spray-foam-blowing-agents / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

4th generation blowing agents for spray foam
Insulation and soundproofing

New HFO blowing agents for spray foam will make it over 1,000 times less harmful to the climate

New blowing agents for spray foam coming by the end of 2017 Foam insulation is a petroleum-based product and nothing will change that. But that was never the biggest problem the 'eco' building community had with foam insulation; the main issue was the inclusion of chemicals with a global warming potential (GWP) that wa...

Is EPS foam eco-friendly? Exterior home insulation rigid foam panels
Insulation and soundproofing

Does plastic foam or Styrofoam insulation have a place in green building?

Are foam insulation panels a green choice? The short story is, maybe. And the long story is, well.... When we launched Ecohome about a decade ago, our mission was to create a green building website where homeowners and builders could learn how to make informed design and product choices and build sustainable, energy-ef...

Spray Foam Insulation - Is it Good or Toxic & Dangerous?
Insulation and soundproofing

Is spray foam insulation a good choice for your home? Or a toxic recipe for disaster?

There is a plethora of home improvement shows demonstrating how easy it is to buy, renovate and flip a house, and make some easy coin in the process. And when there is insulating to be done, it often seems people gravitate towards spray foam insulation. Why is that? Well, it works - at least in some ways. Spray foam ma...

Basement Design for walls prevents mold & midlew when renovating & finishing
Healthy indoor air quality

Basement renovations: How to prevent mold when finishing basements

Basements don't have to be moldy, that is the first thing to realize. It's easy to build a basement better, or to finish an existing basement correctly, we just need to realize that they behave differently than above grade walls and to build accordingly to effectively deal with the humidity found underground - and by d...

How much is Too Much Insulation in my Attic or Walls?
Insulation and soundproofing

How much insulation is too much in attics and walls?

Home Insulation - how much is too much? A House can definitely be under-insulated (millions of homes throughout the United States and Canada have this very problem), but can a home have too much insulation? In short, yes it can. In reality, there is an optimal balance between the up-front cost of insulation and the lon...

Building science for LEED v4 wall design made easy
Concept and design

Building science for LEED v4 wall design made easy - video

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...

Air and vapour barriers

Aerobarrier home and attic air-sealing spray

We cannot overstate the importance of airtightness in homes and attic rooms. A proper air barrier reduces heat loss in winter, overheating in summer, and prevents moisture build up in walls which can lead to mould and rot. We recently had a chance to try out a product that at first sounds too good to be true, but one t...

Durability Risk Evaluation Form
LEED Homes

Durability Risk Evaluation Form

  Creating a durability risk evaluation and management plan means determining the specific risks and challenges your home would face - starting with the climate zone where you are building and moving on to building lot particulars. Two neighbouring homes will face many similar issues, but may have greatly differing one...

Installing foam panel insulation, which is best?
Insulation and soundproofing

Rigid insulation panels: which ones to use for different applications

Polyisocyanurate (PIR), Extruded Polystyrene (XPS), Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) or Styrofoam? When building or renovating a high-performance building envelope there are really three main kinds of rigid foam panels you are going to have to choose from - Polyisocyanurate known as Polyiso (PIR), Extruded Polystyrene (XPS) ...

How to Insulate Exterior Walls from the Outside US Canada Ecohome
Walls and Roofs

The easiest way to insulate walls from the exterior in older homes

How to insulate house walls from the outside Adding extra insulation to the exterior walls of an older home when renovating or remodeling is a great way of improving a home's walls thermal performance and reducing energy use while reducing heating bills, carbon footprint and improving a building's comfort level. It may...

Insulated Radiant Floor ICF Foam Forms Heated with Air
Delivery: radiant, forced-air and decentralized

Air-heated radiant floor slab foam forming systems

Radiant heating systems are very common in concrete floors now because they provide a very balanced and comfortable distribution of heat. Those systems are most commonly hydronic, meaning heated liquid is pumped through tubing in the concrete which then radiates that heat into the house. View the slab on grade foam for...