insulate rim joist

This house was built very airtight -- we had to recommend adding at least 85 cubic feet per minute of heat-recovery ventilation.  Humidity had become an issue in the basement, as evidenced by a dehumidifier unable to keep up.  We recommended they consider a heat-pump water heater.

The owners of this house had only recently moved in, after renting it to others.  The tenants had used the thermostat very frugally so that the heating bills were unusually low and the computer model could not be made to match accurately.

We found a gas leak at the end of an old disconnected pipe where an appliance had been.  We recommended removing and recycling the pipe, capping off the junction.

This rental home had a humid basement and no ventilation in the bathrooms or kitchen, and it was 63% too airtight to meet guidelines for air quality.  We recommended adding a heat-recovery ventilator to improve the air quality and reduce the possibility of mold growth.

This log home was built extremely air tight and performed much better than we expected considering there was no insulation beyond the logs that made up the walls!  Even the exposed framing around a new bathtub (see photo) did not leak air from either the attic or basement.

This home was built quite air-tight -- 43% tighter than recommended -- and was having significant moisture problems both upstairs, where the walls would sweat in wintertime and grow mildew in summertime, and in the crawl space where water was standing.  We recommended improving drainage away from the foudation, adding a vapor barrier to the crawl space floor, and adding a heat-recovery ventilator and a heat pump water heater.

This rural 2-story house was owned by a single mother of two teenagers.  She qualified for the Weatherization Assistance Program, so they had come and blown insulation into the attic and replaced the windows, without first sealing air leaks or addressing other major problems with the house.  I was very disappointed by the quality of work done by the WAP contractors.

This house presented us with some biological hazards, namely pigeons in the attic and a dead squirrel under the porch!  There was also a significant amount of moisture in the crawl space, made worse by batts of insulation that had fallen from the flooring above.

This was one of the leakiest houses we have audited, due mostly to an open ceiling in the mechanical closet.  This opening was left to provide make-up air to the natural-draft furnace, but it had the effect of opening the entire house to the attic via the ductwork.

An unusual feature of this house was a second-floor playroom, added on above the back porch in such a way as to be accessible only from a half-height door in one of the bedrooms.  This unorthodox design resulted in a valley where the main roof of the house sloped into the wall of the playroom (see photo).  This valley creates an opportunity for moisture problems.  There was also no ventilation in the bathrooms, and the clothes dryer vented into a crawl space, creating more potential for moisture problems.