I would love a video series following a renovation project that had an eye towards improving efficiency with some efforts at quantifying energy savings through the choices made. Perhaps something like what the "Real Remodel" series was envisioned to be before it became a slab-up remodel.
I’ve seen people pull drywall off the outside walls and put horizontal 2x3s with 1 1/2” foam board sealed on the edges.Even if you just stay with fiberglass a s sealed vapor barrier is a must. The ceiling is another matter. To really do it right you need to make sure you have a sealed vapor barrier. You need proper attic ventilation to prevent any condensation. I’ve done some remodeling for myself and have built a couple places. I’ve just finishing a duplex where we live in a finished half. Our walls are 7” of closed cell foam, attic R-59 in glass batts.200 sqft of glass on the south wall.
After reading so many comments here asking for advice I’ll repost my response to one comment here: I used to do this [Air Sealing existing homes]. Every day. There’s a logic to it that gives you knowledge and targets your efforts. 1. Plug the big holes first. Identify them first with “zonal pressure testing.” [Essentially that is using a manometer (air pressure meter), or wet fingers, to narrow down the leakiest parts of a house while a blower door, or fan, sucks air out of a house. Close, or nearly close, each interior door one at a time, measure or feel how much air is flowing out of that zone, inspect further into the rooms that are the leakiest.] Also borrow (some local libraries) or rent (Home Depot) a Thermal-graphic camera (IR/Infrared camera) 2. After identifying the era and style of the house, use experience to address the “design flaws” of that type of house. Attic floor air sealing, soffits, cantilevers, rim joist, top plates. 3. Address individual items like: cleaning mortar off of fireplace flues so that they finally close as designed; caulk beadboard joints; foam closed the 3/4” furring strip gap at the top of a brick wall; address existing window leakage with pulley seals and weatherstripping inserts common in England; door weatherstripping 4. Blow in cellulose insulation. It’s cheap, integrates into one contiguous blanket, can be blown into walls dense enough so as to mostly stop air. 5. Duct sealing by hand at each joint with mastic. 6. Install new LED recessed light inserts so as to to create a continuous ceiling plane 7. Run the blower door again, doing zonal pressure testing again and use an IR camera. Identify final things and attempt to solve them. This form of air sealing has a long history that started in the 1970’s as a way to address, at the same time, two concerns of that era: ecology and helping the poor. WAP (the Federal Weatherization Assistance Program) gets this work done every day for an affordable price. You won’t ever get to 2ACH50 using these methods alone but you can solve a lot of comfort issues, greatly lower heating and AC costs, etc. By the way, if you are trying to do good for the planet or the planet’s people then stop building new homes and instead use your skills to fix up the leakiest homes. You will retain much more conditioned air per hour of labor and per dollar than you could ever do on a new build. It’s nearly all about the labor. And targeted knowledge based on experience. It’s not about tech or products. And that’s why you won’t see it promoted. Contact your county’s Weatherization Assistance Program. If your income is low enough then it won’t cost you a dime. If you don’t qualify then ask for the name of companies that they hire to do this work in your area. They are never paid enough. It is an gravely under-appreciated sector of the workforce. Get a quote. Pay them for their experience and efforts. Enjoy the results. Have the job paid for through saving energy over the next 2-4-6-8 years.
Great post! Here in Canada, the govt publishes a guide for homeowners called "Keeping the Heat In" that discusses fairly easy DIY solutions to preventing heat losses from homes. I would imagine that similar guides are available in other countries like the UK or USA as well.
I’d love to see some details on effective window retrofitting into an older house and some best bang for the buck air sealing techniques when you’re renovating or updating that vantage house.
First, do it at a moderate time of year, pull/vacuum out all attic insulation, then use spray foam - in the gun - to air seal all penetrations in top plates, drywall seams everywhere, tops of walls, put up lots of insulation depth markers, reinsulate with fiberglass, recruiting a friend to run the insulation blower for you. I just finished this process on my house 2 days ago.
So true. We are renovating our early 80's house (DIY, room by room) and can tell a huge difference already even though we're only half done. We have been thoughtful as we're re-insulating everything and sealing any suspect places we find (there's been a lot). The noise from outside and the "drafty" areas are gone in the renovated areas and the whole house is holding the heat and just "feels" better. I wasn't expecting such a noticeable difference already. We are also insulating our interior walls against sound (it's a small place, ~1100 sqft) which is so nice when one of us is sleeping/reading/working and the other is doing things around the house.
I renovated an old stone/brick house in Montreal in the mid 2000s. The house was built in 1898 - the initial blower door test came in at 12.5ACH@50Pa ... the guy doing the measurement thought there was a problem so took it all apart and re-tested. Same figure ... we were holding down the furniture to prevent it getting sucked out! After some renovations, the re-test came in at 6ACH@50Pa and I think the final figure was closer to 5 (just based on the heating bill and hot2000 energy model). Interesting project - there were Canadian government grants for energy efficiency improvements based on how many points you could improve on a scale of 0 to 100, with 80 representing "modern standards with around 1.5ACH@50Pa). Pre-renovation the house came in at 25 - post renovation we scored around 83 (part of the huge improvement was switching from an oil boiler to a GSHP).
Sounds like a typical untouched Westmount, or Montreal West house. Had a customer ask me to put in an air exchange, I told him his house was the air exchange.
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Thank you so much for this video. I was really hoping you guys went further with steps on best ways to lower that number on older homes. I did a blower door test last year and scored a horrible 15.7 ach on this 1962 year house. Please, please, please do a series on this, bringing an old home to industry standards on ACH by retrofitting. Thanks
I guess it's virtually impossible to renovate a leaky house to these high standards without spending a ton of money, but I would still like to see Matt attempt it. No fun in watching new house construction when money is no object.
Can't just seal it up without addressing a modern/improved HVAC system. Simply sealing it up with something like aeroseal could result in air quality issues.
I rehabbed a 1970 built house with closed cell foam to the exterior walls and roof, which lowered the heating bills by 1/2. I'd still fail a blower test due to not being able to access every exterior area with foam. We're building new this spring and will use Zip-R12 sheathing + rain screen behind Hardie siding. The interior 2x4 studs will have closed cell foam to an R-30 for walls. The ceiling of our one story will have 2" of closed cell on top to seal can lights and any other voids + blown-in insulation on top. The basement will have a similar R-values in the walls. I knew that good sealing is very important for the home envelop and I want to get this right. I have no desire to make the low roof pitch into a usable attic, so spray foaming the roof was not considered. We will pay attention to the attic access door for proper sealing. We will install high efficient NG furnace and traditional high efficient AC. I think going hog wild on geothermal and/or solar will have a long payback. Our new home will be in the Twin Cities where NG and electric are relatively inexpensive compared to other areas With a tight home and high efficiency furnace/AC, I think anything else will not be financially prudent. We toured a beautiful 2010 home with both geothermal and solar and it sold for about the same as other homes of that size and location with traditional HVAC, so adding value for a future sale might not happen.
Id still like to see a home that passed a door test a few years ago, retested to see how well it holds up. Tested when new is great, but does it last ?
Living in the San Francisco Bay Area in the same house since it was built 1976. My 88 year old parents leave the windows open 24/7 6 months of the year, closed during the day 3 months and closed 24/7 3 months. Stucco over no sheathing, insulation only over the ceiling in the vented attic, and a vented crawl space. It's perfect according to them.
