double-stud-wall / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

Larson truss wall systems for new green home building & renovations for max wall insulation A Larsen Truss is a type of lightweight & non structural double-stud wall assembly that allows for thicker insulation, is ideal for dense-packed cellulose insulation wall systems and a very high R-value building envelope...

The Yukon's first LEED certified home was born of new city policies designed to develop people-friendly neighbourhoods. Unused city land between large lots was re-zoned to allow for new housing that promoted community engagement. New zoning regulations for these more modestly sized lots included maximum setbacks to kee...

The following is a firsthand account of a building project by Craig Anderson and his wife France-Pascale Ménard who bought a large piece of land in West Quebec overlooking the Gatineau River and explored the potential options for creating an off-grid passively heated home. This is the first of many posts that will foll...

What is the best wall system for a home?  We're frequently asked which is the perfect wall system for high-performance LEED, Passive House or Zero Energy Homes, Well, a perfect Answer to that Is, first Ask the Right Questions! - After all, what is the best way to get from one place to another?  You have to choose betwe...

With their house about three kilometers from the nearest paved road and hydro pole, so truly off-grid, Craig Anderson and France-Pascale Ménard had no option but to go for extreme efficiency in design, product selection and construction. Craig and France-Pascale went for LEED certification through the CaGBC, and this i...

What is the two thirds rule? How insulation and wall assemblies work best In the world of durable, high-performance green building, few concepts are as little understood as the two-thirds rule. It's pretty much common knowledge that in cold climates the vapor barrier goes on the inside of insulation, and in hot humid c...

LEED Platinum V4 wall design: 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 Membr...

Dense-packed cellulose insulation - the history In 2005, Metric Homes of Carp, Ontario designed and built Canada's first Energy Star labelled home in Canada. This home was built with dense-packed (or dense-blown) cellulose as the wall insulation of choice. Their intent was to produce a better built home with the goal o...

Why suspended-film insulating glass windows may be a game-changer Suspended-film insulating glass windows are an intelligent way to make windows super high-performance with insulating properties up to R-17, without adding too much weight for window frames to cope with.  Since air is an insulator, trapping it (or gas) b...

Comprehensive thermal overcoating: a homeowner's & pro's guide Comprehensive thermal overcoating is the process of wrapping an existing building envelope in a continuous blanket of high-performance insulation to eliminate thermal bridging and move the dew point safely outside the structural wall.  This guide provid...

Vapor open membranes and smart vapor barriers: what they are and when to use them Vapor variable membranes, often called smart vapor barriers or vapor open membranes, are one of the most significant advances in modern building science. They look like standard vapor barriers but can allow a certain amount of moisture to...