV installed that works properly. Yes, it needs to breathe, but it breathes where *we* want it to breathe, not the house, randomly
Please go do one on a project from a few years ago!
I’d love to
How do we buy rockwool in bulk without going through a big box store ?
Question, why do you stick build your interior walls instead of building them like your exterior post and beam walls?
Love your channel! Very instructional, from Delaware!!
Still using foam to seal up the leaks. That goes to show you the closed cell spray foam is still superior!
Going to bust someone’s ear drums out slamming a door in that build.
Well done!
Awesome job. The results show it, you guys did awesome! Keep up the great work!
Outstanding video!
Great video, thx, healthy living, especially in COVID-19 pandemic era require a higher rate of ACH with enhanced ventilation. This is also good for all those with asthma, allergies or lung disease. Please do a video or reference one on Heat Recovery Ventilation systems that ensure good ventilation with minimal thermal loss (which is the whole point of a maximum airtight house). Thanks!
Amagian what the blower door would be if you used closed cell for 2" after all the pipes went through then batt and covered like you did. The only leaks you would have would come from the doors and windows.
Thats essentially all the leaks he has now.
You guys smoked that house like Cheech and Chong! Great build just make sure you seal the HVAC as well. You will be able to condition that house with a nickel
As law in New Zealand we need to have a minimum of 8 ach to comply with enough oxygen in the house and enough fresh air to ventilate the house as we don’t have central air
Your electrician should have sealed that pipe with a duct seal compound that remains flexible. It's required by code per NEC 300.7 (a). Maybe remind your subs of that in the future to ensure good scores!
Kyle, I like you, Dude… but why is spray foam the “lazy” way?
Lazy because initially it may be great and it required very little detailing. Also it’s not breathable like a smart vapor or air control layer. I don’t mean to be negative and I’d still spray foam when it makes sense. But as a builder I don’t get to actually check every detail so I call it lazy for me as a builder
@@RRBuildings Spray foam is an absolute racket these days, the prices being charged are ludicrous. The only person it's better for is the installer... Equal results can be had for half the price.
Good job guy's!
Next time use European type windows and the number for sure will be lower. Great job guys, greetings from Bulgaria 🇧🇬