It is significant unless it has a sealing damper on the top of the chimney. Or an inflating ballon above the lower damper. But almost every penetration in the attic like ac registers, lights, electrical boxes, holes in the top plates for wires and pipes, the wall to an attached garage, every window, sliding doors and windows, no bottom plate sealer, no seal at the bottom of the drywall, bath and kitchen vents with lousy dampers, plain old holes, the list is nearly endless. Ductwork and air handlers in the attic or crawlspace leak badly and often put the house under negative pressure as supply air leaks outside the envelope. The cheapest solution is to air seal at the drywall, uprade dampers and seal ductwork. Or sell the house.
@@rj.parker We had the leaky ductwork problem which was causing humid summer air to be drawn in when the system was running. It was horrible! A big mini-split (triple head) system later and it's perfection!
My house was built in 1965 and is basically a time capsule. Almost every screw and nail is original to the day it was built. When the wind blows my hair flutters if i am leaning close to the window. Last winter there was a small clump of snow inside the house against the rear aluminum sliding door frame for 2 days. It wouldn't melt on its own cause of the cold air drafting through. I've done a lot of work already but there's a whole pile of work to go.
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Gentlemen this is much appreciated! This mirrors my current situation as far as decade built, sound dampening, and quality of life. Will look into getting house tested.
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Thanks, Matt! I wholeheartedly support anything you do to promote blower door tests and air sealing, especially during initial construction. My sister just had a new house built at an inflated price, yet it was built to the same already-obsolete standards I saw when I was doing residential HVAC 20 years ago :(. No blower door was done and the homeowners were not interested in pursuing efficiency; they only cared about things like paint colors, floor coverings, and counter tops . The home does meet current codes for safety, but it was built to nearly the same air sealing standard as it would have been 40 years ago :(. In fact, the builder I worked for 20 years ago was doing a better job in every facet that this custom builder is doing today; it appears that standards in my region have lowered, not improved. I understand that people hate regulation, but ACH limits should be required in all code jurisdictions as these buildings should last for 50 years or longer and they will not only consume more energy if they are inefficient, but they will also impact the health of their inhabitants, potentially reducing the well-being of residents and consuming more medical resources. Building health impacts human health, financially and otherwise.
I had a similar sad feeling watching someone do a remodel 5 years ago and installed custom halogen lights. LED fixtures were almost unknown to them. Just a waste. You would think everyone knows about energy savings and air quality but they don’t. I guess that’s why we need code. Even though the code moves slowly.
Just got done can spray foam sealing my entire attic. Every joint where drywall comes together, drywall walls to ceiling drywall, all light boxes, wire penetrations in the interior cavities, plumbing vents you name it. After tape and mud my house should be 100% but I think I’m going to closed cell spray foam 1” in the attic to the ceiling drywall to make it 110%. Really hoping for a good score.
I would love to see a Barndominium that is build to passive status. Working with RR buildings would be amazing! I want to build one myself and really want to see how to do that in that style of home. With the radiant heat in the floor I don't know how it would be done.
Matt now that you are in your house with that amazing air door score. would be interesting to see what your utilities are running compared to the blower score you did in this vid
i don't know the numbers but my twin vs next door is 1/2 utility's as his has upgrade's done vs my bricked 1970 house 🏡 600usd ish per-month 3k srqft so theres a difference and it's not spitting hirers either
Early 80s house located in Canada. 2x4 walls, older doors with poor seals and aluminum slider windows (drafty as all heck, and a wood burning fireplace! I had my house tested last year was surprised that my ACH50 came in at less than 4. Hoping to change out the windows and possibly the doors (if i cant fix them with new weather stripping). Had wanted to replace the old siding and add more exterior insulation along with a better sealed WRB membrane, but material costs and shortages are making that very difficult.
I don't recall the actual numbers but when we had our house tested (built in 1928) the example given to me was that if all the holes in the house we combined to create one big hole, that hole would be 36" x 36" !!! Reno to be started next year.
I lived in a house built in 1946, i replaced the return air in the attic with insulated flex and duct sealed the supply in the dirt crawl, .2static on the return and added a 5” fresh air intake to the return air, i had 89cfm being drawn in through the FA intake, dropped to 60cfm after spray foaming the electrical boxes in the attic, later on i sealed the plumbing vent stacks through the top sill and i didn’t have draft through a receptical anymore, a little bit of spray foam and duct seal goes a long long way on an old house. It was 1100sqft and surprisingly only required 21btu/sqft to maintain 21°c when it was -10°c outside
I had a blower door test conducted about 5 years ago. When the man came by, I showed him areas which I thought needed addressing. I pulled on an insulated duct and it was flopping around. Broke away from the register. That meant for about 20 years this supply duct was cooling and heating my vented attic. My number was 3689 CFM @50, through sealing the returns and ducts, and identified areas from the audit, my CFM dropped to 2600. Moving away from fossil fuels except as backup, moved to heat pumps, and a heat pump clothes dryer, all appliances energy star rated, my electricity consumption went from 10,200. KWh a year to 4,200 KWh per year!
My old 1940 built weatherboard house (with retrofitted floor, wall and ceiling insulation and a good effort at DIY draft sealing) got at 22ACH40, and my new 2023 passive house got at 0.26ACH50 - quite a difference!
A further note on the idea of failure of part of a system like a super well-sealed house: You can do what designers who work with dangerous systems in dangerous environments do, which is to fail safe, a term you've almost certainly heard of. I used to work on a sub, and our reactor system was designed such that the control rods (which lower the reaction rate, and therefore the power output) would plunge into the reactor, absorbing the radiation down and "turning it off". The quotes are because the proper terminology would be more complex than this point warrants. Just set the components of the air sealing system so that if something fails, it fails open, allowing fresh, if not clean, air into the house.
What I like about old houses in Europe is they are build out of brick. It doesn't leak as much as US houses and you can just put EPS on the outside to isolate it properly. With this house you can't really do that. You just have to tear it down and rebuild from the ground up, people can't really afford that so they waste money every year on heating and cooling.
1962 build here, in the Pacific Northwest. I can only imagine what the blower door score would be on this place. Now, if I hit the lottery and want a custom place, Matt, you'll be getting a call from me asking if you'd like to head up this way, or if you have a person in your rolodex up here who can build to the standards you do.
I would love to get a blower door test on my house. It is a 1994 single wide, which looks nice on the inside because I spent the last two years renovating it, but the stuff I've seen while doing that reno is really eye opening. No sheathing, just studs, fiber glass bats, and vinyl sideing. Zero insulation under the floor. Every single window has a gap somewhere. Lots of vent openings for things like stove range and dryer, that are literally just a hole in the wall with a piece of loose vinyl over it. Glad I'll be renting it out soon once I build a real house later this year, it can be someone else's cash paying for electric
New subscriber, I've been binge-watching in preparation for buying my 1st home here in DFW. Is there a video playlist to watch to improve a 70' home slab or pier and beam. To make it as close to air tight.
We're building a 2 story house in Norway right now, which is 400 m3 an hour. It is around 160 SQM with 16 degree roof. We use 10mm gypsum on the outside that we tape, and also use a special type of asfalt/tape between foundation and bottom sill. 20 plus 5 cm insulated walls, and 30 cm insulated roof.
I liked the cold dense stagnant air very calm peaceful no difference between warm blankets and hot air blowing and what about restrictive hepa filters and the air freezing before the heat gets anywhere
As a homeowner, you know that you are going to have to do work, at some point , make improvements , renovations . Start with a blower door test. As part of an energy audit . ( which , should also include a review of water usage ) It will generate a report that is SPECIFIC, to that building. . It will give a starting point.
"A third of your life is spent lying horizontally and breathing whatever air quality exists. So if we can make that healthy and smart, it is much better". Great point!
