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3398 Washington Road
Atlanta, GA 30344
USA

773.398.5288

Advanced residential construction and home improvement consulting and owner's advocacy in Atlanta, using the latest building performance diagnostic and modeling techniques and tools. Airtightness, insulation, HVAC, ventilation, moisture, and air quality and EMF consulting for homeowners and building professionals alike.

Videos/Podcasts/Articles

Home performance articles and stories from the field with internationally respected building forensics guru Corbett Lunsford at the Building Performance Workshop. Hear new episodes of the Building Performance Podcast, see new videos from the Home Performance YouTube channel, and learn all about how diagnostic testing (more than an 'Energy Audit') can make home improvement and new home construction a proven process!

Filtering by Category: Homeowner education

Framing the Floor at our High Performance House

Corbett Lunsford

Hear Grace and I discuss some of the interesting challenges so far as we begin the framing of the floors and walls of our family’s high performance house in Atlanta.

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categories Architecture, From the Field, Homeowner education, Performance Pros, Videos
tags dimensional, lumber, plywood, floor, framed, plan, Structural engineering, platform, deck, 2x12, energy efficient, house, build, construction, builder

5-Layer Slab for High Performance House

Corbett Lunsford

Home Diagnosis TV series co-host Corbett Lunsford shows the installation of the 5 layers of performance control under his family's new house. Thanks to Royal Building Products, Rockwool Insulation, Stego Industries, and the subcontractors who worked so hard to get this right! More at: https://HomeDiagnosis.tv/atlanta-homestead

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categories Homeowner education, Performance Pros, Videos, From the Field
tags insulated slab, conditioned crawlspace, encapsulated, high performance, house, home, build, construction, energy efficient, tuned, performance, passive, building performance, rockwool, roxul, comfortboard, subslab, 110, 80, insulation, insulate, pango wrap, stego wrap, termite barrier, how to, diy, radon mitigation, system, concrete, fiberglass, admixture

High Performance Crawlspace Walls

Corbett Lunsford

Corbett, Grace, and their crew of awesome nerds pour a high performance crawlspace foundation wall and totally skip the slump test, on purpose, which they know will get a lot of loving kindness in the comments section.

More at: https://HomeDiagnosis.tv/atlanta-homestead

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categories From the Field, Homeowner education, Performance Pros, Videos
tags concrete, slump test, risinger, wet mix, dry mix, vs, pump, boom truck, water, added, mixer, ticket, slab, foundation, wall, footing, footer, atlanta, high performance, home, build, construction, consultant, poured

Geotechnical Engineering for Foundation Footings: Dirt Performance and 4-in-1 Form-A-Drain

Corbett Lunsford

Corbett hired Geoff Hebner of Padstone Geotechnical Engineering to ensure the house being built will stand for a hundred years or more.

In part 2, Corbett shows the grading and leveling process with 6-8" lifts and 4x compaction using a remote-controlled trench roller.

In Part 3, Geoff returns to run a simple geotechnical test on the compacted dirt before pouring concrete, and Corbett finds out he's not as slick as he hopes.

FINALLY, we get to pour the concrete once the footings are finished with rebar, and well-supported per Geoff’s geotech engineering specs.

Learn more about this build at: https://homediagnosis.tv/atlanta-homestead/

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categories From the Field, Architecture, Homeowner education, Performance Pros, Real Estate, Videos
tags foundation, concrete, footings, rebar, clean, dirty, mud, dirt, soil, gravel, compaction, trench roller, compactor, excavation, disturbed, geotechnical, engineer, geoff, hebner, atlanta, form-a-drain, formadrain, form a drain, radon, drain tile, slotted, exhaust, pvc, tile, test

Kitchen Exhaust Fan: #1 Tool to Heal Your HOMEChem

Corbett Lunsford

Grace and Corbett Lunsford demonstrate the best way to design and select your kitchen exhaust system, using the #TinyLab's own Broan ventilation components. The ACE130SS range hood (new model BCSEK1SS) paired with the 8" Make-Up Air Unit means perfect control over the indoor environment, the chemistry, and the health of their family.

More resources and tools at: http://Broan.com/learn

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categories Homeowner education, Performance Pros, Real Estate, Tiny Houses, Videos
tags broan, ventilation, kitchen, exhaust, fan, range, hood, stove, oven, under cabinet, outside, pollution, control, cooking, fumes, gases, particles, byproducts, protect, family, home performance, ventilate, guidance, guide, how to, diy, nutone, high performance, efficacy, efficiency, capture, homechem, #homechem, indoor, air quality, iaq

Retrofitting for Performance: Crawlspace Encapsulation

Corbett Lunsford

Using 475 High Performance Building Supply materials, Corbett and his dad are encapsulating the vented crawlspace of a one-story ranch home in Atlanta. See what a difference the improvements make to the test data from the Ultra-Aire Sentry system and the blower door.

