FOLLOWUP! In July 2012- I had sewer gas leaking into my bedroom, bathroom, and then up to the upstairs level of the house for five months. It was awful. I have an 18 inch crawlspace and a raised floor. Under the house is dirt and the pipes. I had FOUR plumbers and TWO handymen check it out. They found NOTHING! They were too big to fit around the pipes!!! We had put in a new toilet, and I had that pulled up and put down again, just in case. but that was fine. We checked all the traps, and now keep them full of water, so they are fine. The plumbers gave me estimates of $4500 for a sewer cleanout installation in front of the house, and $6800 to repipe the bad pipes, if they found any.... I did not have the money, and they really had no plan, just guesses. Last August 2012, I luckily found a neighbor friend who was able to crawl around under the house. He was a little guy, and knew how to do plumbing and other repairs!! He found leaking and large cracks in the main drain sewer pipe at the ground level, around the back of the pipe, hidden from general view and he used epoxy to repair it. This pipe was attached to other pipes, and if it needs to be replaced it will be a difficult job. That pipe was directly below the downstairs bathroom. That reduced about 70 % of the smell and seems to be holding tight with no more leaking there. But sewer gases were still leaking from somewhere else, but not as bad, or as often. it still kept coming back about every three days.They centered in my bedroom, and seemed to come out of the floor. Oddly, from the beginning, the gases only happened around 1am until 5am, then stopped all day long, so no one could smell them, unless they stayed all night. From the first repair, the gasses only occurred about every three days or so, and not as severe, but still stinky. My friend came back into town in November, and went back under the house, and found stress marks on the larger pipe that attached to the MAIN drain sewer pipe, and ran towards the front of the house. This pipe traveled directly under my BED, and the cracks were basically under my pillow area. (What LUCK!) He had to replace that whole pipe, and to get it inside we opened the ground vents and slid it through, and the old pipe out. After he replaced that and all the fittings, the gases were gone! THANK YOU GOD!!! It cost me $800 just to investigate all this, and get nothing for the repairing of it from that! Plumbers were just ready to get paid, with no idea what was actually wrong!!! My friend only charged me $550 plus parts for this! I suffered through it for five months, and hope the sewer gases didn't harm me in any way! I sure appreciate the clean smell now!!! By the way, it was an acrid stinky burning smell. It did NOT smell like METHANE, or anything described as general sewage smells. It was just hard to breathe it, and would cause eyes, throat and nose to burn. I had a runny nose right up to the day the last pipe was replaced, and it all stopped. GOOD LUCK TO ANYONE STILL HAVING THIS PROBLEM. I learned far more about plumbing than I ever thought I would need to know!

