Green Building Advisor

1 month ago | greenbuildingadvisor.com | Justin Wolf

America isn’t building enough homes. There are numerous reasons for this: retrograde zoning laws, worker shortages, trade tariffs, a lack of unionized labor (at least in certain regions), and the list goes on. It is a complex problem with no silver bullet. If there is an X factor, it’s speed. We don’t build fast enough, and each of the reasons listed above inform this tangential truth.

1 month ago | greenbuildingadvisor.com | Justin Wolf

The Energy Star program has been around for about as long as the internet. Jointly overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE), Energy Star was launched in 1992 to designate and promote energy efficient appliances. But the program’s significance stems less so from when it was created than how it came about. Energy Star was created as part of the 1990 Clean Air Act, the law that broadly defines the EPA’s responsibilities for improving air quality.

1 month ago | greenbuildingadvisor.com | Justin Wolf

South Harpswell sits at the end of a narrow peninsula, facing due southwest toward Casco Bay. Like a lot of coastal hamlets in Maine’s mid-coast and Downeast regions, the land formations are long and irregular, resembling flecks of paint being thrown onto a canvas from a distance. In other words, the topography is unique.

1 month ago | greenbuildingadvisor.com | Martin Holladay

While cleaning out a closet recently, I came across two instrument cases that I inherited from my grandfather after he died in 2000 at the age of 98. The first is an old-fashioned leather-strapped wooden tool case that holds three thermometers, each with a dial face and a long icepick-like temperature probe. The second is an unusual, decades-old battery-powered psychrometer—an instrument for measuring atmospheric moisture.

2 months ago | greenbuildingadvisor.com | Abby Cote

Wind-driven rain can penetrate almost all types of siding, including vinyl siding, wood clapboards, cedar shingles, stucco, and brick veneer. To reduce the chance that exterior moisture will cause sheathing rot, every wall should have a water-resistive barrier—that is, a layer of asphalt felt, plastic housewrap, or a similar product—between the siding and the wall sheathing.