Blog

Adhesive Bonds and Failures: What’s Going On? Adhesives are foundational to airtight and watertight enclosures. It is essential that the adhesives we use bond for as much as 50 years, 100 years, or longer. How do we know when we have the right kind of adhesion? What are the different ways a tape's adhesion will be able to provide us wi … read more

5 Tricks of the Trade For Thick, Dense-Packed Walls Behind Pro Clima Membranes With contributions by Matthew Brennan, National Sales Manager at Thermocell; Jesse Matthews, Quality Control at RDH (formerly carpenter at The Fourth Pig Green and Natural Construction). At 475, a large number of projects we work on use dense-pack cellulo … read more

The Value of Air and Vapor Control Foundational Elements Of High Performance Enclosures We’ve heard the chorus of misinformation throughout years of speaking to builders across North America: “Buildings need to breathe – you’ll destroy them if you make them airtight”. “In a cold climate, if you don’t put a vapor barrier on the inside o … read more

Path Toward Perfection EASTON COMBS Architect's High-Performance Home in Egremont, MA Project Spotlight: Location: Egremont, Massachusetts, USA Project type: Single-family new construction Builders: Little Deer & Company Architects: EASTON COMBS Architects Assembly: Vented rainscreen - MENTO 1000 - plywood - 12" vertical I-joist str … read more

Project Spotlight: Phoenix Haus - Launch of the H19 Passive House Project Spotlight Location: Mesa, Colorado, USA Project type: Single-family new construction Prefab Builders: Phoenix Haus Design and Passive House Certification: Shape Architecture Assembly: 2x framed wall with densepack cellulose, continuous wood fiber insulati … read more

Ten Golden Rules for Foam-Free Flat Roofs When insulating a flat roof wood structure, 475's goal, as always, is to do it in the most healthy, structurally sound, durable, and ecologically friendly way - achieving truly high performance. This means we try to generally avoid using foam above or below the roof deck (for more on that, see … read more