YouTubers Trent & Allie "DIY" with ThermalBuck - BRINC Building Products, Inc.

Salt Lake City, Utah – Three years after breaking ground on their Rocky Mountain home, “Van Life” vloggers Trent & Allie completed the installation of ThermalBuck on a two-story bedroom and living room addition.

In a series of YouTube DIY vlogs, Trent & Allie have captured the building journey including some of the ups and downs of construction as they raced to beat the first of Utah’s harsh winter storms.

“Today we’re embracing change, and facing inspections, shortages, and equipment malfunctions. But that’s not gonna stop us.” said Allie on a Nov. 17 episode. “We are tackling this build one step at a time.”

Before we jump in, here’s some clips from Trent & Allie’s build…

First Experience Using ThermalBuck

This isn’t the first time ThermalBuck has appeared on Trent & Allie. Their first experience with ThermalBuck came during the installation of windows and doors during the construction of their home in late 2020. In that vlog, Trent shared his optimism about the ThermalBuck’s performance.

“Now, I know a lot of you guys are probably saying, that foam is going to break, Trent, and all your windows are going to fall out. And I would have to agree with you, except for ThermalBuck is rated to hold 800lbs per linear foot once its installed properly.”

-Trent Childs, @TrentandAllie

“This piece of ThermalBuck right here is probably going to be holding the most weight out of any of the ThermalBucks,” Trent said. “They’re triple pained, fixed, enormous pieces of glass. All the weight sits right here on this piece of foam.”

Trent & Allie install their first window with ThermalBuck in December 2020.

ThermalBuck is constructed of a white-foam EPS core, but its strength comes its proprietary structural coating and unique “L” shape, which distributes wind and shear loads onto the structure.

“Now, I know a lot of you guys are probably saying, that foam is going to break, Trent, and all your windows are going to fall out. And I would have to agree with you, except for ThermalBuck is rated to hold 800lbs per linear foot once its installed properly,” Trent continued.

“I think it’s going to be just fine. And me and Brandon are basically professionals at installing this stuff,” he said jokingly.

But his confidence is no surprise, especially to fans. Trent is known for his creativity and resourcefulness. According to trentandallie.com, he is a “self-taught craftsman with boundless problem-solving abilities and creative solutions for projects off the beaten path”. These skills drove the success of the “Van Life” vlogs where he and Allie converted work vans into off-the-grid living quarters.

Time For an Addition

Although the main house was completed in 2021, Trent & Allie have continued their work on the property, including a garage and now, an addition. The added space includes first-floor living areas with a second-floor bedroom.

Due to extreme winter weather, building has been challenged and delayed. In April 2023, after a major snowstorm and dangerous driving conditions, Trent & Allie began questioning whether it was time to stop building and move out of the mountains above the city.

However, with weather improving, the do-it-yourselfers have continued pushing through with their plans. In June, ground broke on their new addition. By mid-November, time was ticking to install the windows to keep out the winter elements.

“We got our glue out here, we got our ThermalBuck, we’ve got nails. Basically, we just need to start taking some measurements, cutting the ThermalBuck, gluing it, and nailing it in place,” Trent said in their Nov. 17 video.

Trent Explains ThermalBuck

The addition needed enough for ThermalBuck for six first-floor windows, 11 second-floor windows, and an exterior doorway. With windows supplied by Alpen High-Performance Products on site, Trent & Allie got to work measuring and cutting the ThermalBuck. He also took a moment to explain why he chose ThermalBuck in the first place.

“This just makes it super easy, and they’re a super cool company.”

-Trent Childs, @TrentandAllie

“This is called ThermalBuck, we’ve been installing it in the windows and the doorway over there,” Trent explained. “Basically, this gets mounted in your doorway and then it bumps your windows and your doors out a specified distance, so our distance here is three inches, and that’s because we’re using three inches of exterior insulation.”

Trent explains why they chose ThermalBuck.

For this build, they are using mineral wool with an R-value of roughly 4/inch to match their home. The ZIP System sheathing will act as their air and water barrier.

“If you didn’t do this and you just mounted your windows and doors normally, when you put that insulation on, then when you go to put your siding on your siding would be three inches past your windows” Trent continued. “And you’d have to do a bunch of weird trim with your siding and try to make it look nice.”

ThermalBuck also seals and insulates the rough openings, meaning that air, water, and moisture cannot leak into the wall.

“This just makes it super easy, and they’re a super cool company.”

Some Trouble Along the Way

Trent cuts ThermalBuck for their first floor windows.

With work starting on the first-floor windows and door, Trent ran into their first of a few hiccups.

“I’ve only cut out enough ThermalBuck for our five windows in the living room, and we’re exactly halfway through our ThermalBuck,” Trent said. “We’re going to have to get on the horn and order some more.”

