flow-through-wall-assembly / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

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...

Siding installation The walls of your home are an environmental separator. Their job is to keep the inside in and the outside out. Exterior cladding or siding is your first line of defense against weather elements, and its job is to allow interior control layers (ie. the building envelope) to do their jobs without bei...

Are low flow shower heads worth it? So, let's start with this somewhat shocking reality -  North Americans will on average use over 1.4 million litres of water per year, or about 4 to 5 times that of most European citizens. This is according to the SDWF (Safe Drinking Water Foundation). That makes Canada and the US the...

It is well-documented that indoor air is filled with contaminants, mostly due to cooking (specifically burning) and improperly vented combustion appliances (woodstoves, gas water heaters, gas ranges, etc.). Following that would be formaldehyde, VOCs and other chemicals in building materials and furnishings. All these f...

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 key to building smaller homes which don't sacrifice quality of life is ensuring that they are designed to make the best use of their space no matter how limited. However, you must also ensure that there is sufficient privacy by eliminating unwanted sound transmission through walls. In this way, smaller homes can g...

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...

Gabion walls are retaining walls built by stacking stone in a gabion cage or gabion basket that can serve many purposes but are most often used to create tiered or leveled ground in gardens.  They are rectangular baskets of metallic lattice filled with stones and their origin dates back to war times when they were erec...

Tankless water heaters , on demand water heaters and  instantaneous water heaters are different names for the same thing - domestic hot water systems that do not include the storage tank that comes with traditional water heaters.  This type of water heating system can be advantageous in some climates, provided they use...

The best tips to save money & reduce bills? First of all, the best way to reduce bills & save money is to spend as little as possible for the maximum return, as not everyone who wants to be 'green' has a wad of bills they can throw at the latest and greatest renewable technologies for sustainable homes. So wher...

The difference between air barriers and vapor barriers The job of a vapor barrier is to prevent vapor diffusion, and the job of an air barrier is to stop air leakage through differences in air pressure. A wall system should have one vapor barrier, but can have many air barriers. A vapor barrier can act as a very effect...