Matt, after some research, my own experience, and my trusty brother in-law (over 40 years building experience), I would only agree with 3 of the 5. And judging from the comments since the first time I watched this video, some of the comments posted would agree. Because of the areas where you have built homes, it may be the amount of experience with direct vent fire places or woven wrap. I also believe that the use of many materials are not suitable for certain areas. I have worked with home builders on the central eastern shore and builders up in the Appalachian Mountains and what a difference with materials. Of all of the videos of yours I have viewed, this is the only one I have commented on with any negativity. Many of the tips you have posted I have applied with success. I have purchased products and avoided purchasing other products based on some of your posts and product reviews. It has kept me out of a lot of trouble. Thank you! Keep up the great work.

The "flashing " should be installed over the sheeting and under the housewrap. We use a 12" strip of plastic instead of paper. It also is designed to be placed inbetweenst the brick layers at the base of the weep holes to allow moisture out of the 1" air space between the brick and the wall. It is not designed to stop water from going under the wall as mentioned. The house wrap shown is marketed as a vapor barrier and or wind stop designed to do exactly what it says. They make better such as Tyvek or Hardie wrap but both are still going to get holes in them with the addition of brick wall ties. The thermo-ply wall sheeting has been used for years here in FL and quite sturdy when installed properly. However, not the best choice in this climate. It gets wet ,holds moisture, makes fungi, and attracts termites. It's a termite buffet since it is primarily cellulose. The water heater box can be sealed with silicone or window tape or both. DV FP can be fixed with high temp sealant. It is also a pipe inside a pipe for the vent.I do believe there are better products on the market to build a better house. I also believe that you have jumped the gun on the things you have shown as most items are most likely not in the completely installed phase.

for the fireplace vent they make a caulking that is High temp. to seal those types of leaks. It gets the job done and will take the heat. Great video.

As a plumber from Canada, must be nice to be able to run water lines in an outside wall

2) its not perforated, its woven. They don't punch it with pinholes, they just weave it from strips. It is not meant to hold water, it is meant to carry water down and away and let vapor out of the wall. It does exactly what it is supposed to do, you are just using it wrong and the test was totally inappropriate for its intended use.

@6:10 Furnace Cement is made specifically for fireplace vent applications. It also has a higher temperature rating than high temp silicone.

You can put silicone around the pipes on a furnace. Not the silicone caulk you use on windows. It's a specific high-temp silicone made for that. You can buy it at any home improvement store and it meets code for Class A chimney installs. Consider - you use a silicone product to seal the oil pan to the engine block. That stuff is rated to 800F+.

You should do a video of what to ask a home building company when your ready for a new house. Many folks like myself have no clue what is TOP choice or TRASH rip off. I thought of having a new Wayne Home built down the road, so this is why I am watching all sorts of home building videos, so Thanks for all the info! Good Stuff

A direct vent fireplace is no different than a wood burning stove that is direct vented. Easily made air tight and insulated if installed properly.

Reading these comments it's clear: everyone is an expert and everyone is an idiot. It's no wonder things can't get done right with so much misinformation going around. Even a professional can't make heads or tails of what choice to make on a product based on some of the discussions here. This is why industry standards are important but they can't really keep up with innovation in the home building arena. I don't envy you guys doing this for a living.

I've seen a lot of builds use Fortiflash here in Oregon and as a waterproofer I was always happy to see stucco, brick, or stone exteriors done that way. But they used the fortiflash CORRECTLY in conjunction with tyvek (under it) and it usually transitioned to concrete or up top and over the tyvek in the same fashion (if I remember correctly).

I have installed 2 ventless blue burn heater in my home for past 18 years and I my whole family love them

Hi, I have a direct vent gas fire place which works really well in Ontario, Canada. Winter temps down to minus 30 C. The exhaust goes out via the INNER pipe, The incoming air through the outer casing so it stays relatively cool and can be well insulated. Quick to heat , automatic thermostat, runs a year on 2 AA batteries, no other power. 27000 Btu's.

I installed gas fireplaces for years. You can use red high temp silicone around that collar and rock wool insulation. Duh!!

