Articles

Article	Date Published
Continuous Insulation and Punched Openings Windows Can Be A Pain Joseph W. Lstiburek, Ph.D., P.Eng., Fellow ASHRAE Sometimes we make easy things hard. And sometimes we make hard things easy. With continuous insulation and punched opening both things are true.	April 2015
Building Science Insights: Stuck On You Joseph W. Lstiburek, Ph.D., P.Eng., Fellow ASHRAE One of the dirty little secrets that never gets talked about is that water leaks through building papers, building wraps and housewraps and runs down between them and the sheathings that they cover.	April 2013
Building Science Insights: Leaks and Holes Joseph W. Lstiburek, Ph.D., P.Eng., Fellow ASHRAE To claim that something that has holes in it can act as a water control layer is a pretty interesting argument. It is both true and untrue.	March 2013
The Story Behind the 2009 IRC Wall Bracing Provisions (Part 2: New Wind Bracing Requirements) Jay H. Crandell, P.E. and Zeno Martin, P.E This article documents the development of a rational and quantitative wall bracing analysis approach for resisting wind loads. The efforts have led to new wall bracing provisions in the 2009 IRC for wind.	March 2009
The Story Behind IRC Wall Bracing Provisions Jay H. Crandell, P.E In this article, the derivation of the IRC wall bracing provisions is documented and discussed in view of the technical research, engineering analyses, and judgments they embody.	March 2007
Save Energy with Rigid-Foam Insulation Rick Arnold Exterior siding is typically applied directly on top of housewrap covered plywood or OSB sheathing. But a growing number of builders interested in energy-efficient construction are singing the praises of using rigid-foam insulation between the wall sheathing and the exterior siding, creating a continuous insulating layer. Contributing editor Rick Arnold explains why this extra investment in labor and materials has a significant long-term payoff and tells how to detail the installation. A sidebar compares the three main types of foam insulation: expanded polystyrene, extruded polystyrene, and polyisocyanurate.	September 2006
Water Resistive Barriers: How Do They Compare? Garth D. Hall, AIA and Kurt R. Hoigard, PE In general, the description of any building, whether a high-rise or a warehouse, can be simplified into two basic components: 1) the building structure, which gives the building its overall shape and resists forces from sources such as wind, snow, people, furniture (live loads), and the weight of fixed building components (dead loads); and 2) the building envelope, which separates the indoor and outdoor environments, keeping the weather outside and conditioned air inside.	November 2005