It would be great if you insert pictures while you're talking about a specific product that is being discussed so everyone not familiar can get a better understanding. A picture is worth a thousand words!
in wouldve liked to see that but when i started, if I really wanted to, I would just search it up as the video went. Any normal generic phone these days does that in seconds
It's similar to the cameraman panning up to the speakers' faces instead of zooming in on a detail being spoken of. I want to see the detail, not someone's face. Steve Baczek has this down when he gets Big Red out. How to say this without being an armchair bandit ... more products being visual focus while presenter gives narrative.
@@carlosguerra3560 You are correct, of course. But that takes away from the learning experience and appeal. Content creators are in a competitive market. If their videos don’t provide as much content in the same amount of time spent, people can drift to other subscriptions that provide the desired experience. I, for one, feel it is important to show, not tell. To me, it is an important part of editing and shows professional care for the audience that you intend to profit from.
From the start, Ryan was very helpful and is continuing to be helpful about his th-cam.com/users/postUgkxGqOCINHE0Z0E5gxzSdNi9NWGugRY5Hm2 Plans . Also, they have answered all the questions I have asked & I got outstanding support from his My Shed Plans full package.
I appreciate both guys honesty when admitting they believed all the hype of new building products and techniques. I also learned those lessons. When an ad in a builder magazine boasts that their product saves so much labor that it costs a fraction of what you're paying now, that fraction is usually 5/4.
This channel is one big commercial for whoever the current sponsor of the “build show” is. Usually something for building homes that are $5million+ and up.
@@imacyclepath440 I get quite a lot out of this channel.. with no intention of building a 5+ mil home. How much of this would you get without TH-cam and not knowing someone in the building trades??
@@zaknefain100 Where did I ever disparage TH-cam in my comment. I love TH-cam and all of the creators for sharing their insights for finding virtually any information your heart desires. I happen to be in the trades and real estate realm. I consider TH-cam one of the best platforms in the world. This is my go to platform for finding information that I have questions about. That does not take away from the fact that I think there are plenty of TH-camrs out there that give better info then this one. I also come from a marketing background as well. This channel is all marketing. He shills products that he is either getting for free or is being paid to endorse. Many of them extremely expensive. As someone who has literally had to build on a budget and grow myself, I can tell you a lot of these products are overpriced and not in a normal homeowners budget. Perhaps you learned a thing or two from this channel. I’m sure I have as well. But there are many other channels out there that I learned more from. And they weren’t glorified advertisements. I’m not saying Matt has an awful channel. I just think he grew so big that he is getting so much money to shill for products that he cares more about the sponsorships and revenue for the channel than anything else. When was the last time he picked up a hammer? I might be being harsh. Because I’m sure he knows more about building than I do, but that doesn’t negate the fact that this channel is one big advertisement for whatever brand is currently paying Matt.
Finally something I can relate to. As someone who works as an engineer in both the commercial and residential markets (Minnesota and Wisconsin currently), it's all about knowing what the building needs to be designed for and how it needs to perform. There is no one perfect system. When you're working with a budget, there will always be a compromise between cost, speed of construction and long term performance. We do our best to balance those on a daily basis.
My addition to my house built in the 60’s - 70’s has 7/16 Fiberboard Sheating it got wet on the bottom below (2) windows that are 36” wide installed in the same opening with a space of 3” between them! All the wall cavities had black mold on the exterior drywall wall paper! I removed the fiberglass insulation and sprayed vinegar onto the paper and scraped the moldy paper off the drywall!! As soon as it warms up here in Utah in March or April, I’ll be removing all of the fiber board on all 3 of the exterior walls of the addition and replacing it with Zip Sheating with Zip 2.0 ! And Atlas 1” PolyIso on-top of zip all new 1/4 and 1/8 glass Vinyl Windows!
Just make sure you are correcting the source of the water intrusion. I'm in Utah and I'm not sure that your proposed wall assembly will work in cold climate Utah; it's vapor impermeable so you better be able to dry to the inside.
Great show Matt. I agree with Witt's dad, a well thought out ICF home is the way to go. All types of home construction have their short comings... But when they are mitigated and or eliminated, I'm in the ICF camp.
I went to the Foxbloc sales office. The cost was exorbitant, especially their roof and floor systems. 4xs the cost of traditional framing. Very difficult to structurally remodel and wire.
@Ifishmo yeah I think this is overblown. How much energy is spent planting and harvesting, milling, transporting and remodeling with milled products with limited lifespans? Same complaints with brick homes? ICF homes properly built last generations, don't burn down, blow away, and as a result of the remodeling challenges, tend to bet remodeled less while utilizing smaller HVAC systems.
Matt, great format and info. Regarding waterproofing ICF exterior, Nudura has a spray/roll-on product TREMDri 160 that works on below-grade ICF without dissolving the EPS, supposedly. I haven't used it, but we are building a farmhouse in ME and using ICF so I am researching water management systems aggressively.
Great video, thanks so much ! I built 5,000 sqft custom built and in addition to alot of things you talked about I used construction adhesive with proper nail schedule with the OSB, the house is solid... Thanks Again!
Can you please do a video on garage floors, garage drains, oil-water separators options and the connection to driveways, linear drainage, and how radiant heat and how HVAC applies to the garage space.
Garages are unconditioned spaces, no need for HVAC but if you have radiant in your house its a minimal cost to add it to your garage slab and makes a big difference.