I used to think more of Matt but his generalization about a whole class of fireplaces is unfortunate. Properly installed a gas direct vent has an inner and outer firestop that can be caulked with high temp. RTV silicone according to most mfrs. The double walled vent pipe is tested to 25 Pascals. A DV does not use room air for combustion but provides great zone heating and a backup zone heat source in the case of a power outage. They are very efficient and often are used to heat one zone of a home for the day instead of the whole house. The net result can be energy savings. Since vented fireplaces are huge energy hogs and ventfree are lung vented I guess the only fireplaces Matt endorses are electric or gelled alcohol. Bad advice Matt. Read an installation manual please. Attend the HPBA show and sit in on some classes.

hey Matt... I love that sheathing for use as floor protection... you can lay it over your hardwood floors, tape the seams together.. and reuse it many times on future projects... It sucks for house sheathing though.. just like you said

Can't agree with you on direct vent gas fireplaces. I was in the hearth industry for a long time in northern Minnesota. Horizontal venting does not leak air into the house when installed properly. There are a number of products, including high-heat caulk, that work great at sealing the house and keeping it air tight. Additionally, the stand-off for the pipe is typically less than a foot since the hot exhaust gasses run on the inside pipe, not the outside. You can't can't run a fireplace, gas or wood, that is more energy efficient that DV gas. You can also make them look nice with accessories like screen doors that hide the glass. I do agree that cheap builders boxes, like the one in your clip, are an eyesore. Lastly, DV gas fireplaces run electricity free and can be placed on a thermostat. I lived in Duluth, MN and was without power for 4 days, but the house was toasty warm the entire time. Average temp that week was about 15 degrees. We actually had neighbors stay with us since their furnaces couldn't run. You really need to do some research before you knock a product that you are unfamiliar with.

2 words Smart trim, I can't tell you how many i've seen these beautiful homes with that coated OSB trim.

Very Good points. Worked in Plumbing Sales as a construction noob. Got in a lot of trouble for trying to sell someone a direct vent gas fireplace....

I have never seen a critical video on bad products and i loved it. We non builders don't have the time to research everything that is put in our new home. There's to much to deal with as it is

It seems the warm, dry and generally forgiving climate of Texas allows builders some latitude in cheapening out their specs and having the defeciencies be unoticable for a few years. In upstate NY the home owner will have the architect & GC on the phone in the first winter.

Good video. I've been saying the same thing for over 20 years about Tyvek and how it's junk, but at the same time, you HAVE to have the holes in it or vapor drive will soak your insulation. I seen that happen so many times back in Wisconsin. In the winter time, moisture wants to go from hot to cold, and that's why homes are so dry in the winter, because vapor drive has the warm moist air wanting to go through your wall to the colder outside. If you have Tyvek with no holes, all that moisture will condensate on your plastic and sit in your walls and then you have a disaster on your hands. It's like laying a sheet of plastic on your lawn and see how much moisture condensates on it in 10 minutes, but that's the inside of your walls. It's the same thing with your garage floor in the summer, and why it is soaking wet. The moisture in the air condensates on the cooler garage floor making it wet. I always had to smile and walk away when I hear people say it's moisture coming UP through the floor from the ground. I mean that's like saying my cold beer is coming through the glass bottle when I take it out of the refrigerator and set it on the table. I've always said Tyvek is like wrapping your home with a furnace filter....it filters out the bugs as the wind blows through it. Now I spray foam and never worry about vapor drive again. If the warm moist inside air does not know it's cold outside, it has no reason to be attracted to your walls. Plus spray foam actually glues your home together and I read an article many years ago from....I believe Texas A&M, about how spraying foaming increases your homes strength by 20%, and that's a lot when you're talking hurricane force winds. Anyway, keep up the great work.

The reason the house wrap has holes is to allow moisture to pass through in cold climates. When houses started getting built (tight) there were a ton of water issues inside due to the house wrap not breathing. A house wrap isn’t meant to keep your insulation dry forever that’s what siding does.

Please do more research, regarding Fireplaces - Selkirk offers an insulation for use with their Cathedral Box, Attic Shields, and Wall Thimbles. The insulation helps to keep heat in vent/chimney, and reduces air infiltration into the home.

