Green Building Advisor

Good day Green Building World, I come to you with a building question from the esteemed four seasons of climate zone 6A. My question is such: I’m residing my house and adding 2″ of continuous Timber HP wood fiber insulation over Blueskin VP100 with a 1×3 rain screen and LP Smartside siding. I’m replacing a couple windows, but keeping most of my existing replacement windows (vinyl double-hung pocket windows in original wood frames). I’m seeking some opinions on how to trim these out.

| Posted in General Questions on September 9, 2026 05:35am Climate zone 4A — 1960’s construction basement walkout – above grade exterior walls I have a 2 wythe masonry wall in my walk-out basement. the outer wythe is full brick and inner wythe is CMU. I have no water-infiltration issues. I have air sealed the interior face of block wall with Henry 17MR which gives me a continuous 14 perm air barrier.

This is part 4 of a series on a Kansas house built from reclaimed components. You can read the first part, an introduction to the project, here; the second part, on the engineering challenges of using reclaimed materials, here; and the third part, on building a high-performance enclosure with reclaimed insulation, here. By the time the Haberman residence reached the mechanical-design phase, many of its biggest decisions had already been made.

| Posted in Expert Exchange Q&A on September 8, 2026 01:43pm My question is about the suitability for 3/4″ maple or similar plywood for the interior cladding of the exterior walls for a cabin in climate zone 7. No walls require drywall for fire code related reasons. I would like to do plywood to add stability (high winds exposure), because I enjoy it more than drywall, and because I don’t have to tape, mud, and sand it in place. There are many options to deal with the seams.

| Posted in General Questions on September 8, 2026 12:42pm Hi team, New two story house with portion of second floor on top of a 20ft x 20ft garage. Garage is slab on grade while rest of house has basement. We are planning radon loop under basement slab. Do we need to add an additional loop under garage slab given the occupancy above it?

| Posted in General Questions on September 8, 2026 01:04pm I have a lower garage with a 10′ overhead door. 19.5′ wide by 34.67′ deep (676 SF). 3 sides are concrete, overhead door side is framed / drywall. I want to finish the area and ultimately create storage in the back and a woodshop in the front (no additional interior framing). Intend to frame concrete with 2×4’s with plywood finish. 1/4″ rubber flooring.

This is my last scheduled article for Green Building Advisor; inevitably, I find myself in a retrospective mood. Over the years, I’ve worked as a builder, an investigator of moisture problems, and an editor. For the last 30 years of my career, however, I’ve been a writer—someone concerned about the crafting of sentences and paragraphs.

In just four years, balcony solar—aka plug-in or plug-and-play solar—has gone from novelty to mainstream in Germany, with momentum building in other European countries as well. And that newfound demand is propelling manufacturers to innovate, including evolving systems from simple arrays to ones complete with storage and smart energy management.

Summer brings high outdoor moisture levels to much of eastern North America. In some places—particularly along the Gulf Coast—high dew points can make stepping outdoors feel like having a wet towel draped over your head. Elsewhere, conditions may be only slightly better: more open-air steam bath than wet towel. Ideally, that moisture stays outdoors. A well-designed enclosure combined with properly sized HVAC equipment should keep indoor temperatures and humidity at comfortable levels.

| Posted in General Questions on September 7, 2026 12:33am I currently have a duct line that is leaving the basement furnace into a living room on the first floor. A flexible 8in round duct needed to be in the corner of the next room over so the hvac guy just looped it under a 8×8 structural beam to tie it into a floor vent above. I’m looking to clean up the basement ceiling. With limited floor space I plan to just paint the ceiling. The duct looping under is an eye sore.