I work for a Structural Engineering firm (Structural Engineer here), and we've adapted to listening to our contractors. We've asked a lot of them for feedback and what they want to see on drawings. It has come down to we know what holdowns certain contractors like, what headers (Timbers, (3) ply or (2) ply, Glulams over LVLs, post if they want wood or steel, etc.) and even have had it to the point where some have asked for fewer details as well. It took a lot of humbling and going back and forth, especially for liability, but we got to the point where we will do our best to listen to our contractor and have a discussion and take advice from them on what they've seen works and doesn't work; we always contact our contractor if we are engineering a connection or product where it is out of the ordinary and we usually have a sit down meeting with them to see if we can do another option or if we need to approach this entirely different. I agree with the 3/4" Plywood and exterior insulation. At a previous firm I worked for, this was similar appraoch I tried after asking the mason what they wanted to do and when I presented a similar situation to my previous engineer, he said "H*** No!" Don't work for him anymore, so that is a positive on my end. I am also a big fan of ICF but I understand it does have its pros and cons. Don't get me wrong, ICF requires the builders to understand it is not conventianal framing and may require a different set of skills to work with, but I love it even though the majority of houses/buildings I engineer are standard dimensional/stick framed. I truly appreaciate Whit's prespective on what he likes to see/likes to do as well. Engineering can take a lot of stress off the builder, but when the builder and Structural engineer can work together, it makes the job go much more smoother, even though there may be RFI's or SI's, it is the communication with it all I'd say. Great discussion! Would love to see more of these types of videos!
In regards to tornado, When your neighbor's 70s house flies into your remodeled house, there will be huge damage. That is to say, if you were either on your own acreage or amongst similarly reinforced homes, then wind damage is minimized. My Great Grandmother had the garage dug up during construction to have a fraidy room built underneath (complete with snorkel in yard)...but that all happened the week of Cuban missile crisis.
Matt, I would love to hear you and Whit’s thoughts regarding foundation repair on existing homes. As a homeowner, there is no real guidance out there on proper evaluation and repair to make sure its done right the first time. There are thousands of companies who tell you different things and its confusing. I have a 1960’s home in Dallas and I have had foundation repair companies tell me i need repairs. I hired an independent structural engineer not tied to a repair company and they told me things were fine. Most homeowners do band aid repairs but i would love to know if there are right and wrong ways to approach the different types of foundation repairs. I know geography and foundations around the country are different but a general “what to look for when you think you need foundation repair” would be very helpful.
I know a way to push water out of those icf walls, there is a company in Tampa that uses some kind of ultrasonic waves to push water out of buildings, it does work, pretty cool.
Excellent presentation. My forty+ years as a contractor/ residential building designer, your talk was most informative. What I am now seeing is moisture, air, radon and energy control changes as we learn more with time. My question is with a 2x6, fiberglass insulated wall, taped zip panels exterior - drywall interior; where should we be installing the poly-moisture/ air control barrier to allow the wall to breathe and prevent moisture build-up and future mold and wood rot? Your thoughts?
Just make sure the dew point I’d within the exterior insulation. Look up The Pretty Good House or the BS and Beer podcast. BS is for Building Science. Sometimes you would be better off with a 2x4 wall with 2” of rigid foam on the exterior. It keeps the studs and sheathing warmer so there’s no condensation there. If you use 2x6 walls you might need extra exterior insulation to keep the dew point outside of your Zip.
Can you please post a visual representation of the zip system that utilized standard framing techniques while accomplishing Monopoly level sealing. It was a builder you visited, but his description was a bit hard to follow.
Interesting discussion. Consider a change to the questions around a customer asking about an over-engineering aspect of the design, "would you as a builder do it for your home?"
@@metalrooves3651 Strawbales are the by-product of wheat. It’s basically the stock. Cob is a combination of straw, clay, sand and water. Gets plastered on the outside, and hardens to concrete. You can then do a lime plaster wash on it, and it protects it from the elements.
Hello Matt, at the end of this video you referenced a manufactured truss with storage in the center. I am about to use this style truss on a spec home. My question is, on the build you referenced, did you leave the non storage area of the attic vented? Thank you in advance.
LVL studs work great for walls that are going to have cabinets on them for a straight flat surface or for long hallways that can project a warped stud behind drywall. sounds like maybe avoid using them on exterior walls because LVLs rot quicker than solid lumber, unless you spend even more for treated LVLs.
Matt, I am really curius what your initial thoughts would be about a system called Gablok. Engineers from Belgium have designed the system and have build hundreds of houses by now in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands by now. It consists of hollow blocks made from OSB, with rigid insulation foam blocks in the voids of the OSB, stacked like lego. Then they are connected with some ancors, resulting basically in a SIP structure but then made out of small LEGO blocks.
@@ASIRIDesigns I dont know exactly what they are doing, since I myself am not very educated when it comes to air sealing in the first place, but once the blocks are stacked, they attach some plastic like material both on the inside and outside, but different ones. Those materials are specifically made to make sure the buildings meet all regulations regarding those issues, they are pretty strict in belgium or the netherlands regarding that. You could contact them via their website, they respond well, i have done that in the past as well.
lol. sheathing is supposed to provide racking resistance - if the house is braced with diagonalization or strapping, sheathing isn't needed building wrap provides the barrier - maybe the cardboard provides a surface to firmly tape the wrap... I like sheathing as a concept - it tightens the frame immensely in to a single diaphragm. In Australia - where I live, it is typical that houses are not sheathed = or only critical wall pannels are partly sheathed. (noggins are typical in all frames - due to limited structural sheathing). 3/4 inch / 20mm sheathing ply -if used, is structural - allowing any external cladding members to be directly fastened to the sheathing... (plus if the sheathing is sealed, glued and nailed- that wall is going nowhere anytime soon)...
