QUALITY GUIDELINES
FOR VALUE WITHOUT CUTTING CORNERS
TECHNICAL STANDARDS - Page 2 of 2
Wallboard and Plaster – In the Boston suburbs, most houses do not have taped drywall, the standard in most of the US. Instead, a veneer coat of plaster is the norm here, and it makes for very good walls and ceilings. The veneer coat of plaster is put on by a professional plasterer in a coating from 1/16" to 1/8" thick on a base of specially treated blueboard (rather than plain drywall), and makes a smoother, harder, better wearing surface. It is also better looking when patched if that becomes necessary someday. However, make sure to check the specifications of any project contract to see that veneer plaster is to be used. There is at least one large development in MetroWest of very expensive homes, which had taped drywall (the Boston Globe ran an investigative series on these houses in 2001.)
Insulation – [see Insulation page for brief discussion and photos of foam insulation]
Sound-reduction – Insulation should be installed in certain interior walls of a house (bathrooms, playrooms) to reduce the transmission of airborne sound to adjoining rooms, but is usually omitted, unfortunately. There are many additional methods of sound reduction which can be used, but this is one of the basic ways of reducing
Thermal insulation – It is required in virtually all walls and ceilings which face the exterior or unheated portions of a building. With installation of fiberglass insulation, it is critical – and rare - that installers carefully tuck insulation into every nook and cranny, such as the narrow space behind electrical boxes and wires. Properly done, a fiberglass insulation job should be neat, with no bunching up of the material, because compressing fiberglass seriously reduces its ability to slow the transfer of heat (which is insulation’s purpose.) In a nutshell, the insulating value comes from the many trapped air spaces between the fibers, not from the fibers themselves. Beyond the issue of less than meticulous installation, fiberglass has a potential weakness in that it does a poor job of sealing the area it is installed in against air penetration; air movement can reduce the insulating value of insulation greatly as it effectively eliminates the trapping of small air pockets, which is where most of the insulating value comes from. To achieve higher insulation values with fiberglass, special high density insulation can be purchased, or thicker batts can be installed if there is sufficient depth to do so without compression (as in attics, or using 2x6 studs for walls rather than 2x4’s), but you cannot improve it by pressing more into the same cavity. Properly installed and sealed building paper on the outside is usually an important part of reducing the likelihood of air penetrating the wall cavity and the fiberglass. Also, exterior walls and ceilings should be covered with a vapor retarder barrier, of at least 6 mils thickness. This should also be installed neatly and carefully, with seams overlapped and taped. Vapor retarders and air infiltration barriers are covered here.
Sprayed insulation, both cellulose or foam types, have advantages over fiberglass as insulation, and are more expensive.
Ventilation – The MA Building Code sets various requirements for providing ventilation of attics. If done well, attic ventilation can greatly reduce the chance of ice dam formation. Also, with houses that are built very tightly, meaning that they have few air exchanges per day, adding controlled ventilation in the heated living spaces becomes increasingly important. The new house featured on this website has several forms of bringing in outside air in a controlled way, especially when appliances that require a lot of air to be moved through them (clothes dryer, range hood) are operating. Mechanical ventilation (fans) must also be supplied for all new and remodeled bathroom, per the Building Code, and for gas-fired range and cooking tops.
Wallboard and Plaster – In the Boston suburbs, most houses do not have taped drywall, the standard in most of the US. Instead, a veneer coat of plaster is the norm here, and it makes for very good walls and ceilings. The veneer coat of plaster is put on by a professional plasterer in a coating from 1/16" to 1/8" thick on a base of specially treated blueboard (rather than plain drywall), and makes a smoother, harder, better wearing surface. It is also better looking when patched if that becomes necessary someday. However, make sure to check the specifications of any project contract to see that veneer plaster is to be used. There is at least one large development in MetroWest of very expensive homes, which had taped drywall (the Boston Globe ran an investigative series on these houses in 2001.)
Insulation – [see Insulation page for brief discussion and photos of foam insulation]
Sound-reduction – Insulation should be installed in certain interior walls of a house (bathrooms, playrooms) to reduce the transmission of airborne sound to adjoining rooms, but is usually omitted, unfortunately. There are many additional methods of sound reduction which can be used, but this is one of the basic ways of reducing
Thermal insulation – It is required in virtually all walls and ceilings which face the exterior or unheated portions of a building. With installation of fiberglass insulation, it is critical – and rare - that installers carefully tuck insulation into every nook and cranny, such as the narrow space behind electrical boxes and wires. Properly done, a fiberglass insulation job should be neat, with no bunching up of the material, because compressing fiberglass seriously reduces its ability to slow the transfer of heat (which is insulation’s purpose.) In a nutshell, the insulating value comes from the many trapped air spaces between the fibers, not from the fibers themselves. Beyond the issue of less than meticulous installation, fiberglass has a potential weakness in that it does a poor job of sealing the area it is installed in against air penetration; air movement can reduce the insulating value of insulation greatly as it effectively eliminates the trapping of small air pockets, which is where most of the insulating value comes from. To achieve higher insulation values with fiberglass, special high density insulation can be purchased, or thicker batts can be installed if there is sufficient depth to do so without compression (as in attics, or using 2x6 studs for walls rather than 2x4’s), but you cannot improve it by pressing more into the same cavity. Properly installed and sealed building paper on the outside is usually an important part of reducing the likelihood of air penetrating the wall cavity and the fiberglass. Also, exterior walls and ceilings should be covered with a vapor retarder barrier, of at least 6 mils thickness. This should also be installed neatly and carefully, with seams overlapped and taped. Vapor retarders and air infiltration barriers are covered here.
Sprayed insulation, both cellulose or foam types, have advantages over fiberglass as insulation, and are more expensive.
Ventilation – The MA Building Code sets various requirements for providing ventilation of attics. If done well, attic ventilation can greatly reduce the chance of ice dam formation. Also, with houses that are built very tightly, meaning that they have few air exchanges per day, adding controlled ventilation in the heated living spaces becomes increasingly important. The new house featured on this website has several forms of bringing in outside air in a controlled way, especially when appliances that require a lot of air to be moved through them (clothes dryer, range hood) are operating. Mechanical ventilation (fans) must also be supplied for all new and remodeled bathroom, per the Building Code, and for gas-fired range and cooking tops.
(508) 881-7890
Contracting by an honest and reliable craftsman