Travis Builds It

Travis Builds It Making homes better using building science.

08/31/2026

I learned this one the hard way.

I’m a big fan of the FAKRO Upper Hatch for attic stairs. If the existing ladder is safe and in decent shape, adding an insulated, gasketed upper hatch can be a relatively simple way to improve the air seal at one of the bigger holes between your house and attic.

But don’t just measure the rough opening.

You also need to measure how far the folded ladder extends above the attic floor.

The standard Upper Hatch box is 7 3/4” tall. The extension adds another 4”, giving you 11 3/4” of clearance.

On this one, the folded stair was roughly 9–10” above the attic floor, so the standard hatch alone wouldn’t clear it. The extension solves that.

How do I know this matters?

Because we installed one before, tried to close the stairs…and couldn’t. 😑

Ordered the extension. Came back. Lesson learned.

If your existing attic stairs are still safe and functional, this can be a nice alternative to replacing the entire ladder assembly. It’s also a pretty approachable DIY upgrade for the right homeowner.

Just measure width, length AND height before you order.

Save this one before your next attic project.

08/27/2026

This story is unfortunate in two important ways.

1. Insurance companies are clearly up to no good. I've seen it time and time again. As a Texan I'm also experiencing this - increasing premiums, increasing deductibles and decreasing coverage. What they're doing is shameful, and I'm all for exposing it. We need to hear the stories. And we really need more adjusters to muster the courage to be whistleblowers.

2. This story fails to illustrate the problem. The B-roll shows 3 images. Roof damage, a hail storm, and trim damage. For anyone who's evaluated hundreds of damaged roofs, you will easily see that the roof damage is from rubbing (likely from a tree that's been trimmed). The hail storm in the B-roll is fairly small hail - not the kind that would necessarily total a roof. And the final image is of clear water damage to siding trim. The story uses those images when talking about hail damage - which clearly, it is not.

They either picked bad images, or this homeowner is one of many who have been manipulated by roofers who claim all damage is wind or hail. The industry needs to change. But using bu****it evidence to prove malfeasance by an insurance carrier is not the way to do it.

08/26/2026

It takes more than one piece of flashing to keep water out of a skylight.

On this curb-mounted skylight, there are several pieces working together:

Headwall flashing at the bottom.
Step flashing woven with the shingles along both sides.
A pan flashing detail at the top to move water around the curb.

The metal flashing is the primary water-management system.

Then I add one more detail: ZIP tape connecting the flashing to the skylight curb. It’s a little belt-and-suspenders protection for the gap behind the metal if water ever gets somewhere we didn’t intend.

And yes, we roll the tape. Every time.

Good flashing isn’t one magic piece of metal or tape. It’s layers, sequencing, laps, and drainage paths working together to keep water moving down and out.

Save this one if you want a closer look at how a curb-mounted skylight gets flashed.

08/26/2026

It’s International Flashing Awareness Day. Apparently that’s a thing, and I’m here for it. 😂

Here’s one little detail I like to add when flashing a skylight.

After the metal flashing is installed, I use ZIP System flashing tape to connect that flashing back to the skylight curb, then properly roll the tape.

The metal flashing is still doing the primary water-shedding work. The tape isn’t a substitute for good flashing.

It’s an added layer of protection at a pe*******on where I really don’t want water finding another path into the assembly.

Good water management is rarely one magic product. It’s layers, sequencing, transitions, and making sure each component hands the water off to the next one.

And yes…

ROLL THE TAPE.

Save this one for your next skylight detail.

08/25/2026

Follow me for field evidence of what happens when architecture and water management collide.

I understand why details like this get drawn. They can make a roofline interesting from the street.

Water doesn’t care.

Here we have two shingled roof facets draining into a dead valley against brick, with the water forced to clear a corner before it can get away.

That creates a collection point for debris, snow and water.

And the existing flashing is giving us some useful evidence: the rust shows that water has been standing and backing up well above the bottom of this valley.

The homeowners told me this area also experienced significant water intrusion while accumulated snow was slowly melting.

Once the geometry exists, somebody has to make it work.

That means recognizing that conventional shingles and flashing may not be enough and designing a metal pan that manages the volume of water and gets it out of this dead area faster.

This isn’t about blaming the architect, framer or roofer.

It’s about recognizing difficult geometry before water finds the weakness for us.

CTA: Share this with an architect, builder or roofer who thinks about the whole assembly.

08/25/2026

Sometimes you have to give the installer the benefit of the doubt.

I found five pe*******ons through the web of this engineered wood I-joist. Wiring and piping had been run through it, but from the attic side I couldn’t see any evidence that the pe*******ons had been air sealed.

That doesn’t necessarily mean they weren’t.

Sometimes these pe*******ons get sealed from the other side, where you simply can’t see the work.

So instead of guessing, we tested them.

With the house depressurized during a blower door test, fog at all five pe*******ons was pulled through the assembly.

That tells us these openings are connected to the air leakage we’re measuring.

And in a North Texas attic, that matters. Air leakage isn’t just about an energy bill. It can move hot, humid attic air into the building enclosure and interact with HVAC operation, pressure differences, comfort and moisture.

The lesson isn’t “somebody forgot the spray foam.”

The lesson is simpler:

You can’t verify air sealing by looking at one side of an assembly. Test it.

Save this one if you’re building, remodeling or trying to figure out where your house is leaking.

08/24/2026

Interstitial spaces are a bitch.

Especially when you’re trying to keep hot, humid attic air out of them.

In this house, we’re seeing condensation on some of the ductwork running between floors. One of the things we’re investigating is how well this interstitial space is actually separated from the vented attic.

And honestly, they did a pretty good job on a lot of it.

The straightforward framing cavities are sealed well. But then you get to a spot like this, with multiple flex ducts passing through the air barrier, and it gets complicated fast.

They tried spray foam. A lot of spray foam.

The problem is that flex duct moves, bends and has an irregular surface. Creating a durable, continuous seal around several ducts packed into one opening is tough.

I was thinking through possible solutions while filming this. Afterward, I came back to a pretty simple idea: use the spray foam again to fill and support the larger gaps, then apply a heavy layer of duct mastic around the transition to the flex duct jacket.

Then test it.

Because ultimately, I don’t care whether it looks sealed. I want to know whether we actually stopped the air movement.

Interstitial spaces are a bitch.

But hot, humid attic air doesn’t care how difficult the detail was.

Save this one if you work around attics, ducts or building enclosures.

08/19/2026

Follow me for building science you can actually measure.

This spray foam attic started at:

3,949 CFM50 | 5.0 ACH50

After identifying leakage with the blower door and addressing defects in the foam and around the attic perimeter, we tested again:

1,804 CFM50 | 2.3 ACH50

That’s more than a 54% reduction in measured air leakage.

And there’s still HVAC work to follow.

That’s the part I love about testing. We don’t have to guess whether the work made a difference. We establish a baseline, find the leaks, make targeted improvements, and then test again to see what actually changed.

Spray foam is a material. Airtightness is a performance result.

Testing tells us the difference.

Follow for more building diagnostics, blower door testing, and home-performance field notes.

08/18/2026

I don’t normally do product reviews. But apparently I’ve reached the “gets excited about socks” stage of life. 😂

Camel City Mill sent me these socks back in March. No paid promotion. No agreement to post anything.

But I’ve been wearing them all summer—and they’re amazing.

Long merino wool socks. In Texas. In the summer. I know how that sounds.

I’ve worn them on long days driving, crawling around attics, working outside, and sitting through meetings. They’re comfortable all day, and somehow the wool works even in the heat.

So yeah… I’m a believer.

Five stars from me.

Finn remains unconvinced.

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