The one advantage that panelized construction has over conventional framing is that it eliminates much of the lumber loss due to theft. It is very difficult especially for small builders to protect themselves from theft. And its almost impossible to press charges against those who do the stealing.
3D printing house is effectively a factory. The factory has a robot and a brain. The software brain is programmed with plans done in advance, and constantly updated with new learning. This method will probably win out as complex home builds are simplified. Also they can build 24x7, satisfying the banker.
Keep the beard and also go more in depth with post framing next time he is a guest. I would like to here his take on a diaphragm system, that is sealed properly. Also, if you have time to do so, touch on the Battic brand attic access system, for cold climates, level 7 here. Thanks, Matt, love the content!
Regarding pier and grade beam foundations - Arthur Levin's book "Hillside Foundations" - would Wit be willing to share his thoughts around this approach? Foundations on sloping lots are always perceived as a very costly and "heavy lifts", but Mr. Levin's text credibly somewhat refutes that via the use of the pier and grade beam configuration. I only prompt this given the lack of information out there on this type of foundation and its seemingly very effective and affordable characteristics.
holdown and 3x exterior plate with 5/8 anchor bolt 2' oc and exterior plywood is the best .bottom plate fail in 94 earthquake . 1x4 bracing break the studs in a earthquake
Live in a double wide and looking to remove all drywall including ceilings. Question with and average electrical bill of $285 a month over 12 month average. Already getting new double pane fiberglass windows. Is closed cell foam going to make a difference over pink with such a low electric bill, or just just upgrade the pink stuff? Also looking at the new water heater the forces air one. That should cut bill be $59
Matt - How can I find someone in my area to guide me on foundations, insulation, rain screens? My budget is very tight. I am a DIYer building a kit post and beam cabin that doesn't come code compliant. Thanks!
Thank you so much for this info session! I'm in the design stage of my green build house. I've looked at ICF and SIP. But came back to standard 2 x 4 studs monopoly frame with 3" exterior polyiso wrap, 6" on the roof with a R38 batt in the vault ceiling, zip sheathing envelope. Even going old school CMU for foundation walls filled with a perlite concrete mixture for extra insulation plus 3" XPS and waterproof dimpled membrane draining to foundation drainage. This discussion really sealed it for me. Fraction of the cost of the "alternative" methods with equal performance. But I'm planning on putting the 3" iso between the stud and zip system. Is there a reason that wouldn't work?
I have been a fan for a while and now I am interested in planning my own passive house build and I don’t know where to turn. I am having trouble finding someone in St Louis. What do you recommend? How do I get started in my area with a retrofit of my existing home and a new build as well? I have called a local architect and having trouble connecting.
Clarification: the engineer accidentally said “my ICF house” once when referring to his SIP house. A few minutes later, I’m curious if @MattRisinger did the same thing when he said: “you really have to get your waterproofing right with ICF, if water gets inside it won’t have anywhere to go.”
People are spending a million dollars on a traditional framing house modular is the way to go ultra-tight uses little energy and some of them come with a 30-year warranty companies such as unity and dwell make great houses
He is correct that basically no residential home in the U.S. can survive a direct hit from a tornado. Every house would need to be a a fortress. If you're looking for a engineered system that uses this strategy of being uneconomical for the problem it's trying to solve, look at transportation infrastructure, particularly the U.S. road and highway system, which is free to spiral out of control thanks to a firehose of deficit spending subsidies from the Federal government.
Potential advantages is key. You can get high end, high cost modulars in some areas which offer the advantage of faster build times at high prices. Otherwise, no one has ever made them cost less. They will totally drag you along hiding the total costs so they can have more time to sell you, but in the end they are inevitably higher price per sqft.
So, you say it's economically not feasible to build a house to withstand a hurricane. But that is not true. A well-built ICF house absolutely would, and it is not too much more expensive. Only now with the lumber prices coming down again is flimsy wooden stick construction cheaper again.
@@seanm3226 I respect your work, man! I'm German and 99.9% of houses here are concrete/stone/block/stucco. When I learned how flimsy American houses are, I was literally shocked. 😂 My nephew just bought a house 650 years old made of sandstone. New tiles for aesthetic reasons, new paint, and he was good to move in. No rotten wooden sticks.
@@Mote78 Simply a piece of carboard, glazing on the exterior side, not thicker than the cardboard Amazon packages arrive in, nailed to studs on the exterior side, like plywood or OSB would be.
Very interesting interview! The wall assembly you discussed that was sheathed with 3/4 plywood and only exterior insulation ; how would that perform acoustically? Seems like it would be hollow and echoey on the inside of the house. Btw, your engineer looks exactly like Christian Bale. 😂
I was surprised to hear that you recommend conventional construction unless there's some specific reason to use alternative designs, when things like exterior insulation, an airtight building envelope, vapor-open assemblies, etc. are ideas you promote.
Why isn’t this guy’s name in the video title or at least the description? “Matt’s structural engineer!” sounds like Mick calling Charlie Watts “my drummer”. Charlie socked him in the mouth, which is great. Matt’s probably not as annoying as Mick. Still a conspicuous and odd choice. He’s a great guest, treat him right and give him credit.