I agree with the cardboard sheathing. That's just ridiculous and I've never even heard of it in Canada. Although when it comes to the recessed tankless unit, I know that with all the window flashings and waterproofing details you know so well, you could come up with a great way to seal that unit. Also we use double wall vents on our fireplaces that can be spray foamed around.

Tankless heater - dollars to donuts, when it comes time to replace it, the new model won't fit in the recess.

Ceramic Insulation for the thru-the-wall vent pipe. Classified to 1600°C or 2912°F And R-10 per inch.

Some gas venting basics are required here. The gas vent is constructed of a smaller 4 inch pipe inside a larger 10 inch pipe. This is called a coaxial vent. The hot air pipe is in the center of the cool air pipe. There is an air gap in between the 2 pipes which limits the heat transfer. The outside of the 10 inch pipe is cool to the touch. If it wasn't constructed this way, your house would catch fire. Cool air for burning is drawn into the firebox via the circular air gap between the diameters of the 2 pipes. The clearance required between the cool outer pipe and combustible materials is one inch minimum, that is what the wall adapter plate is for. The gap you show in this video can be sealed using regular silicone. The firebox is sealed and allows no air to flow in or out of the house. Hot air is circulated by a fan around the outside of the sealed firebox to extract heat from the unit and heat the room. Very efficient and no drafts, they are completely sealed. The high temperature silicone sealant everyone in this threat is referring to is used to seal the inner pipe to prevent it from leaking carbon monoxide. The firebox does get quite hot and the typical requirement is for non combustible material 12 inches above and 4 inches per side. This means you need metal studs, concrete board and clay tiles at these boundaries.

Great video. It is getting to the point where if you can't go full custom build, do a remodel of an older home instead. Tract/spec houses are thrown together with whatever is the cheapest stuff they can get away with. Lots of these tract/spec houses are going to need major and expensive fixes in 10 years or less.

Had a ventless gas FP in my home since 1996. Never had an issue with it and I still never have to turn it past the lowest setting. It feels good on cold winter nights and when it finally fails, it'll be replaced with another. Say what you want about 'em, they are a thumbs up in my opinion.

Matt, if direct vent gas log is a bad idea then what is the difference in the venting of a tankless water heater venting through the roof?

I know someone that lives in a multi million dollar mansion that went double over budget and 2 plus years over build deadline and has only been lived in for two years and is constantly having issues all over the house especially with the geothermal set up and I'm constantly finding things that were done wrong and with no care for the customer and longevity of the house. Would love for u to come out and do an episode on the house. Maybe she could build a portfolio and she the builder or inspectors or something lol

pinhole wrap is PERFECT for my old-style breathing house! heh

For the gas vent pipe you can use flue pipe cement its used all the time were I live to seal around bolier vents

We installed a direct vent fireplace as an insert into an old wood burning fireplace during our renovation. It brings in fresh air from the chimney and exhausts back to chimney via stainless steel pipes. Chimney is sealed off with a cap and this fireplace is a sealed box unit with no air leak whatsoever and works wonderfully for us.

Matt, what we ordinary people need are construction techniques that most any builder can do well. We who aren't millionaires can't afford to hire engineers or elite contractors to build our homes. So, if there are products and/or design strategies that can produce a good envelope that most any contractor can do, that's what we need.

sorry, you're talking out your rear about direct vent fireplaces. They are great product. They provide an economical power free heat source that can be thermostatically controlled even in a power outage. Just because you've never seen one installed correctly, doesn't mean its a bad product. Stick to your own trade. FYI you can use high temp silicon to seal the termination inside and regular silicon outside. On top of that, standard practice is to use firerated drywall and durarock in the concealed area. - Stephen the licensed gasfitter

Totally- the wrap is orientation specific. I mean cmon man- it’s not meant for horizontal installation.

Some comments do reply to variables, but I totally agree with the recessed water heater box complaint. The example shown is in a garage anyway, so why not install it inside of the space where it not only is protected from weather (especially COLD weather), but can be accessed for service or replacement. Also agree with the exterior wall cardboard sheathing. One very important job for sheathing is to stiffen the structure... especially when using vinyl lap siding or other thin veneers of any kind.

