Library

Fact sheet providing an overview of the FEMA document Wind Retrofit Guide for Residential Buildings.

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.

Fact sheet summarizing the changes to the flood provisions in the 2012 I-Codes that appear in the 2015 edition.

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

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.

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 providing builders in the hot-dry and mixed-dry 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 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.

Article from the Sierra Club explaining 5 steps to take to ensure your home's resistance to wildfires, including site maintenance and roof construction guidelines.

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.

Article describing methods for venting a vented attic and a roof assembly over an unvented attic.

Guide developed to help contractors, building operators, and city officials successfully adopt cool roof and pavement technology.

Energy Star web page providing guidance on attic ventilation.

Manual describing best practices or home construction in Alaska and northern climates.

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.

Webpage providing mapping tool for obtaining ground snow load, based on ASCE 7-10, for any location in the contiguous United States, with the exception of locations requiring a case study due to extreme local variations in ground snow loads. Fee required for some data.

Technical fact sheet describing ways to construct asphalt shingle roofs to be more resistant to high winds and hurricanes; also published in FEMA P-499 “Home Builder’s Guide to Coastal Construction: Technical Fact Sheet Series.”

Report about a project that examines implementation of advanced retrofit measures in the context of a large-scale weatherization program and the archetypal Chicago, Illinois, brick bungalow.

This report outlines research activities that are expected to facilitate the adoption of energy retrofits by remodeling contractors and roofing contractors using retrofit panels which applicable to many existing house designs in most climates and markets.

Technical article describing issues and moisture concerns related to weatherization efforts.

SPFA website signup page to access SPFA documents.

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

Article from California Earthquake Authority on the benefits of retrofitting homes to withstand earthquake forces, with a focus on foundations, walls, and chimneys.

Report providing water management details for roof assemblies.

Presentation describing details for installing structural insulated panels (SIPs).

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.

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.

Report comparing a variety of roof insulating strategies to present their advantages and disadvantages according to several comparison criteria.

Article describing the control layers (air, thermal, and vapor barriers) needed to build homes successfully in very cold locations.

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.

An article discussing how different metal roof materials and attachment methods affect the ability of the roof to thermally expand and contract and the durability of different solutions.

Report describing a deep energy retrofit project for a two-family wood framed home located in Belmont, Massachusetts.

Book describing Carpentry and Construction, Construction Materials, Hand Tools, Power Tools, Construction Equipment, Jobsite Safety, and Working Conditions, Building Design and Print reading, Inspections Survey Instruments and Operations, Foundation and Outdoor Slab Construction, Floor, Wall, and...

Report summarizing the key opportunities, gaps, and barriers identified by the national laboratory white papers discussing long-term 50% energy reduction goals.

News article from SFGate explaining and giving figures on how chimney failure is the most common type of damage to homes during an earthquake.

Study investigating measured cooling energy performance in side-by-side identical homes with varying roof types, including cool roof technologies.

Research study comparing various retrofit models in Wisconsin to evaluate performance in terms of savings per home and program cost per home to assess the relative cost effectiveness of each program design.

Two hourly energy simulation software, BEopt and Energy Gauge USA, were compared to ensure accuracy and evaluate agreement on the impact of various energy efficiency improvements.

Manual assisting architects, engineers, owners and roofing contractors for designing, specifying and installing roof tiles in areas of snow and ice.

Installation manual describing proper installation practices, industry standards and the code requirements of roofing tiles.

Installation manual outlining proper installation practices, industry standards and the code requirements of roofing tiles.

Website providing building science based guidance and training for residential construction.

Study describing efforts and outcomes in developing color-pigmented roofing products with coatings to increase solar reflectance.