Home Orientation How your home is oriented on the land should be one of your first considerations when building a house. Most houses are designed for “curbside appeal,” or to give a certain appearance from the street. Others are designed with windows carefully placed...
Which energy efficiency upgrades are best for your house? That’s what an energy model will tell you. How much insulation to use in the walls, the roof, or the floor are some of the most commonly asked questions in the construction industry – by both contractors and...
Shopping for a Home in Fairbanks: an abbreviated buyer’s guide Buying a home in Interior Alaska can be a formidable task. Building codes only pertain to homes inside city limit, many of which are older and may not meet current energy standards. Outside city limits,...
What do I need to be aware of when building on permafrost? Permafrost has long bedeviled those building homes and infrastructure in Alaska. Loosely defined as soil or rock that remains frozen for more than two years, it underlays roughly 80% of Alaska. Building on...
Building on permafrost: beware! The #1 piece of advice for building on permafrost: Don’t do it! That’s because homes are designed with the assumption that the foundation is both permanent and stable, and permafrost is neither. Especially not with the rapid climate...
Is there a way to tell if land is full of permafrost just by looking at it? Permafrost is intermittent in and around Fairbanks. While there are some visual indicators, they are not 100% reliable when determining whether or not land has permafrost. For starters, look...
