Green Living
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
XP - An Airtight Home
The post about insulation got me thinking. What can I do to ensure our home is airtight? We plan on doing new construction.
Re: XP - An Airtight Home
I don't know that 100% airtight home is actually something you actually want. I don't know if you've ever heard people referring to letting their home "breathe" a bit....I know I've heard my folks and some other, older people refer to that a lot.
FWIW, one of Dh's old co-workers was an attorney that dealt with construction and the Tyvex (sp) material that so many builders use to make homes "airtight" kept him VERY busy. Small leaks, that in a home built to "breath" would allow water to evaporate and not really cause an issue--but in the newer homes built with no allowance for wiggle/breathing room (Or just lined with waterproof/airtight materials) would start to rot. New, multimillion dollar homes literally rotting where they stand. Just something to consider...
If you are looking for something very energy efficient, that doesn't necessarily mean making them airtight--and I believe the materials you use for construction purposes would be the place to start your search. Maybe you can bring in an energy auditor to see where they see common areas of energy waste in your particular area.
I'm not much help either, but this part is true. We just had an energy audit done on our house (built in the late 1940's) and they told us that our house was too air tight and that we should add a ventilation fan. Moisture is the issue if your house can't "breathe" enough.
I also agree with derky... in fact we're having some mold issues in the basement of our new 2008 home and are being told the problem is that it is TOO airtight. Who woulda thunk... :-(
I posted this on the buying a home board and I received similar responses. Now we're looking at green insulation and possibly using steel for framing instead of wood.
But ya'll are all right, you should let a home breath and I got caught up in the "airtight" hype. Plus those homes that are airtight need a ventilation system or something.