How to Stop Thermal Bridging with TStuds!

[Music] this is a master bathroom that we're currently renovating our home was built with traditional wood framing members like studs headers top plates and bottom plates wood is a conductor or a thermal bridge it allows heat to flow easily from the exterior to the interior or vice versa this reduces the energy efficiency of walls and increases heating and cooling costs to solve this problem a company in the states called u.s engineered wood has invented the t-stud a framing member that improves the energy efficiency of buildings by acting like a thermal brick instead of a thermal bridge in this video we're going to compare a traditional wood stud and a t-stud in terms of dimension performance feasibility and price thermal bridging is the flow of heat by conduction through the studs in a building barenaked t-studs stop the flow of heat because of a gap between the flange and spline the gap in between is approximately one and a half inches wooden dowels are installed through one member and into the other at opposing angles forming a web-like pattern there are several types of t-studs a by three flange and two by three spline which is 2.5 inches wide and five and a half inches deep it's a two by six replacement a two by three flange and a two by four spline which is two and a half inches wide and seven and quarter inches deep it's a 2x8 replacement t-studs can replace most framing members like wall studs dock plates bottom plates as well as king jack and studs they can be used in either direction if you need more surface area on the outside to secure sheathing and outside insulation this surface can face the exterior if you need more surface area on the inside to secure cabinets and shelves you can just reverse the stud t-studs are made of high quality 2x3 and 2x4 pine studs the studs are manually inspected and only the best ones are selected they don't have any large knots or cracks and they don't warp a machine then drills holes into the studs glues dowels and shoots them at an angle you can see one end of the dowel on this stud but it doesn't extend to the opposite end i asked the company what the dowels are made of but they couldn't tell me they said it's a secret hybrid material now let's compare the r value or thermal insulation of these products about 25 of a typical wall consists of wood studs which lower the r value of the entire wall if you use r20 insulation in between the studs thermal bridging can bring the effective r value down to as low as r15 if you put an r20 bat into a steel stud wall you may get an effective r value of approximately r5 steel conducts heat much better than wood hence why shipping containers are terrible insulators u.s engineered wood used to sell an insulated version of these t-studs due to supply chain issues and shutdowns they had to stop marketing them and move manufacturing from canada to the states right now they are only making these bare naked tea studs you can fill the gap in between with closed or open cell spray form blown in cellulose fiberglass hemp wool or mineral wool whatever you'd like if you choose closed cell spray foam in the t-stud and r20 insulation in the rest of the wall the assembly actually acts like an r20 wall not r10 or r15 t-studs allow a 96 complete thermal break through the wall assembly another issue with traditional wood studs is moisture accumulation or ghosting moist cool air attracts dust and forms dark lines on the ceiling and in closets where a lot of framing gets mashed together accumulation of moisture in the wall can lead to the growth of mould and rot which affects indoor air quality and compromises structural integrity t-studs act as a thermal break and reduce moisture accumulation in walls t-studs are four times stronger than traditional studs which fail on the x-axis if there's too much load on it t-studs don't behave the same way because they are turned 90 degrees they don't deflect or fail in the x-axis while a 2x4 can hold 900 pounds and a 2x6 can hold 2 200 pounds t-studs can hold 8 600 pounds in addition to reducing thermal bridging the gap in t-studs is a huge advantage for running utilities the base plates in my home have ridiculously large cutouts for drains wall studs are also damaged to run electrical wires instead of hacking through perfectly good studs we can run pex pipe and wires through the gaps and t-studs in this way we won't compromise the structural integrity if you need to run larger pex pipes you can cut an inch from the inside stud but not the outside stud installing t-studs is very similar to nailing traditional studs so there is a minimal learning curve associated with it one thing that's different is fastening t-studs to the ground instead of just a threaded j-bolt or lag bolt you need a wide plate that straddles the two wood studs and transfers its hold-down power before we move on to the cost of t-studs i'd like to introduce the sponsor of this portion of the video roofing for u.s roofing for u.s is the leading online retailer for all things related to roofing whether you're looking for fall protection equipment attic ladders skylights snow protection or roof shingles roofing for us has all the products you need they have a wide range of innovative and well-known brands such as v-lux multi-dynamics lucas facro and hunter panels all their products are shipped straight from the supplier and delivered directly to your job site use promo code belinder 5 to receive an additional 5 discount of your next order with roofingforus.com now let's compare their costs t-stars are obviously more expensive than traditional studs but their increased cost is offset in a couple of ways the first is waste about five percent of traditional studs are usually too warped and damaged to be used on the other hand less than one percent of t-studs are unusable the second is reducing the number of studs needed t-studs can be spaced 24 inches on center instead of 16 inches on center the third is the reduced weight t studs are lighter than traditional studs which lowers the cost of other framing members and even the foundation the last point is the lower energy consumption of your hvac system and other appliances by eliminating the thermal bridge in your walls the interior space is essentially unaffected by the temperature outside t-studs can help lower your energy consumption and carbon footprint the one downside i can think of is that it takes up more interior space because it's as wide as a two by six it may not be a viable alternative in tight enclosures where every square foot counts it's also not going to be used for interior studs because it's more expensive and because thermal bridging is not an issue inside t-studs can help raise awareness of the problem of thermal bridging and the need to address it in addition to using t-studs you can create a thermal break by using continuous exterior insulation or by applying strips of insulation to the wood studs let me know what you think of t-studs in the comments below i'll link my patreon page in the description if you can support me really appreciate it a big thank you to everyone already supporting me don't forget to hit that like button subscribe button and the notification bell too thanks for watching see ya

Channel: Belinda Carr

Views: 219,429

Keywords: construction, building science, studs, building, architecture, design, diy, home depot, lowes, automation, robotics, thermal break, thermal bridge

Id: UtviZ2GHWCI

Length: 7min 38sec (458 seconds)

Published: Thu May 05 2022