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   feld (feld@bikeshed.party)'s status on Monday, 19-Aug-2024 13:40:43 JST feld

   • Cat poni, lgbt feminist drag nato demon
   • Alon
   • Chris
   @pony @RedOct @Alon people are also not aware of these issues either:
   
   > By now, everyone should be aware of the moisture problems that exist in homes, and especially in stucco-clad homes. Our own testing shows that 90% of stucco homes built in the mid-80’s through the 90’s have major moisture problems causing structural damages that most people can’t even see. While construction practices and codes have improved over the last 15 years, the old adage “history repeats itself” comes to mind when reviewing what the new 2015 IRC Building Codes are requiring in new home construction in MN.
   
   and
   
   > In the mid 80’s, in order to lessen our dependence on overseas energy products, new “Energy Codes” were put into effect to reduce the amount of energy used to heat and cool a home. The code required northern homes to have a vapor barrier (poly sheet) installed behind the sheetrock to stop or restrict airflow through the walls. While this meant homeowners no longer needed to sleep with three down blankets during the winter, the full and the long term effects of a tighter home weren’t completely understood when it went into effect. As it turned out, within five-to-ten years after construction, these tightly wrapped homes couldn’t “breathe” and weren’t able to dry out before the next rain. The homes just rotted away, often without any visual indication that anything was amiss.
   
   Lots of people have rotting walls and they don't realize it. It's like a cancer on the American housing stock and there's no bailout. Nobody is fixing this, we just think building new homes solves everything
   • clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Alon (alon@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 19-Aug-2024 13:40:49 JST Alon

     in reply to

     • Cat poni, lgbt feminist drag nato demon
     • Chris

     @feld @pony @RedOct American building codes are generally terrible; note that this problem doesn't exist in German or Nordic Passivhaus construction. Then there's the fenestration - American buildings love to use slide windows, which are harder to insulate than tilt-and-turn, but then one of the people in our program lives in a modern New York condo with tilt-and-turn windows and tells me they're not as well-insulated as German ones, for reasons neither of us knows.

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Alon (alon@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 19-Aug-2024 13:40:50 JST Alon

     in reply to

     • Cat poni, lgbt feminist drag nato demon
     • Chris

     @feld @pony @RedOct The poor insulation then makes city living less desirable because street noise filters into the buildings; every time I visit New York I have to deal with way worse noise than I have at home with the windows closed, and I live next to an elevated train in an extremely touristy area. But *none* of this gets resolved through taxing landlords (who then pass the tax on to the renters) - the US and Canada need to Europeanize their building codes.

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Diego (diegobeghin@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 19-Aug-2024 13:40:55 JST Diego

     in reply to

     • Cat poni, lgbt feminist drag nato demon
     • Alon
     • Chris

     @Alon @feld @pony @RedOct Yeah, and let me add that making homes "breathe" through cracks in the walls is a very non-ideal solution for ventilation. Mould and other nasties can grow in such cracks, the air you're getting isn't high quality.

     Much better to have proper mechanical ventilation, we have the technology to exchange air without exchanging heat

   • Embed this notice
     feld (feld@bikeshed.party)'s status on Monday, 19-Aug-2024 13:40:55 JST feld

     in reply to

     • Cat poni, lgbt feminist drag nato demon
     • Alon
     • Diego
     • Chris
     @DiegoBeghin @Alon @pony @RedOct I installed an ERV in my condo for this, it was amazing. Also dropped my co2 by 300-500ppm
     clacke likes this.