Library

Guide providing minimum design and construction requirements for storm shelters that provide a safe refuge from storms that produce high winds, hurricanes, and tornadoes.

Report summarizing the requirements to strenghthen new homes against property damage caused by high wind occurrences per the IBHS Fortified Homes High Wind Standard for New Homes.

Report summarizing the wind-resistant provisions of the 2015 edition of the International Building Code.

Florida building code including all the amendments and additions by Florida for the wind-borne debris regions and the high-velocity hurricane zone.

A colored map showing seismic zones across the United States, ranging from lowest to highest seismic hazards.

Report assessing and scoring code enforcement and administration and contractor licensing in the 18 states most vulnerable to catastrophic hurricanes along the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mexico.

Building code for the state of California providing the building rules and regulations as well as disaster resistance tools.

Report summarizing the requirements for strenghtening and protecting the roof, openings in the house, and creating a continuous load path to strengthen walls and foundation per the IBHS Fortified Homes Hurricane Standard for New Homes.

Residential building code for the State of Florida.

Guide describing the requirements by FORTIFIED Home™ for improving the home's resistance in severe thunderstorms, straight-line wind events, and high winds at the outer edges of tornadoes.

Guide describing the requirements by FORTIFIED Home™ for improving the home's resistance in severe thunderstorms, straight-line wind events, and high winds at the outer edges of tornadoes.

Report assessing building codes for the 18 Atlantic and Gulf coast states which are most prone to hurricanes, as of 2018.

Article describing ways builders can improve the hurricane resistance of the homes they construct, especially 1) strengthening the continuous load path, 2) upgrading the building envelope, and 3) improving the roof system performance.

Report providing builders in marine climates with guidance for building homes that have whole-house energy savings of 40% over the Building America benchmark with no added overall costs for consumers.

Report describing measures that builders in mixed-humid climates can use to build homes that have whole-house energy savings of 40% over the Building America benchmark with no added overall costs for consumers.

Guide providing information for homeowners and renters on how to clean up residential mold problems and how to prevent mold growth.

Report discussing opportunities and trends in the U.S. home performance contracting industry, along with market drivers such as consumer demand; federal, state, and local programs; and utility and non-governmental programs.

Report telling consumers the risks of radon, how radon gets into a home, and steps consumers can take to reduce radon exposure in their homes.

Report describing a project whose goal was to determine the prevalence of residential comfort system faults with a focus on air conditioners and heat pumps, and on key faults that can occur during installation: (1) incorrect refrigerant charge level (undercharge or overcharge); (2) indoor coil...

Guidance document from the UN environment programme on climate-resilient buildings and communities practices, including guidance on heat waves, drought, hurricanes, and flooding.

Information sheet about unvented fireplaces and combustion safety.

Standard providing nationally recognized, manufacturer-endorsed set of inspection tasks for HVAC maintenance.

Report describing the experience gained from AIA’s Disaster Assistance Program with first-hand accounts of disaster response and recovery, case studies and other best practices, including approaches to designing buildings to be more adaptable to uncertainty.

Document reporting results from a study done to evaluate effects of automotive emissions from attached garages on the indoor environment.

Case study examining the problem of unwanted air transfer from garage to living space and the effectiveness of garage exhaust ventilation or house supply ventilation to provide a solution to that.

Website describing indoor air quality, and common indoor pollutants and how to reduce exposure to them.

Website describing archived program inforamtion for the Air Sensors International Conference, hosted by the University of California, Davis.

American Cleaning Institute website homepage.

Standard detailing the specific requirements for all face, back, and inner ply grades as well as formaldehyde emissions, moisture content, tolerances, sanding, and grade marking which was published in 2020, can be acquired through a subscription with the ANSI webstore.

Updated detailed information about Formaldehyde.

Standard providing a methodology for evaluating the installation quality of unitary HVAC systems.

A publication highlighting recommendations that contribute to improved overall performance in the structural shell and focus on good connection details to tie together exterior walls, roofs and floors.

Wall bracing calculator simplifying the design of residential structures that comply with 2009, 2012, 2015, 2018 or 2021 International Residential Code (IRC) wall bracing requirements.

Report explaining how to develop, practice, and maintain emergency plans that reflect what must be done before, during, and after a disaster to protect people and their property.

Guidance from HUD, EPA, NIH, and FEMA for workers who deal directly with asbestos.

Web-based mapping tool offering a fast, reliable way to look up key design parameters specified in Standard ASCE 7-10, 7-16, or 7-22 for a specific address or location which is free to use and can look up data for eight different environmental hazard types: wind, tornado, seismic, ice, rain, flood...

Document describing recent discussions on indoor carbon dioxide (CO 2) levels.

A report that evaluates the force it takes to crack stucco of various thicknesses.

Report describing information for builders and retrofitters about eliminating hazards and coincidental energy losses that come from attached garages.

DOE report characterizing market and technical barriers impeding broader utilization of fault detection technology for residential HVAC energy efficiency applications.

Information sheet about sealing combustion appliances to ensure good indoor air quality.

Document providing guidance to U.S. home builders who want to accept the challenge.

Guide describing measures that builders in the cold and very cold climates can take to build homes that have whole-house energy savings of 40% over the Building America benchmark with no added overall costs for consumers.

Expert meeting focusing on identifying gaps and barriers in combustion safety that need to be addressed by future research, and to develop data-driven technical recommendations for code updates so that a common approach for combustion safety can be adopted by all members of the building energy...

Report summarizing the guidelines for developing and reporting analytical results in a consistent and meaningful manner for all home energy uses.

Document illustrating some analysis concepts that are proven to be effective and reliable in analyzing the transient energy usage of advanced energy systems as well as of entire houses.

Document containing recommendations on how to brace roofs and gable end walls based on lessons learned from analyzing the destruction from hurricane Andrew.

Website providing CAD files and drawings of advanced framing details.

Document with the Quality Control Checklist developed as both a guide to assist in the transition to high performance home building, and as a simplified tool to be used as part of any builder's on-site quality control procedures.