Have a look at this Saint-Gobain product which has a 2.5lb/ft2 weight in 5/8" vs FiberRock at 3.1lb/ft2.

I love watching these podcasts. Thx guys

Peter is describing my house with basement garage with grade 6’ above slab on the rear

The soil survey is useful!

You guys are so comfortable with each other that this tends to detract from your expertise. This is a good discussion but why don't you have a model window to show what you are speaking about? I am here to learn. I am not here to hear jokes.

Good discussion. How about one on sealing of roofs, and particularly at the ridge. How to keep super insulated roofs from being like Juneau SIP horrors.

Over thinking it, boys.

Tobacco barns all have spaces in their cladding. There are thousands of them

I have a home with PWF, I have a failure happening with one of my walls. I've been looking all over to find out how to fix it without a contractor. But I know nothing about my foundation, I also have a concrete slab for a floor. My parents bought this house in the 80's in western Iowa. I don't know how I can find out when the foundation was put in. The original build was a church from the 1800's. There have been additions put on and I have lots of unleveled floors. I'm wondering how much that has to do with the foundation failing potentially. I don't know...how can I get this checked out w/o costing me an arm and a leg? Are there inspectors that deal with PWF? I had a company come out to give a bid about putting in an egress window in one of the basement rooms, he had NEVER seen or heard of a PWF. I need help...any suggestions?

"It doesn't add up" - it was a bad joke (and I'm an architect also...sorry).

Steve's Jokes= A++

Darn, I could have written that email

Knowing what boundaries to set and then setting them is everything. Clients will find comfort in a well organized system, and they'll test that system., and the minute they sniff chaos, their self preservation instinct will pop in and the control freak in them comes out. These guys have all lived through plenty of pain on the job, learn from that pain and experience they're sharing with everyone.

This reminds me of a story my Grandfather told me. He said that my Grandmother would come into the Livingroom and say it was cold. She would walk over to the wall stat and turn it full circle and 10 minutes later say, much better. This drove my Grandfather nuts. So as an electrician he put a stat on the baseboard which by-passed the wall stat. He goes on to say that Grandma would come into the room, say it was cold, crank the thermostat full circle and 10 minutes later say, much better. Even though the room temperature never changed, it was the conditioned habit which her brain referenced for comfort. It is not always the actual space climate that people "feel".

Steven could start learning how to create Revit Families, given his like for content creation. He could then generate income by selling these families online to other Revit users. Just a thought well listening to you speak. Love my Revit and AEC Collection tools.

Work slower to be faster... 100% agree with this statement. So much gets lost when you rush. My first boss told me no matter what, keep moving as fast as you can. Never stop. When I worked at ProdoMax building control panels, they did this blind test with me and the two most experienced guys they had available. I took my time and verified my work as I went, and did the final red documentation at the end. My very complex safety control panel was done very neatly, and had no errors or changes. I verified the validity of the circuits in the real world before I connected them, which I had that advantage as a Technologist. I was done 3 weeks sooner and I had zero testing errors. When you are paying over a 100$/h back in the 2000's that is quite a big deal. Thinking things through, working slow and taking the desk time to work out problems, may have looked slow, but at the end saved 40% in time with no costly mistakes to fix or very expensive devices to blow up on testing. I cannot seem to convince people on my methods when they watch me. But they all ask, how did you.... with that $ or time or both. Just takes one to slow down and think. The learning process in a nut shell. Input, process, ponder, reconcile, remember.

Love the podcast! I do want to point out one glaring problem in your discussion. Because of your excellent teaching(this podcast, builds how, etc), the homeowners are becoming more “educated“. I went through this with my own new home two years ago. I started watching your content, and then suddenly I gained some knowledge. The problem is I’m not a professional contractor. However, I was armed with enough information to be dangerous! As a result I’m sure I tortured my poor builder incessantly!😂 Nevertheless I do believe I have a better home as a result of being more involved. Eyesight built a finish sauna as well as my grill is. Neither of these slowed the build down.

