Tips for High Performance Home Floorplan: Designing Out Condensation, Odors, Discomfort, and Hassle

There are so many simple tricks you can incorporate into a home's layout that will improve performance, including closet orientations, bathtub and toilet locations, mechanical shafts, room arrangements, and useful buffer spaces.

[MC-qmjn]

from what i hear, architecture school won’t teach students important stuff like this, so very grateful for these tips

[thewakersci]

I like the idea of closets along interior walls since it helps sound insulation

[Sythemn]

Good to know. We have a coat closet on the front of the house we barely use. But during the winter, every time I open it, it's at least 20 F colder in there.
Never even considered that it was a mold risk.

[chrisgreek]

We ended up with the most energy efficient house in our wee town by sheer luck. I live in the Canadian Arctic where temperatures fluctuate 100C from coldest to hottest temperatures, so insulation is no joke. We were really fortunate that the previous owners changed all twelve of the large windows to custom quad-paned units. Even when the exterior temperature is around -60C, the glass on the inside never gets cold. I will be sad to say goodbye to our little house when we retire because Northerners value function over form; I can decorate to make it cute, but I can’t fix major structural deficits. Because the permafrost is just a few scant feet down, there are no foundations or buildings set right on the ground, but on jackposts or piles. Usually the floors are frigid, but in our house we have a heated crawl space below so the floors are always lovely! There were two strange or new things for me, though, with this house:
1. having a humidifier going during the winter. We came from Nova Scotia where DEhumidifiers were da riguere, so this was new. We usually go through about 7-8 litres of water every day in our humidifier; and
2. Central AC. I realize this is nothing new, but it was the very first time I have had central air in a house. Not only does it combat the heat when we are in the high 30’sC, but when we are in a heavy smoke from forest fires, the hepa filter eliminates any trace of it inside. As an asthmatic, that is a HUGE boon, especially when you live in a remote town with no road going to it except when the ice road is open each winter.

[spektrograf]

Excellent video topic and reminders, as always. First one I'm watching with this shoot format of having you against a black background and the white board on the other half of the frame. It works exceptionally well! 👍

[caseygibbs]

Dude, I just found your page by happenstance and I gotta say, wow, I have stumbled upon a whole new school of learning and I'm hooked immediately!! When you said Super Nerd alert ⚠️ I had to pause to go subscribe lol

[davepro]

Thermal bridging becomes vitally important as your structure gets less leaky. It is however often thought about in the wrong sequence. Don’t worry about a thermal bridge until you’ve completely controlled airflow.

[paybax]

We ended up getting plantation louvered doors for our closets. Love them.

[deezynar]

Your point about closets applies where it gets really cold. I live where it freezes for a few hours, on three days a year.

[brendancurtin]

Dude, if you’re getting condensation and mold growth on the inside of an exterior wall, then that wall is not properly insulated. I don’t see how this has any relevance to new construction.

It might be useful to know for minor remodeling of older homes that might have little to no insulation in the walls. But if you’re building new, you should insulate and control vapor and air properly such that you can put closets/storage on exterior walls. It is a good point though about using them between rooms strategically for noise reduction.

I also always thought it would be a good idea for kitchen corners to have that difficult to use space be used by the other room. For example, in the layout shown, that master closet could have a chest of drawers built into the wall that uses the space under the kitchen cabinet corner (or from the laundry room). Yes, you lose some kitchen storage space, but it’s awful storage space, and it becomes much more useful in the closet. You could even steal some space back from the closet (or laundry room) with a small nook to be able to recess the fridge a bit so it’s flush with the counter. This makes the space a little less flexible for changing around in the future, but it uses space much more efficiently. So depends on your preference I guess.

[danoliver]

a properly insulated house shouldn’t have any effect on closet location. Maybe avoid water lines in exterior walls but beyond that if you have a concern the problem is poor insulation

[turboflush]

Another quality video.
I have argued with a couple people about thermal bridging and spray foam.
The stud is such a small sliver over the 16 or 24" span.

[RustyNail]

A lot of these exterior wall restrictions could be eliminated with the use of more exterior insulation and tighter construction.

[A-eivm]

thermal bridging for sure is something to think about in Canada! I moved into a new build in 2021, left a pillow leaning against an exterior wall for a few nights. when I wanted to pick it up it was frozen to the wall because it leaned right in front of a stud. imagine having a closet on an exterior wall. all the condensation that's collecting in there. you'd have an extreme mold problem.

[thomasvarney]

Great topic. I'd love to see more videos about design that's bigger than assemblies.

[PhilStjohn-hrxg]

Great videos, I watched a lot of your videos and looked through your video list, I may have missed some, but do you have videos on advice for ranch style homes on a basement? Thanks in advance!

[mikebitz]

Thanks for fighting the good fight! A couple of questions:
1) Exhausting directly from the Shower and Powder room to a continuously running ERV seems to make good sense on some level. Should we assume that there is no conditioned supply in these locations, or does the conditioned supply air get pulled into the bathrooms? It seems that if there was supply in the Bathrooms it would run straight to the ERV exhaust potentially limiting their effectiveness in conditioning that space? If the ERV is running full time and the Conditioned supply is running as needed based on the thermostat location does this lead to less than ideal conditions in the bathrooms. I would love to see a video on the science of supply grille locations for an entire house. Last question, on an older not so well sealed home why would you not recommend an ERV (just the cost), it seems the less you need to pull air from cracks and crevices via negative pressure the better? Thanks!!!!

[cearaybara]

My guy is about to get a new audience lmao. He does have a good voice tho

[ryansoo]

Hi Corbett, I enjoyed your video – lots of good information. I was wondering what you would recommend doing to improve the durability of the wall assembly in the bathroom when you have no choice but to put the tub/shower against an exterior wall – or in a corner with two exterior walls?
I know from watching other Youtube videos that a common mistake some builders and most DIYers make when installing a tub on exterior walls is that they forget to install water resistant drywall or cement board below the tub deck. Yes, they do install cement board ABOVE the tub deck so they have some place to attach the tile but the stud bays below the tub deck are left open and that just allows moisture laden air to flow freely into the bays and condense on the inside surface of the exterior sheathing.

So after installing water resistant drywall around the entire tub area (before you install the tub) would it be a good idea to build a second insulated wall up against the outer wall for an added moisture barrier? Essentially the sequence of layers would be: exterior sheathing, exterior wall studs with insulation, water resistant drywall as an air/moisture barrier, interior wall studs with insulation, smart membrane (?), cement board, tile, tub.
Good idea, or overkill?

[nwbudro]

Please go on more about why thermal bridging isn't as big a deal as we think. We've probably all seen the thermal imaging photos which clearly show thermal bridging. Actually, I've seen that in frost that has formed on siding: there is less frost where the studs are. Have you done a video on the ZIP system?