The thing is you need a pressure difference to have air move in or out through the leaks. You then have all the building material acting as a filter. Unless you do something like run a portable ac or blower door the air exchange can predominantly be happening in the wall and really heat transfer is all that's happening and not a dirty air exchange into your living space. It's a metric but I don't think it should be the be all end all and going well the code says... and it is infallible and has never been wrong. We have allowed people to build houses for 10k+ years and suddenly now we're finding out that there's allergies and houses should be sealed ban all other houses. Telling people they need to dump money into retro fitting and sealing homes not designed to be sealed sounds like a recipe for disaster but great for builders making unaffordable homes and product companies.
The idea is that by doing the extra work will cut the energy use and save the home owners money with lower energy bills. There are lots of people getting a government check, paying 2 3 hundred or even more for hvac energy in their homes. So it comes out of our pockets also.
@@charlesarmstrong3536 I get saving a buck but I think that you're just making your life more difficult. I don't know what government family is living in a million dollar modern build nor what landlord is willing to pay to seal up their properties. How long will these houses stay sealed and what happens to the house if a failure occurs in an unnoticed area? How much are you spending on electricity constantly bringing in air and couldn't you find cheaper alternatives to keep warm or stay cool not reliant on an hvac system. It's all about trade offs and critical thinking.
Europe had been showing up the US for sure. Code was recently weakened here in the US to to 5 ACH50 for new build. 🤦♂️ It's a national embarrassment and I imagine is from big companies racing to the bottom with their lobbyists.
I can tell you the weather outside from the inside! Love this channel, trying to make this 1945 summer cottage "close" to code has been a challenge. I hope my future videos get up to your quality.
This is very useful. My wife has some really serious health issues related to some of the things you addressed so I have just been trying to do everything I can to seal the house. Should you start with trying to wrap the house so that you don't have moisture and mold build up in the wall gaps? There is so much to do it is difficult to know where to start.
Hm. If I had to guess there was a cat living in this house before you rented it. Cat dander is really hard to get rid off. It's possible that air full of cat dander enters the house because it's leaky but you would have to be really allergic to be sensitive enough to affect you. I suggest you visit an allergist. Modern day treatments can essentially cure the "easy" allergies like dust mite allergy and cat allergy. Anyways. If you have to live on rent temporarilly GET A HEPA AIR PURIFIER. They can reduce PM2.5 10x or even 100x.
What are the easiest ways to air seal a house without tearing it up? It would be cool if there was an aerobarrier solution that you could use with all your furniture in the house 😂
I tried to get an Aerobarrier vendor to our house before we moved in, but nobody would return our calls or emails. Any advice for how to get contractors to return calls so someone can get a bid and work done? Really disappointed we couldn't get some sealing done to the house while it was empty. County records show it was built in the 50s but we've found evidence that its older than that.
I sealed up all of the outlets and light switches in my 1996 1950sf house near laguna beach California. My gas bill went from $200 down to $130. I need to figure out how to plug the fire places and get a quality spring loaded damper for the oven exhaust. Seal up any hole penetrating the walls. I found a huge leak behind the bathroom light fixture.
We just built a home and our blower door test came back at 1.76 ACH50 which I was happy with, code here is anything less than 2.5. An issue I am facing now though on very cold days for extreme temp differences such as 15 degrees or less outside and I keep my home around 72 is a considerable amount of moisture buildup on my interior windows. I believe this to be a result of the tightness of the home, but I am really not sure if that is the case or not. I have to run a dehumidifier during those times to help remove that moisture buildup and even then I may have to clean the windows off in the mornings. I will say it is not the entire window, mainly just an inch or so from the sill on top/bottom windows.The windows are Marvin Elevate double hung so I know they are good quality windows, however I am worried that with them being wood that rot and mildew issues are going to form if I cannot resolve these issues. My other thought was it was potentially from our Master Bath that builds up a lot of steam from showers. I have a 150 CFM exhaust that I run for an hour or more after the shower so I feel that I am more than removing any excess moisture that may have built up. Anyone else experience these same issues?
1935 house here in climate zone 5. I don't even know where to start. I think my first step will be to buy a decent thermal imaging camera. Obviously this house will never be tight, but I'm guessing a 25% to 50% improvement is doable without breaking the bank... and be noticeable.
@@Off-Grid At some point you're fighting the tide regarding work, cost, and ROI. The siding is in major need of replacement. I will likely strip the exterior down to the plank sheathing and then wrap the house in 1" foam (taped and sealed) before replacing it with maintenance-free vinyl siding. I'll make sure the windows are well sealed up as well. This, along with better sealing around the rim joist and adding more insulation in the attic is probably as far as I'm willing to go. Going much further would likely show diminishing ROI. I might just build a retirement ADU on the same property for myself. If so, it will certainly be very well insulated and sealed!
@@ssoffshore5111 with the siding off you should clad with Zip or maybe a peel and stick or fluid applied WRB. That would get your air sealing in good shape. The foam is not great at air sealing. 👍
So if this is what an normal average American home is like. I would be interested in a video series that shows what things can be done specifically to improve the scores. Of those specific things what can you do for the biggest bang for your buck and what is the easiest to accomplish or is DIY. I know it will never get to a score that a new house has; unless you totally rebuilt it. I just want to improve the score the best I can. Every bit helps.
They typically close the damper during the testing and any leakage that gets past that counts towards the results for the home. I think if you look at the large surface areas of a house and numerous penetrations from exhaust vents, outlets, light fixtures, and other such things that any leaks from a closed chimney damper will be a very small part of the overall results.
The test he ran in the video I'll link would be interesting in a standard built house. It would definitely be best to do it right after being built vs after moving in. th-cam.com/video/JYugiSwWoPk/w-d-xo.html
Absolutely, but you've got to have reasonable expectations and a game plan. A blower door test can show you the worst leaks and you can focus on improving those. Leaky window and door gaskets are inexpensive to fix yourself and foam gaskets for electrical outlets along with a couple tubes of approved sealant for wire penetrations inside boxes are not expensive. So long as you know what your biggest leaks actually are, you can spend your time and money on those areas. Many houses could be substantially improved for just a hundred bucks of hardware and some weekend labor, but the blower door along with a knowledgeable tech to use it is the first step. It's usually a mistake to try to save money by skipping the diagnosis. Finding an affordable, skilled blower door tech in your area may difficult, however, as they are still considered witch doctors in many regions; I don't even know of a single one to recommend in my own county. 20 years ago when I was designing and installing residential HVAC systems, our rural power cooperative would do blower door tests for free, but I'm not sure if this program is still active or not. I'll guarantee that the house in the video has huge leakage between the framing and slab and this is not so easy to fix unless you can access the interface. Slabs are fine and they even have some benefits over crawl spaces, which are a constant controversy as the industry has never really agreed on what to do with them, but you *must* have a durable, sealed interface between the concrete and the wood framing and it must be in place when the house is first built as later attempts to seal it are often ineffective. I'm sure that solutions exist, however.
What do you think about going from an electrostatic free flowing filter and central humidifier to restrictive hepa filter and no humidifier the heater turns on and off 3-5 times the heater blows "cold" air
I would love to find a builder in DFW that builds high performance homes(as close to passive as possible) that werent 6-700k+ homes. In fact the first passive rated house in DFW was over a mil. And it seems all the homes Matt and the rest of the Build show network crew only works in the higher end.
I couldn't find a builder in my area so I became the GC on our build and did all the weather sealing myself--wasn't that difficult after watching years of Matt's videos.
