Fail! — Ignorance of Building Science Is No Excuse
One of the great things about writing this blog is that I don’t have to depend only on material that I’ve personally seen. Because I’m “semi-famous” (Thanks, Dan!), people occasionally send me photos of building envelope and mechanical systems stuff that’s, well, just abominable. Let’s look at a few here.
One of the great things about writing this blog is that I don’t have to depend only on material that I’ve personally seen. Because I’m “semi-famous” (Thanks, Dan!), people occasionally send me photos of building envelope and mechanical systems stuff that’s, well, just abominable. Let’s look at a few here.
What you see above is a section of an attic kneewall. It’s got insulation and air-sealing, so it’s good, right? Well, no, it actually does nothing at all when you spray a little foam around the edges of a material that’s highly permeable to air flow. (That would be fiberglass.) Nathan Terry of E3 Innovate in Nashville, TN sent me this one.
That’s not mold growing on the dirt of the crawl space above. Remember a few weeks ago when I wrote about condensation on ducts? Well, that’s going on here in a big way, and what you see on the ground is the duct mastic that was used to seal the ducts. It rehydrated and dripped off of the ducts. Tripp Pankey of Smart Living Home and Energy in Birmingham, Alabama sent me this one a while back.
Oh, my! This last one is quite a failure. The fiberglass insulation in this metal building has completely collapsed. Even when it was new, though, there looks to be a serious problem that would have kept this building uncomfortable. Can you see it? Andy Bell of Alabama Habitat for Humanity sent me this one.
Thanks, Nathan, Tripp, and Andy!
If you’ve got photos that you think show some particularly interesting building science phenomenon, send them to me at evinfo @ energyvanguard dot com. Maybe you’ll see them here in the Energy Vanguard Blog (assuming you want them to).
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Allison, Is the FG fail in
Allison, Is the FG fail in the last image due to the contact on the outer wall with the metal building? No outside barrier of any type?
Yeah, what John said. Also,
Yeah, what John said. Also, it looks like the stud bay is not even in contact with the outer wall.
That metal wall, being highly
That metal wall, being highly conductive, would be a condensing surface under all kinds of conditions.
I suspect condensing/drying over and over broke down the glue causing the FG collapse we see in the picture.
I’ve never heard of mastic
I’ve never heard of mastic “re-hydrating” and dripping off. This a bit of a concern to me as I’ve always advocated for the use of mastic as both air-tight and durable. Can you expand on this?
Semi Famous? I thought the
Semi Famous? I thought the juggling has set you out over the top? What about popcorn tossing, at the theater lol. Can you autogragh my can of Great Stuff!!!
I was laughing to much I
I was laughing to much I forgot to comment on the last pic. I would go with outer wall not secure to the wall studs. I wish I had pics of some of the things I’ve seen to pass as building construction while in the Army Engineers, lol.
My first thought when i saw
My first thought when i saw the last picture was, rats. Granted i can’t see the pictures very well on my smart phone.
The mastic picture is
The mastic picture is puzzling. For starters I have never see mastic rehydrate…even when used in outdoor applications. Not saying its not possible just seems really strange. Second, that looks like an entire bucket of mastic…maybe the installer just dumped it out in the crawls pace and came out with the empty pail claiming the job was complete.
Maybe it never cured in the
Maybe it never cured in the first place. I can imagine a steady flow of condensation washing wet mastic to the ground.
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