Ever fix one problem in your home only to have another pop up right after?
Everything in your house, from your HVAC system to your crawl space to your attic, is connected. If you ignore the connection when you’re making improvements, you can easily make problems worse and even cause new ones.
Instead, you have to treat the house as a system. This is a key component of building science, which is the lens we view every project through at Total Home Performance.
Here’s a closer look at what building science is and why working with a contractor who understands it is so important.
What Is Building Science?
Building science is the study of how a building's (or house’s) systems and components, such as the insulation, mechanicals, and even the people who live there, interact to affect its overall energy efficiency, durability, comfort, and air quality.
Instead of looking at different parts of the house in isolation, building science focuses on the whole home as a system. That means understanding how one change, like air sealing your attic, can affect other parts of your home, like your ventilation. It also means looking beyond symptoms, like mold in your crawlspace, to find the root cause so we can treat the disease and not just the symptoms.
Why Building Science Is So Important
Building science focuses on key principles that affect how comfortable you feel in your house, how healthy your air quality is, and even how much you spend on your energy bills.
Since we take a building science approach, we are always thinking about these key principles, no matter what improvement we’re making in your home:
- Energy Efficiency - Save money on your heating and cooling costs with upgrades that optimize energy efficiency.
- Comfort - Keep your house at a consistent, comfortable temperature all year by controlling how heat and air move through it.
- Moisture Control - Avoid moisture issues so you don’t end up with mold, rot, or structural damage.
- Air Quality - Breathe clean, healthy air by ensuring upgrades consider ventilation and pollutants.
What Improvements Need a Building Science Focus?
Building science is most important when you’re making changes that impact your home’s performance. That includes things like:
You don’t need to be tackling a major renovation to benefit from this approach, however. Even a single upgrade, like installing a heat pump or encapsulating your crawl space, can have ripple effects throughout your entire home.
Working with a contractor who understands building science will ensure any improvement you make:
- Solves the problem you need to solve
- Doesn’t cause new problems
- Contributes to a healthier, more comfortable, and more energy efficient home
Partner with a Building Science Expert for Your Next Home Upgrade
Most contractors don’t have a building science background. That doesn’t mean the work they do is automatically bad, but it does mean that you’re taking a risk.
You may get lucky and make an improvement that doesn’t have negative side effects. But you could also be unlucky and end up spending money on an upgrade that makes your problem a lot worse.
When you work with Total Home Performance, you’re eliminating that risk. Our team is trained and certified by the governing body of building science, the Building Performance Institute (BPI). We don’t just guess at the problems and fixes that will serve your home best, but apply proven scientific principles to confirm our recommendations.