Another alternative system,was A STRAW HOUSE!..ABSOLUTE MALPRACTICE,ON the builders part.All they saved was insulation..and every contractor screwed them.double walls,one to hold siding ,one for sheetrock....and close to uninsurable!
Answering your question about a tornado,no..your house would be toast!Hold downs are worthless.hurricanes,yes,you can build to defeat it.Have you ever seen a tornado devastation?when l was a board boy in the 1970s,WE NEVER put the nuts back on any poured-in anchor bolts..we are in kcmo,not exactly tornado free..
Ciao sarebbe interessante se riuscissi ad inserire una traduzione in italiano nei sottotitoli .. sono sicuro che dite cose interessanti ma io non capisco nulla 🙈🙈
Unfortunately, we have a tax, regulatory, and tort system that wasn’t designed to punish employers for hiring people, but it could have been. We really need to find ways to reduce labor in home building or get some fundamental change in DC. Regular people are getting pushed into bad homes or kept out of the market altogether because they cannot carry the load of all the labor costs which they only get a fraction of when they work.
@@zefrum3 It’s not really complicated, but if you have been raised in modern America, it might seem out in left field. Let’s say you are a 20 something high school graduate and a plumber. You make 80k a year because you produce about 160k in revenue for a plumbing service. Of that $160k, the government is getting what? $40k? Now, you go to buy a house, and everybody who works on it is having the same 25% plus added to the cost of their labor. Income tax, FICA, Medicare, Employer match, disability, unemployment, etc. Compare that to something like a Television. There’s hardly any labor at all in a TV. That’s why they are so affordable. So we either need to reduce the labor component of home building, or reduce labor taxes to fix the housing market.
Why you guys compare wood with concrete? Is not comparable, icf or any other technology or cbs is way stronger (in hot weather better) than wood. Nowadays wood is so expensive, is more convenient to build on concrete or blocks plus all the weather going crazy
Alternative building systems can be silly...usually not any easier,always more money,seldom any better.Zip is 33 bux a sheet and tape is high!osb is now 9 bux a sheet!Tape to hold out water on a roof is a FOOLS ERRAND!.If your roof itself doesn't keep out water,how will bogus tape?You guys are too young to know this but,millions of houses were built in the inflationary years of 1970s,WITHOUT FELT OF ANY KIND!AND when we tore them off,they were fine!
I am shocked, dismayed, and extremely disappointed and disheartened that Matt says if he were to build his personal home again, he would not use LVL lumber (including studs). This is a betrayal to Build Show fans, and I am putting Matt on probation.
To me, first generation means your parent was the first to immigrate/ go into a profession. So if you’re a second generation engineer, then your dad and grandpa were engineers
Straps and diagonals are nothing compared to the rack strength of OSB!..especially a single 1x4..a waste of time.ln 1979 ,we used 3/4foam and NO diagonals, but 3/4 CDX PLYWOOD.ON CORNERS ONLY...
It would be great if you insert pictures while you're talking about a specific product that is being discussed so everyone not familiar can get a better understanding. A picture is worth a thousand words!
Completely agree!
in wouldve liked to see that but when i started, if I really wanted to, I would just search it up as the video went. Any normal generic phone these days does that in seconds
Great idea
It's similar to the cameraman panning up to the speakers' faces instead of zooming in on a detail being spoken of. I want to see the detail, not someone's face.
Steve Baczek has this down when he gets Big Red out.
How to say this without being an armchair bandit ... more products being visual focus while presenter gives narrative.
@@carlosguerra3560
You are correct, of course. But that takes away from the learning experience and appeal. Content creators are in a competitive market. If their videos don’t provide as much content in the same amount of time spent, people can drift to other subscriptions that provide the desired experience. I, for one, feel it is important to show, not tell. To me, it is an important part of editing and shows professional care for the audience that you intend to profit from.
From the start, Ryan was very helpful and is continuing to be helpful about his th-cam.com/users/postUgkxGqOCINHE0Z0E5gxzSdNi9NWGugRY5Hm2 Plans . Also, they have answered all the questions I have asked & I got outstanding support from his My Shed Plans full package.
I appreciate both guys honesty when admitting they believed all the hype of new building products and techniques. I also learned those lessons. When an ad in a builder magazine boasts that their product saves so much labor that it costs a fraction of what you're paying now, that fraction is usually 5/4.
5/4 haha yeah
Yet this channel is constantly pushing PVC walls that are 20x drywall, etc etc
This channel is one big commercial for whoever the current sponsor of the “build show” is.
Usually something for building homes that are $5million+ and up.
@@imacyclepath440 I get quite a lot out of this channel.. with no intention of building a 5+ mil home. How much of this would you get without TH-cam and not knowing someone in the building trades??
@@zaknefain100 Where did I ever disparage TH-cam in my comment. I love TH-cam and all of the creators for sharing their insights for finding virtually any information your heart desires. I happen to be in the trades and real estate realm. I consider TH-cam one of the best platforms in the world. This is my go to platform for finding information that I have questions about. That does not take away from the fact that I think there are plenty of TH-camrs out there that give better info then this one. I also come from a marketing background as well. This channel is all marketing. He shills products that he is either getting for free or is being paid to endorse. Many of them extremely expensive. As someone who has literally had to build on a budget and grow myself, I can tell you a lot of these products are overpriced and not in a normal homeowners budget.
Perhaps you learned a thing or two from this channel. I’m sure I have as well. But there are many other channels out there that I learned more from. And they weren’t glorified advertisements.
