Our Evolving Approach to Energy Retrofits
August 2023
Blog
Blog
Where Byggmeister Gives Back & Why
June 2023
by Rachel White
When Byggmeister converted to worker-ownership we committed to donate 5-10% of our annual net profit to organizations working to address climate...Read MoreFrequently Asked Budget Questions
March 2023
by Rachel White
This post is a companion piece to Early and Often: O...Read MoreEarly and Often: Our Approach to Talking About Budgeting
December 2022
by Rachel White
A renovation project is typically one of the largest investments that a homeowner will ever make, other than purchasing the home they renovate. ...Read MoreCommon Myths About Green Building
February 2022
by Paul Eldrenkamp
We posted a version of this post in 2015. Since then, we’ve learned a lot more about the impact of our building practices and the speed with which...Read More
Founder Paul Eldrenkamp on Worker Ownership
December 2021
by Rachel White
After nearly forty years as the owner of Byggmeister, Founder Paul Eldrenkamp sold the company to us, its employees. The sale capped off a seven-year planning process incl...Read MoreFrom Workers to Owners
November 2021
by Rachel White
This is the first in a two-part series on Byggm...Read More
Getting Spray Foam Right
October 2021
by Rachel White
This blog post was originally posted in January 2016, before we fully understood the issues of Read MoreFinished Attics: A Lower-Carbon and Lower-Cost Retrofit Approach
September 2021
by Brendan Kavanagh
When Boston area homeowners need more space, often the first place they look is up. The problem is that many attic conversions, even those done relatively recently, ha...Read MoreTwo Carbon Smart Ideas in the Attic
June 2021
by Rachel White
A wide-open attic with no storage and no mechanical equipment. I can’t remember the last time we worked in an att...Read MoreWorking With Heat Pumps
March 2021
by Brendan Kavanagh
Almost 10 years ago Byggmeister started installing air-source heat pumps (also referred to as “mini-splits”) as part of our energy retrofit projects. Since t...Read MoreRethinking Our Approach to Insulation
December 2020
by Rachel White
In 2018, the International Government Panel on Climate Change put the world on notice: to avert catastrophic and irreversi...Read MoreThe Road Ahead
May 2020
by Rachel White
It's hard to remember a time when I have felt as riven by conflicting emotions as I have these past couple of months. Despair and hope. Conviction and doubt. Joy ...Read MoreWhy We Temporarily Suspended Construction During COVID-19
March 2020
by Rachel White
This post was published on March 16, 2020. We resumed field operations the week of May 26th and updated the title to reflect that the work suspension has pass...Read MoreByggmeister 2.0
January 2020
by Rachel White
I began my relationship with Byggmeister in 2008 as a client. My husband and I hired the company to renovate our master bedroom and improve the efficiency of our ...Read MoreThe All Electric Home
December 2018
by Rachel White and Paul Eldrenkamp
Even before the September 2018 gas explosions in Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover, we were encouraging homeowners to wean themselves from ...Read MoreEnergy Efficiency and Home Health: What’s the Connection?
April 2018
by Rachel White
It may seem counterintuitive, but energy efficiency and home health are intimately connected. Let's start with some basic building science: a house (or any buildi...Read MoreSpace as a “Green” Metric
June 2017
by Kristina Eldrenkamp
“Green” can be an empty term if it’s not defined in measurable ways. This conviction has informed our efforts to assign performance metrics to projects and...Read MoreManaging a Job for Success
March 2017
by Kristina Eldrenkamp
This past fall, Byggmeister organized a workshop for lead carpenters on project management. The goal was to exchange ideas and best practices for l...Read MoreControlling Pollutants Caused by Cooking
November 2016
by Paul Eldrenkamp
One of Byggmeister’s goals with each project is to improve indoor air quality, including minimizing the pollutants caused by cooking. Cooking, it turns out, is...Read MoreOperating At Net Zero Energy
March 2016
by Paul Eldrenkamp and Rachel White
A few months ago we completed a deep energy retrofit of a house that we hope will be net-zero energy—in other words, that we hope will...Read MoreIce Dam It: Don’t Get Mad, Get Insulation (and Air Sealing)
December 2015
by Paul Eldrenkamp
Whenever we suffer a severe winter, our phones ring off the hook with calls from people with ice dams who are none too happy about it. By this point though damage is al...Read MoreA Socioeconomic Context For Ice Dams
September 2015
by Paul Eldrenkamp
This past winter, national insurance companies were sending their “catastrophe response teams” to the Boston area. I personally met with adjusters and c...Read MoreSound Decisions: Designing for Acoustical Comfort
September 2015
by Rachel White
Over the course of our 30+ years in business we could count on two hands the number of renovations where acoustics played a major role. While we have occasionally...Read MoreBringing Your Renovation To Life
June 2015
by Rachel White
Designing a renovation is a collaborative process at Byggmeister. Between the time we first visit a house and sign a construction contract, several members of our...Read MoreThe Best Little Internship in Massachusetts
March 2015
by Paul Eldrenkamp
The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (Mass CEC) is a ratepayer-funded public agency charged with promoting the clean energy sector in Massachusetts. O...Read MorePlanning For Net Zero Energy
January 2015
by Rachel White
This is the second in a series of posts on a deep energy retrofit project in Lexington (click Read MoreSustainability, Scandinavian Style
December 2014
by Paul Eldrenkamp
This past October I was in Sweden and Denmark with four colleagues from the Northeast Sustainable Energy Asso...Read MorePreparing a Historic Home for the Next 100 Years
September 2014
by Paul Eldrenkamp
We're passionate about fixing older homes. Most if not all of our projects could be summed up as follows: we adapted a dated, inefficient, and dysfunctional, but otherw...Read MoreWhy and How We Strive to Avoid Additions
January 2014
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