Green building practices are not completely new. Many of the techniques to acquire a LEED (Leadership in Energy Efficient Design) certification for your home have been plain old “good building practices” since long before LEED came along.
When I was a kid working for my father, one of my jobs was to grout between the foundation and the 2 X 4 plate that the entire house rested on. It served two purposes; one was to prevent cold air and bugs from getting into the basement and the other was to help transfer weight evenly from the plate to the foundation. I remember my dad making me do one house over again because I just shoved a little grout between the two and didn’t try and fill it in properly. He explained (not very nicely as I recall) that there was a purpose to my job and if I didn’t do it right, the house wouldn’t be built according to his “good building practices”.
Then someone came up with the idea that a ¾” strip of fiberglass insulation between the foundation and plate would keep the cold air out. Now, it is a 1/8” piece of foam! LEED is bringing back many of those building practices that have been lost and adding many new ones. That’s a good thing
