Top all-time · #2432
B
buildingscience.com
Company blog · buildingscience.com/documents/insightssciencedesign
buildingscience.com is the company blog at buildingscience.com, writing about science and design. Since 2015, 31 different Hacker News readers have linked it 77 times, most often “The Perfect Wall”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-07-29, and you can follow it by feed.
77mentions?
31HN people?
2015–2026first – last linked?
Most-linked posts?
- The Perfect Wall8 people · 20 mentions · first linked 2019-02-28
- The Perfect Wall7 people · 13 mentions · first linked 2019-01-22
- /3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-04-03
- /documents/digests/bsd-106-understanding-vapor-barriers3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-03-01
What Hacker News says?
> Interesting, why isn't the moisture on walls behind insulation ever an issue on new construction? Newer building codes have started to mandate more external insulation: * https://www.buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-001-t... Depending on the climate zone, up to half the insulation may be mandated to be on the outside (behind some kind of cladding (brick, stucco, siding) to protect it from UV and bulk wat…
Comment linking /documents/insights/bsi-001-the-perfect-wall
on “We're going to need a lot of solar panels”Submitted The Perfect Wall as a story · 4 points
HN discussionThere's an entire field and organizations that study and develop contstruction technologies... https://www.buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-001-t...
Comment linking /documents/insights/bsi-001-the-perfect-wall
on “How to design a house to last 1000 years”Submitted The Evolution of Building Technology as a story · 2 points
HN discussionYes. Matt Risinger has a really good channel on building science, and this video is a pretty good intro on air tight houses and ventilation: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIcrXut_EFA Go through the archives as well. Lot's of good stuff. He's based in Austin, TX, so needs to worry about heat and humidity being kept out, but the principles also apply for colder climate where the cold needs to stay on the outside.…
Comment linking /documents/insights/bsi-001-the-perfect-wall
on “On whether changes in bedroom CO2 levels affect sleep quality”Submitted The Coming Stucco-Pocalypse as a story · 2 points
HN discussionYou may be interested in the "perfect wall" concept by Joseph Lstiburek: * https://buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-001-the-p... Also check out Matt Risinger. They both have various good content on building science.
Comment linking /documents/insights/bsi-001-the-perfect-wall
on “On whether changes in bedroom CO2 levels affect sleep quality”Submitted Building science intro: The perfect wall (2010) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionA house should not breathe. A catchy mantra I've run across is "seal tight, ventilate right": * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIcrXut_EFA Mold is not a ventilation problem, but rather a moisture control problem. Keep the humidity down (especially with whole house dehumidifiers), and eliminate condensation points (by eliminating thermal bridging), and it goes away. While the above video, which is from the really go…
Comment linking /documents/insights/bsi-001-the-perfect-wall
on “On whether changes in bedroom CO2 levels affect sleep quality”Submitted The Perfect Wall as a story · 1 points
HN discussionThat's not true, if you have spacers behind the wood it should dry properly and last a long time. See https://www.buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-001-t...
Comment linking /documents/insights/bsi-001-the-perfect-wall
on “Building a modern home in the woods”Submitted This Bud’s for You*… Marijuana grow rooms and commercial grow operations as a story · 1 points
HN discussion(I'm in Canada, which is generally a 'basement using' zone.) > In theory vapor accumulation is only really problematic in the overhead plenum spaces. In actual practice (setting aside acute water ingress) 100% of the time moisture problems start in the crawl space and then spread to the plenum. Which is a good argument for conditioned crawl spaces. * https://www.buildingscience.com/documents/bareports/ba-0401-...
