Meet Whitey Huff, whose company is located in Montrose, Colorado. Not exactly the place you would expect to find the king of home insulation.

But if you look in Montrose, Colorado you will find a company called Kil-n-Dri which is a patent pending ventilation system invented by Whitey Huff. I had a chance to speak with Whitey about insulation and his experiences with mold.

Whitey is a man with a mission. He wants to get the word out that mold can be all but eliminated if builders, re-modelers and home owners would all pay more attention to ventilation. As he sees it, adequate ventilation means no more mold.

Whitey has been in the home insulation business for 40 years and for almost all of the 40 years has been consumed with the idea that home ventilation is not being taken seriously enough. He learned long ago that while builders will cut holes in soffits, roofs and crawl spaces, too often the holes become blocked either by subsequent construction or by the homeowners when they move in.

And according to Mr. Huff, this absence of ventilation results in moisture. As we all know by now, where there is moisture, there is mold. According to Mr. Huff, if you want to stop this mold problem the first important step you can take is to insure that there is adequate ventilation.

That is where Whitey's new product, called Kil-N-Dri, comes in. Kil-N-Dri is an insulation ventilation backer board that is designed for new homes and home renovations. Mr. Huff and his company have been selling this product since 1995 and there have been numerous sales in Colorado, Texas and Washington State. His simple but at the same time seemingly revolutionary system has two benefits: insulation and moisture reduction. Sales are good, and with education should only keep getting better.

Mr. Huff wants Americans to understand that this ventilation issue is, in his view, the single biggest cause of mold. He believes that if the insurance industry understood how significant of an issue it is, it could engage in a much needed wide spread education campaign aimed at builders and homeowners to ensure that roofs, soffits, and crawl spaces receive the ventilation attention that they and the home occupants richly deserve.

The product, a backer board that Mr. Huff has been working on and designed himself, is designed to move moisture between the siding and the house through the soffit system, eventually into the attic. From there the air is vented safely away from the house through an attic ridge vent or turbo fan (you know: that fan that is wind self- propelled).

In addition, this product also provides insulation to the external walls. According to Mr. Huff, based on his years and years of experience many homes have almost no external wall insulation. Which means that an added benefit of the Kil-n-Dri system is that offers energy saving insulation.

For Whitey, a very friendly and knowledgeable man, this is not just a product that he is hawking. He is wildly compassionate about this product and believes that it represents a future in home insulation. The mission is to get the word out about the importance of insulation and ventilation.

Whitey has manufacturing operations in Denver and in Texas and can ship directly from these facilities to new home builders and renovators. Home builder associations have been readily backing him as they continue to learn the importance of this solution.

The average retail installation is approximately $700 to $800. Those savings can be recouped in heating savings alone.

According to Mr. Huff, "the main thing that we need to do is have insurance companies understand the role of proper ventilation in new and existing construction." Such a simple concept, but one that needs to be understood. As Mr. Huff sees it, ventilation is simply not getting the respect that its deserves.

Of course, I am just a spectator and leave it to the scientists to test and prove that products such as these work. But what makes Mr. Huff unique is that he has a 40 year wealth of information. I think builders should continue to give his product serious evaluation.

His company can be contacted at 800-656-4468. The email address is whitey (at) kil-n-dri.com.

The information provided in this column is written by Stuart Lieberman,a practicing environmental attorney, and is for general information purposes only. It is not legal advice and should not be used in place of legal advice.

Stuart Lieberman, Esq., and IRED.Com, Inc., will not accept any responsibilty for any reliance on the information in this column or any damages whatsoever resulting from reading this column.