"Moldy basement"

Moldy basement / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

Healthy indoor air quality

Why you should Never Install Air-Con in a Home with a Vapor Barrier

...Moldy Walls So here's a little known fact that most HVAC installers won't tell a potential new client for central air; Polyethylene vapor barriers in combination with air conditioning in homes can rot walls because of the condensation they may cause. This is why if you have a newer home with a vapor barrier, you may be...

Crawl spaces

How to insulate crawlspaces properly as part of renovating an older home

Crawlspace insulation - be careful to get it right A crawlspace comes with all the downsides of a basement, but it is just too low a space to be functional either beyond the folded plastic christmas tree and a couple of boxes of baubles. Unless there is a good reason for it, going through the process of pouring a footi...

Concept and design

Do Earthships work in cold climates?

...basement with exterior foam insulation. Unfortunately for many Earthship owners around the world, including insulation in the design was a revelation that only occurred to Reynolds after 30 years of telling people they didn't need it. Reynolds describes the addition of insulation as 'turbo-charging' the Earthship, and...

Basements

Best practices for basement insulation in new home construction

...basements are typically under-insulated or not insulated at all, and if they are, they almost always trap moisture within wall assemblies. This leads to preventable mold growth and rotting in basement walls - often caused by interstitial condensation. The following basement insulation techniques listed here are designe...