BUILDTank / buildCAST

Hayward Score Healthy Home Director Carl Grimes, has a unique combination of experiences. He has personal experience of the disabling impact of an unhealthy home, and professional experience working in the Indoor Air Quality field. Both these experiences lead him to the Hayword Score where they are helping people live healthier lives by first believing in the negative health experiences they are h...

Ken Nelson is well known as an applied building science and indoor air quality (IAQ) expert at Panasonic North America. Our conversation wandered through the three ventilation strategies and further explained Panasonic’s Oasys System, which I really did not realize is an innovative approach for heating and cooling not just whole house ventilation. Ken is passionate about the subject and seamlessly...

Randy Plumlee specializes in energy code and building performance with SPEER or the South Central Partnership for Energy Efficiency as a Resource which is one of six regional Energy Efficiency Organizations. Jason Helm is the CEO for Texas Home Energy Professionals. In this conversation you will hear the three of us debate whether the International Energy Conservation Code requires both Whole Hous...

Bill Rectanus spent the bulk of his career in the world of construction innovation. Seeking out materials and solutions to drive production building to zero energy while being cognizant of cost effectiveness and bottom-line economics. Working for midsize regional production builders in Colorado for the bulk of his career, Bill found his next chapter aligning with Automated Architectural. AUAR as t...

Welcome back to our buildCAST conversation with Rich Truitt, Harford County Maryland Deputy Code Official.  In this second half of our conversation we dive deep into the Approved Third-Party Inspection Agency section that has been expanded and better explained in the 2024 IECC. Through Rich’s experience we see again the good, the bad, the ugly, and the potential future of this relationship between...

At the time of our conversation Rich Truitt worked for Harford County Maryland.  He is now with the Internation Code Council. Rich began his career in the code world as a plan reviewer with Harford County, became the Chief Building Inspector and then served as the Deputy code Official.  I met Rich through our mutual interest in the continual development of the International Energy Conservation Cod...

Unless you have your own company, most of us in the building industry have been laid off.  I was laid off in the early 1990’s and decided to start my own company rather than work for someone else.  Before getting laid off, however, I was exposed to blower door testing and energy modeling through a state of Colorado funded technical assistance program.  I then worked for that State program for a wh...

Kelly Grace  is an accomplished architect based out of Washington DC, and the Managing Principal of Travis Price Architects, an award-winning architecture firm, widely applauded for their visionary aesthetics, informed by ecology, mythology, and technology.    Kelly is known to many as the “NONTOXARCHITECT” on social media, where she shares her advice on material selections, design details, indoor...

Adam Berry, Building Codes Advisor with the Colorado Energy Office spoke with me about Colorados path to its 3rd statewide code.  Following plumbing and electrical the state energy code is a significant step for a home rule state where building codes are normally adopted, amended, and enforced at a jurisdictional level.  In this case, through legislation Colorado has adopted a new Model Low Energy...

David Heslam is the Executive Director of Earth Advantage. A nonprofit based in Portland Oregon that works to ensure the U.S. housing market recognizes the elements of a home that create climate risk and values the characteristics of a homes that provide climate solutions. David spent 15 years designing, building, and remodeling homes in Portland. His award-winning company, Coho Construction Servi...

Graham Davis is a Senior Building Performance Specialist at IBACOS, where he has dedicated the bulk of his career training and coaching large production home builders to understand how to maintain quality and achieve fewer warranty callbacks through focused attention on applied building science. Before joining IBACOS, Graham served as the Senior Technical Advisor at Habitat for Humanity Internatio...

Chris Laumer-Giddens works for his wife Jodi at LG2 Architects. They are both Architects, but Chris’s specific interest in applied building science and high performance has shifted their work from solely providing the architecture for a project to providing performance designs including water management, air tightness, HVAC, efficiency and more. This in turn has led Chris and LG2 to a more integra...