At what point do you need a HRV in your home. We are in the middle of a major remodel and replacing all the insulation in an old drafty farm house with closed cell spray foam. We are also going to use AeroBarrier after spray foam. I dream of achieving .8ACH/50, but if I am only able to achieve 1.5 or 2 do I still need a HRV? All the HVAC companies that have come out to bid either don't know much about HRV's or can't answer the question of when it is needed.
My house is around 12ACH, and I live in Atlantic Canada. This summer I’m really going to renovate and try some of Matt’s details to seal up this house.
Not sure of the brand, but an Air Quality Meter will give you those readings (particulates and VOC's and others). Airthings make some for continuous monitoring but they're not cheap.
I would be interested in what you do for air sealing. My house is 7 years old. I would venture to say the majority of the air infiltration is from the attic. My walkout basement is ICF's and MY rim joist and first floor walls are 6" with 3" of 2# foam. about the only penetrations of the foam are my dryer vent and 2 sillcocks. My attic is R38 blown glass. I have around 32 can lights. They are all IC rated. I had one open today and felt the airflow around it. Not much I can do to air seal the cans as they are inaccessible from the attic. But I could seal around them with something like LEXAL.
Ah but there is. If you can't get to your can lights from above to seal it just means you'll have to seal them from below. It's good that they're IC rated as that means they have thermal sensors to prevent over heating so sealing them is fine. Start by removing the bulbs and trim rings so you have access to the canister. Use caulk to seal the bottom where it meets the drywall. For the inside holes you have three options; you can use Caulk, HVAC Aluminum tape, or HVAC mastic with mesh tape. 32 cans is a fair amount but just work from one room to another starting with the top floor (stack effect). Couple of weekends it'll be much tighter.
I love that opening a window is a fall back of last resort. Is Houston that inhospitable to human life that you can only live there with the life support system i.e. HVAC?
Did you tape up the bathroom vents and oven exhaust fan to get a measurement on the structure its self. At least those few items could be addressed relatively easily.
They should have dampers. They were pulling the house negative which should close the dampers. Of course most dampers are 50 cents worth of flimsy metal with a foam sealing strip that does not work.
Honestly while this all sounds good from outside perspective, it seems like it is one of those things that is really hard to fully appreciate until you have been a really well sealed house vs one that is not.
Loved this video!! You are 100% right, there are still unfortunately many, many houses being build to these standards (or lack thereof) which is a total shame. I kills me when I see new houses being built with a total disregard for air sealing and tightness. It's terrible financially for the future home owner and such a missed opportunity to build something quality for the next 80-90 years.
-63 to 70 degrees for a 133 temperature difference. Even higher when you realize that to stay warm in the majority of a home people set the temp at 72 - 75 degrees. Now do a heat load on the walls, windows and doors.
Well living in a house that blew an 11 ach 50...I don't even know where to start. Low pitch roof, a low crawl space and a brick exterior. Most of the areas that need sealing area incredibly difficult or expensive to reach.
I’m confused by the comment about vented attics. Are they not the preferred approach, assuming the ceiling is air tight and the mechanicals are not in the attic space. Joseph Lstiburek seems to be of that opinion and I know he’s a mentor of Matt’s.
i would like to see oxygen levels in matts house vs this leaky one. does his ERV cut it? i bought a uhoo and despite my insanely leaky brooklyn brownstone with one floor having an HRV the bedroom oxygen levels are still no bueno. Probably because bedrooms dont have their own returns? Would love to see Matt do full air quality tests in different rooms of different houses and analyze / optimize.
Another one I’ve heard: “So you’re just going to stay inside and live in a bubble!?!?” Sort of this attitude of why bother since when you leave the house, somehow breathing all the ‘untreated’ air negates any benefit of a tight house with clean air. My thinking is, as you said, you spend 1/3 of your life sleeping in there, better sleep and sort of a detox from all the dirty air makes it easier for your body to deal with it during the day out and about.
Do you know any builder or general contractor in San Jose, CA area who practices the same principle? I am planning for a major house renovation and every contractor i talked to thus far thinks that it’s a bad idea. After watching several of your videos and doing research online, i think it makes perfect sense. Maybe these contractors dont know how to build like this and maybe that’s why they just disregard it completely.
Get an architect to spec the remodel with specific details. Then write the builder contract too allow independent inspections before each trade is paid.
I can't wait to take the BPI HHP cert to fully understand if your argument about your allergies were related to the infiltrations or something more wrong with the rental home.
I hate to say it but my 1972 brick ranch house w/basement would probably test that high or higher. My windows are old and leaky, I have a 2.5 foot square louvered attic fan (louvers closed). Just a poop ton of places for air to come in. The problem in my case is so much work needs to be done in my 50 year old house, I would have to move out to have work done.
They're updating the building code down here in Australia in September (NCC 2022) and the big kit Home builders are arguing that an ACH target of 10 is unrealistic... Current NCC (code) is about 20 years behind Europe and the US...
I would love a video series following a renovation project that had an eye towards improving efficiency with some efforts at quantifying energy savings through the choices made. Perhaps something like what the "Real Remodel" series was envisioned to be before it became a slab-up remodel.
I’ll volunteer my old house. 😁
I’ve seen people pull drywall off the outside walls and put horizontal 2x3s with 1 1/2” foam board sealed on the edges.Even if you just stay with fiberglass a s sealed vapor barrier is a must. The ceiling is another matter. To really do it right you need to make sure you have a sealed vapor barrier. You need proper attic ventilation to prevent any condensation. I’ve done some remodeling for myself and have built a couple places. I’ve just finishing a duplex where we live in a finished half. Our walls are 7” of closed cell foam, attic R-59 in glass batts.200 sqft of glass on the south wall.
💯
In PA and willing to have my house be a test subject! 100 years old and ready to go!
this channel is all about marketing, not teaching you things. this channel is about new tech and products.
After reading so many comments here asking for advice I’ll repost my response to one comment here:
I used to do this [Air Sealing existing homes]. Every day.
There’s a logic to it that gives you knowledge and targets your efforts.
1. Plug the big holes first.
Identify them first with “zonal pressure testing.” [Essentially that is using a manometer (air pressure meter), or wet fingers, to narrow down the leakiest parts of a house while a blower door, or fan, sucks air out of a house. Close, or nearly close, each interior door one at a time, measure or feel how much air is flowing out of that zone, inspect further into the rooms that are the leakiest.] Also borrow (some local libraries) or rent (Home Depot) a Thermal-graphic camera (IR/Infrared camera)
2. After identifying the era and style of the house, use experience to address the “design flaws” of that type of house. Attic floor air sealing, soffits, cantilevers, rim joist, top plates.
3. Address individual items like: cleaning mortar off of fireplace flues so that they finally close as designed; caulk beadboard joints; foam closed the 3/4” furring strip gap at the top of a brick wall; address existing window leakage with pulley seals and weatherstripping inserts common in England; door weatherstripping
4. Blow in cellulose insulation. It’s cheap, integrates into one contiguous blanket, can be blown into walls dense enough so as to mostly stop air.
5. Duct sealing by hand at each joint with mastic.
6. Install new LED recessed light inserts so as to to create a continuous ceiling plane
7. Run the blower door again, doing zonal pressure testing again and use an IR camera. Identify final things and attempt to solve them.
This form of air sealing has a long history that started in the 1970’s as a way to address, at the same time, two concerns of that era: ecology and helping the poor. WAP (the Federal Weatherization Assistance Program) gets this work done every day for an affordable price.
You won’t ever get to 2ACH50 using these methods alone but you can solve a lot of comfort issues, greatly lower heating and AC costs, etc.
