1:05 am - July 24, 2020 - Eric Whetzel

Passive Solar: The Beauty of Light

4

Does Passive Solar Design Still Make Sense?

Our ‘green’ building adventure began in 2013 when I came across various Passive House and high performance projects in Prefabulous + Almost Off the Grid by Sheri Koones. The red house featured on the cover and built by GO Logic, in particular, seemed like a striking departure from conventional homebuilding as practiced in the US.

In its overall shape it echoed an earlier project that I only became aware of later, the Smith House in Illinois by Katrin Klingenberg.

Arguably, in both cases, these homes have too much glass on their south elevations, both in terms of potential overheating of the interior and in purely aesthetic visual terms. Nevertheless, using south-facing glazing to bring in the sun during the winter months while getting some Btu’s of free heat made a lot of sense to us, especially in a heating dominated climate like ours here in the Chicago area.

“…treat the presence of natural light as an essential — not optional — feature of indoor space…”
— Christopher Alexander, et al., A Pattern Language

By the time construction began, we had settled on what seemed like a significant amount of windows and a kitchen door for our south elevation. We felt the layout would be an appropriate amount both in terms of passive solar heating and aesthetics, in addition to daylighting needs.

Moreover, by addressing the main weaknesses of the original Passive Solar movement of the 1970’s, namely the lack of air tightness and sufficient levels of insulation, we hoped that we could strike a balance between enjoying the seasonal movement of the sun in and out of our home while mostly eliminating the risk of overheating, even during shoulder seasons (spring and fall).

Since our build, however, there appears to be growing concern about just how effective this design strategy really is for Passive Houses, or high-performance homes more generally. In effect, are the potential savings on a heating bill really worth the risk of temporarily overheating interior spaces?

Joe Lstiburek, of Building Science Corporation fame, puts it bluntly when quoted in a GBA article regarding the use of high SHGC glass:

“Don’t bother with the passive solar. Your house will overheat in the winter. Yes, you heard that right. Even in Chicago. … You should go with very, very low SHGCs, around 0.2, in your glazing. If this sounds familiar to those of you who are as old as me, it should.

“We were here in the late 1970s when ‘mass and glass’ took on ‘superinsulated.’ Superinsulated won,” Lstiburek continued. “And superinsulated won with lousy windows compared to what we have today. What are you folks thinking? Today’s ‘ultra-efficient’ crushes the old ‘superinsulated,’ and you want to collect solar energy? Leave that to the PV.”

Clearly, he’s not entirely wrong, especially when some of the early failures in the Passive House movement revolved around this very issue of overheating. If you were an early adopter of the Passive House concept, especially if you were the homeowner, and you ended up with comfort issues because of too much glass on your southern facade, it certainly would make you doubt the purported precision of the Passive House energy modeling.

Nevertheless, with careful planning, it is possible to avoid this issue of overheating while still getting to enjoy most of the benefits associated with passive solar design. In our case, this meant limiting windows on the north side (net energy losers) to just our daughter’s bedroom, while glazing on the east side shows up only in a small area of our front door.

Passive House front door — *Small amount of glass in our front door offering some daylighting benefit for our entry area.*

In addition, we avoided any potential for overheating from our west-facing windows by using self-tinting Suntuitive glass in our master bedroom and family room. This glass can fluctuate in its SHGC between .08 – .18 depending on whether in its fully tinted or clear state (varies depending on surface temperature of the glass).

windows with Suntuitive self-tinting glass — *West facade with self-tinting Suntuitive glass*.

With the other three sides of the house accounted for, we were able to concentrate all of our attention on the best window layout for the south side of the house. The utility room, which is on the southeast corner of the house, only really needed a small window, so we went with a single 3′ x 5′ unit. In the kitchen, the window above the sink was already going to be limited because of the lower cabinets, and was mainly for a view while doing dishes. This unit ended up being 4′ x 5′. For the kitchen door we went with a mostly glazed door with privacy glass, which has worked out well as it lets in an abundant amount of daylight while it’s never caused any issues with overheating.

“Finding the right position for a window or a door is a subtle matter.”
— Christopher Alexander, et al., A Pattern Language

The real challenge was getting the family room window on the south side of the house sized correctly. The temptation was to go too large since we had the space to do it. Instead, we wanted to retain some empty wall space for artwork on either side of this window, while also remembering that even the best window is still a lousy wall (e.g., R-40 wall vs. R-6 window).

In the end, we decided to go with a 4.5′ x 9′ window in our family room, slightly smaller* than the units on the west facade with Suntuitive.