May I suggest that the owner who wants to be involved with his home build come at the end of the day and observe from a distance. That way he/she knows the approximate average time the contractors leave the premises and what they take with them. The $400 window that was not used sometimes gets a ride with a worker to his place, (at your expense). Or the 'extra' 100 (or more) 2x4's or 2x6's that are loaded onto a trailer and leaves with the contract workers. There are 2 different guys in my neighborhood in NW Denton County, here in Texas who has several dozen different piles of building products piled in their yards to sell and they're seen bringing it home around 9:15 or so, (when it's dark enough to not be obvious). So there's two questions here, 1) who is paying for that 'extra' product... (you are!) if it were rightfully purchased by them, they wouldn't be selling it, they'd be using it. and 2) if the supplies (the boards for headers and footers and roof joises) weren't utilized is your home going to be safe? You first say "well, it'll be inspected before occupancy" but consider this. If the person who hired the guys that are taking the product (that you paid for) is also hiring the inspector, and you can't hire your own inspector, then you're just throwing your money away to people who don't care about their work or your safety. These guys don't want a outside contractor to get involved for a reason. So homeowner, if you want to be an integral part of the process do a little sleuth work, watch your investment from the beginning and at a distance so you can do it without being seen. And add into the contract at the beginning that if you observe any illegal activity at your jobsite you can halt the progress (and their pay) until you are satisfied with the resolution. An honest general contractor shouldn't have a problem with that and should appreciate it. After all, it is your home you'll be paying for, for most of the remainder of your working life, as well as the safety of your loved ones being at stake. Good luck.

Howdy Guys! Thankfully here in north Texas the rain stopped. I was thinking I was going to have to buy a pontoon to get to work.😊

I loved Peter’s S..t Faced comment!

Working on a new build - high performance home with a walkout basement in New England. We started with the assumption that finishing a basement would be cheaper than building two stories above grade. We were very wrong. 😄 It's very expensive to do it right.

*PromoSM*

This philosophy applies to life, not just a single industry. Speaking of quotes, here's Albert Einstein: "If I have an hour to save the world, I'll spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about the solution." Problem solving is a heavy part of my own career, and my own discovery is that quite often the solution just "falls out."

a positively pressured buildjng is easier to keep outside, outside.

working in the arctic circle doing building maintenance. I can say if our building becomes negativity pressured we struggle to keep pipes from freezing. the cold is sucked in, at -60 f at precisely the wrong spot.

I have designed many homes where people place a wood stove as a backup to a mini-split unit and find themselves using it as the primary heat source.

why is the perimeter drain on the inside, under the slab? isn't the purpose of that drain to prevent hydrostatic pressure on the foundation wall?

Hi Steve, do you have a video that goes into how you detailed the building based on your mark-ups in this one? Thank you

Would love to see LP Smart Siding done this way as well to compare. Also, would have included a piece of regular OSB as a control piece.

Wrong.....

Great episode. I agree with the discussion on doing an Independent Ventilation System. Theres for more pros than cons. - As for budget considerations: the H/ERV can always be replaced, ductwork not as simple.

Have you ever used a polyurethane on Boral? I want to try to make the grain side look like actual wood. Looking to see if someone has ever done that. Thanks for your review. Most helpful.

Great question! Although it is ideal to have dedicated ductwork it can be very expensive. It may be dependent on total volume. I own a roughly 7000 sqft ranch with a walk out with a total volume of 100,000 cubic ft. My ERV is connected to the main HVAC system. I have dedicated humidity sensing bath fans and a low cfm hood vent without make up. I run the water furnace geo fans continuously and have two dehumidifier’s. My IAQ monitors are near perfect. My 50 cfm bath fan running for 10 minutes sucks out . 0:02 5% of the total volume. I doubt that causes much pressure drop.

I love these conversations about concepts...allows listeners to apply to their own circumstances

How do you determine the spacing that insures more able to dry than remain wet.

awesome

Great stuff !! Definitely interested if we end up building a house with a basement.

