attic air leak: Unsealed Tech Tubes: A Common New Construction Attic Defect - 03/26/12 07:56 PM
For about the last twenty years or so in Minnesota, it's been standard practice to seal up attic bypassses; little passageways for conditioned household air to leak in to the attic.  Attic bypasses are also known as attic air leaks.  It's important to seal all of the bypasses in an attic, because air leaking in to an attic has a far greater effect on attic warming and heat loss than just missing insulation.
I've been doing a lot of new-construction inspections or one-year warranty inspections on new construction houses, and I've started to notice a new attic bypass that seems to be completely ignored by some … (10 comments)

attic air leak: How To Fix a Moldy Attic - 03/19/12 08:05 PM
If you see black stuff covering or growing on the roof sheathing in your attic, it's probably mold.  It's never fun to find out that your house has mold, but the fix for mold in the attic is usually quite straightforward, and doesn't involve the services of any 'mold remediation experts'.
There are a lot of folks in the real estate industry, including home inspectors, who get very excited when the word 'mold' comes up.  I actually sat through a seminar where we were told to never even use the word mold, because "you never know what something is without testing … (30 comments)