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Exterior Air Barrier Details in the NW

Learn tried-and-true construction details and designs for integrating an exterior air barrier into your building process.

Overview
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Join Earth Advantage & BetterBuiltNW for a one-hour training on exterior air barriers in the NW.

Even when done well, traditional air sealing approaches that involve caulk/foam/drywall have proven to leave significant air leakage at the top and bottom plates. With new codes rewarding tighter air leakage performance and homebuyers expressing concern about wildfire smoke, many are wondering how they can make the jump down to below 2 ACH50. Moving to a continuous air barrier at the exterior sheathing plane can provide a highly effective solution.

Attend this session and hear tried-and-true construction details and architectural drawings for integrating an exterior air barrier (sheet goods/tapes, membranes, stem walls and top/bottom plate connections, etc) into your home building process.

On The Level Series

This course is a part of the 'On The Level' 2021 series and has been designed to provide field-tested recommendations from building professionals and tangible design principles and construction practices that can be integrated into your building process. NW Builders are continually looking to improve the air tightness and ventilation of their homes. At the same time, the OR & WA building codes were updated in 2021, leaving many wondering what the best opportunities are to make the jump in performance. This session also covers the new OR & WA code pathways so you can consider the benefits of these approaches and make well-informed decisions.

Previously offered as a live webinar, we've now adapted this training to an on-demand online format presented on the BetterBuiltNW online training platform. To see all of the 'On The Level' trainings in this series and more, visit our On-Demand Training page.

Note: The 'On The Level' online training series is one of the many components of the Sustainable Homes Professional (SHP) online training and accreditation program designed for the NW region. Join our SHP training and gain over 15+ hours of cutting edge design and building best practices that are critical to success in today's housing market. Learn more and register today!

Learning Objectives
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Understand what areas of a building account for the most significant air leakage
Review common solutions and approaches to addressing primary leakage areas
Gain effective approaches to minimizing leakage via cost effective exterior air barrier solutions
Successfully apply this knowledge to various building types, assemblies and architectural details

When & Where
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Online course available on-demand

On-demand training format consists of a series of a 5-10 minute video divided into sections. Users can start or stop their viewing at their own pace and easily resume the course at another time.

CEs & Cost
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Continuing Education
AIA LU/HSW: 1 CE
OR CCB: 1 CE
BPI: .5 CE
ICC: 0.1 CE

Course Fee
No cost (Regularly $29)

*This training made possible thanks to BetterBuiltNW

Audience
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Architects, Builders/Contractors, Code Officials, Developers, Program Representatives, Raters/Verifiers, Subcontractors

Instructor(s)
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Josh Salinger: Joshua Salinger is founder and principle of Birdsmouth Design-Build in Portland, OR. Birdsmouth is a residential Design-Build firm focused on addressing climate change through the built environment through zero energy new homes and deep energy retrofits. He is an instructor for both Earth Advantage’s Sustainable Homes Professional program and PHIUS’ Certified Passive House Builder training program. He sits on the board of Passive House Northwest and also sits on the technical committee of Zero Energy Ready Oregon. Additionally, he is an EEBA Zero Energy Home Professional, an ‘Expert Member’ on Green Building Advisor and contributes content to Fine Homebuilding magazine. Please learn more about Birdsmouth Design Build and see examples of their work at www.birdsmouthpdx.com.