Love all your videos. Watch them over and over. I just finished having a house framing near Nashville and we used Zip panels on all sides & the pink on the roof. Love it but a little pricey by the time was all done. Man that tape is pricey when used properly but air tight. Read for siding now. But what isn't if you want it right these days

Matt, I'm with you on most of this stuff, but I'm curious if we could use something like Kaowool or other ceramic insulations designed for kilns and other hot work applications to break that air leak possibility. They should have no problem being against a fireplace vent..

There are many products available for sealing the flue of a direct vent gas fireplace. If you have a quality fireplace, it will tell you right in the user manual what product to use.

BTW - It's great to see so many opinions and suggestions here. NIce to know there's still so many that are interested in the trades. I say, thank you!

House Wrap is absolutely supposed to be sealed Air Tight and is what would be considered water proof if done properly. Your cladding hopefully will shed the majority of the water but there will always be some moisture behind it due to condensation and the effect of wind loading driving moisture behind it. This can be helped by strapping your walls and creating an air gap between your exterior wall and cladding, but the building envelope still requires a Weather resistant barrier(Tyvec) to protect the structure from water. When Building an energy efficient house the principles are similar if you are in a heating or cooling climate. The main difference is going to be the direction of your vapor drive. In a HEATING CLIMATE the vapor drive will be from the humid warm interior to the dryer colder exterior. So you want the Vapor permeability of your materials to increase as you get closer to the exterior side of your wall. This encourages any condensation or moisture the happens to get in your wall to move to the exterior and dry. This is why 6 mill poly is used on the warm side of wall and Tyvec on the exterior. This guy is right in the sense that using a plastic wrap with holes in it is a bad Idea. You want your WRB Layer(tyvec) to be Air Tight but vapor permeable. You can and want as many Air barriers in your building Envelope as you can manage, but only one vapor barrier. If you take a section of your house you should be able to follow the air barrier layer with your finger in a complete circle around it without lifting your finger from the drawing. This layer can be your tyvec or 6 mill poly, or a combination or something else. A few of other items the guy mentions are going to be subject to your construction environment. Some materials and methods that are perfectly acceptable in Texas would be a disaster in Seattle.

The flue in a direct vent can be sealed with high-temp caulking and insulated with types of rockwool. Did I miss the "insulating paint" and radiant film in attic spaces?

In regards to the fireplace, where to start.... I am a certified Master Hearth Professional by The National Fireplace Institute and I have been installing these direct vents for years. Yes, I agree, that is a cheesy log set in that fireplace. It is also one of the cheapest direct vents on the market (builder grade). It's not designed to look that great or provide a lot of heat. Builders buy these to say that the house has a gas fireplace and that it is a direct vent. There are several direct vent fireplaces that have an extremely "real" looking log set and can be used as a secondary, if not a main, source of heat. I also agree that you cannot insulate around the pipe. But you can seal it and that is done around the cap on the outside of the house with 100% silicon. That mitigates any transfer of air from the outside to the heating envelope of the house. When properly installed, direct vents are the best fireplace option when it comes to efficiencies, safety and indoor air quality. Vent free products release the byproducts of combustion into the house( C0, C02, H20), and vented products(wood-burning or B-Vent) leave a direct hole that is between 5-15" in diameter from your living space to the outside through which a great deal of your conditioned air will flow. Direct vent fireboxes are completely sealed off from the inside of the house. All of the combustion air it needs draws from the outside through the pipe and it also exhausts through a different chamber in the pipe. So, yes, if you are going to have a fireplace in your house and you are worried about indoor air quality and not loosing any of your conditioned air(that you have to pay for) I would go with a direct vent everyday of the week. No question.

Everyone here in St. Louis loves ventless fireplaces. I personally love and have a wood burning fireplace which although not masonry is way better. Yeah you have to build it, but when you build it right and it's crackling along; it was worth it.

On the last one about the hot vented fireplace, you can seal it with fireproof caulk. I use it all the time on induction motors on gas packs and exhaust stacks for restaurants. It’s red and rated for heat

I love my direct vent gas heater and my tankless water heater. After 5 years I still have no leaks, no maintenance, and tremendously reduced my energy bills.

Perforated house wrap is for vertical surfaces only. Pooling water on it while flat is not a true representation of performance. That being said, it is typically marketed and used as an all purpose house wrap when the design is really intended for cavity walls w/ wood structure.

