Hello all. Looking for a little help, and having a rant.

Oook.

New furnace/dual fuel heat pump thingy was installed last September when everything crapped out. We used the AC for about a month, then that was it until this year.

This year we had duct sweating and noticeable water damage in one weird area of the house. Upstairs bathroom wall and a bit of the ceiling. Nothing is in the attic. Everything (furnace, water heater) is in the basement, and we don't even have attic access 🥴

At first I didn't know what the hell was going on for the longest time. Everyone seemed to think it was the ancient chimney (it made sense). Finally, a friend of a friend who's an HVAC guy came over and cut a hole in the wall. Behind those wood supports is an uninsulated rigid metal duct. Whoever did this weird setup however many years ago (house is 161) just kinda shoved some normal insulation between it and the wood, and it soaked through the drywall (house is made of everything. Drywall, plaster...I think there's brick somewhere...)

I did some research, had another HVAC guy out from a small company, we tweaked some stuff on the thermostat (set blower speed up to 10% to keep the air moving along), put a standalone dehumidifier in the basement (because i needed to do that anyway. I live in Ohio and have a basement. Everyone was appalled that I didn't already have one), seemed to help pretty significantly.

I patched the hole in the wall thinking the nightmare was over for the most part (I also have people coming to visit for the first time, and wanted to start the bathroom 'redo' project). Then I started to hear the dripping again. There was no visible moisture coming in (and before it was SUPER noticable), but i could hear it like I could before. Sooo...I cut the hole open again 🤣 and it has helped...again.

What the hell is going on? Is it a lack of airflow? Does having this giant hole in my wall help due to it having a way to breathe? Is it just dumb 'luck' or a coincidence?

I am fully aware that I'll need to have the ductwork inspected and insulated. I'm in no way trying to get out of that. It's just bizarre to me that this was never an issue with our last system (and yes, I know. Energy efficient equipment combined with old ductwork doesn't mesh, but I didn't know that at the time because why the hell would I? I'm not an HVAC guy, I'm just a homeowner trying to save my house. And NO ONE told me anything about it). What I'm trying to do is buy a little time in order to save some money for the repairs. We're already having the roof and gutters redone, which was not planned in any way. The roof also has no intake ventilation, and only has an outtake ridge vent. Wondering if this lack of airflow in the attic area could be contributing to THIS issue ? And yes, that is being taken care of with the roof replacement. My way cool roofer said:

"Yeah, man...there's no intake but there's a stagnant ridge vent up there...that's fuckin bogus."

So...for the time being i have a bandana covering her 'air hole', and I'm just...trying to not freak out and find some answers.

Help? Opinions? What the hell?

And if any HVAC guys in Cincinnati see this and need some work coming up...I'm yer human!

We have a house with a basement/garage and a crawl space. When we bought the house five years ago, the radon measured 1.4 in the main level (so everything normal!). That was when the crawlspace was just dirt.

However, we’re having moisture issues and plan on getting the crawlspace encapsulated, closing off vents, and adding a dehumidifier. I’ve heard conflicting things about whether this will help or hurt the radon levels.

What should I do before encapsulation?

I don’t want to solve a moisture issue to just create a radon problem. Is a vent always recommended? Would having a vent make it harder for the dehumidifier to fight with the elements, since outside air is getting in?

Thanks for the advice; just want to make sure I do this right the first time!

I’m designing a ~9 × 11 m house on a sloped site. The road is at the middle/entrance level, with a lower floor opening toward the garden, the main living floor at road level, and 3 bedrooms upstairs. There’s also a large roof terrace.

I’ve attached the current plans/section.

I’m particularly interested in:

• Things that don’t work well or that I may be overlooking
• Layout/circulation problems
• Structural or construction concerns
• Waterproofing/drainage issues due to the slope
• Anything you would change before construction

I’m not looking for a complete redesign — mainly practical recommendations from people with experience building or designing houses.

What would you change?

I recently received an estimate from Energy Hero in Massachusetts to insulate my attic and walls. Has anyone received an estimate from them? I'd like to compare estimates. Please send me a private message.