I’m not saying Matt has an awful channel. I just think he grew so big that he is getting so much money to shill for products that he cares more about the sponsorships and revenue for the channel than anything else. When was the last time he picked up a hammer?
I might be being harsh. Because I’m sure he knows more about building than I do, but that doesn’t negate the fact that this channel is one big advertisement for whatever brand is currently paying Matt.
This was such a good episode. Being honest about mistakes and learning from the experience of those that came before. That's how we make progress.
Perfect listen for us right now. Great to hear from Witt, thanks for putting this out Matt. 🤝
Go stud pack house!
Yah! Stud pack expanding their horizons!
Finally something I can relate to. As someone who works as an engineer in both the commercial and residential markets (Minnesota and Wisconsin currently), it's all about knowing what the building needs to be designed for and how it needs to perform. There is no one perfect system. When you're working with a budget, there will always be a compromise between cost, speed of construction and long term performance. We do our best to balance those on a daily basis.
My addition to my house built in the 60’s - 70’s has 7/16 Fiberboard Sheating it got wet on the bottom below (2) windows that are 36” wide installed in the same opening with a space of 3” between them! All the wall cavities had black mold on the exterior drywall wall paper! I removed the fiberglass insulation and sprayed vinegar onto the paper and scraped the moldy paper off the drywall!!
As soon as it warms up here in Utah in March or April, I’ll be removing all of the fiber board on all 3 of the exterior walls of the addition and replacing it with Zip Sheating with Zip 2.0 ! And Atlas 1” PolyIso on-top of zip all new 1/4 and 1/8 glass Vinyl Windows!
Was that cement fiber board? That’s what’s on my home 😬
Just make sure you are correcting the source of the water intrusion.
I'm in Utah and I'm not sure that your proposed wall assembly will work in cold climate Utah; it's vapor impermeable so you better be able to dry to the inside.
Great show Matt. I agree with Witt's dad, a well thought out ICF home is the way to go. All types of home construction have their short comings... But when they are mitigated and or eliminated, I'm in the ICF camp.
I went to the Foxbloc sales office. The cost was exorbitant, especially their roof and floor systems. 4xs the cost of traditional framing. Very difficult to structurally remodel and wire.
If everyone built an icf house the carbon emissions would be devastating
@@TheRealMrLaserCutterPlease explain...
@@bigpapa1470 amount of energy to make cement/concrete is massive and mostly coming from fossil fuels thus the carbon emissions
@Ifishmo yeah I think this is overblown. How much energy is spent planting and harvesting, milling, transporting and remodeling with milled products with limited lifespans? Same complaints with brick homes? ICF homes properly built last generations, don't burn down, blow away, and as a result of the remodeling challenges, tend to bet remodeled less while utilizing smaller HVAC systems.
Matt, great format and info. Regarding waterproofing ICF exterior, Nudura has a spray/roll-on product TREMDri 160 that works on below-grade ICF without dissolving the EPS, supposedly. I haven't used it, but we are building a farmhouse in ME and using ICF so I am researching water management systems aggressively.
Great video, thanks so much ! I built 5,000 sqft custom built and in addition to alot of things you talked about I used construction adhesive with proper nail schedule with the OSB, the house is solid... Thanks Again!
What a great conversation.
Can you please do a video on garage floors, garage drains, oil-water separators options and the connection to driveways, linear drainage, and how radiant heat and how HVAC applies to the garage space.
You need to have a minisplit installed in your garage.
Garages are unconditioned spaces, no need for HVAC but if you have radiant in your house its a minimal cost to add it to your garage slab and makes a big difference.
Looking for Matt to do a video on all of the things mentioned above. That would be great.
I work for a Structural Engineering firm (Structural Engineer here), and we've adapted to listening to our contractors. We've asked a lot of them for feedback and what they want to see on drawings. It has come down to we know what holdowns certain contractors like, what headers (Timbers, (3) ply or (2) ply, Glulams over LVLs, post if they want wood or steel, etc.) and even have had it to the point where some have asked for fewer details as well. It took a lot of humbling and going back and forth, especially for liability, but we got to the point where we will do our best to listen to our contractor and have a discussion and take advice from them on what they've seen works and doesn't work; we always contact our contractor if we are engineering a connection or product where it is out of the ordinary and we usually have a sit down meeting with them to see if we can do another option or if we need to approach this entirely different. I agree with the 3/4" Plywood and exterior insulation. At a previous firm I worked for, this was similar appraoch I tried after asking the mason what they wanted to do and when I presented a similar situation to my previous engineer, he said "H*** No!" Don't work for him anymore, so that is a positive on my end. I am also a big fan of ICF but I understand it does have its pros and cons. Don't get me wrong, ICF requires the builders to understand it is not conventianal framing and may require a different set of skills to work with, but I love it even though the majority of houses/buildings I engineer are standard dimensional/stick framed. I truly appreaciate Whit's prespective on what he likes to see/likes to do as well. Engineering can take a lot of stress off the builder, but when the builder and Structural engineer can work together, it makes the job go much more smoother, even though there may be RFI's or SI's, it is the communication with it all I'd say.
Great discussion! Would love to see more of these types of videos!
I am looking for a structural engineer for my ICF build. 2D plans almost complete. Can you help? I subscribed to your channel.
In regards to tornado, When your neighbor's 70s house flies into your remodeled house, there will be huge damage. That is to say, if you were either on your own acreage or amongst similarly reinforced homes, then wind damage is minimized. My Great Grandmother had the garage dug up during construction to have a fraidy room built underneath (complete with snorkel in yard)...but that all happened the week of Cuban missile crisis.
