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More stories about FEATURE

  • Engineer's Assessment of Tornado-Damaged Homes

    As a structural engineer with the APA/Engineered Wood Association, I perform forensic assessments of single- family homes after hurricanes and tornados.

  • Tightening a House When Replacing the Siding

    I don't think my client was planning on an energy retrofit when he first talked to me about repairing and repainting the shingle siding on his 120-year-old Massachusetts home.

  • Open-Joint Siding

    In the Seattle area, where I work, we get a lot of rain. From the mid-90s to the mid-2000s, there were many high-profile cases of water damage caused by improperly detailed siding, mostly on condos and other multifamily housing.

  • Remodeling for Accessibility

    Recently my Chicago-based construction company renovated a second-floor apartment in a 19-story building to make it more user-friendly for disabled and elderly residents.

  • Building a Simple Passive House

    In September 2009 I completed a deep energy retrofit on a small house in Point Reyes Station, Calif., some 50 miles north of San Francisco.

  • Combining Two Condos

    Real estate is scarce in Hoboken, N.J., so a few years ago our client decided to double his family's living space by buying the condo next door to his own and connecting the two units.

  • Expanding a Kitchen

    We were wrapping up the latest in a series of renovation projects on a suburban Maryland split-level home when I casually mentioned to the owner that her Thanksgiving family gatherings would be a lot more enjoyable if her small kitchen weren't separated from the dining and living areas by a wall.

  • Hydronic Heating for Low-Load Houses

    With the right hardware and layout, hot-water heating saves energy and makes ideal use of the sun.

  • An Energy Retrofit in Stages

    I'm a building energy consultant in central Wisconsin. I recently had a chance to perform a major energy retrofit on a modest ranch-style house just south of Lacrosse, Wis.

  • Building a Curved Handrail

    Thanks to bending rail, it's not that difficult to form curved handrail sections for a circular staircase on site.