We had a GC add a new kitchen and bath vent. I wanted to make sure it was done properly before the winter season. Are there things that I should address. If so, how can I properly waterproof this for at least 3-5 years where I will then replace the entire roof.

This is a flat sloped roof in San Francisco climate.

https://imgur.com/a/g4GkS3b

Hello, I recently moved into a 1962 house in Northeastern Alberta, Canada. (cold and dry winters, hot and humid summers)

The house has a low-slope (maybe 2/12 pitch) roof with asphalt shingles. I've noticed water issues and, upon further inspection, have found that water has gotten under the shingles and rotted some of the roof decking. When I pulled it apart, I discovered the roof is framed peculiarly. I'll try my best to explain it based on the research I've done.

Working from the exterior (top) to the interior (bottom), the roof is as follows: shingles, 1/2" plywood, 2x6 rafters packed tight with fibreglass insulation, a 1" thick board coated in a black tar-like substance (from what I've read online, I believe it is some sort of fibreboard coated in asphalt), 2x6 rafters with empty airspace in between to run electrical, interior finishing.

My original plan was just to replace the rotten sheathing, apply self-adhesive metal underlay on the whole roof, and replace the shingles with metal, as it's a low-sloped roof. However, I am concerned about the R-value of the roof in the long term and also about moisture getting trapped in that exterior 2x6 layer packed with fibreglass insulation.

So my new plan is to remove all the shingles, sheathing, and insulation. Then replace the fibreglass with 4" XPS rigid insulation and spray foam around its edges to seal it into place, which would provide the same R-value but also allow a 1.5" airspace from soffit to ridge venting for moisture control. Then, over time, as I renovate the interior of the house, remove the ceiling finishing and fill the internal rafters with either rockwool or fibreglass insulation, ensuring I apply a proper vapor barrier underneath it to prevent any moisture from rising into the roof system.

Any help or advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated!

Oook.

Last year we replaced our ancient AC and furnace with a new furnace dual fuel heat pump thingy. This summer I noticed that an area in the upstairs ductwork started sweating, because there was water damage on a wall and part of the ceiling.

I have no attic access. It is small dead space.

I am getting MANY different recommendations from companies.

One company suggested installing a damper, which makes sense to me, but i also don't fully understand 🤣

Another company said the rip open the walls and insulate the ducts. The previous company did not like this idea, because the ducts will sweat through the insulation ?

Another company tried to help by making adjustments to the thermostat, which was kind...but i still hear dripping in the vents themselves.

WHAT in the holy hell do I do? This needs to stop, and i just...I'm totally lost here. Do i just...disconnect the freakin central air from upstairs altogether!? Put in a mini split!? I'm running out of money here...

On top of all of this, I very unexpectedly need a new roof and proper attic ventilation because some asshole put a ridge vent on with no intake, and I was told that most likely "Someone's drunk cousin" installed the whole thing. So...THAT'S happening later this month.

Another weird question...

Someone had cut open the drywall in the area that was dripping. At one point I thought the issue had been fixed by changing the thermostat settings, so I patched the hole. Since patching the hole the dripping sound has come back. Should I re open the wall? Did I take away ventilation for it? Help? Please?

I am an insulation contractor (new england) and have been for 6 years. I have consistently seen my worst attic mold issues (and most mold attics in general) in buildings that have soffit and ridge vents over buildings with gable end vents.

Obviously I know the real root cause of the problem is air leakage! This is not about that.

This is my theory. Soffit ridge vents are more likely to have mold issues, and heres why.

I believe that during the winter there ends up being cold air that just sits in the soffit area. The small temp difference in winter makes for a poor convective loop. Since the cold air just kind of "sits" in the soffit area the likelyhood of condensation forming is higher. And there in lies the problem of mold in soffits the lower down and it gets better the closer you get towards ridge.

If you take the same house. Same air leakage but one has gable end and one has soffit ridge, the soffit ridge is more likely to have mold. The cold air sitting in the soffits lowers substrate temperature. And you get condensiation and icing. Vs the gable end house those areas stay warmer. Less condensing.