Comment linking /documents/bareports/ba-0401-conditioned-crawlspace-construction-performance-and-codes/view
on “WikiHouse – Open source, modular, wood based, zero carbon housing”Submitted This Bud’s for You: Marijuana grow rooms and commercial grow operations as a story · 1 points
HN discussion> OSB should not be considered code-compliant material, full-stop. OSB is a fine air barrier, and most water vapour volume happens through air leaks. Vapour diffusion tends to be a smaller percentage: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXXgjvOJcYI The main place that vapour concentration really becomes a problem is at the highest point of the house (e.g., ridge): * https://www.buildingscience.com/documents/building-s…
Comment linking /documents/insights/bsi-001-the-perfect-wall
on “WikiHouse – Open source, modular, wood based, zero carbon housing”Submitted Vapor drive in building design as a story · 1 points
HN discussionStructural Insulated Panels - SIPs (which I think is what you are talking about) have arguments in their favor as they actually benefit from many of the upsides of building things in factories vs on an individual/onsite basis. These do not seem like they'll realize any of those (since you are just prefabing a component comparable to a sheet or board as opposed to a whole wall). SIPS absolutely do have issues with le…
Comment linking /documents/enclosures-that-work/high-r-value-wall-assemblies/high-r-wall-sips-wall-construction
on “Wikihouse: Open-Source Houses”Be careful with an impermeable vapor barrier especially if adding one. It may work perfectly for keeping water out of the wall cavity in winter, but become the condensation layer in summer - on the wall side! You can use smart vapor control layers (such as Intello) to counteract this - but be sure you’ve discussed how the wall can dry out if it gets wet. And the worst of all is if you end up with two vapor barriers…
Comment linking /documents/digests/bsd-106-understanding-vapor-barriers
on “Homemade Heat Pump Manifesto (2009)”Anything by Joseph Lstiburek[0] will give you a good insight into best practices from an engineering and research perspective. He has a lot of stuff on his website[1] but it's it's not very discoverable. Look under the guidance tab but be prepared to hunt around. If you're interested in the legal requirements for construction--which, unfortunately, are not necessarily the same as currently understood best practices-…
Comment linking /
on “We Don’t Like Our Underground House”I would recommend checking out the guidance and tips pages from the Building Science Corporation [0] [0] https://www.buildingscience.com/
Comment linking /
on “The Third Phase of Clean Energy Will Be Most Disruptive Yet”See: http://buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-046-dam-ic... The snow melts because of heat coming from the inside the house. [1] So if you keep your roof cold through insulation and ventilation, you don't need to remove the snow (as long as the roof can handle it structurally) [1]: http://www.erdc.usace.army.mil/Portals/55/docs/CEERD-RV/CEER... [pdf]
Comment linking /documents/insights/bsi-046-dam-ice-dam
on “Why has the quality of brick buildings declined in the last 100 years?”A bit more technical: http://buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi080-tailor-... Essentially, Holladay is complaining about the lack of water detailing, which is super important to the durability of brick. It doesn't need to be as fancy as his first example, as the link above shows, but you need someone to care about it. Essentially, the issue building science specialists have with modernist architecture is tha…
Comment linking /documents/insights/bsi080-tailor-made
on “Why has the quality of brick buildings declined in the last 100 years?”Wood is fairly inexpensive in North America because there are still many forests (especially in Canada). There is nothing "inherently better" with one material over another for most applications. A good structure mostly depends on proper drainage and cladding to protect against UV rays and bulk water (precipitation), good air tightness (with mechanical ventilation for filtered, tempered fresh air), and high insulati…
Comment linking /documents/insights/bsi-001-the-perfect-wall
on “How to build homes with virtually no heating (2020)”> Modern codes have moved back to 2x4, then they put continuous foam on the outside Codes do allow for only external insulation, but it it also possible to have some exterior "continuous insulation" with the remainder being in the wall cavity. The thicker the exterior insulation, the trickier it can be to attach it to the wall and then also have mechanical fasteners for your external cladding. * https://www.building…
Comment linking /documents/insights/bsi-030-advanced-framing
on “How to build homes with virtually no heating (2020)”> It is interesting that you insulate under the house. This is part of the building code in many areas: do a search for [under] "slab insulation". * https://www.buildingscience.com/documents/information-sheets... * https://www.finehomebuilding.com/project-guides/insulation/i... It should be at least R-10 (RSI 1.8): * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2dNp9bicSk * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKp0wRzvR-g
Comment linking /documents/information-sheets/basement-insulation
on “How to build homes with virtually no heating (2020)”IMHO this is failure of layering: * https://www.buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-001-t... Moist areas should not be able to come in contact with cold areas: if they do, you have a problem with thermal bridging, which leads to condensation.
Comment linking /documents/insights/bsi-001-the-perfect-wall
on “Tokyo proves that housing shortages are a political choice”Sure climate matters, however your assertion seems to be incorrect. > Almost all Passivhauses rely on: very heavy insulation, R-40 to R-60 walls, R-50 to R-90 roofs, and often R-30 to 50 sub-slab insulation, triple-glazed low-e windows, and exceptional avoidance of thermal bridges (except for wood framing) ... from [1] While Minnesota requires significantly less insulation: > Wood frame wall insulation: R-20 or 13+5…
Comment linking /documents/insights/bsi-025-the-passivhaus-passive-house-standard
on “The case for single-stair multifamily”> In modern houses the solution is to have an airtight layer of plastic sheeting between the insulation and drywall [...] In a building that will be air conditioned, putting plastic sheeting between the insulation and drywall is a bad idea. The problem is that any moisture in the (comparatively warmer) insulation cavity will condense on the (comparatively cooler) plastic sheeting, wetting out the insulation and caus…
Comment linking /documents/digests/bsd-106-understanding-vapor-barriers
on “Heat Pumps Work Miracles”For anyone interested, Building Sciences Corp is a great resource on different methods to build functional, airtight, well insulated walls. Here's a starting point: https://www.buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-001-t...
Comment linking /documents/insights/bsi-001-the-perfect-wall
on “Heat Pumps Work Miracles”> I live in Europe and I can't understand why houses in the US are built with wood and drywall. It surely must be cheaper to use bricks/concrete and then renovate it fully every 20 years, or am I wrong here? I would think that renovations are much easier to do, regardless of the time interval between them, with wood and drywall. Drywall can be torn apart with by someone with just their hands; wood may need some cutt…
Comment linking /documents/insights/bsi-001-the-perfect-wall
on “Cement is the source of 8% of the world's CO2 emissions (2018)”