By the way, if you are trying to do good for the planet or the planet’s people then stop building new homes and instead use your skills to fix up the leakiest homes. You will retain much more conditioned air per hour of labor and per dollar than you could ever do on a new build.
It’s nearly all about the labor. And targeted knowledge based on experience. It’s not about tech or products. And that’s why you won’t see it promoted.
Contact your county’s Weatherization Assistance Program. If your income is low enough then it won’t cost you a dime. If you don’t qualify then ask for the name of companies that they hire to do this work in your area. They are never paid enough. It is an gravely under-appreciated sector of the workforce. Get a quote. Pay them for their experience and efforts. Enjoy the results. Have the job paid for through saving energy over the next 2-4-6-8 years.
Great post! Here in Canada, the govt publishes a guide for homeowners called "Keeping the Heat In" that discusses fairly easy DIY solutions to preventing heat losses from homes. I would imagine that similar guides are available in other countries like the UK or USA as well.
I’d love to see some details on effective window retrofitting into an older house and some best bang for the buck air sealing techniques when you’re renovating or updating that vantage house.
First, do it at a moderate time of year, pull/vacuum out all attic insulation, then use spray foam - in the gun - to air seal all penetrations in top plates, drywall seams everywhere, tops of walls, put up lots of insulation depth markers, reinsulate with fiberglass, recruiting a friend to run the insulation blower for you. I just finished this process on my house 2 days ago.
So true. We are renovating our early 80's house (DIY, room by room) and can tell a huge difference already even though we're only half done. We have been thoughtful as we're re-insulating everything and sealing any suspect places we find (there's been a lot). The noise from outside and the "drafty" areas are gone in the renovated areas and the whole house is holding the heat and just "feels" better. I wasn't expecting such a noticeable difference already. We are also insulating our interior walls against sound (it's a small place, ~1100 sqft) which is so nice when one of us is sleeping/reading/working and the other is doing things around the house.
I renovated an old stone/brick house in Montreal in the mid 2000s. The house was built in 1898 - the initial blower door test came in at 12.5ACH@50Pa ... the guy doing the measurement thought there was a problem so took it all apart and re-tested. Same figure ... we were holding down the furniture to prevent it getting sucked out! After some renovations, the re-test came in at 6ACH@50Pa and I think the final figure was closer to 5 (just based on the heating bill and hot2000 energy model). Interesting project - there were Canadian government grants for energy efficiency improvements based on how many points you could improve on a scale of 0 to 100, with 80 representing "modern standards with around 1.5ACH@50Pa). Pre-renovation the house came in at 25 - post renovation we scored around 83 (part of the huge improvement was switching from an oil boiler to a GSHP).
Sounds like a typical untouched Westmount, or Montreal West house. Had a customer ask me to put in an air exchange, I told him his house was the air exchange.
@@calebacrutto9601 Exactly - Grosvenor Avenue in Westmount. Went from using 3000l oil a year to under $1500 hydro for heat. Quite the transformation!
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Thank you so much for this video. I was really hoping you guys went further with steps on best ways to lower that number on older homes. I did a blower door test last year and scored a horrible 15.7 ach on this 1962 year house. Please, please, please do a series on this, bringing an old home to industry standards on ACH by retrofitting. Thanks
I guess it's virtually impossible to renovate a leaky house to these high standards without spending a ton of money, but I would still like to see Matt attempt it. No fun in watching new house construction when money is no object.
I'd bet it could be done but why?
Caulk (and time to apply) provide decent ROI for existing housing with forced hot air heating.
reason number 24 why he just tore down the REal REno
Can't just seal it up without addressing a modern/improved HVAC system. Simply sealing it up with something like aeroseal could result in air quality issues.
I bet he'd get a huge reduction by plugging that fireplace flue.
I rehabbed a 1970 built house with closed cell foam to the exterior walls and roof, which lowered the heating bills by 1/2. I'd still fail a blower test due to not being able to access every exterior area with foam. We're building new this spring and will use Zip-R12 sheathing + rain screen behind Hardie siding. The interior 2x4 studs will have closed cell foam to an R-30 for walls. The ceiling of our one story will have 2" of closed cell on top to seal can lights and any other voids + blown-in insulation on top. The basement will have a similar R-values in the walls.
I knew that good sealing is very important for the home envelop and I want to get this right. I have no desire to make the low roof pitch into a usable attic, so spray foaming the roof was not considered. We will pay attention to the attic access door for proper sealing.
We will install high efficient NG furnace and traditional high efficient AC. I think going hog wild on geothermal and/or solar will have a long payback. Our new home will be in the Twin Cities where NG and electric are relatively inexpensive compared to other areas With a tight home and high efficiency furnace/AC, I think anything else will not be financially prudent. We toured a beautiful 2010 home with both geothermal and solar and it sold for about the same as other homes of that size and location with traditional HVAC, so adding value for a future sale might not happen.
I really like that you're getting your guest hosts to do the outro with you. It's your thing and you totally own it... love it.
Id still like to see a home that passed a door test a few years ago, retested to see how well it holds up. Tested when new is great, but does it last ?
Living in the San Francisco Bay Area in the same house since it was built 1976. My 88 year old parents leave the windows open 24/7 6 months of the year, closed during the day 3 months and closed 24/7 3 months. Stucco over no sheathing, insulation only over the ceiling in the vented attic, and a vented crawl space. It's perfect according to them.
My situation and location in Foster City same. $600 gas elec bill this month
How much does the fireplace contribute to the air leakage?
With the damper open, it's a vacuum, when burning, it may be worse. Jmo. Hopefully someone with fireplace expertise chimes in.
It is significant unless it has a sealing damper on the top of the chimney. Or an inflating ballon above the lower damper. But almost every penetration in the attic like ac registers, lights, electrical boxes, holes in the top plates for wires and pipes, the wall to an attached garage, every window, sliding doors and windows, no bottom plate sealer, no seal at the bottom of the drywall, bath and kitchen vents with lousy dampers, plain old holes, the list is nearly endless. Ductwork and air handlers in the attic or crawlspace leak badly and often put the house under negative pressure as supply air leaks outside the envelope. The cheapest solution is to air seal at the drywall, uprade dampers and seal ductwork. Or sell the house.
@@rj.parker We had the leaky ductwork problem which was causing humid summer air to be drawn in when the system was running. It was horrible! A big mini-split (triple head) system later and it's perfection!
My house was built in 1965 and is basically a time capsule. Almost every screw and nail is original to the day it was built. When the wind blows my hair flutters if i am leaning close to the window. Last winter there was a small clump of snow inside the house against the rear aluminum sliding door frame for 2 days. It wouldn't melt on its own cause of the cold air drafting through. I've done a lot of work already but there's a whole pile of work to go.
“When the wind blows my hair flutters” 😂😂😂 ah the days of cheap energy!
@@WillLeingang the really sad part is I've got storm windows too and they still leak that bad in moderate winds
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Gentlemen this is much appreciated! This mirrors my current situation as far as decade built, sound dampening, and quality of life. Will look into getting house tested.
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Thanks, Matt! I wholeheartedly support anything you do to promote blower door tests and air sealing, especially during initial construction. My sister just had a new house built at an inflated price, yet it was built to the same already-obsolete standards I saw when I was doing residential HVAC 20 years ago :(. No blower door was done and the homeowners were not interested in pursuing efficiency; they only cared about things like paint colors, floor coverings, and counter tops . The home does meet current codes for safety, but it was built to nearly the same air sealing standard as it would have been 40 years ago :(. In fact, the builder I worked for 20 years ago was doing a better job in every facet that this custom builder is doing today; it appears that standards in my region have lowered, not improved.