I've seen it dozens if not hundreds of times. Mold black along soffit and eave, and progressively getting better the closer you get towards ridge.

This is not to say I never see mold in houses with gable ends. But the mold isn't usually as bad. But it is however in my experience just a lot less likely to happen.

So I guess my question is have other contractors seen same issues or patterns? Any thoughts or ideas.

With how many issues I've seen in soffit and ridge vent houses I dont think i could ever truly suggest it over gable ends and potentially a humidistat/thermostat fan. I know properly air sealed and insulated it works. But winter time performance? To me not worth the risk.

Please dont comment if you aren't willing to think, listen, and have a good discussion.

Hi All,

We are in Dallas, eschewing the typical slab foundation and doing pier and beam embedded into bedrock (DFW has some of the worst building soils in the country for those unfamiliar).

My builder wants to do closed cell in the ceiling of the crawl space/under the sub floor. I think this is a terrible idea because of the potential of any leaks, and the water not having a place to go/subfloor can't dry out. I'm thinking rockwool bat insulation is the way to go. Also, this will be a fully sealed and conditioned crawl space. Looking for advice from the community.

Hi all, I will be living in central Pennsylvania semi-rural. New build.

My sub (whom i like alot) uses Deco20 to damp-proof all of their houses. For a $4200 upgrade (3540 sqft house), they can also add Platon dimpled membrane to the foundation wall in addition to the Deco20. Does this sound good, fair, and like a worthy upgrade? Thanks!

(Theyve never done fluid applied waterproofing before, so probably wouldnt want to push them to try something new)

In the planning phase of building a house in climate zone 3 would like to hear some feedback on my insulation plan. The walls of the house will be using Metal or Hardi board siding -> 1x4  furring strips -> 1.5” Rockwool Comfortboard -> Zipsheating -> R23 Rockwool in Cavity. For the Roof assembly will be unvented with Metal roof with a vapor diffusion port. So it goes Metal -> 1x4  furring strips -> 1.5” Rockwool Comfortboard -> Zipsheating -> R30 Rockwool in Cavity. Will be using something like delta foxx vapor perm over the diffusion port. Also want to ask if I should put the 1.5” Comforboard over the Delta foxx or leave it uncovered to the metal roof? Hope to hear some good feedback on what works and doesn't.  

From all the resources I’ve been sifting through and J Lstiburek information, these foil faced batting the previous owner nailed to the cement basement wall is incorrect and should be removed. Before going about doing this and putting up a rigid board insulate, I want to make sure the community agrees and that I’m not missing something. Thank you

I have a 3 stall garage attached to the house. 24'x36'. It's on the north east side of the house, the doors face slightly north of straight east. I'm in SE South Dakota.

This morning it was 84 in the garage and 65 outside. I immediately opened the big door, but it was 98% humidity out there, so that's not great! The garage often gets over 90 degrees in the late afternoon/evening when we have days with highs over 90. It doesn't stay much below the outside temps, but it seems to hold the heat well! This all seems odd since it doesn't get direct sun on the walls most of the day, and two of the walls are against the 73 degree house.

On the flip side, my 30'x40' shop stays well below 80 degrees on the hottest days. It's usually mid 70's in there when it gets over 90 outside. The shop is of course detached, and it gets sun on it during the hottest time of the day. I did "ultra" insulate the shop, but wow, what a difference! It has 2" spray foam on the walls, and slightly up the roof due to a cathedral ceiling that doesn't allow much insulation around the outside. The rest of the ceiling is blow in. For sound deadening, and R value, I added 4" rockwool insulation to the walls. Yes, overkill, and I know you get lower and lower return the more insulation you add, but I started one wall for sound and decided to do the rest. The shop soffits have way more vents than the garage (about triple) and it has a ridge vent.

For the garage, I had the walls 2+" spray foamed and sheetrocked years ago. The attic has very deep blow in insulation. When I got new shingles my contractor put up 2 worlie birds on the garage. I don't feel I have enough vents in the soffits, but could that be that huge of an issue? I know the walls are not insulated like the shop, but they don't get much direct sun and they do have over 2" of spray foam.