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categories From the Field, Homeowner education, Performance Pros, Real Estate, Testing Tools, Videos
tags damp, crawlspace, fix, encapsulation, improvement, home, performance, dirt, floor, basement, vapor barrier, vented, vents, ventilated, crawl, guidance, diy, 475, building, construction, conditioned, insulate, airseal, humidity, dehumidify, moisture, mold, mildew, atlanta, georgia, ultra-aire, sentry

Tuning the Enclosure of our Atlanta Home Build

Corbett Lunsford

Corbett digs into the weather barriers, structures, airsealing and insulation layers of the high performance house in Atlanta, which will be featured in season 2 of the Home Diagnosis TV series.

*CORRECTION: Pango Wrap is 15-mil thick, not 20, but is still a 0.01-perm vapor barrier.

Learn more about these high performance materials:

PANGO WRAP

FORM-A-DRAIN AND PLATON

FORCEFIELD SHEATHING

475 BUILDING SUPPLY AIRSEALING MATERIALS

ROCKWOOL INSULATION (AKA ROXUL)

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categories Architecture, Homeowner education, Performance Pros, Real Estate, Videos
tags atlanta, high performance, home construction, builder, consultant, energy, performance testing, envelope, enclosure, design, specs, specification, insulation, rockwool, roxul, airseal, 475, passive, intello, adhero, membrane, pango, stego, wrap, barrier, vapor, iaq, homechem, forcefield, gp, georgia-pacific, platon, form-a-drain, form a drain, formadrain, napc

What We Know About HOMEChem

Corbett Lunsford

If you only learn one video's worth of HOMEChem, this is the one to watch. Hear principal investigators Delphine Farmer and Marina Vance, joined by Lea Hildebrandt Ruiz and Richard Corsi and the rest of the HOMEChem researchers, describe the complexity they uncovered in this seminal study.

More at: http://HomeDiagnosis.tv/homechem

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categories Ecologic, Around the World, Architecture, Homeowner education, Performance Pros, Real Estate, Videos, Testing Tools
tags healthy home, indoor air, chemistry, surface chemistry, chemical, reaction, indoors, iaq, air quality, test, pollution, toxic, chemicals, delphine, marina, corsi, home diagnosis, sloan foundation, atmospheric chemictry, environmental chemistry

The 4 P's to Solve Any Indoor Air Quality Problem

Corbett Lunsford

xEffortless Rocking means not trying to re-invent the wheel. Plenty of great home performance minds came before you, so take their ideas and make them your own. This one comes from Joe Lstiburek and John Straube at https://buildingscience.com/.

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categories Homeowner education, Performance Pros, Real Estate, Videos
tags iaq, healthy home, safety, pollution, indoor air, indoor pollution, toxic, chemical, what to do, how to, fix, odor, humidity, mold, mildew, radon, asbestos, rot, smell, house, homechem, #homechem, building science corporation

Using Infrared to Find Holes in Your House

Corbett Lunsford

Corbett Lunsford loves infrared cameras (he has six of them, including this FLIR One Pro) but they're not the whole story. Pair your diagnostic tools to be a mastermind of home performance.

Learn more at http://HomePerformance.training

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categories Homeowner education, Performance Pros, Testing Tools, Videos
tags flir one, infrared, thermography, thermal camera, video, heat, bleed, blower door, air leakage, air sealing, airtight, seasonal, mythbusting

Home Improvement to Tune Performance: Test-In

Corbett Lunsford

Corbett runs a full enclosure diagnostic on a one-story ranch for his family before planning and performing the improvements on vented crawlspace and attic.

6 Comments
categories Architecture, From the Field, Homeowner education, Performance Pros, Real Estate, Testing Tools, Videos
tags test in, testing, diagnostics, enclosure, envelope, blower door, insulation, air seal, airtightness, air leakage test, vented, crawlspace, moisture barrier, vapor barrier, dirt floor, vented attic, attic floor, humidity, dehumidify, mold, mildew, microbes

Building Science is Evolving: Healthy Indoors Minute #2

Corbett Lunsford

Home Diagnosis co-host Corbett Lunsford illustrates the basics of control over indoor air quality and indoor chemistry in the second video collaboration with Healthy Indoors Magazine. Informed by all we're learning from the HOMEChem Experiment. Learn more at:

http://HomeDiagnosis.tv/homechem

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categories Ecologic, Homeowner education, Performance Pros, Real Estate, Videos
tags homechem, healthy homes, indoor air, air quality, iaq, indoor chemistry, building scientist, theory, healthy indoors magazine, home diagnosis, tv, home performance, diagnostics, performance testing, toxic, chemical, spray foam, side effects, experience, negative, foam insulation, health