Build a Better Home or Building
Healthier. More Comfortable. More Energy-Efficient. Built to Last.
Affordable Housing matters. Affordable Living matters more.
Building a home or building is one of the biggest investments you'll ever make.
The decisions you make before construction begins can affect comfort, health, energy costs, maintenance, and durability for generations.
Carbonless helps you understand those decisions before you spend the money.
Learn from more than 50 years of real construction experience, practical field guides, proven building methods, and a complete educational program.
Plan Before You Build
Land, site, design and budget. The cheapest time to fix a mistake is before it's built.
THE BOX — Playbook + Checklist
Know what to ask, what to check and what to watch for before you hire anyone or sign anything.
$49
The Carbonless “Difference” Calculator
See what high-performance walls actually cost, and what they save every month, using your own numbers.
Free
Understand the Building Envelope
Foundations, walls, roofs, windows and air sealing. The envelope is the part of the house you can't easily change later.
Carbonless Wall & Roof Assemblies Library
Verified whole-wall R and U values for walls, roofs and rim joists. 2x4 and 2x6, 16 and 24 inch on center, metal studs and every common insulation.
$299
Build for Comfort and Health
Humidity, ventilation, heating, cooling and indoor air quality. How the house feels and how healthy it is to live in.
Super Energy Efficient Building Audio Course
14 narrated modules on how a building really works: heat, air, moisture, walls, roofs, windows and HVAC, in plain English. Listen in the truck.
$149
Learn From Real Construction
See it built. A real house, documented stage by stage.
The Super Energy-Efficient & Healthy Home Field Guide
The story of a real 1,200-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath home in Georgia, built using a Habitat for Humanity-style house design. More than 150 field photographs and construction-stage images, from the foundation and six-sided thermal break to the roof, windows, mechanical systems and humidity control.
Hardcover $299 · Digital edition coming soon
Go Deeper
The complete educational program, and help when you need it.
Carbonless 2126
What’s a Stick? A Stick is one lesson in Carbonless 2126. We named them after the sticks beavers build with: each one teaches one part of building a healthier, more comfortable, energy-efficient home or building, and each one builds on the last.
Forty Sticks of education that look at a building from all Sixteen Seats at the table, from the landowner to the person who will live there a hundred years from now. Each Stick ends with a test and a record of completion.
Stick 0 free · $100 per Stick · $3,900 complete
Talk to Brian
Bring your plans, your photos or your questions to a consulting session.
30 minutes $250 · 1 hour $500 · 2 hours $1,000 · 4 hours $2,000
6 · Join the Community
Carbonless Membership and the Roundtable
Membership includes the entire Carbonless 2126 program and 26 Carbonless Roundtables a year, every two weeks, where members learn from real projects and from each other.
Fixing a house you already own? Go to Fix or Remodel a Home / Building.