Understanding vapour barriers/ Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

...vapourbarrierstime to understand the difference to airbarriers, and firstly it should be pointed out that the watervapourpermeating through building materials - the reason for installing avapour障碍——并不是人们想象的那种怪物。100 times more watervapouris carried though a wall assembly...

...UnderstandingR values The R value applied to a material refers to its capacity to resist heat transfer. The R value of most commercially available insulations varies in the range of R3 per inch to around R6 per inch. The higher the number, the more a material resists heat transfer. A typical section of a cold climat...

...barriersandvapourbarriers: The job of avapourbarrier is to preventvapourdiffusion and the job of an air barrier is to stop air leakage through differences in air pressure between inside and out. A wall system should have onevapourbarrier, but can have many airbarriers. Avapourbarrier can act as a very eff...

In the fall of 2015, the City of Ottawa conducted a public-consultation survey to gauge interest in a change of bylaws to allow secondary dwellings (Coach Houses or Tiny Houses) to be constructed on existing residential properties when space allows for it. The result was positive, with 60% of respondents in favour. ...

...understandingof the additional challenges posed by building underground. This can mean that in a lot of cases, the proper building techniques are not being followed, according to the principles of building science. Poorly constructed basements are subject to rot and mold. Case in point: walls need to be able t...

...vapourseals, or water in bathrooms and kitchens not being contained. Along with proper design and keeping problem areas clean and dry, it is important to ensure bathroom fans, kitchen stove hoods and dryer vents are properly vented to the outside. If vents go up through your attic, be sure they aren't leaking, or mo...

...Vapourimpermeable 0.1 perms or lessVapoursemi-impermeable 1.0 perm or less and greater than 0.1 permsVapoursemi-permeable 10 perms or less and greater than 1.0 permsVapourpermeable Greater than 10 permsUnderstandingvapourpermeability: All we are talking about so far a...

...barriersand vaporbarriers.) Materials with lowvapourresistance should be positioned on the cooler side of the construction (although this can be problematic where for example the external siding is impermeable - another reason we encourage readers to carefully choose the right exterior siding ). Ventilated cav...

...understanding. The following was our starting wish list: 3 bedrooms, 2 baths Nice screen porch facing the river Upside-down design, with living spaces on the upper level, and the bedrooms on the lower level Passive solar orientation with plenty of big windows As compact as possible given what we are trying ...

...vapourbarriersin below grade wall assemblies are commonplace, frustrated building scientists insist that installing them is the worst thing you could possibly do down there. Basement renovations demonstrating mold growth in internal stud wall © Ecohome Above is a photo of a basement being repaired after flood...

...vapourpermeable, which can be an advantage in some applications, as can those that arevapourimpermeable. The common blowing agent for EPS is pentane gas, which is ozone safe but has a global warming potential (GWP) 7 times greater than carbon dioxide. This is significantly lower than other types of foam, so we rec...