{*7-27-20 Correction: I messed this up. The dimensions weren’t different between the south-facing family room window and the west-facing windows with Suntuitive — it was a height off the floor change. For the south-facing family room window we went slightly higher, 32″ off the finished floor, in order to gain a little more privacy, while on the west-facing windows we maintained a lower height of 27″ off the finished floor to maximize our views out and into our backyard. This 5″ difference may not sound like much, but it has a dramatic effect in terms of overall views and perspective when standing at these windows.}

In terms of wall area on our south facade, the windows and kitchen door account for just under 15% of the total, so not a crazy amount, and obviously nowhere near the amount of glass in a curtain wall.

The Sun’s Path Month-to-Month

For those who haven’t directly experienced a space that utilizes passive solar design principles, it may be helpful to see in photos what exactly this effect means month-to-month in a real home.

In our case, we have a long interior wall that runs east-west along the longest axis of our home. This wall effectively separates the private areas to the north (bedrooms and bathrooms) from the public areas to the south (family room, kitchen, and utility room). For context, this long wall stands almost 16 feet from all of the south-facing windows.

In our kitchen and family room, here’s what the sun looks like near midday in January:

Passive solar in January — *Sun in January, slowly moving away from the back wall (at right) that runs east-west along the longest axis of the house.*

By the middle of February, the sun is already making its way towards the windows, barely able to reach the family room couch, while it still adds plenty of sunshine and warmth to the kitchen and family room areas:

passive solar in february — *Sun in mid-February.*

By the Spring equinox, the sun has continued its slow march across the family room floor towards the south-facing windows:

passive solar in march — *Sun in March.*

In the basement, with the help of two large south-facing windows (each 4′ x 4′) and our oversized window wells, the sun is making the same progression as it brightens up the below grade space:

passive solar in basement — *Basement in mid-March.*

Although we chose to forego any windows on the east side of our house, mainly for privacy and energy loss reasons, the small amount of glass in our front door still allows our entry area to be bathed in beautiful early morning light without contributing a significant amount of heat gain:

sunlight entering through front door glass — *East-facing entry area flooded with morning light from the minimal glazing in the front door.*

The seasonal path of the sun can also be marked on the exterior by its progress up or down the facade of our south elevation. By mid-March you can see the shadow line formed by our substantial roof overhang beginning to make its way down the siding — at this point, just above the windows and kitchen door. This invisible ‘curtain’ will cover the glass in the windows entirely by the end of June, completely denying the heat of the sun direct entry into the structure.

passive solar overhang in march — *South elevation in mid-March. Note the shadow line just above the windows and kitchen door.*

Even in April the sun is mostly denied entry; reduced to a sliver of light hitting the wood floor in the family room:

passive solar in april — *Family room in April.*

In June, by the time of the summer solstice, the sun has been pushed outside completely, limited to the metal sill pans on the exterior of the windows.

window layout for Passive House — *Our south elevation during the rough framing stage. Layout from left to right: family room, kitchen door, kitchen window, and utility room.*

With significant and thoughtfully placed windows on the south side (combined with a substantial roof overhang), we’re able to enjoy views to the outdoors year-round, allowing us to maintain an unbroken connection to nature in our yard, without any of the heat or glare normally associated with the summer sun. It also means we don’t need to bother with curtains or other window treatments, or the hassle of managing when they should be opened or closed.

Also, since the transition from winter (welcoming the sun in) to summer (denying the sun entry) has proven to be seamless, we’ve been able to avoid installing any curtains or window treatments in order to hide from any periods of unwanted sunlight. Basically, this ‘invisible curtain’ effect of passive solar design means we enjoy all the benefits of window treatments without any of the hassles (routine opening and closing, cleaning, or maintenance and repair), all while maintaining an unobstructed view of the outdoors. This is especially rewarding during the long winter months when starved for sunlight and extra warmth, but equally pleasurable as life begins to hum in the yard with the return of spring and summer.

In the photo below, the family room window (at left) and the kitchen door are protected from the heat of the sun by the roof overhang. The window on the back wall (facing west) is protected by self-tinting Suntuitive glass, which also allows us to enjoy unimpeded views of our backyard without the need for curtains or window treatments, even on the sunniest and hottest days of summer.

passive solar in June — *Family room in June with no direct sun allowed entry into the space.*

On the exterior, by the middle of June, this shadow ‘curtain’ has fallen over the entire face of the south-facing windows, denying the sun entry into the home where it could cause unpleasant glare and unwanted heat gain (these windows have a SHGC of .54), which would needlessly increase cooling loads for our Mitsubishi heat pump system, while also reducing overall occupant comfort.

