Recent Q&A

• Mike Guretin video on installing window flashing

  I stumbled upon a video, with I believe Mike Guretin, showing how to install metal flashing above a window by inserting it into the rigid foam. But now I can't…

• Rigid foam and windows on a new house

  We made the decision to use 1.5” exterior rigid foam after our new house walls were framed so we don’t have the option of expanding our rough window openings and…

• Vapor barrier under concrete floor

  We are building a home with a suspended 4” concrete floor. The subfloor is 1-1/8” plywood and will be covered with 1” rigid foam prior to the pour. We plan…

• Thermal mass volume

  Another related question: When measuring square area of the floor that may receive sunlight, do we include all of the uncovered floor area next to the south facing windows, even…

• Slab dimensions for passive solar

  I found the following answer and need clarification on the last paragraph. When Robert Riversong says " floor area", does he mean the whole floor area of the house or…

• Is thermal mass capacity impacted by the tiling process?

  I'm wondering if you can lay tlle over a concrete subfloor without compromising the thermal mass capacity of the concrete. Would an uncoupling system, using something like Ditra, have a…