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Builder Practices Report Sample - 2008 Solar Data

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Home Innovation Research Labs Builder Practices Reports provide a picture of market demand for products and materials purchased by home builders nationwide. Market demand data is obtained through the Annual Builder Practices Survey, a nationally disseminated paper survey of home builders. The resulting data are tabulated using a robust methodology to ensure accurate estimates of product demand, quantities purchased, types, styles, sizes, and other characteristics of materials used in new homes built each calendar year. Builder Practices Reports present data on materials purchased for Single-Family Detached homes and Multifamily dwelling units. Data are shown as “coefficients,” or per-house averages, and “product usage,” the total volume of products or materials.

Consumer Practices Report Sample - 2008 Solar Technology Data

File Under: Energy Efficiency & High-Performance Building, Sustainability

Home Innovation Research Labs Annual Builder and Consumer Practices Reports provide market demand data for building product and material usage in the United States and Canada. Market demand data on home improvement, maintenance, and repair purchases is obtained through the Consumer Practices Survey (CPS), an annual online survey of U.S. and Canadian households. The survey results are tabulated to show demand for building products and materials purchased for the repair and remodeling industry. These reports also provide key information on purchasing and installation practices, as well as demographic information of the respondents. For many years, the CPS was fielded as a mail-based survey that received about 8,000 responses from owner-occupied households. In 2003, Home Innovation Research Labs expanded the CPS to capture data on remodeling projects in renter-occupied houses and implemented online fielding of the survey, yielding more than 46,000 usable responses.

Revisions to Quality Management Products: Four Scopes of Work for High Performance Homes

File Under: Energy Efficiency & High-Performance Building

A Scope of Work is a description of the work that a trade contractor will perform for a builder. Every contract, including those executed with only a handshake, incorporates a Scope of Work, even if only implied. After all, if a builder did not need a task accomplished and did not describe that task to the trade contractor; there would be no basis for initiating an agreement. However, without a clear, detailed, written agreement between the builder and trade contractor, both parties can have significantly different expectations of the work.

Quality Control Checklist

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The Building America Quality Control Checklist has been developed by Building Science Corporation 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. There are two parts to this document: the checklist and the resource appendix.

Quality Assurance Roadmap for High Performance Residential Buildings

File Under: Energy Efficiency & High-Performance Building

BSC’s Quality Assurance Roadmap outlines the approach to quality assurance in the construction process as recommended by Building Science Corporation for new residential construction. Seven process steps are described from the assessment of current construction practice, through design and documentation changes, to training and quality control for on-site personnel. This document is intended to be used in lieu of a formal QA process to support high performance construction in Building America Research Prototype houses.

Evaluation of Nailed Roof-to-Wall Connections for Resistance to Uplift

File Under: Structural Performance

In light-frame wood construction, nails have historically been the primary method for connecting roof members to walls. The connection, known as a toe-nail or a slant-nail, is fabricated by installing nails at an angle through the side of a roof framing members and into the wall’s top plate. Model building codes allowed the use of toe-nails under conventional construction provisions in areas not prone to hurricanes. Recently, proposals to modify the conventional construction provisions to substantially reduce the applicability of toe-nailed connections have been discussed at various code development forums. This study is intended to provide the basis for establishing appropriate scoping limits for toe-nailed roof-to-wall connections in applications under the International Residential Code (IRC).

Fixture Flow Rate Comparison - Cross-Linked Polyethylene (PEX) Piping and Copper Tubing

File Under: Plumbing

Cross-linked polyethylene (PEX) and copper piping were tested at varying source pressures and two maximum runs; 60 and 100 ft to determine if PEX and copper piping systems will deliver sufficient volumetric flow rates to the plumbing fixtures when using the same nominal size tubing.

Advanced Framing: An Examination of its Practical Use in Residential Construction

File Under: Structural Performance

Advanced framing, also known as Optimum Value Engineering (OVE), is not new to home building. It was featured in kit homes offered by the Sears & Roebuck Company in the early 1900s (HUD, 2001), researched extensively in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and featured in a landmark publication, Manual of Lumber & Plywood Saving Techniques for Residential Light-Frame Construction (NAHB Research Foundation, 1971). Again in 1994, OVE framing techniques were revisited, updated, and featured in Cost-Effective Home Building (NAHB, 1994). Currently, provisions for several key OVE framing practices are found in model U.S. building codes (ICC, 2006).

Evaluation of the Lateral Performance of Let-In Bracing and Mixed Bracing Systems

File Under: Structural Performance

This testing program is designed to measure the performance of conventional bracing systems including wood let-in bracing, gypsum wallboard, and wood structural panels. The purpose of the study is to better understand how these bracing methods work as part of a system and in combination with each other. Although these bracing methods have been studied in the past, recent re-evaluation of testing procedures and analytical approaches for establishing prescriptive wall bracing requirements raised new questions related to the interaction of these materials with each other and with the rest of the structure. Some of the new concepts that have been recently introduced include the continuous sheathing methods of wall bracing, partial restraint conditions, interaction of dissimilar materials, and contribution of finish materials to the structure’s performance. This study provides information towards reconciling the traditional bracing methods, their historic use and performance, and the new approaches to analyzing prescriptive wall bracing provisions.

Implications of the Soft Housing Market for Builders, Suppliers, and Manufacturers

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The objective of the 2008 Soft Market Study was to document the changes that home builders have undergone since the beginning of the market downturn and to provide these findings to:

Home builders – to benefit from the successes of other home builders and increase their likelihood of business survival
Manufacturers and suppliers – to understand how to better meet home builder needs