SAVE THE DATE! Registration opens the first week in September
October 21 - November 18, 2025
Tuesday afternoons, 1pm - 6pm
(no class November 11, Veteran’s Day)
Studio HPDC’s 2025 High-Performance Barn!
942 Chestnut Street
Newton, MA 02464
Residential and commercial building projects, as well as local building codes, increasingly include goals for energy performance, indoor air quality, and assembly durability, making the builder’s role more complicated and on-the-job mistakes more costly to remedy.
Studio HPDC’s High-Performance Building for Carpenters course creates a learning and practice opportunity for carpenters, site managers, and production managers at all levels. Co-facilitated by builders with real project experience in high-performance building in residential construction, and taught at Studio HPDC’s unique “High-Performance Barn” training space, High-Performance Building for Carpenters keeps the focus on anticipating potential control layer problems, asking the right questions at the right time, and practicing complicated assemblies BEFORE a costly full-house install.
About the Class
This in-person training teaches carpenters how to apply fundamental building skills to High-Performance Construction projects. Topics focus on the four layers of a High-Performance house: water, air, vapor, and thermal. Participants will learn High-Performance essentials through building science lessons, hands-on practice with mock-up assemblies, and project management training. The multi-faceted learning approach provides carpenters with a holistic understanding of High-Performance construction from building science to install. This training is taught by two sustainable building experts accompanied by guest speakers representing materials manufacturers and vendors.
Participants will:
Begin to see how vapor, air, heat, and water will behave in potential problem spots in a structure or from plans before starting installation,
Install and check the use of high-performance construction materials to manage vapor, air, heat, and water in residential construction, and
Communicate with site leads, PMs, architects, clients, or other tradespeople about ways to handle control layer issues during a project to contribute to the long-term success of a high-performance building.
Course Fees: $2,800 per participant
Tuition reimbursement available for MA-based builders through Commonwealth Corp’s Workforce Training Grants. Check out https://commcorp.org/subprogram/wtfp-express-program/. for details on how to apply.
Session Calendar for October - Nov 2025
Session 1: Foundations of High Performance Building: Vapor and the 21st Century Carpenter
Tuesday, October 21 – 1:00-6:00pm
Session 2: Air In, Air Out: Air Sealing, Insulation, and Sheathing
Tuesday, October 28 – 1:00-6:00pm
Session 3: Water, Windows, & Rain Screens
Tuesday, November 4 – 1:00-6:00pm
Session 4: Putting It All Together through the Attic & Roof
Tuesday November 18 – 1:00-6:00pm
Want more info? Email info@studiohpdc.org