While they ordered some more, the work on the living room windows continued. Allie decided to “onesie” up into her Carhart coveralls to match Trent and Grayson, who was on hand for the project.

Trent continued cutting the ThermalBuck to size on the second-floor, handing it down to Allie where she stacked it on a table to apply sealant.

Installation went smoothly, and all five living windows went in without hitch.

“Now we really just need to put the door on this part of the addition, and then we’ll be able to heat this addition,” said Trent.

More ThermalBuck Arrives

Trent carries a bundle of ThermalBuck to the house.

A few days before Thanksgiving, they were ready to keep moving.

“We finally got our final ThermalBuck order shipped in. We have all the parts we need, we’re gonna start cutting that, gluing it, installing it, and then Grayson and I are gonna be knocking out the last two windows,” said Trent in their Dec. 1 video.

But just when things were back on track, they discovered another shortage.

“Alright, of course we have everything we need. We have the ThermalBuck and we are running out of the glue that we need to put on the ThermalBuck to adhere it to the frame,” Allie said.

“I’m just going to use the tubes that I have, and we’ll have to go find something that’s close at Home Depot,” he said.

Allie responded jokingly, “Duct tape?”

“Not funny,” said Trent.

Fortunately, Home Depot carried a suitable sealant, and the work continued. By the end of the day, all of the second-floor windows were fully installed.

Note: Trent is right. Not only will duct tape not prevent air or water penetration, it will void ThermalBuck’s limited warranty! While there any many quality window and door sealants on the market, see ThermalBuck.com for a list of manufacturer approved sealants.

No Other Choice

With the windows in place, only a French door in the living room stood in the way of fully sealing the addition. But the door installation had one major problem.

“Alright, so the makers of ThermalBuck will see that and be very upset with us…but we didn’t really have a choice.”

-Trent Childs, @TrentandAllie

“Alright, so we have a little bit of a problem here. When you build a door, doors are like 6 foot 8 inches, which is like 80 inches,” Trent said on their Dec. 4 vlog. “Usually, rough openings are built to be 82 ½, so they end up giving you two and a half inches to fur out a shim and do all kinds of things.”

Trent works on the living room doorframe.

“With this type of door where there’s a nail fin going all around the outside, this rough opening should’ve been built exact, so the door slides into the perfect location. What we’re dealing with now, is we have this giant gap at the top. That is a problem.”

After some thinking, Trent came up with a solution.

“Alright, so the makers of ThermalBuck will see that and be very upset with us…but we didn’t really have a choice,” he said.

“After we use this expensive, amazing product called ThermalBuck, we basically had to shim our door opening down an inch and a half with this 2×6 inside the rough opening. It’ll be fine. We can glue it, screw it, tape it, goop it.”

“Everything is gonna seal up just fine and the insulation value is gonna be there. And we’re bucked out. We’re bumped out to the exterior insulation. It’s gonna work out just fine, but not the way I hoped it would’ve gone.”

Trent’s solution did work in the end, but with a few more delays. After the first adjustment, the doors wobbled in place. A second try yielded uneven doors, with one of the two French doors sat a half inch higher than the other.

A day later, they tried again.

“We pulled both doors off, we pulled the door jamb off. We pulled the 2×6 off. We cleaned off all the glue We actually got a smaller one-by material instead of a two-by material to go above the door.”

“We actually needed to shim one side of the door up because the one the rough opening is not exactly level. But we couldn’t do that because the 2×6 was making it so the height of the door was the perfect size of the door so it fit in there just right.”

“Hopefully this works perfectly and we don’t have to keep fooling with this thing because it has been a huge pain.”

With the final adjustments made, the doors fit perfectly and worked as designed.

Making It Official

With rain and snow only a day away, Trent & Allie’s goal of beating the weather become a reality.

“These doors are beautiful, they function great, they’re very insulated.”

-Trent Childs, @TrentandAllie

“Look at that!” Allie said, pointing to the new doors. “I hate when doors start swinging after you open them to a certain distance. And they either try to swing out or swing back in.”

“Guys, it’s official! We’re done!” Allie said.

“These doors are beautiful, they function great, they’re very insulated,” Trent said.

With the addition fully sealed, Trent & Allie moved on the next winter project in the garage, organizing the sun room, and preparing for a long, cold winter.

To keep up with the rest of Trent & Allie’s family vlog, visit their YouTube channel here.

Disclaimer: Trent & Allie are real, unpaid customers whose purchase, installation, and recording of ThermalBuck is wholly their decision, uninfluenced by ThermalBuck or related business interests.

BRINC Building Products, Inc, headquartered in New Bethlehem, PA, is the manufacturer of ThermalBuck™, the high performance window buck, and ThermalTight™, a patented high performance panel managing water – air – vapor + thermal.