No argument from me on any of these. I'm just a homeowner (Bi-level) in Cincinnati, OH. We built our home in 1980-81 from one of the cheapest builders around. It has the cardboard sheeting you mentioned. We have never had an issue in 40 years. We did have a major issue with the poured concrete foundation when the steel clips to hold the forms rusted out. The leak cost us new carpeting and drywall in the lower level family room.

Usually find your videos informational/helpful; but gotta tell you that in Upstate NY (practically Canada), my Direct Vent Propane fired fake logs fireplace has saved my "arse" every winter when the electric power is cut for a week at a time AND during the worst week of the winter (without fail, every year, for 20+ years) - the girls hit the button, step back and enjoy the warmth until I can get back home to start up our 13kW generator.

House wrap is not intended to create a water-tight barrier. It is designed to create a wind barrier, to reduce air infiltration and wind-driven rain. It is not meant to be water tight, but rather to allow moisture to pass through (namely from inside of the building to outside to prevent mildew and mold).

My top DUMBEST product is easily insulating paint!! A huge scam that keeps coming back every couple years. I almost had clients insulate their home with this, before they came to me.

Typical manual entry for a direct vent (concentric) fireplace. * HORIZONTAL VENT SECTIONS: A minimum clearance of 1" (25mm) at the bottom and sides and 2" (51mm) at the top of the vent pipe in all horizontal runs to combustibles is required except for clearances in appliance enclosures. Horizontal vent sections within enclosures require a minimum clearance of 9” (229mm) at the top of the vent pipe. See “MINIMUM CLEARANCE TO COMBUSTIBLE ENCLOSURES” section. Use firestop spacer W010-1777 (supplied) where vent pipe penetrates combustible walls. * VERTICAL VENT SECTIONS: A minimum clearance of 1" (25mm) all around the vent pipe on all vertical runs to combustibles is required except for clearances in appliance enclosures. Vertical vent sections within enclosures require a minimum clearance of 4" (102mm) to the sides of the vent pipe. See “MINIMUM CLEARANCE TO COMBUSTIBLE ENCLOSURES” section. Use firestop spacer W500-0292 (not supplied) where vent pipe penetrates combustible ceilings or floors.

I must agree with some of the others about venting with double and triple wall pipe. My flue goes up through the ceiling and trusses to the roof and a fake chimney. All the rest I agree with 100%. As to flashing foundation walls etc, I favor plastic covered mastic which comes by the roll.

Never heard of high temp RTV silicone? They're rated from 500-700 degrees. They also have other sealants rated up to 2000 degrees. It's not difficult or expensive to seal up a direct vent system properly.

Thank you for reminding we live in sticks, packed with Styrofoam, wrapped in plastic, and sprayed with plaster.

I love the fact that you're super opinionated about your craft. I'm the same way when it comes to automotive. Keep it up!

I have a couple outbuildings, sides wrapped in Tyvec house wrap only. No leaks over couple years. One had a temporary roof covered with same materials for a couple months thru some storms. No leaks.

I thought the purpose of housewrap was to prevent air infiltration and drafts, but allow moisture to pass through - basically like the GoreTex jacket in the winter.

I dont think that list was nearly long enough

Add roll fiber ridge vent to your list. In Michigan they do not vent sufficiently to cool the attic, summer or winter. They do not even allow sufficient air movement to prevent mold build up in the attic. They are the most common roof vent at the moment and worse than useless. Aluminum, cut in, pots are the same cost and 20 times more effective.

There are plenty of high heat sealers and insulation. Although I don’t really care for the fake logs either. Sometimes a wood fireplace is not allowed in the town / city so the fake one will suffice.

Paper should be used for 2 things. Writing ✍️ and wiping 🧻

dude...i absolutely love my ventless fireplace. 99% efficient. warms the house nicely

Hi Matt, Great show! Question: Is there a good direct exhaust NG fireplace system you do like? Or is it Chimney or nothing? Thanks!