After using the Simpson Titen anchors ONCE, I was sold on its use. So much easier than making templates and setting J-anchors in concrete.
Matt, I would love to hear you and Whit’s thoughts regarding foundation repair on existing homes. As a homeowner, there is no real guidance out there on proper evaluation and repair to make sure its done right the first time. There are thousands of companies who tell you different things and its confusing. I have a 1960’s home in Dallas and I have had foundation repair companies tell me i need repairs. I hired an independent structural engineer not tied to a repair company and they told me things were fine.
Most homeowners do band aid repairs but i would love to know if there are right and wrong ways to approach the different types of foundation repairs. I know geography and foundations around the country are different but a general “what to look for when you think you need foundation repair” would be very helpful.
I know a way to push water out of those icf walls, there is a company in Tampa that uses some kind of ultrasonic waves to push water out of buildings, it does work, pretty cool.
Excellent presentation. My forty+ years as a contractor/ residential building designer, your talk was most informative. What I am now seeing is moisture, air, radon and energy control changes as we learn more with time.
My question is with a 2x6, fiberglass insulated wall, taped zip panels exterior - drywall interior; where should we be installing the poly-moisture/ air control barrier to allow the wall to breathe and prevent moisture build-up and future mold and wood rot? Your thoughts?
Taped zip panels are already a complete WRB.
Just make sure the dew point I’d within the exterior insulation. Look up The Pretty Good House or the BS and Beer podcast. BS is for Building Science. Sometimes you would be better off with a 2x4 wall with 2” of rigid foam on the exterior. It keeps the studs and sheathing warmer so there’s no condensation there. If you use 2x6 walls you might need extra exterior insulation to keep the dew point outside of your Zip.
Can you please post a visual representation of the zip system that utilized standard framing techniques while accomplishing Monopoly level sealing. It was a builder you visited, but his description was a bit hard to follow.
Interesting discussion. Consider a change to the questions around a customer asking about an over-engineering aspect of the design, "would you as a builder do it for your home?"
So excited about this episode. I am at this stage with my house. We are doing Larsen Trusses, strawbale and cob!
Nice!
What isstrawvwey and cob?
@@metalrooves3651 Strawbales are the by-product of wheat. It’s basically the stock. Cob is a combination of straw, clay, sand and water. Gets plastered on the outside, and hardens to concrete. You can then do a lime plaster wash on it, and it protects it from the elements.
Good afternoon from Auckland, New Zealand ...
Great input on alternative systems, we are specing our that vs stick now and this was very valuable.
Always fantastic content here
Much appreciated! Thank you
Hello Matt, at the end of this video you referenced a manufactured truss with storage in the center. I am about to use this style truss on a spec home. My question is, on the build you referenced, did you leave the non storage area of the attic vented? Thank you in advance.
LVL studs work great for walls that are going to have cabinets on them for a straight flat surface or for long hallways that can project a warped stud behind drywall. sounds like maybe avoid using them on exterior walls because LVLs rot quicker than solid lumber, unless you spend even more for treated LVLs.
Matt, I am really curius what your initial thoughts would be about a system called Gablok. Engineers from Belgium have designed the system and have build hundreds of houses by now in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands by now. It consists of hollow blocks made from OSB, with rigid insulation foam blocks in the voids of the OSB, stacked like lego. Then they are connected with some ancors, resulting basically in a SIP structure but then made out of small LEGO blocks.
How do they air seal all those joints? Fluid applied membrane on the exterior and a membrane on the interior?
@@ASIRIDesigns I dont know exactly what they are doing, since I myself am not very educated when it comes to air sealing in the first place, but once the blocks are stacked, they attach some plastic like material both on the inside and outside, but different ones. Those materials are specifically made to make sure the buildings meet all regulations regarding those issues, they are pretty strict in belgium or the netherlands regarding that. You could contact them via their website, they respond well, i have done that in the past as well.
lol. sheathing is supposed to provide racking resistance - if the house is braced with diagonalization or strapping, sheathing isn't needed building wrap provides the barrier - maybe the cardboard provides a surface to firmly tape the wrap...
I like sheathing as a concept - it tightens the frame immensely in to a single diaphragm. In Australia - where I live, it is typical that houses are not sheathed = or only critical wall pannels are partly sheathed. (noggins are typical in all frames - due to limited structural sheathing).
3/4 inch / 20mm sheathing ply -if used, is structural - allowing any external cladding members to be directly fastened to the sheathing... (plus if the sheathing is sealed, glued and nailed- that wall is going nowhere anytime soon)...
It’s pretty funny when OSB is considered an upgrade. 😂
I would love to see a sample of the 3/4" plywood sheeting and exterior insulation.
Look at Matt's house that he built. He shows all the parts.
The one advantage that panelized construction has over conventional framing is that it eliminates much of the lumber loss due to theft.
It is very difficult especially for small builders to protect themselves from theft.
And its almost impossible to press charges against those who do the stealing.
3D printing house is effectively a factory. The factory has a robot and a brain. The software brain is programmed with plans done in advance, and constantly updated with new learning. This method will probably win out as complex home builds are simplified. Also they can build 24x7, satisfying the banker.
This must have been recorded some time ago, OSB is back to sub $10/sheet now in 2023.
Really? Wow really is!
Keep the beard and also go more in depth with post framing next time he is a guest. I would like to here his take on a diaphragm system, that is sealed properly. Also, if you have time to do so, touch on the Battic brand attic access system, for cold climates, level 7 here. Thanks, Matt, love the content!
