"Building envelope"

Building envelope / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

Air and vapour barriers

What is an air barrier?

...building enclosures that are less forgiving than the air barrier. Where to install an air barrier: A building envelope should only ever have one vapour barrier, and it goes on the warm side of the insulation. Air barriers on the other hand, can be anywhere in the wall assembly and as plentiful as you like. It is highly...

Concept and design

Building science for LEED v4 wall design made easy - video

...Building Science The wall we designed for the Edelweiss house, Canada's first LEED Platinum V4 Home is best categorized as a 'REMOTE' wall, a high performance building envelope developed by the Cold Climate Housing Research Centre in Alaska. REMOTE stands for 'Residential Exterior Membrane Outside-insulation TEchniq...

Efficient home design

Understanding thermal performance

...building materials! Lorne Ricketts is a Building Science Engineer [EIT] with RDH Building Engineering Ltd. and has significant experience with the thermal performance of building enclosures and insulation products. He was the lead investigator on a recent project by RDH which assessed the thermal performance of con...

Air and vapour barriers

How to install an air barrier for reduced air leakage - video

...building envelopes. Read more in the Ecohome Building guide and the pages below, and watch more green building videos here on the Ecohome YouTube channel Taping sheathing as an air barrier saves time and materials The difference between air barriers and vapor barriers Choosing the right house wrap / weather barr...

Air and vapour barriers

The difference between air barriers and vapor barriers

...Building practices should always be determined by the climate in which you are building. How water vapor travels: There are two main ways moisture will pass through your walls that you should be concerned about — air leakage and vapour diffusion. These are two completely different things, with two completely separate s...

Crawl spaces

Should I build on a slab on grade foundation or a crawl space?

...building a raft slab we saved money by not requiring any soil remediation. Read more about our Wakefield house solar air heated slab floor here. What’s cheaper to build – a slab on grade or crawlspace? A slab is cheaper. A crawl space is like building a mini (and dysfunctional) basement, so you get most of the cost, a...

Wall assemblies - new construction

Choosing a building envelope - starting with the perfect wall

...building codes, building materials, and how we condition our homes. These changes mean homes are better insulated, more airtight and, most importantly, with better ventilation like HRV's or ERV's or air conditioning. There is also much more understanding of how buildings work and why walls can fail in a home with air c...

Insulation and soundproofing

Choosing the right insulation: the pros, cons and applications for walls, slabs and basements

...building materials to do for you when they are part of a wall assembly. If you have a working knowledge of building science then forge ahead, if not, check out this video about high-performance wall construction and insulation first to learn the basics. Understanding the physics behind how walls work is the key to des...