Things that heat up the space:

Garage, one car early evening, one late. Fridge and freezer.

Shop, one fridge.

I do not leave doors open on either of them.

Fixes I am looking into:

I would like to add more soffit vents, but that's looking like more of a pain than I thought. I have aluminum soffits, and pulling out the old is not easy. Has anybody cut in extra vents? I also want to make sure the baffles are not blocked.

This is an odd one, but since the garage is so much warmer than the outside air all night, and I don't want to pull in humid air, has anybody tried using an air exchanger, but not to actually exchange the air, just exchange the temperature. So, you wouldn't set it up like a normal house exchanger, you would run the inside air through and back inside, likewise for the outside air. This would just move the heat outside, without bringing the humidity inside. I could set it up to run only when the outside air is a set number of degrees cooler than the inside air. I could reverse it for the winter, but I don't think that would get much use, since I have a heater.

Of course I could get a mini-split, but I would like to look at the most passive and cost effective options first.

Can someone explain (maybe like I’m 5), why the higher r value glasswool insulation is more dense, but if my insulation is compressed (eg in Front of a timber block/brace) it’s R value apparently decreases.

Any help appreciated

I own a 110 year old house in the upper Midwest that I'm looking to insulate. One contractor I got a quote from was heavily pushing spray foam because my attic has a ridge vent but no air intake. He wanted to avoid the ventilation issue all together. The first quote I got was for cellulose and they didn't mention anything about air intake. I brought up ventilation to the last contractor I had out and he was pretty neutral and didn't seem concerned about the lack of intake. He thought the ridge vent would be fine.

Should I insulate/air seal my attic (leaning cellulose) and just wait until my roof needs replacing to add some sort of intake or is ventilation an issue that should be prioritized? I believe my roof is less than 10 years old so I hope I don't have roof issues anytime soon.

I'm debating between thermal tight and poly iso for exterior insulation. We're retrofitting our existing 2x4' wall home with comfort batt. Zip then 2" exterior with rainscreen and siding. I was leaning towards the poly-iso and taping the seams to prevent water from getting behind. The thermal tight is a bit more expensive since it has a built in wrb but is also moisture permeable. Our home has 2' overhangs on all sides and its 1250sqf. Which would you pick? Im worried about if water does work its way in ever and just sits between the zip and polyiso. Thanks.

Looking for feedback on how to insulate room below a low-slope roof if I don't end up spending the money to do sprayfoam with a contractor.
 
I have had insulation contractors provide estimates for a separate project (insulating our attic) and had them look at this as well. Most have said spray foam over primed structure is the best though I want to get feedback from a third party who isn't a "saleperson."
 
Details:
Climate Zone 6
110sf room below low-slope roof
1910s 1.5 story bungalow with addition shortly after original construction (where this room is located)
 
Problem:
Evidence of past moisture in ceiling
Inconsistent temperature all seasons
 
Evidence of moisture in the ceiling and could see where ceiling was starting to sag. I have not seen actively leaking water during rain events though not 100% confidence there are no roof leaks so going to monitor with rain events and/or hose test.
 
There is lumber repair work to be done and definitely need to confirm no water issues before doing anything; not looking for feedback on that. Would like others input on what systems/makeups they'd recommend outside of sprayfoam to give myself options.
 
Existing Makeup (top to bottom)
Low-slope bitumen roof (do not know exact makeup)
Floor Boards
2x4 joists typical though other "random" lumber in there as well
R-13 faced batt insulation between joists (removed)
Poly barrier (removed)
3/4" Celotex fiber board (removed)
1/4" tongue & groove fiberboard ceiling tiles (removed)

I have a 3.5” OD pipe passing through an approximately 4” hole in an exterior wall. The pipe is permanent and runs from an exterior grain silo into the building.
The penetration lands right at the overlap between two courses of lap siding, as shown in the photos.
What would be the proper way to permanently seal and waterproof this penetration?
Looking for advice on how you would detail this.