Good night from London, England.
Regarding pier and grade beam foundations - Arthur Levin's book "Hillside Foundations" - would Wit be willing to share his thoughts around this approach? Foundations on sloping lots are always perceived as a very costly and "heavy lifts", but Mr. Levin's text credibly somewhat refutes that via the use of the pier and grade beam configuration. I only prompt this given the lack of information out there on this type of foundation and its seemingly very effective and affordable characteristics.
holdown and 3x exterior plate with 5/8 anchor bolt 2' oc and exterior plywood is the best .bottom plate fail in 94 earthquake . 1x4 bracing break the studs in a earthquake
Live in a double wide and looking to remove all drywall including ceilings. Question with and average electrical bill of $285 a month over 12 month average. Already getting new double pane fiberglass windows. Is closed cell foam going to make a difference over pink with such a low electric bill, or just just upgrade the pink stuff? Also looking at the new water heater the forces air one. That should cut bill be $59
Great podcast!
Matt - How can I find someone in my area to guide me on foundations, insulation, rain screens? My budget is very tight. I am a DIYer building a kit post and beam cabin that doesn't come code compliant. Thanks!
Thank you so much for this info session! I'm in the design stage of my green build house. I've looked at ICF and SIP. But came back to standard 2 x 4 studs monopoly frame with 3" exterior polyiso wrap, 6" on the roof with a R38 batt in the vault ceiling, zip sheathing envelope. Even going old school CMU for foundation walls filled with a perlite concrete mixture for extra insulation plus 3" XPS and waterproof dimpled membrane draining to foundation drainage. This discussion really sealed it for me. Fraction of the cost of the "alternative" methods with equal performance. But I'm planning on putting the 3" iso between the stud and zip system. Is there a reason that wouldn't work?
@h2s142 I got it for $38 a panel at wholesale bulk pricing from a local manufacturer but I have to transport it. Still very affordable.
Hope you get better soon, btw you're rocking the beard very well, you should keep it!
Beard is hideous
ICFs made with GPS rather traditional EPS makes a better structure with moisture tolerance and better insulation .
I have been a fan for a while and now I am interested in planning my own passive house build and I don’t know where to turn. I am having trouble finding someone in St Louis. What do you recommend? How do I get started in my area with a retrofit of my existing home and a new build as well? I have called a local architect and having trouble connecting.
How can I find a builder that puts in thought like you guys?
Its almost like as if the foundation starts with a functional family structure.
How long do you wait for framing to go up after foundation is pour?
How is this guy not famous movie star? 😂 Seriously though that was very helpful. About to build my first house I’ve designed, pretty stoked.
Clarification: the engineer accidentally said “my ICF house” once when referring to his SIP house.
A few minutes later, I’m curious if @MattRisinger did the same thing when he said: “you really have to get your waterproofing right with ICF, if water gets inside it won’t have anywhere to go.”
People are spending a million dollars on a traditional framing house modular is the way to go ultra-tight uses little energy and some of them come with a 30-year warranty companies such as unity and dwell make great houses
Have u seen thecorice of a dwell house, not including ground work?
No thanks.
My heart sank when he said OSB is 50 dollars a pop. 😩
In my market 1/2 OSB is $10, Zip is $24, Zip-R is $80
Yeah even though this was only published a couple of weeks ago, I do believe those prices are a year old.
He is correct that basically no residential home in the U.S. can survive a direct hit from a tornado. Every house would need to be a a fortress.
If you're looking for a engineered system that uses this strategy of being uneconomical for the problem it's trying to solve, look at transportation infrastructure, particularly the U.S. road and highway system, which is free to spiral out of control thanks to a firehose of deficit spending subsidies from the Federal government.
ICF, additional benefits for minimal cost increase, not to mention fire and seismic.
what do you think about modular? The potential advantages are so great I'm curious why they are not more popular.
Not popular due to bad reputation due to most historically being junk resulting in low property resale value resulting in this long run on sentence
@@NoName-ml5yk I think the quality of modular is improving very rapidly
I think we are going to see a new era of Modular and Panelized.
Potential advantages is key. You can get high end, high cost modulars in some areas which offer the advantage of faster build times at high prices. Otherwise, no one has ever made them cost less. They will totally drag you along hiding the total costs so they can have more time to sell you, but in the end they are inevitably higher price per sqft.
@@tamil1001 Yes agreed technology advances but acceptance will lag far behind as will resale value.
Gotta use PSL instead of LSL for exterior use
So, you say it's economically not feasible to build a house to withstand a hurricane. But that is not true. A well-built ICF house absolutely would, and it is not too much more expensive. Only now with the lumber prices coming down again is flimsy wooden stick construction cheaper again.
We build Concrete/Block/Stucco houses in Florida every day.
@@seanm3226 I respect your work, man! I'm German and 99.9% of houses here are concrete/stone/block/stucco. When I learned how flimsy American houses are, I was literally shocked. 😂
My nephew just bought a house 650 years old made of sandstone. New tiles for aesthetic reasons, new paint, and he was good to move in. No rotten wooden sticks.
I wish these conversations had chapters so you can skip a lot of the stories and get to the point.
Would I-joists be logical to reinforce 1940 floor that squeaks excessively?
Your guest looks like Al Borland lost weight and found the Fountain of Youth.
"I don't think so, Tim."
The biggest issue I have with the cardboard sheathing, is I have never seen it installed to spec
The biggest issue I have with cardboard sheathing is that there’s a spec for it!!!