Regarding the Direct Vent Fireplace: He quickly mentioned the vent pipe kit is a double pipe. The hot exhaust gas is carried in the inner pipe and cool exterior air for combustion is inside the outer pipe. I would use fire caulk or rock wool, but those pipes don't get hot like regular B-Vent pipe. I'm still a fan of direct vent fireplaces because people actually use them. They turn on or off with the flip of a switch, there's no clean up after use, they are more efficient than most other options, and they work when the power goes out. I also like wood burners but they require lots of maintenance, cleaning, and they're not efficient at all in a climate with more heating days than in south Texas. The last house I built my wife said "No more smoke in the house, No firewood inside the house, and No nasty ashes inside the house". I find that most wives prefer living with the fake fireplace.

Toll Brothers is one of the nations largest builders and they use the paper based sheathing. Terrible builder that relies on impressive initial looks and transient white collar buyers who will abandon the properties and get relocated after 3-5 years when everything is falling apart. Yep, I bought one of their houses:)

housewrap isn't meant to be 100% waterproof, a house needs to be able to BREATH so any moisture in the wood sheathing can escape out through the housewrap, your SIDING and Flashing should keep water off your housewrap directly and the small amounts that get through don't have penetrating power to blast through a vertical housewrap.

On the vireplace vent use a product called RTV it’s good for continuous 400-600 degree exposure and can withstand up to 900 degrees before degrading. Also good for dealing as it is extremely tacky, expands and contracts, along with sticking to most any surface. We use this product on industrial boilers in a power plant. Mostly used for doors and piping gasket but easily withstands the heat.

The little test on house wrap shows your misunderstanding of the building systems. First it would not be used on a flat surface and second you want it to breath. You do not want a plastic bag over your house. Mold and moister will just ruin the house

Cardboard sheathing : ))) You made my day : ) I really hope it is not as widespread as you say.

The soft handed super builder strikes again

The direct vent gas fireplace is actually illegal under the mechanical code and building code. And of course the ventless gas fireplace is really illegal. As the combustion by product must be vented and terminated 10 feet above the highest window of the residence. And these direct vent gas fireplace are usually vented to the outside of the wall that is not 10 feet higher than the windows on the 2 floor or even the windows on the 1st floor. The only way it would pass is at these building department that got their building official through cronyism so they don't know to not approve it because it is illegal and a hazard. As the combustion by product can migrate upward to the window on the second floor or even the first floor and now the residence is getting sick without knowing why. And the building code said that the final responsibility is still the contractor to do it right and make it safe, even if it is approved by the building official. So the direct vent gas fireplace is not just dumb but is a health hazard.

Good video.. Only issue....the direct vent fireplace part...there is caulk you could use for the vent..you said you can't put anything there when, in fact, there is high heat fireplace caulk that could be used.

My favorite part of this video is all the contractors and professionals in the comments stepping up their "uhm actually" and dropping some fact bombs! XD

Wait! I have a direct vent kerosene heater in my house. The vent is a two way system, where the outside of the pipe draws cold air in for combustion and the inside forcibly exhausts the post combustion gases. The outside pipe never gets more than warm to the touch, and can have insulation and wood directly against it. Don't the gas units work the same way?

House wrap is for vertical application and the minimal moisture a wall faces, not a pool of water on the horizontal genius. It has to breath and will absolutely wick away what little moisture it encounters.

Ya you know what gets me! No matter how good the house wrap is it gets full of holes as soon as you apply siding. there must be a way to make it something like ice and water shield so when you nail through it it would seal around the nails or screws.peace

Your right about the house wrap. We do a lot of ultralight backpacking and we use small sheets of house wrap folded up in our back pockets to lay on during lunch breaks, door mats for our tents etc. Found out the hard way that tyvek is the only waterproof choice. The lowes brand lasts about 24 hours before it becomes worthless and you start getting wet

Every time I walk into a house with ventless fireplaces it smells like natural gas in the house. 🤢

This guy is right about the tankless heater recessed into the wall, the paper sheathing, and paper flashing, but completely fucked up on the direct vent and woven house wrap.

So I’m building a house and it used to come standard with a ventless fireplace, but now they are using a 42in direct vent. So if you say these are a bad idea, what do you recommend? A wood burning fireplace with chimney? What are other alternatives you recommend?

So what kid of fireplace should you put in?

