Here she explains its trickiest part.
Decouple walls from floor double wall construction.
Ways that you can decouple walls.
We know pushing standard code minimum construction toward high performance is complicated.
In this article he uses photographs and a detailed illustration to showcase how his team builds the vapor open double stud wall assembly beginning with the exterior wall framing all the way to the ridge and then turning to the interior walls.
There are a few ways that you can decouple walls and each way has its own pluses and minuses.
Room within a room.
The gap between the inner and outer walls that the window and door openings need to bridge.
High performance builder dan kolbert s ideal wall is a double stud approach filled with dense pack cellulose insulation.
So studs on floor and ceiling eing supported by wall frames.
The double stud wall is a well established method for creating a very economical durable and high r value assembly in new construction and is one reason it s included as one of the basic 475 smart enclosure system assembly types.
While there are many ways to do it the basic premise is to build one structural wall typically the inside wall build a second wall around it and fill the space between with insulation.
The inner leaf walls and ceiling are built on this slab and never come into contact with the outer leaf.
Then a thick layer of rigid foam and an outer layer of sheathing.
The inner leaf would need to have its own slab or floating floor.
The most effective form of decoupling that can be achieved is by building a room within a room.
By an enormous margin pound for pound the best wall that you can build is a visco elastically e g.
In her energy smart details article architect rachel wagner discusses double stud wall construction.
Room within a room.
Examples of typical bpc double wall construction figure 3 shows some of the different ways bpc builds its walls.
The first example on the left is a single double wall hybrid construction.
The double wall has been used to build energy efficient homes for a long time.
It is a 2 6 wall with drywall insulation and sheathing.
There are three ways to decouple a wall the most effective way is the double stud wall.
Table choosing the right decoupling system for low frequency performance.
Green glue damped double stud wall.
The double stud wall simplified low cost high performance simplify.
This method is achieved through building two separate stud walls with a small space between the two sides.
Learn more about double stud walls here.
Ways to decouple a wall.
The external wall frame floor and ceiing outer leaf are all touching.
Learn more about double stud walls here.