I understand that people hate regulation, but ACH limits should be required in all code jurisdictions as these buildings should last for 50 years or longer and they will not only consume more energy if they are inefficient, but they will also impact the health of their inhabitants, potentially reducing the well-being of residents and consuming more medical resources. Building health impacts human health, financially and otherwise.
If ya don't mind me askin' what kinda climate is the house in?
I had a similar sad feeling watching someone do a remodel 5 years ago and installed custom halogen lights. LED fixtures were almost unknown to them. Just a waste. You would think everyone knows about energy savings and air quality but they don’t. I guess that’s why we need code. Even though the code moves slowly.
What about the average energy used to make these so called energy savers. Do they equal out over the life of the house?
I think some people are unhealthy no matter what kind of home they live in. Outside is unhealthy!
@@ecospider5 not really sure what the problem with halogen is vs LED, so I am requesting of you an explanation.
Just got done can spray foam sealing my entire attic. Every joint where drywall comes together, drywall walls to ceiling drywall, all light boxes, wire penetrations in the interior cavities, plumbing vents you name it. After tape and mud my house should be 100% but I think I’m going to closed cell spray foam 1” in the attic to the ceiling drywall to make it 110%. Really hoping for a good score.
I would love to see a Barndominium that is build to passive status. Working with RR buildings would be amazing! I want to build one myself and really want to see how to do that in that style of home. With the radiant heat in the floor I don't know how it would be done.
Matt now that you are in your house with that amazing air door score. would be interesting to see what your utilities are running compared to the blower score you did in this vid
i don't know the numbers but my twin vs next door is 1/2 utility's as his has upgrade's done vs my bricked 1970 house 🏡 600usd ish per-month 3k srqft so theres a difference and it's not spitting hirers either
Early 80s house located in Canada. 2x4 walls, older doors with poor seals and aluminum slider windows (drafty as all heck, and a wood burning fireplace! I had my house tested last year was surprised that my ACH50 came in at less than 4. Hoping to change out the windows and possibly the doors (if i cant fix them with new weather stripping). Had wanted to replace the old siding and add more exterior insulation along with a better sealed WRB membrane, but material costs and shortages are making that very difficult.
I don't recall the actual numbers but when we had our house tested (built in 1928) the example given to me was that if all the holes in the house we combined to create one big hole, that hole would be 36" x 36" !!! Reno to be started next year.
I lived in a house built in 1946, i replaced the return air in the attic with insulated flex and duct sealed the supply in the dirt crawl, .2static on the return and added a 5” fresh air intake to the return air, i had 89cfm being drawn in through the FA intake, dropped to 60cfm after spray foaming the electrical boxes in the attic, later on i sealed the plumbing vent stacks through the top sill and i didn’t have draft through a receptical anymore, a little bit of spray foam and duct seal goes a long long way on an old house. It was 1100sqft and surprisingly only required 21btu/sqft to maintain 21°c when it was -10°c outside
I had a blower door test conducted about 5 years ago. When the man came by, I showed him areas which I thought needed addressing. I pulled on an insulated duct and it was flopping around. Broke away from the register. That meant for about 20 years this supply duct was cooling and heating my vented attic. My number was 3689 CFM @50, through sealing the returns and ducts, and identified areas from the audit, my CFM dropped to 2600. Moving away from fossil fuels except as backup, moved to heat pumps, and a heat pump clothes dryer, all appliances energy star rated, my electricity consumption went from 10,200. KWh a year to 4,200 KWh per year!
How much did it cost for the blower door test? (Wanting to know what it would cost to do it once pre-project and one post-project.)
@@MrNiceGuyMEGA08 It was $200. for me, but can be higher. One person made it part of the sealing job, blower test before and after,
My old 1940 built weatherboard house (with retrofitted floor, wall and ceiling insulation and a good effort at DIY draft sealing) got at 22ACH40, and my new 2023 passive house got at 0.26ACH50 - quite a difference!
A further note on the idea of failure of part of a system like a super well-sealed house: You can do what designers who work with dangerous systems in dangerous environments do, which is to fail safe, a term you've almost certainly heard of. I used to work on a sub, and our reactor system was designed such that the control rods (which lower the reaction rate, and therefore the power output) would plunge into the reactor, absorbing the radiation down and "turning it off". The quotes are because the proper terminology would be more complex than this point warrants. Just set the components of the air sealing system so that if something fails, it fails open, allowing fresh, if not clean, air into the house.
What I like about old houses in Europe is they are build out of brick. It doesn't leak as much as US houses and you can just put EPS on the outside to isolate it properly. With this house you can't really do that. You just have to tear it down and rebuild from the ground up, people can't really afford that so they waste money every year on heating and cooling.
EPS?
@@DiaEule Expanded poly styrene, styrofoam
1962 build here, in the Pacific Northwest. I can only imagine what the blower door score would be on this place. Now, if I hit the lottery and want a custom place, Matt, you'll be getting a call from me asking if you'd like to head up this way, or if you have a person in your rolodex up here who can build to the standards you do.
Thanks for this video, experiencing the same issues with sleep and allergies.
I would love to get a blower door test on my house. It is a 1994 single wide, which looks nice on the inside because I spent the last two years renovating it, but the stuff I've seen while doing that reno is really eye opening. No sheathing, just studs, fiber glass bats, and vinyl sideing. Zero insulation under the floor. Every single window has a gap somewhere. Lots of vent openings for things like stove range and dryer, that are literally just a hole in the wall with a piece of loose vinyl over it. Glad I'll be renting it out soon once I build a real house later this year, it can be someone else's cash paying for electric
New subscriber, I've been binge-watching in preparation for buying my 1st home here in DFW. Is there a video playlist to watch to improve a 70' home slab or pier and beam. To make it as close to air tight.
We're building a 2 story house in Norway right now, which is 400 m3 an hour. It is around 160 SQM with 16 degree roof. We use 10mm gypsum on the outside that we tape, and also use a special type of asfalt/tape between foundation and bottom sill. 20 plus 5 cm insulated walls, and 30 cm insulated roof.
I can beat that! I just had my 1979 house in Phoenix tested before I start renovations. 2400CFM on a 1180sqft house, just shy of 15 ACH50.
I liked the cold dense stagnant air very calm peaceful no difference between warm blankets and hot air blowing and what about restrictive hepa filters and the air freezing before the heat gets anywhere
As a homeowner, you know that you are going to have to do work, at some point , make improvements , renovations . Start with a blower door test. As part of an energy audit . ( which , should also include a review of water usage ) It will generate a report that is SPECIFIC, to that building. . It will give a starting point.
We need to see an aerobarrier video with this house!
"A third of your life is spent lying horizontally and breathing whatever air quality exists. So if we can make that healthy and smart, it is much better". Great point!
The thing is you need a pressure difference to have air move in or out through the leaks. You then have all the building material acting as a filter. Unless you do something like run a portable ac or blower door the air exchange can predominantly be happening in the wall and really heat transfer is all that's happening and not a dirty air exchange into your living space. It's a metric but I don't think it should be the be all end all and going well the code says... and it is infallible and has never been wrong. We have allowed people to build houses for 10k+ years and suddenly now we're finding out that there's allergies and houses should be sealed ban all other houses. Telling people they need to dump money into retro fitting and sealing homes not designed to be sealed sounds like a recipe for disaster but great for builders making unaffordable homes and product companies.
