Green Building

Besides our green foam color indicator, which lets you know you’re spraying at the proper 1:1 ratio, there are several reasons why Foam It Green really is a “green” building product: * Foam It Green spray foam kits stop tremendous amounts of energy waste by sealing out air leaks. * Foam It Green has a [...]

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This month we’ve been taking a look at skyscraper buildings, and the science and planning that goes into their design. Some of you may live in a high-rise, or have your office in one; they are especially popular in large cities where a higher volume of the population can live and/or work on a smaller [...]

Read the rest of Fascinating Skyscraper Facts

In our last blog post we introduced some of the basic differences in how skyscrapers are built compared to traditional residences. Several innovations in the 1850s made it possible to construct buildings that were taller than anything that had been built before; once the trend took off, skyscrapers got taller and taller each year. While [...]

Read the rest of The Super Supertalls

Skyscrapers are an extremely common fixture in even moderately sized cities. In urban areas where land is expensive and limited, building upwards can significantly impact a city’s economic power; multiple storeys provide a high ratio of rentable space to overall land usage. This allows for more commercial offices and residential suites, and the buildings define [...]

Read the rest of Take it to the Limit: How Skyscrapers are Built

The Small House Movement has been steadily growing in popularity as homeowners reassess their wants and needs in regard to home value, environmental awareness, and financial planning. If you have the opportunity to build your house from scratch (or nearly from scratch), then designing it with the Small House principles in mind makes a lot [...]

Read the rest of Downsizing Via Renovation: How to Shrink Your House

The economy has caused a major shift in how people are spending their savings, and it’s likely that these altered behavioral patterns are here to stay. The global economic recession and crisis was a major splash; the ripples will be felt many generations down the line. The recession was partially caused by an enormous bubble [...]

Read the rest of The Big Ideas Behind the Small House Movement

Back in April 2013 we did a short series on how the 2008 global recession has affected home ownership and renovation tactics. This trend isn’t surprising, considering the fact that the crisis was partially caused by the fallout from predatory subprime mortgage policies. Throughout the early 2000s, banks gave out huge loans for opulent luxury [...]

Read the rest of When Bigger Isn’t Better

Modern architecture has transformed our nation into something nearly unrecognizable from its original state; huge bustling cities dot the country, with gigantic skyscrapers, bustling apartment buildings, and a completely restructured landscape of roads and parks. But while a city may feel like a concrete (no pun intended) and permanent declaration of man’s control over his [...]

Read the rest of Against the Winds: Innovation in Hurricane-Proof Design

“Tornado Alley” is a rough description of the middle part of the continental United States, stretching from the western Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians; it is the epicenter of tornado activity in the nation, though tornadoes can strike anywhere and every single state has experienced them. If you live in this part of the United [...]

Read the rest of How to Protect Your Existing Home from Tornadoes

The United States has dealt with several high-profile natural disasters lately; Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast in late 2012, and a massive tornado ripped apart most of Moore, Oklahoma in May 2013, leaving horrific scenes of destruction in its wake. These and other events were stark reminders of nature’s terrifying power and mankind’s helplessness [...]

Read the rest of The Myth of the Disaster-Proof House