Construction Informer

Where Women DIYers Are Hanging Out: With the announcement of Suzanne Horton’s appointment as BeJane’s President and CEO I clicked on over there to see what is going on with women do-it-yourselfers. Apparently, a lot. According to Horton single women own 25 percent of the homes in the US and 91 percent of women influence home purchasing decisions. She also says women initiate 80 percent of all home improvement projects. But we already knew that, didn’t we guys.

The site bills itself as the “Women’s Home Improvement Community,” and was started by Heidi Baker and Eden Jarrin. In these pages there are more then 200 projects and how-to guides arranged by room and topic. Under carpentry I found topics like:

• Building an Arbor;
• Siding Your House;
• How To Build a Pop-Up Coffee Table; and
• How To Fix A Small Drywall Hole.

In their own words:

What differentiates us from other DIY sites is our focus on home improvement from a woman’s perspective. No, that doesn’t mean that we’re all about pink. It means that we not only show you the “how-to” that gets the project done in a way that’s relatable and easy to follow, but we also focus on how that project will enhance your life—or, what we like to call the “why-to.”

For her part Horton is a former custom homebuilder, CEO of her own consulting firm, and executive for American Express, among others.

Siding Insulation Slows Down Your Studs’ Worst Habits: There is a lot of heat and cold transfer through wooden studs since they make up 25 percent of the wall surface. Even though there may be insulation between the studs up to a 40 percent heat loss occurs via the studs, according to the National Energy Assistance Director’s Association (NEADA).

So, as we would expect, there is a product called insulated siding. The product looks like vinyl siding with rigid foam attached to the back of it. The product name is Insulated Siding with Fullback Technology, just to inspire all you football fans I guess. It comes in a wide array of colors and is sold as what I’ll call a value-added to existing brands of siding. So, you can buy Alcoa, or Certainteed or Variform, just to name a few, with this attached insulation.

As a siding it has a 3.96 R value so it is pretty robust compared to a half-inch of polyisocyanurate (one inch equals R 5.30 all by itself) beneath vinyl. The advantage claimed is that it form-fits the profile of the siding and therefore gives you a better insulated wall. It also makes the siding tougher so it is less susceptible to hail damage for example, or, backing your truck into it (although the company doesn’t mention that advantage).

The “green” claims are probably stretched a bit. Not having to paint and repaint is one claim to green fame. It’s just that you get that advantage from most any vinyl siding you buy, and if you don’t, you don’t buy it. Yes the claims that it stops heat loss and therefore should reduce the energy requirements of your home are certainly valid. But how green is a product that is first of all made from petroleum and secondly gives off acid smoke and dioxin when it burns? It isn’t that these products are not valuable as weapons against the excesses of societies dependent upon fossil fuels, it’s just that the “green” claims ought to be tempered and perhaps spoken of only in relation to the benefits of a better insulated home.