The idea is that by doing the extra work will cut the energy use and save the home owners money with lower energy bills.
There are lots of people getting a government check, paying 2 3 hundred or even more for hvac energy in their homes. So it comes out of our pockets also.
@@charlesarmstrong3536 I get saving a buck but I think that you're just making your life more difficult. I don't know what government family is living in a million dollar modern build nor what landlord is willing to pay to seal up their properties. How long will these houses stay sealed and what happens to the house if a failure occurs in an unnoticed area? How much are you spending on electricity constantly bringing in air and couldn't you find cheaper alternatives to keep warm or stay cool not reliant on an hvac system. It's all about trade offs and critical thinking.
Thanks! Just subscribed to your newsletter.
You should visit Norway to see how houses are built. All new houses must have balanced ventilation, and very good rating on titeness in the structure.
Europe had been showing up the US for sure. Code was recently weakened here in the US to to 5 ACH50 for new build. 🤦♂️ It's a national embarrassment and I imagine is from big companies racing to the bottom with their lobbyists.
I can tell you the weather outside from the inside! Love this channel, trying to make this 1945 summer cottage "close" to code has been a challenge. I hope my future videos get up to your quality.
I too have an old house. Went to a MERV 14 filter 24" x 30" x 5". Did as much as possible to reduce leakage
This is very useful. My wife has some really serious health issues related to some of the things you addressed so I have just been trying to do everything I can to seal the house. Should you start with trying to wrap the house so that you don't have moisture and mold build up in the wall gaps? There is so much to do it is difficult to know where to start.
Thanks Matt!
Hm. If I had to guess there was a cat living in this house before you rented it. Cat dander is really hard to get rid off. It's possible that air full of cat dander enters the house because it's leaky but you would have to be really allergic to be sensitive enough to affect you. I suggest you visit an allergist. Modern day treatments can essentially cure the "easy" allergies like dust mite allergy and cat allergy. Anyways. If you have to live on rent temporarilly GET A HEPA AIR PURIFIER. They can reduce PM2.5 10x or even 100x.
What are the easiest ways to air seal a house without tearing it up? It would be cool if there was an aerobarrier solution that you could use with all your furniture in the house 😂
I tried to get an Aerobarrier vendor to our house before we moved in, but nobody would return our calls or emails. Any advice for how to get contractors to return calls so someone can get a bid and work done? Really disappointed we couldn't get some sealing done to the house while it was empty. County records show it was built in the 50s but we've found evidence that its older than that.
I sealed up all of the outlets and light switches in my 1996 1950sf house near laguna beach California. My gas bill went from $200 down to $130. I need to figure out how to plug the fire places and get a quality spring loaded damper for the oven exhaust. Seal up any hole penetrating the walls. I found a huge leak behind the bathroom light fixture.
We just built a home and our blower door test came back at 1.76 ACH50 which I was happy with, code here is anything less than 2.5. An issue I am facing now though on very cold days for extreme temp differences such as 15 degrees or less outside and I keep my home around 72 is a considerable amount of moisture buildup on my interior windows. I believe this to be a result of the tightness of the home, but I am really not sure if that is the case or not. I have to run a dehumidifier during those times to help remove that moisture buildup and even then I may have to clean the windows off in the mornings. I will say it is not the entire window, mainly just an inch or so from the sill on top/bottom windows.The windows are Marvin Elevate double hung so I know they are good quality windows, however I am worried that with them being wood that rot and mildew issues are going to form if I cannot resolve these issues. My other thought was it was potentially from our Master Bath that builds up a lot of steam from showers. I have a 150 CFM exhaust that I run for an hour or more after the shower so I feel that I am more than removing any excess moisture that may have built up. Anyone else experience these same issues?
It's not ideal, but running a small electric heater in your bath will also help remove the moisture quite well.
1935 house here in climate zone 5. I don't even know where to start. I think my first step will be to buy a decent thermal imaging camera. Obviously this house will never be tight, but I'm guessing a 25% to 50% improvement is doable without breaking the bank... and be noticeable.
Demo all the walls then close cell spray foam and drywall it up......or just build a new place.
@@Off-Grid At some point you're fighting the tide regarding work, cost, and ROI. The siding is in major need of replacement. I will likely strip the exterior down to the plank sheathing and then wrap the house in 1" foam (taped and sealed) before replacing it with maintenance-free vinyl siding. I'll make sure the windows are well sealed up as well. This, along with better sealing around the rim joist and adding more insulation in the attic is probably as far as I'm willing to go. Going much further would likely show diminishing ROI.
I might just build a retirement ADU on the same property for myself. If so, it will certainly be very well insulated and sealed!
@@ssoffshore5111 with the siding off you should clad with Zip or maybe a peel and stick or fluid applied WRB. That would get your air sealing in good shape. The foam is not great at air sealing. 👍
So if this is what an normal average American home is like. I would be interested in a video series that shows what things can be done specifically to improve the scores. Of those specific things what can you do for the biggest bang for your buck and what is the easiest to accomplish or is DIY. I know it will never get to a score that a new house has; unless you totally rebuilt it. I just want to improve the score the best I can. Every bit helps.
come to MA and test my 1816 house that has had lots of subpar work done!
"That air could be not healthy to breathe"
That terrible outside fresh air
How do fireplaces affect blower door tests?
They typically close the damper during the testing and any leakage that gets past that counts towards the results for the home. I think if you look at the large surface areas of a house and numerous penetrations from exhaust vents, outlets, light fixtures, and other such things that any leaks from a closed chimney damper will be a very small part of the overall results.
Can you reduce the leakage after the home is built, like the older one here?
The test he ran in the video I'll link would be interesting in a standard built house. It would definitely be best to do it right after being built vs after moving in.
th-cam.com/video/JYugiSwWoPk/w-d-xo.html
Absolutely, but you've got to have reasonable expectations and a game plan. A blower door test can show you the worst leaks and you can focus on improving those. Leaky window and door gaskets are inexpensive to fix yourself and foam gaskets for electrical outlets along with a couple tubes of approved sealant for wire penetrations inside boxes are not expensive. So long as you know what your biggest leaks actually are, you can spend your time and money on those areas. Many houses could be substantially improved for just a hundred bucks of hardware and some weekend labor, but the blower door along with a knowledgeable tech to use it is the first step.
It's usually a mistake to try to save money by skipping the diagnosis. Finding an affordable, skilled blower door tech in your area may difficult, however, as they are still considered witch doctors in many regions; I don't even know of a single one to recommend in my own county. 20 years ago when I was designing and installing residential HVAC systems, our rural power cooperative would do blower door tests for free, but I'm not sure if this program is still active or not.
I'll guarantee that the house in the video has huge leakage between the framing and slab and this is not so easy to fix unless you can access the interface. Slabs are fine and they even have some benefits over crawl spaces, which are a constant controversy as the industry has never really agreed on what to do with them, but you *must* have a durable, sealed interface between the concrete and the wood framing and it must be in place when the house is first built as later attempts to seal it are often ineffective. I'm sure that solutions exist, however.
What do you think about going from an electrostatic free flowing filter and central humidifier to restrictive hepa filter and no humidifier the heater turns on and off 3-5 times the heater blows "cold" air
I would love to find a builder in DFW that builds high performance homes(as close to passive as possible) that werent 6-700k+ homes. In fact the first passive rated house in DFW was over a mil. And it seems all the homes Matt and the rest of the Build show network crew only works in the higher end.
I wish I could find them that cheap.
try Amvic ICF R-30 plus 6" EPS outside
I couldn't find a builder in my area so I became the GC on our build and did all the weather sealing myself--wasn't that difficult after watching years of Matt's videos.
