I was asked to look at a home a few weeks ago it was built on a lake. Very beautiful well built home, I have grown up in the trades so I apreciate craftsmanship when it is there and this place has it. When you look at everything on a home that must be a 1 or 2 million dollar home you are not let down. As beautiful as this house is it has pipes that have frozen in the upstairs bathroom and some major ice damning as well.
The builder suspected an area that is aproximately 10×10 but is basicaly dead space. He cut a hole in the wall so we could get into the area. With some further inspection up in the attic we found where the top of the shower was exposed in the attic and was allowing cold air to drop down in and freeze the pipes.
The reason I am telling the story is the builder said they had an infared imaging gun and could find no air leaks coming in. This is the reason an energy auditor uses a blower door test because if you just set there with a gun it does not show the true picture, maybe the house had no air infiltration at the time but it had air leaking out which is harder to detect. The blower door will exasperate any air leakage making it very easy to detect leaks with a camera. This is why everyone needs to be careful with so called qualified people I do not have a gun but was able to find the major problems buy examining the whole area and crawling around.
One othere thing I had found was the cellulose has been blown back some from the soffits, This is pretty common when the proper vents are not instsalled properlyinstaed of channelling the air flow upwards like they should air escapes around them and blows the cellulose back. The worst case I saw was a home and the cellulose was blown back almost 3 feet.
Please just be aware of your pitfalls and use your common sense.
Have a safe and happy well insulated day

  I Spoke to my Police chief here in town the other day and he stated that they are ready to buy the house they are in.  They had actually had it appraised that day.

Most banks will require a home inspection when you are buying a house.  There are a few things about home inspectors that you should be aware of as just about anyone can pass a test. First, you should find out if they have any building experience. Do they know the difference in homes built in different time frames?  I am not a home inspector but I grew up in the trades. I spoke with a woman that spent $350,000 on a house and the home inspector missed the fact that the ceilings were under insulated and the roof was rotted out from lack of proper ventilation.  When I was done doing a basic walk through with her I gave her an estimate of  $30,000 to fix everything.  If your home inspector is not on his knees and crawling around, chances are you want a different one. Common sense saves money.

 Where home inspections are required by banks, energy audits are usually not. At one time there had been  a proposal about a rating system for homes that were going to be sold.  If the homes did not meet the standards then the upgrades would have to be done. Of course the realtors (as well as politicians) raised hell, saying that type of rating system would cost too much. If every home sold was made to do this the new homeowners would save thousands on their energy costs.  An energy audit can make it so you have a basic knowledge of energy costs for your home.  

 The difference of an energy audit and a home inspection is an energy audit is a scientific way of looking at the efficiency and health of a home, where a home inspection relies on  visual observations. Even if you are not buying or selling, an average energy audit is around $500 and can save you a lot of money in the end.  You don’t want to have to choose between a mortgage payment or paying a heat bill.

Monday is the 4th of July!
The one thing it makes me think of is how great our country is. I was in Bosnia in the Army and no matter how bad things are now we have it great!! I saw kids swimming on the sides of the river beside land mines that were washed up.
I look at us and I don’t see religious differences splitting our nation, it seems to me it is GREED.
There are a few things we as consumers can do about this.  We can watch our spending and buy American made products that are actually made in America and not just assembled here.  If every house that is built or renovated uses spray foam insulation or a hybrid system it would reduce fuel consumption for heating and cooling  at an average of 40%.  Reducing oil consumption and reducing electricity consumption saves money. The homes would be more comfortable and healthier. The homes would need less maintenance , be quieter and have less rodent problems.  We live in the North East and when we lose power in the winter we have gone 2 days without bothering to heat the house. That is the power of Spray foam.
 

   What about lighting?  Using LED lights can save large amounts of energy and money.  Overall you get around 50,000 hours from an LED compared to an incandescent bulb. Shutting down power strips when you aren’t in the room saves money.   There are so many ways just to make us more independent from oil and our goverment and to take a little control of our lives. Even the food we eat is supposed to be more healthier and controlled by the goverment but in the long run Greed runs our goverment and why do I need Steroids in the chicken I eat?

  Going green is supposed to be better for us but as we have all seen green can be bought. The real reason I believe in being green as possible is I want my childrens lives to be better.                                                                                                             Alot of people think our earth is in worse shape than it has ever been. I spoke to a roofer in ME and he was showing me some copper that was pretarnished and he explained to me there is not enough acid in the rain now to tarnish the copper so they have it pretarnished. When I was a kid growing up the acid rain was strong enough to kill the trees.  I think we are moving in the right direction but big money makes it difficult.

The way to make things more green is for the consumer to be aware and make it consumer driven. We owe it to our children and to ourselves. If you think of it there is not one place in our life that we are not surrounded by chemicals our clothes,furniture, our food, even our water. I try to make sure what I eat and drink is healthy but I still drink MT Dew.   The Director

The bottom line is you really need to really read and check the MSDS sheets BEFORE you purchase any product  you are going to be using in your business. Be Safe! – ABI

Wow! What a way to start the day. A little bird told me that there is some confusion about injection foam insulation and it’s actual “Bio-Safety” and ABI has learned that some injection foam formulation that are being installed out there actually use formaldehyde in the process and traces are left in the finished product.

There are many states  that have specific laws regarding the use of  building products that contain formaldehyde.

ABI is on top of it and perhaps the first to point this out.

Not being ones to point out a problem without a solution or the suggestion of one, we have contacted a party with patented formulations for injection foam insulation that does not contain formaldehyde and expect the release of this product line very soon.

We will keep you updated right here! So you should subscribe to this new blog we have just launched and what a first post!

Should have more on this early next week.

In the meantime, this could get messy, so keep your eye on this blog.

Have a well-insulated day!