But what if you only have a few simple questions?
I am sorry to tell you that your questions are probably not as simple as you think. And even if they were, someone like me still has to do the legwork of really understanding your project (including all kinds of seemingly little things you might not think are relevant) before providing responsible advice.
HGTV makes this stuff seem really easy, but it isn’t. And you can mess up inexpensive houses as easily as expensive ones. Seek out competent, experienced professionals and be prepared to pay them appropriately.
One final illustration that might be helpful: Because building science has “science” in the name, it can seem like your building is like a math test and you need a professional to help you answer only the two or three hardest questions on the test. But what your building science consultant really does is a lot more like editing a novel. It would be pretty useless if you only showed your editor two or three paragraphs of a book without the rest of the work for context. And so it goes for buildings. There are plenty of things that can be economized (there really are!), but competence and expertise are not among them. In fact, a good consultant will well exceed her fee—sometimes many times over—in identifying the right places to spend, and the right places to save. See my comments on cost next.
HGTV makes this stuff seem really easy, but it isn’t. And you can mess up inexpensive houses as easily as expensive ones. Seek out competent, experienced professionals and be prepared to pay them appropriately.
One final illustration that might be helpful: Because building science has “science” in the name, it can seem like your building is like a math test and you need a professional to help you answer only the two or three hardest questions on the test. But what your building science consultant really does is a lot more like editing a novel. It would be pretty useless if you only showed your editor two or three paragraphs of a book without the rest of the work for context. And so it goes for buildings. There are plenty of things that can be economized (there really are!), but competence and expertise are not among them. In fact, a good consultant will well exceed her fee—sometimes many times over—in identifying the right places to spend, and the right places to save. See my comments on cost next.