House wrap is not there to be waterproof. Its job is to slow airflow and therefore heat transfer. With the chipboard shown in these examples, if you were to install a waterproof membrane, the sheathing would be rotten in no time from the lack of water dissipation because of the water being trapped in the walls. All houses have a air exchange formula which is the amount of air moved through the building. There is an air quality index linked to this and contributes to the overall houses lifespan as well. A following side note is fireplaces have really no place in a modern building. This is only an expression of vanity and not reality. I'll take some hits for that but it is the truth. Otherwise, you points were well made.

That last pro tip really helped! Thank you for making this informative video.

Thank you for your videos. I see your point on 4 of 5. Cannot for the life of me understand why anyone in good conscious build with paper products. Might as well live in a camper. My first house from the 70s I lived in some years back had like a 1/2" thick cardboard style siding. I could have literally punched through the wall. What a mess. There was so much water damage on every edge of those 4x8 sheets. I disagree with you on house wrap vs zip system. House wrap is not water proof but resistant, and I have had house wrap up by itself for a few months in the spring rain season and as long as it is shedding water it really won't penetrate. I'm not convinced the butted tape of the zip system is a better barrier than lapped house wrap.

recessed tankless: how do you change the housing when it rusts out?

kao wool high temp insulation is GREAT to have around

If you're going to install a fake fireplace, you might as well get the LED incerts, and many give of a decent amount of heat, plus you can turn it on any time of the year for the ambiance and not have the heat come out. Plus, they have some that look great, and can change the color of the flames.

That Thermo-ply sheathing still keeps me up at night. "He tore it with his hand.. how does that have shearing strength?"

These are really great videos, describing the do's and don'ts of building a house. As an electrician I see a lot of these products and as an electrician in Texas I find a lot of the building methods substandard/questionable at best. Matt thanks for making these videos! As a hopeful some day home buyer I'll be looking for the qualities you prescribe. This video especially was enjoyable, keep up the good work both on the job site and on KZfaq!

my pet peeve trumps (pardon the pun) them all! 99% of our houses are plagued with aluminum gutters that have the front edge the same height as the back edge. One little downspout clog, and you have a 50% chance the overflow goes into your soffits! Furthermore, the bracket screws puncture the rear wall below the top edge, so even before an overflow, the water weeps past the screw and into the wood. After a few years, the wood rots around the screw and the gutter falls off. It would take nothing to make the back wall a bit higher than the front, but only a very few manufacturers do that.

Paper based building materials you say? Orangeburg. It is a paper sewage line. It's like a sonotube you bury in the ground. Apparently, during World War Two, to maximize metals for war production cardboard tubes were allowed to be used for sewer lines. I ran into this stuff at my in-laws' house in Los Angeles. The house was built in 1963. By the 1990s, the drains were backing up. I followed the problem to the steep hillside behind the house. Dug a hole looking for the 4" sewer line. What I found was a flattened cardboard tube. Over time this thing had collapsed flat. Who knows when it stopped working. I started reading my dad's builders magazines when I was a kid in the 1960s. There were many roofing, plumbing, sheathing, 'revolutionary new products!' they all had 100 year warranties. Within 15 years most of these products were off the market, involved in law suits, recalls. The paper punched wall product is supposed to be a cheaper version of Tyvek, which is a semipermeable membrane. Water droplets won't pass through Tyvek, but water vapor will. This is good. Tiny holes? Bad idea. A lot of this stuff seems designed to 'look like' the real thing, and to work for a while. In the long run these things are house killers.

A question on the point on direct vent fires Could you not seal the collar you mentioned with a product like Firegum that is used for sealing car exhausts in the same way? It goes on semifluid and sets when heat is applied the 1st time

Well, there's your mistake. The house isn't built to last. It's built to look pretty long enough the builder can disappear with the money.

I despise house wraps of all sorts. I've been using zip panels since they came out.

Direct venting is just fine if you vent it up through the ceiling, through the attic and up through the roof. And because of the lower temperature on the exterior surface of direct venting, any needed air sealing can be done with common high temp silicone, that's really not a problem at all. Direct venting exchanges the heat between the combustion intake and exhaust air, it's really a vast improvement over the old B vent systems.

As far as the tankless water heater goes also the water lines can and probably will freeze on an outside wall. I live in a Northern States and see it all the time.