Let me know if you find anyone. I am in DFW too.
@@clcphoto how did you go about finding subs
At what point do you need a HRV in your home. We are in the middle of a major remodel and replacing all the insulation in an old drafty farm house with closed cell spray foam. We are also going to use AeroBarrier after spray foam. I dream of achieving .8ACH/50, but if I am only able to achieve 1.5 or 2 do I still need a HRV? All the HVAC companies that have come out to bid either don't know much about HRV's or can't answer the question of when it is needed.
An HRV or ERV is usually recommended if you get under 3ACH50. Good luck on the reno! Sounds like it'll be a much more efficient and comfortable house.
My house is around 12ACH, and I live in Atlantic Canada. This summer I’m really going to renovate and try some of Matt’s details to seal up this house.
Did you apply for the Greener Homes Grant? Its not much per item, but you can get "up to" $5K (plus the costs for testing) total rebated back.
@@MorryB yes, I had the provincial guys come by for a full energy audit to be able to get all those rebates
I bet you'd need to put a few doors on our 100+ year old full 2.5 story with basement farm house.
Does anyone know what type of handheld meter is used at 8:24? He mentions pm 2.5 meter
Not sure of the brand, but an Air Quality Meter will give you those readings (particulates and VOC's and others). Airthings make some for continuous monitoring but they're not cheap.
What do you think about a chimney being stuck open what do you think about hot air being less dense and cold wet outside air as the hot air cools
I would be interested in what you do for air sealing. My house is 7 years old. I would venture to say the majority of the air infiltration is from the attic. My walkout basement is ICF's and MY rim joist and first floor walls are 6" with 3" of 2# foam. about the only penetrations of the foam are my dryer vent and 2 sillcocks. My attic is R38 blown glass. I have around 32 can lights. They are all IC rated. I had one open today and felt the airflow around it. Not much I can do to air seal the cans as they are inaccessible from the attic. But I could seal around them with something like LEXAL.
You could install an LED bulb with integral trim ring and caulk it to the drywall.
Ah but there is. If you can't get to your can lights from above to seal it just means you'll have to seal them from below. It's good that they're IC rated as that means they have thermal sensors to prevent over heating so sealing them is fine. Start by removing the bulbs and trim rings so you have access to the canister. Use caulk to seal the bottom where it meets the drywall. For the inside holes you have three options; you can use Caulk, HVAC Aluminum tape, or HVAC mastic with mesh tape. 32 cans is a fair amount but just work from one room to another starting with the top floor (stack effect). Couple of weekends it'll be much tighter.
can you tell me how you get your manometer gauge to stick to your cross bar please?
I love that opening a window is a fall back of last resort. Is Houston that inhospitable to human life that you can only live there with the life support system i.e. HVAC?
Might be the fireplace? Just a guess.
“Who left the back door open?!” 😂
Did you tape up the bathroom vents and oven exhaust fan to get a measurement on the structure its self. At least those few items could be addressed relatively easily.
They should have dampers. They were pulling the house negative which should close the dampers. Of course most dampers are 50 cents worth of flimsy metal with a foam sealing strip that does not work.
Honestly while this all sounds good from outside perspective, it seems like it is one of those things that is really hard to fully appreciate until you have been a really well sealed house vs one that is not.
Loved this video!! You are 100% right, there are still unfortunately many, many houses being build to these standards (or lack thereof) which is a total shame. I kills me when I see new houses being built with a total disregard for air sealing and tightness. It's terrible financially for the future home owner and such a missed opportunity to build something quality for the next 80-90 years.
Awesome. I live in Kansas City so guess i should call them!
Matt, I invite you to come test my circa 1915 house near Granger. I’d bet the fan couldn’t move enough air!
Im feel your pain. My house is all brick and was built in 1921.
what about fireplaces. is there a way to make them air tight so no air comes in the house when the AC is running?
are those asbestos paint mix on the ceiling?
-63 to 70 degrees for a 133 temperature difference. Even higher when you realize that to stay warm in the majority of a home people set the temp at 72 - 75 degrees. Now do a heat load on the walls, windows and doors.
How can I find a quality insulation firm near Nashville TN?
I would love to see ways that we can make these old houses tighter without tearing them down or doing a $250,000 remodel.
I'm sure my old 40's house with steel windows would be off the chart. I call it fresh air.
Well living in a house that blew an 11 ach 50...I don't even know where to start. Low pitch roof, a low crawl space and a brick exterior. Most of the areas that need sealing area incredibly difficult or expensive to reach.
1970s technology being applied to a 1970s home
I’m confused by the comment about vented attics. Are they not the preferred approach, assuming the ceiling is air tight and the mechanicals are not in the attic space. Joseph Lstiburek seems to be of that opinion and I know he’s a mentor of Matt’s.
What does it cost for a blower door test and what prep needs to be done.
Matt, I am wondering - how did you work out ventilation in your garage at your new house? Thanks!
i would like to see oxygen levels in matts house vs this leaky one. does his ERV cut it? i bought a uhoo and despite my insanely leaky brooklyn brownstone with one floor having an HRV the bedroom oxygen levels are still no bueno. Probably because bedrooms dont have their own returns? Would love to see Matt do full air quality tests in different rooms of different houses and analyze / optimize.
We have an old house too and varied allergies depending on the house I'm in. I resemble those exchange rates :/
How much of this leakiness is due to that fireplace behind them...
How does the fireplace contribute to the problem and how is this addressed?
Another one I’ve heard: “So you’re just going to stay inside and live in a bubble!?!?” Sort of this attitude of why bother since when you leave the house, somehow breathing all the ‘untreated’ air negates any benefit of a tight house with clean air. My thinking is, as you said, you spend 1/3 of your life sleeping in there, better sleep and sort of a detox from all the dirty air makes it easier for your body to deal with it during the day out and about.
Do you know any builder or general contractor in San Jose, CA area who practices the same principle? I am planning for a major house renovation and every contractor i talked to thus far thinks that it’s a bad idea. After watching several of your videos and doing research online, i think it makes perfect sense. Maybe these contractors dont know how to build like this and maybe that’s why they just disregard it completely.
Get an architect to spec the remodel with specific details. Then write the builder contract too allow independent inspections before each trade is paid.
What was the square footage of this home?
I can't wait to take the BPI HHP cert to fully understand if your argument about your allergies were related to the infiltrations or something more wrong with the rental home.
You know it’s going to score differently when all the blower door holes are open.
great video!
It looks like there is a fire place next to where they are. Shouldn't that be sealed off before a blower door test?
Was the flue on the chimney open?
I cant find anyone to seal and insulate here in Houston. Everyone just wants to blow in some fiberglass and call it a day
Is there anyone you can recommend in London, UK?
Our 70's home was so bad, the guys from Eversource said "That can't be right."
Found the report, 4796 CFM?
I hate to say it but my 1972 brick ranch house w/basement would probably test that high or higher. My windows are old and leaky, I have a 2.5 foot square louvered attic fan (louvers closed). Just a poop ton of places for air to come in. The problem in my case is so much work needs to be done in my 50 year old house, I would have to move out to have work done.
My house probably won't even pressurize.
They're updating the building code down here in Australia in September (NCC 2022) and the big kit Home builders are arguing that an ACH target of 10 is unrealistic... Current NCC (code) is about 20 years behind Europe and the US...
Bulk insulation (fibreglass batts) was only added to the building code in 2005... *Facepalm*
I've been in houses where I'm fairly certain that Jethro and his crew thought they were building a barn.
Ha!