Hey guys great to hear your thoughts on Superior Walls. Last week we (meaning they) set 214LF of Superior precast basement walls for our build in the Chattanooga area. It took about 5 hours once the torrential downpour stopped. I spent a lot of time researching many of the issues you discussed here. I am not a builder just a homeowner focused on building science. It's early, but so far, I am very impressed. I can attest to their proprietary Polyurethane panel sealant providing a tenacious bond. 3 beads applied: Between the panel edges, Exterior joint and Interior joint. Paraphrasing their Builders Guideline Booklet "Sealant below grade not exposed to UV will not require maintenance - sealant expose to UV may discolor or crack and can be resealed with polyurethane masonry sealant.

Hope you guys come back to the ICF discussion, and talk about the various other material applications that you’d want to use or avoid when it’s a part of the assembly for walls at living levels above basements. - WRB/Cladding/Stucco at exterior - Drywall or other recommended/acceptable materials at the interior side - Are ICF more concerning with respect to moisture or humidity? - Dealing with electrical. - Would building a 1x4 interior wall be best for all the above questions re: interior side of ICF? I just have so many questions I’ve spent time collecting and trying to find answers to. Also… thoughts on Nexcem ICCF blocks that use a wood fiber composite instead of the foam? Thanks!

What is the moisture content of the walls on delivery? Seems off-site evaporation would also speed up the time line as well.

Are you going to do another video on wood foundations and wood basement slabs (which I believe Steve has used on projects)? I was wondering on how they might fair during and after a major flood?

Good talk, we are a builder in Maryland and we do most of our projects with Superior Walls. Great system, highly recommend using them in your projects.

The panel seams are sealed strictly with Sikaflex polyurethane adhesive/sealant (not with a rubber or similar gasket), but there are multiple beads of it and the beads are made very thick. The adhesive fully covers the entire perimeter of the seam on the interior surface, and there is an exterior bead at the face. It's really well protected, and the warranty is there to back it up. Also, in addition to the amazing feeling of having the 10' ceiling in the basement itself, a critical reason to go with the 10' height for all of it was because it enabled me to have decent head height in the space created under the garage (we're calling it the workshop) even after the 10" pre-cast concrete horizontal garage floor planks and subsequent concrete topper are set into a ledge formed in the top 2' of the 10' concrete foundation wall.

I’ve used Superior wall systems many times and wouldn’t build any other way. It’s nearly a break even in cost but you really save in the unforeseen costs of subs not showing up/rescheduling for insulation/framing. I combined this with building a panel shop and the net result was close to a 30% reduction in cost for the framing portion of the builds and the building envelope went up in 4 days once it hit the job site so environmental exposure was limited. Why are we still building stick by stick the same way we did 100 years ago?

Very pertinent topic, I'm leaning towards using superior walls for my personal build later this year in Southern Missouri.

I know some people in Michigan that have used them more than once with success for their personal homes. I'd definitely be open to it for a cabin , adu, or out building. I wouldn't want one for a full depth basement for my home and I am concerned about resale value later. I can see maybe a bi-level home that is only half in the ground as a good application for it.

By the way, When PWF first started it was called "All Weather Wood Foundation"

Great podcast, my experience with Permanent Wood Foundations goes back 40 years. I built a house in 1984 using the PWF system for a full basement. With good attention to detail the basement worked great. 23 years later I added on to the back of the house to take in my parents. This time I used the PWF wall system along with the wood floor system. After 16 years the system is still performing well. I would love to send you a more in depth article I wrote recently. Thanks for the podcast. Robert.

Great concept coming through that short hallway with a lower ceiling to get the explosion into the public rooms as it opens back up. What ceiling heights did you use in the short hallway and public rooms to achieve that effect?

So many people think that heat pump water heaters are also dehumidifiers. I've even had plumbers tell me that. The condensation from them is so small, especially compared to a true dehumidifier.