Tips for High Performance Home Floorplan: Designing Out Condensation, Odors, Discomfort, and Hassle 

Here from aella

My guy is about to get a new audience lmao. He does have a good voice tho

Im here to learn your body language and mimic your style. I need more women in my life brother.

Good to know. We have a coat closet on the front of the house we barely use. But during the winter, every time I open it, it's at least 20 F colder in there. Never even considered that it was a mold risk.

Who's here because Aella found him hot?

I like the idea of closets along interior walls since it helps sound insulation

Excellent video topic and reminders, as always. First one I'm watching with this shoot format of having you against a black background and the white board on the other half of the frame. It works exceptionally well! 👍

A lot of these exterior wall restrictions could be eliminated with the use of more exterior insulation and tighter construction.

Love these Corbett 👍🏻🙏

Great topic. I'd love to see more videos about design that's bigger than assemblies.

Another quality video. I have argued with a couple people about thermal bridging and spray foam. The stud is such a small sliver over the 16 or 24" span.

Thanks for fighting the good fight! A couple of questions: 1) Exhausting directly from the Shower and Powder room to a continuously running ERV seems to make good sense on some level. Should we assume that there is no conditioned supply in these locations, or does the conditioned supply air get pulled into the bathrooms? It seems that if there was supply in the Bathrooms it would run straight to the ERV exhaust potentially limiting their effectiveness in conditioning that space? If the ERV is running full time and the Conditioned supply is running as needed based on the thermostat location does this lead to less than ideal conditions in the bathrooms. I would love to see a video on the science of supply grille locations for an entire house. Last question, on an older not so well sealed home why would you not recommend an ERV (just the cost), it seems the less you need to pull air from cracks and crevices via negative pressure the better? Thanks!!!!

Love learning and seeing how things can be done better. Hopefully one day I can take all the strategies and build my own. Do you have videos about taking older homes say without wall insulation and the best practice to improve them since air leakage can be super high? Do erv/hrvs still make sense? It would be cool to see you break down steps on improving this type of house since most of what I see can’t start from a clean slate.

Obsessed with the information I learn from this channel. Designing my own high performance home. My intentions are to have closets on exterior walls, but I plan on all of my exterior walls being highly insulated, and all of my closests having HVAC registers, and their closet doors having grilles/louvres in order to return back to HVAC. Would I still have that kind of moisture problem you mentioned at the beginning of the video? Thanks for your help. I should mention I live in hot/humid South Florida.

Please go on more about why thermal bridging isn't as big a deal as we think. We've probably all seen the thermal imaging photos which clearly show thermal bridging. Actually, I've seen that in frost that has formed on siding: there is less frost where the studs are. Have you done a video on the ZIP system?

Automatic "like," as always. Thank you!

Hi Corbett, I enjoyed your video - lots of good information. I was wondering what you would recommend doing to improve the durability of the wall assembly in the bathroom when you have no choice but to put the tub/shower against an exterior wall - or in a corner with two exterior walls? I know from watching other RU-vid videos that a common mistake some builders and most DIYers make when installing a tub on exterior walls is that they forget to install water resistant drywall or cement board below the tub deck. Yes, they do install cement board ABOVE the tub deck so they have some place to attach the tile but the stud bays below the tub deck are left open and that just allows moisture laden air to flow freely into the bays and condense on the inside surface of the exterior sheathing. So after installing water resistant drywall around the entire tub area (before you install the tub) would it be a good idea to build a second insulated wall up against the outer wall for an added moisture barrier? Essentially the sequence of layers would be: exterior sheathing, exterior wall studs with insulation, water resistant drywall as an air/moisture barrier, interior wall studs with insulation, smart membrane (?), cement board, tile, tub. Good idea, or overkill?

I want to build high performance at a very tight budget, do you have resources for that?

Aella wants to give you a freebie.

Corbett you’ve got 2 very excited crawlspace tunnel rats that I personally can vouch that would LOVE to be in charge of going into the crawl and changing filters and scooting around on the creepers. And one more tunnel rat in training. I’m not as worried about you getting hit by a bus, I’m more worried about Big Plasma coming after you lol.

thats good info on closets. here we have whats called "northland closets", which is simply the door replaced with a curtain. thats to help dry out the closet. not sure how well it works, i prefer to dry out the whole house.

In your example, would it make sense to add an exhaust port in the closet right near the entrance at the bottom of your house plan? To exhaust air to the ERV?

Thoughts on mini splits for primary HVAC? Obviously they aren’t capable of working with an ERV but do they bring in enough filtered air on their own to mitigate mold problems?

So does the stand alone bath tub needs a exhaust fan? I would think it would help with the moisture control.

Running Warmboard into the closets keeps the closets from getting musty. Also closets on exterior wall should be around 25” in depth. Keep the clothes on hangers about 2 inches from the wall. The air gap keeps the clothes fresher.

I would like to build a precast concrete house. I need someone that understands building science and passive house ideas for clean, healthy home. Any ideas for Northern Colorado?

are showers or other vapor impermeable finishes on exterior walls a condensation risk?

Is there anything wrong with including both a traditional bath fan and HRV/ERV exhaust in a bathroom?

IDK But how does this layout achieve privacy in the spaces that require it

So i have heard this thing if you have radiant heat in a home you don't really have to worry about indoor air quality. is this true?

I am starting to remodel a 100 year old home and I would like to have a water proof bathroom. How do I get in touch with yall

I had a closet in the middle of an uninsulated 60's house, it and the interior walls had the most mold.

Understand the issue but keeping “all” exterior facing wall space free & clear seems like an onerous restriction. Would additional insulation between the wall & the offending case-goods, tub, etc., help? …

I don’t understand the closet thing. In my mind a closet full of clothes on an exterior wall added to thenR value of the wall because now I have a whole layer of clothes on top of the wall between me and the outdoor elements. How does it cause issues?

just hanging out? sure.

Mechanical code will usually dictate that powered venting in a bathroom be over the toilet.

So a full closet up against an outside wall is a problem because it has too much insulation now? :-/

I was thought that you don't position your toilet far from the door because it is the most used in the bathroom! So I do disagree with the position of your toilet

I think the best shape for house is just a rectangle

15!!!

Rule of thumb never put anything but doors and windows on exterior walls, and minimize those when possible 👍

Manual for the house. Umm yah. Normal homes are lucky to get the lawn mowed. Ask them to change the ac filters ohh boy. Not only a manual for the owners, it's important for the next technicians coming into the home.

Chaseway what?? We just put a draft hold in the bathroom and kitchen and call it a day

Super nerd fight!

The house is nice but fill me in on how I might mimic your body language and facial expressions.