How to build a healthy home: Learn, Learn, Learn
For those of us who want a healthy home and have the opportunity to build a home from the ground up or make major renovations to an existing home, we can go one of two routes.
- Hire a reputable builder who knows about best construction practices for healthy homes
- Learn, learn, learn and either become a general contractor or closely supervise the project.
The thing is, building practices vary widely and you can’t assume that just because someone has a contractor’s license, they will make the best decisions on practices and materials. Unfortunately, a contractor’s need to maximize profit on every project will lead to cutting corners unless these best practices and materials are laid out in writing AND enforced every step along the way.
Here’s where education benefits the homeowner, no matter who builds the home: knowing how to build to avoid water ingress, have good indoor air quality, with lasting materials and workmanship and energy efficiency, is an investment that returns over decades in you and your family’s health.
There are lots of free resources online, but a comprehensive course on building well is hard to come by. We at HypoAir have followed Dr. Joseph Lstiburek for years because he’s an expert on building right. His organization, Buildingscience.com, offers virtual online Building Science Fundamental seminars over 4 days that can be used for accreditation, finding contractors with like practices, or doing the work yourself! The online seminars cost $595, but the topics in the seminar are essential to anyone who hasn’t already extensively studied healthy building, and they are backed up with a library of free articles at Buildingscience.com.
Even if you contract with a quality contractor to build your home, you must be able to recognize when practices are being compromised, so that your home’s integrity is not compromised! With this knowledge under your belt, you can have educated conversations with a contractor to discuss plans, materials and workmanship of every detail. For example, would you know what a vapor barrier or an air barrier is, and which part and materials of the exterior walls actually form them? These topics are covered on the very first day of the seminar and they will help you avoid expensive, inconvenient repairs down the road..
If you can’t afford a seminar, we suggest you take the list of topics and delve into the Building Science online library to learn as much as you can (even by video), laugh a lot at Joe’s humor, and sign up for their free email newsletter. There’s nothing like adding to your own mental library when comes to ways to build or renovate for a healthy home.
Photo by Jens Behrmann on Unsplash
