Editorial Note: It’s Definitely In the Details

I attended the Southeast Building Science Symposium last week, and it was so inspiring to be in a room with builders, designers, architects, inspectors, and even a pest control tech, all focused on ways to make buildings better.

What struck me was that there was very little discussion of the aesthetics of buildings, and instead it was all about the details when you’re putting a building together. Taking the time to not just put down a sill sealer, but add two lines of sealant under the mudsill to stop air from getting in. Or drilling one hole for one wire (instead of drilling big holes to run a bunch of things through). It’s much easier to seal a single wire in a single hole. And thinking through the roofline and floor plan to limit tricky intersections where detailing an air barrier would be next to impossible.

There are a lot of competing forces at play when you’re building a new house: the owners wanting to move in as soon as possible and who are paying for the build, a general contractor trying to keep things on time (and on budget), dozens of subs who don’t necessarily work together, but whose cumulative decisions all impact a building, building inspectors making sure things are safe and up to code, and potentially an architect or designer keeping an eye on the whole thing, too.

When miscommunication happens or folks aren’t on the same page, details get missed and building performance suffers. The difference between an energy hog and a high-performance house isn’t the aesthetics, or budget, or even size. It’s in how the details around the water, air, vapor, and thermal barriers are handled. It’s not difficult work to do or understand, but you do have to pay attention to the details and be diligent in getting them right. There’s one more opportunity to be part of a building science symposium this year – November 9 and 10 in Austin, Texas. If you’re in the area, it’s an inspiring, thoughtful couple of days and well worth your time. We’ll be planning more in the future, too, hopefully coming to a city near you.

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