WEB Freebies
We've added three pictorial checklists: “Laundry Room Design,” “Kitchen Design,” and “Oops!” These lists are chock-full of insightful information to help design function into your new home. And you know what they say: “A picture is worth a thousand words!” For more information,
Click for FREEBIES !
Watch a Green Home in the Making!
Recently I worked with those designing the 2008 Vision Home to provide a functional analysis. This home, now under construction in the Orlando area, is a project of Green Builder Magazine and Westmont Homes. For detailed photos and additional information about this project and the suppliers who are working on it, see
http://www.greenhomes.typepad.com.
Interior Moisture Mitigation
Steamy bathroom mirrors, damp walls, and fogged windows are more than annoying.
They can indicate developing problems like mold and mildew, ruined insulation,
and wood rot. As we build tighter houses, it is increasingly more important to
choose exhaust fans powerful enough to address the humidity created in bath
areas. To make certain you don't end up with cheap, noisy, ineffective
fans, you need to be proactive in the specification of this product. Here’s
what you need to know:
-
Sizing:
Bath fans need to be sized properly. Code in your area may only
require a fan powerful enough to produce an air volume of 50 CFM
(cubic feet per
minute), which
is often not
adequate to do
the job. If your
bathroom
contains an
operable window,
you may not be
required to have
an exhaust fan
at all, but
unless you
intend to open
that window each
time you shower,
doing without a
fan is not a
reasonable
option. And
remember, if you
have a separate
commode room in
the master bath,
you need two
fans, one above
the commode and
one to exhaust
the portion of
the room
containing the
shower. One fan
manufacturer,
Panasonic,
offers a
fan-sizing
utility on their
web site to help
choose the right
model for your
bath. Go to
www.panasonic.com/building
-
Run Time:
Your bathroom exhaust fan should run long enough to sufficiently
exhaust the moisture. Panasonic recommends that ventilation fans run
for 30 minutes after a shower for best results. Panasonic's Whisperlite™
ventilation system, pictured above, provides the necessary CFM,
combined with extreme quiet, which qualifies it as an Energy StarŪ product.
To make it easier to run fans for the recommended amount of time, you might
consider having your electrician connect them to a timer.
Otherwise, some fans are so quiet that it's easy to forget to turn them off.
For more information, visit
www.Panasonic.com. (Photograph above courtesy of Panasonic.)
-
Installation:
The fan must exhaust to the outdoors, not into the attic. The duct
should terminate either at the roof or through an exterior wall. Hopefully,
this is a code requirement in your area, but, nonetheless, confirm proper venting with your builder.
Broan-NuTone, LLC, has introduced a line of bath exhaust fans
that automatically sense a rise in the air’s relative humidity and switch on to vent
the moisture out of the room. In turn, these fans automatically shut off when the
humidity drops below excessive levels. Visit
www.Broan.com for more information.
Removing the steam generated when cooking is just as important
as removing the steam generated from the shower. Next month, I’ll address
features to consider when shopping for a kitchen exhaust hood.
Is there a subject you’d like me to cover? Let me know by sending an email to tracy@tracystips.net.
All past issues of this ezine are in the Ezine Archives on our web site. Click here for Ezine Archives !
Copyright © 2007 Tracy DeCarlo - All Right Reserved
WANT A CHECK LIST OF HUNDREDS OF TIPS
AND IDEAS FOR DESIGNING A FUNCTIONAL HOME?
If you liked today’s tips you’ll love the book “Don’t Forget the Linen Closets!” It’s packed with over 240 ideas and reminders to help you incorporate function, organization, and efficiency into your home without breaking the bank.
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To us, it [“Don’t Forget the Linen Closets”] is the most thorough guide to building a house, regardless of size, in the industry. Most importantly, it is geared toward the folks who will actually live in the house.
By following your guidelines, we are confident that we will have a far more functional home than if we had been on our own. Also, we know that we and the builder have saved thousands of dollars by avoiding rework and non-functional design flaws. In fact we have dubbed the book, “The Home Buyers’ Essential Handbook for Design and Construction in Less Than 50 Pages.”
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences in such a concise and useful way.
Bill and Yvonne Dunbar
Homeowners building a custom home
Orlando, FL – February 2006
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If you’d like more personalized help, Tracy’s plan-review service will walk you through the process in detail. In either case, planning the details in the beginning can save thousands in the end! To see more testimonials and/or to place your order, visit
Detailed Solutions WEB site now.
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR ON YOUR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include the following blurb in its entirety:
Tracy DeCarlo, author of “Don’t Forget the Linen Closets!” publishes the idea-packed, monthly e-zine “Tips for Designing a Functional Home.” If you’re ready to learn how to incorporate organization, function, and efficiency into your new home or remodeling project without breaking the bank, get your FR*EE tips now at www.BuildingTips.net.
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