Home Improvement Today?

Matt Risinger on Youtube has a lot to say about building science, wall construction, sealing and venting. You can spend a lot of money on HVAC units.
I live in the LNU fire zone near SF and building for air quality and the ability to filter the air in our house has taken on a whole new meaning. If I could seal my house completely, filter through a big filter, and control the quality and amount of incoming air I would. You don't know how many small holes are in your house until you're in smoke for months at a time and try to keep it out.

 

I’m leaning heavily towards ICF with a pier and beam foundation but a rat slab in the crawl space and non-vented crawl space and attic.
My biggest hurdle will be finding a builder in my area who has worked with ICF, I’m sure it’s been used but I know it’s not common due to the cost.

I have been watching quite a few of his videos, I’ve also been reading some of the published papers on his website and those are extremely informative.
This past weekend I was on vacation with some of my family from California and my cousins husband is a general contractor/high end home builder so I was asking him a ton of questions and he gave me lots of good info, I asked him if he was aware of Matt Risinger and what did he think about his approach to building and he said that he had met Matt at a trade show several years back and had gotten to be pretty good acquaintances with him.

I do need to get the builders guide for hot humid climates and start reading it as well.

It’s crazy how many holes are in a common stick built home, the house I’m in n currently is extremely loose, when hurricane Zeta blew through at Cat 2 we could feel air movement in the house from the wind outside.

 

Currently finishing my basement In my new house. Studs and electrical are done, which means it’s drywall time. Carrying 50 sheets down some stairs with a 180 degree pivot is not fun. Hanging it by yourself is even less so. Oh well, seeing the progress Is worth it. Pics to come when I have more finished.

 

Yuck

 

And shoulders

 

I replaced 3 shut off valves for my toilets and everything hurt the next day.

Getting older sucks.

 

Finishing my basement is on the to-do list. I've got the skills and tools, but I've already told my wife to budget for someone else to carry the sheet rock to the basement and hang it. (there was a study where they gave two groups of people $100 and told half to buy something and the other have to pay someone to do a task they didn't want to. Then they measured the happiness of the two groups. Those that had someone do a task they didn't want to were happier than those that bought something. By that measure I'm going to be skipping down the sidewalk when I don't have to do the drywall. )

 

I feel that! My studs and electrical have been ready to go since June/July, I just kept putting the drywall off because of how bad it sucks..

 

Years ago we did a large addition onto our house. Carrying, hanging and finishing the drywall was my least favorite part of the job. Good luck with the project.

 

Man hanging the drywall is the "easy" task to me. Pay someone to come mud that though. Lol.

 

Marty don’t do drywall, I make a phone call for that shit

 

Hung 15 of 16 pieces of drywall over this past weekend. Tape and Spackle next weekend, hang a door, then paint, then trim....

 

The last basement I finished was 105 sheets, my guy and his crew has every sheet hung in 9 hours freakin nuts

 

ICF for all exterior walls to the roof ?

 

Yeah that ain't me. I'm in the 'one board per hour' range

 

If I was building a new house for myself again I would frame a 'perfect wall' . 2x4 load bearing wall air sealed at the sheathing plane with 6" of Rockwool Comfortboard80 on the exterior . Unvented attic with 2lb spray foam against the roof deck with utilities and services in the conditioned attic space . Air seal walls to roof deck with overhangs added after the fact . Insulated slab with hydronic heat supplied by an air to water heat pump that also provides domestic hot water pre-heat with a Zehnder or similar high efficiency HEPA HRV unit

 

Correct, I was planning on making a concrete storm shelter in the garage and doing 2x6 for the exterior walls but for the cost difference it looks like it will be worth it to go all ICF for exterior walls from footings to roof.
And instead of doing a standard metal roof I want to look into doing a double roof with 1” air gap design. I just need to talk to an engineer to see what type of design would hold up to hurricane force winds without excessive thermal bridging.

Depends on use, for my area ICF seems to be a better option due to less chance of retaining moisture, the SIPS can apparently hold moisture and cause big issues in a short amount of time if not addressed.
Of course 2x6 is the cheaper option and still works well, it just doesn’t seal near as tight as ICF.

 

But thats just like my opinion man

 

Form a concrete wall instead of ICF , insulate fully on the exterior and build an uninsulated interior stud wall for services , that way you get the advantage of the thermal mass of the concrete inside the building

plus wood boring insects like carpenter ants like foam , just sayin