Cardboard Sheating is absolute crap.
Could you hint or whisper what that cardboard sheathing is? Much appreciated.
@@Mote78 Simply a piece of carboard, glazing on the exterior side, not thicker than the cardboard Amazon packages arrive in, nailed to studs on the exterior side, like plywood or OSB would be.
@@damianokon6209
Wow. Sounds like weak stuff. Thanks
There is nothing hard about waterproofing ICF's.
29:56 why has the cost of OSB gone up 5-6x?
This guy tells this story as a First generation beginner!How did he miss that HE was responsible to unload them?l thought his dad was an engineer too!
What about 3d printed concrete
Yes, indeed, insulation belongs on the outside. I keep saying that. :D
941 Osborn Plug, was it sponsored 🤔
Beard looks good!
Whats ICF?
Thumbs-up on the beard, Matt.
Yes, if his goal was took look 10 years older.
Very interesting interview! The wall assembly you discussed that was sheathed with 3/4 plywood and only exterior insulation ; how would that perform acoustically? Seems like it would be hollow and echoey on the inside of the house.
Btw, your engineer looks exactly like Christian Bale. 😂
I didn’t understand why not also fill the cavity with insulation!!!
@@damianokon6209so it could breathe and dry out
@@Nonsense62365 and if I may, unnecessary cost. Insulate outside.
I was surprised to hear that you recommend conventional construction unless there's some specific reason to use alternative designs, when things like exterior insulation, an airtight building envelope, vapor-open assemblies, etc. are ideas you promote.
My first question would be, how many foundations and frames has your structural engineer actually built with his own hands.
Someone didn't listen past the 7 minute mark.
Why isn’t this guy’s name in the video title or at least the description? “Matt’s structural engineer!” sounds like Mick calling Charlie Watts “my drummer”. Charlie socked him in the mouth, which is great. Matt’s probably not as annoying as Mick.
Still a conspicuous and odd choice. He’s a great guest, treat him right and give him credit.
Whit Smith, Smith Structural Engineers, if anyone else is annoyed.
Another alternative system,was A STRAW HOUSE!..ABSOLUTE MALPRACTICE,ON the builders part.All they saved was insulation..and every contractor screwed them.double walls,one to hold siding ,one for sheetrock....and close to uninsurable!
Answering your question about a tornado,no..your house would be toast!Hold downs are worthless.hurricanes,yes,you can build to defeat it.Have you ever seen a tornado devastation?when l was a board boy in the 1970s,WE NEVER put the nuts back on any poured-in anchor bolts..we are in kcmo,not exactly tornado free..
In my opinion the cardboard houses are too susceptible to penetration by windstorm debris.
New technology adoption require to find an engineer an pay +- $10k for his engineer stamp. I stick to the 100 years old inefficient building code.
Ciao sarebbe interessante se riuscissi ad inserire una traduzione in italiano nei sottotitoli .. sono sicuro che dite cose interessanti ma io non capisco nulla 🙈🙈
Unfortunately, we have a tax, regulatory, and tort system that wasn’t designed to punish employers for hiring people, but it could have been. We really need to find ways to reduce labor in home building or get some fundamental change in DC. Regular people are getting pushed into bad homes or kept out of the market altogether because they cannot carry the load of all the labor costs which they only get a fraction of when they work.
Whut? 🤪
@@zefrum3 It’s not really complicated, but if you have been raised in modern America, it might seem out in left field.
Let’s say you are a 20 something high school graduate and a plumber. You make 80k a year because you produce about 160k in revenue for a plumbing service. Of that $160k, the government is getting what? $40k? Now, you go to buy a house, and everybody who works on it is having the same 25% plus added to the cost of their labor. Income tax, FICA, Medicare, Employer match, disability, unemployment, etc.
Compare that to something like a Television. There’s hardly any labor at all in a TV. That’s why they are so affordable. So we either need to reduce the labor component of home building, or reduce labor taxes to fix the housing market.
Matt looks 10 years older with a beard.
I would not build a dog house with cardboard sheets.
What are those sheets?
Why you guys compare wood with concrete? Is not comparable, icf or any other technology or cbs is way stronger (in hot weather better) than wood. Nowadays wood is so expensive, is more convenient to build on concrete or blocks plus all the weather going crazy
Alternative building systems can be silly...usually not any easier,always more money,seldom any better.Zip is 33 bux a sheet and tape is high!osb is now 9 bux a sheet!Tape to hold out water on a roof is a FOOLS ERRAND!.If your roof itself doesn't keep out water,how will bogus tape?You guys are too young to know this but,millions of houses were built in the inflationary years of 1970s,WITHOUT FELT OF ANY KIND!AND when we tore them off,they were fine!
I am shocked, dismayed, and extremely disappointed and disheartened that Matt says if he were to build his personal home again, he would not use LVL lumber (including studs). This is a betrayal to Build Show fans, and I am putting Matt on probation.
Aas
To me, first generation means your parent was the first to immigrate/ go into a profession. So if you’re a second generation engineer, then your dad and grandpa were engineers
매트형도 이제 많이 늙었네....
Ugh Prius is probably the ugliest car mass produced. I always feel like people who drive then have no style, imagination or creativity.
Straps and diagonals are nothing compared to the rack strength of OSB!..especially a single 1x4..a waste of time.ln 1979 ,we used 3/4foam and NO diagonals, but 3/4 CDX PLYWOOD.ON CORNERS ONLY...