The reasoning behind the change in energy consumption is geared from the power loss a few years back in the NY area. The National study of how this happened and why sparked some interesting results. First of all to replace the old antique power lines and grid system in just one area would be Trillions of dollars. That's just one grid! Our almighty power supply companies can't even comprehend where to start and where the money will come from. So they are all putting large amounts of money in a federally funded program to make our homes more energy efficient. So by having an energy audit done on your home and finding out where all your issues are. You can then have access to this pool of low interest loans through our government. There are a handful of us working closely with these programs and teaching them the things they will need to know for a more energy efficient home. In my case, I offer technical solutions on the installation of doors and windows. The proper use of house wrap and flashing. Then it goes from there to siding, HVAC, roofing and insulation. Your windows are only part of a very complex system... your home. Every home is different and every climate doesn't care... it just does what it does. The neighbor next to you in the same model home might change windows and save 50%... and you might do the exact same and save nothing. It might not make sense.. until you apply science. Energy is heat and follows it's own laws. It's laws tell it to move to a lack thereof by any vehicle available. Air transfer is the easiest but many others are readily available in most homes. Conduction, convection and radiation are the primary taxicabs. If your neighbors home is properly insulated and airtight, the energy might have been primarily using the old windows as the vehicle to move in or out. If your home isn't, new windows will only tranfer the energy to the next cab... like your walls or roof. Think (ATM) = money. Air, Temperature and Moisture always move in relation to each other. If you address one and not the others, they will bring it along for the ride anyways. A typical 2,500 square foot home has over a half mile of cracks and crevices in it's shell. Insulation defects DOMINATE the thermal performance of any assembly. If the insulation in that shell has even 5% of gaps or openings, it reduces the entire shell's insulating value by up to 70%!!! The effect is even worse with higher initial R-values. The air takes the energy for a free cab ride and steps on the gas. Heat does not rise, it moves equally in every direction. Only heated air rises when it is not driven in another direction by predominant pressure or airflow. If your house is well insulated and very airtight, then your windows might be the primary source of heat loss/gain. Changing these windows with a well insulated and airsealed product might make a huge difference in your energy bills. This would be the hope of everyone going through this process but it may also have very serious side-effects. If your old windows were a considerable source of air-infiltration, the reduction of this airflow will induce a negative pressure inside the home and may cause your cumbustion appliances to backdraft Carbon monoxide (CO). I have personally tested and witnessed this occurance by simply turning on a clothes dryer or a few utility fans. That was all it took to change the airflow. If a shortage is measured, the necessary amount of "fresh" replacement air can then be supplied by controlled mechanical ventilation. When you change any part of a structure's thermal or pressure boundaries with windows, siding, roofing & venting, etc., you have changed the rules and allowances. It is for these reasons and many more that I strongly recommend having your house professionally tested before and after any shell remodeling. The analysis fees are usually deductable from the contract amount of the work performed. These testing procedures are supported and recommended by the EPA and the USDOE and information can be found through their sites. The primary objective is to save energy and improve comfort and air quality in the home. This can be achieved in almost every home in America... if you, Test... Before you invest.

WOW, Okay, that's surprising to me. I would have guessed (obviously as a novice) that AI ratings would go up with a bigger window. It does look like a taller window had more leak here though. Surprisingly, a lot of those windows are actually very close to the size of the windows we need. The bank of windows that has us so concerned for example with three windows would be almost exactly 48" by 72" for each individual window. As a reference point, what would you see as "good" on an AI rating for the south? I'd assume the SGHC would be most critical for us, is that right or is AI tops, or one of the other measures? I'm really kind of interested to see the sunrise product and rep, as it seems we can get better ratings and better aesthetics. I realize it will be a higher price point, but I'm hoping still within our budget.

Pipdog - Sorry, I missed your earlier post. That house was the inspiration for one of my neighbor's remodels! Interestingly, they painted everything white BUT the fireplace and put in similar light wood flooring. Their fireplace is on an outer wall, not in the center, so it doesn't really stick out. Palimpsest - LOL on the mullet. I admit, I did have a mullet haircut 5(?) years ago when they were back in style, and DH had the faux-hawk. But hair is temporary by its nature, and I like looking silly. :) I didn't mean to be dismissive of "whatever this is" but I honestly don't know what to call it. I'm a big fan of modernism, and I'm clueless when it comes to transitional decor. I understand modern design principles, but ask me which chair goes with which table in a transitional home and I'm at a loss. And I'm really not a preservationist. We are making significant changes. The siding is definitely not original (I'd argue better than the stucco). We're updating the kitchen and baths, removing walls, etc. And our furniture is definitely not period correct. The house I posted above with the metal sheets is from a Dwell home tour and dubbed the "Hyper Eichler" by the architect. He approached the update by considering what the architects / builder might have done if the materials and building technology of today was available back then. I think it stays true even with the numerous changes from the original finishes, and I try to keep this approach in mind. Marcolo - I don't know that wanting to paint a fireplace or making any non-standard MCM chalterations is necessarily due to a lack of appreciation or trend following. Most of my neighbors truly believe they appreciate the MCM nature of their homes and probably wouldn't know a current trend if it hit them in the face, but they make all kinds of changes that purists would cringe at: granite counters, shaker cabinets, atrium conversion, fireplace removal, wood flooring, etc etc etc. A lot of it is due to tweaking their homes for their lifestyle (fireplace in the way, needed sq footage from atrium), or something I often hear is the emphasis on natural materials (granite counters, wood floors) despite the fact they're replacing formica and VCT.