In this conversation I introduce Rachel Wagner as the Impact Driver at Just Housing as that is the professional title she chose in her company, but we seem to have never specifically talked about what that meant to her in our conversation. Now reflecting I see that she is impacting the design and construction industry and driving it toward meaningful and sustaining change.   Rachel sought opportun...

Clint Shireman is the Manager of training and certifications at Knauf Insulation. He works with buildersand installers nationwide, teaching building science, spreading best practices, and building a respected training network. He’s also heavily involved with High-Performance Insulation Professionals, an insulation trade group that’s making good progress towards improving the quality of residential...

In Part 2 Alex speaks to commissioning, what to look for in HVAC design to indicate if there is a problem, and what does it mean to design HVAC system with Heat Pumps vs Gas forced air systems. Alex Meaney on ⁠LinkedIn⁠ ⁠Mean HVAC⁠ ⁠Mean HVAC Free Stuff:⁠ Articles, Vides, and more ⁠Mean HVAC BS Tools⁠ on the app store

Mean HVAC is the name of Alex’s HVAC training, consulting, and advocacy company. His mission is to elevate the HVAC industry primarily through education and understanding the link between HVAC design and installation and applied building science.  Alex started his career at Wrightsoft.  As you may know Wrightsoft is one of the leading developers of Residential HVAC Design software tools. During hi...

In my conversation with Josh Salinger, founder and CEO of Birds Mouth Design Build, I learned that the traditional definition of Architect is “master builder” or “chief builder”. Historically, this individual was fully responsible for both the design of a building and the direct supervision and execution of its construction . The ultimate design charrette to determine the goals for a specific proj...

Patrick Nielsen is the Global Technical Products Manager for Broan Nutone, a leading manufacturer of residential ventilation solutions. Patrick has 20 years of experience with Broan including roles in product development, where he used his engineering background to launch a wide range of innovative ventilation products to solve a variety of IAQ and customer challenges. More recently his focus has...

In 1982, a group of building professionals from around the world gathered in Pine Island, Minnesota for the first Energy & Environmental Building Alliance (EEBA) meetup with the goal, to develop criteria for the construction of what we now call high performance and sustainable homes.  For over 40 years now (EEBA) has been a trusted resource for building science information and education in the...

Clay McCombe is the heat pump Program Manager for the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) who servs 59 jurisdictions in the Denver metro area. Recently DRCOG was awarded a $200 million grant from the EPA aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful air pollutants. Clays focus on heat pumps is based on beneficial electrification and improving the air quality in the Denver...

Matt Brill is a builder, innovator, and advocate for sustainable living who carries on a legacy of four generations of craftsmanship starting in the 1930 with his great grandfather. Steeped in that tradition, Matt founded Bauen Build to bring Passive homes to Boulder and the Colorado Front Range.   “Bauen” a German word, means “to build” or to construct out of wood, which is a nod to the passive h...

Ryan Meres Came to RESNET with decades of experience in energy policy, energy codes, and home energy performance after working for groups like the Institute for Market Transformation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, and Southface Energy Institute.  He continues to focus on policy initiatives as a program specialist for RESENT but also spends much of his...

Sam Rashkin was my first guest on the buildCAST and he graciously agreed to speak with me again. If you don’t know Sam personally, you probably know of Sam as he has presented hundreds, if not thousands, of workshops and seminars to the construction industry that continually is interested I what he has to say.    After a long career as a licensed architect and serving on the national steering comm...

Brad Smith has now been with the City of Fort Collins Colorado for 9 years working with the building department, the municipal utility, and directly with builders and trade partners to ensure that homes built in the city meet the requirements of the Energy Code. He is continuing a tradition in Fort Collins of goal setting but more importantly measurement and data gathering to ensure that the city...

Kim and Juta Cinco are Baseline Design named after Baseline Road, a landmark road in Boulder County that marks the Earth's 40th parallel north. They took inspiration from this line of latitude for how rooted in place and foundational it is.  The husband-and-wife team have recently designed and completed their first passive house in the Marshall Fire rebuild and are working on their second and thir...