Around the summer solstice in June, this is what the set-up looks like outdoors:

overhang for passive solar in summer — *Southwest corner of the house around the summer solstice.*

overhang blocks summer sun for passive solar — *A second view of this ‘curtain’ effect; this time from the southeast corner of the home.*

This effect is also visible from the interior while looking out the south-facing windows. With a substantial roof overhang the sun can barely reach the metal sill pans by the middle of June:

overhang protects window sill from summer sun — *Utility room window in the middle of June. Note the sun hitting the outside edge of the metal sill pan.*

In June, the sun is able to get slightly deeper inside the home in the basement — in this case managing to hit the surface of the window stool or sill.

Even in the heart of the summer, the sun is still denied direct access to the interior spaces on the main floor:

passive solar in July — *Family room in July. The sun remains outside.*

A second look at the metal sill pan from the utility room window, this time in July:

After slowly making its way back into the south-facing living areas, by November the sun is once again approaching the back wall in the family room and kitchen:

passive solar in November — *Family room by mid-November.*

Even though the utility room window is a relatively modest size (3′ x 5′), it provides ample daylight and plenty of warm sunshine over the course of our long winter months:

passive solar lets in the sun in November — *Sunlight spilling out of the utility room by mid-November.*

Here’s another view of the sun exiting the utility room on its way to the back wall in the main living area:

“If the right rooms are facing south, a house is bright and sunny and cheerful; if the wrong rooms are facing south, the house is dark and gloomy. Everyone knows this. But people may forget about it, and get confused by other considerations. The fact is that very few things have so much effect on the feeling inside a room as the sun shining into it. If you want to be sure that your house, or building, and the rooms in it are wonderful, comfortable places, give this pattern its due. Treat it seriously; cling to it tenaciously; insist upon it.”
Christopher Alexander, et al., A Pattern Language

passive solar sun getting into the kitchen in November — *Sun hitting the kitchen countertops in November, bathing the space in a warm glow.*

By late December, around the winter solstice, the sun is finally able to hit the back wall in the main living area, maximizing the amount of direct sunlight that enters the house:

passive solar design lets in the sun in December during the winter solstice — *Sun during the winter solstice, at the doorway to the master bedroom.*

passive solar design lets the sun enter deep into the structure in December — *In late December, the sun hits the back wall where the family room meets the kitchen.*

sun enters deep into the house around the winter solstice — *Sunlight from the utility room window hitting the barn door in the main living area.*

Even in the basement, where it’s more difficult for the sun to make its way into the space, with our oversized window wells and two large windows the sun manages to get very close to the center of the space just in front of the structural beam. This light pouring in helps keep us connected to the outdoors, mostly eliminating the cave-like feel normally associated with many below grade spaces. Even on the coldest days in winter, this daylighting effect makes the basement a warm, inviting space.

passive solar design lets the sun enter deep into the basement — *Sunlight entering the basement in mid-December.*

Some Final Thoughts

We were expecting to enjoy the seasonal movement of the sun, watching it progress in and out of the main living space, warming us in the winter while also helping to moderate summertime AC demand. One unanticipated surprise, however, is how effective our window layout has been in maintaining a high level of daylighting, even on the grayest of overcast days.

Short of a menacing thunderstorm that turns the skies gray-black, we almost never have to turn on lights during the day. For instance, in the photo below it has snowed overnight, and the skies are an unrelenting blanket of gray. Nevertheless, because daylight has ample means for entering the living space, no artificial light is necessary. Note, too, in the background, how clear the Suntuitive glass is when not in its fully tinted state.

The kitchen door, because it consists mostly of privacy glass, contributes a great deal to this daylighting effect — both in summer and winter — and we’re extremely happy we didn’t choose a more opaque door style.

Another side benefit in this regard is how the porch light outside this glass-filled door also acts as a de facto night light for the kitchen — its soft, but effective, glow makes it easy to navigate around the space in the middle of the night without having to turn on any interior lights.

passive house window placement improves daylighting even on extremely cloudy days — *Even on a cold, gray winter day, the windows welcome in a great deal of daylight, dramatically improving the overall livability of the space, while also allowing us to keep the lights turned off.*

One final, unanticipated surprise is how much the house is flooded with light on cloudless nights when there’s a full moon. The moonlight creates a soft, beautiful source of light as it falls across these interior spaces.

In terms of shoulder seasons, when sunlight still has some access to the interior but outdoor temperatures are mild or even occasionally warm, we haven’t really noticed a problem. In spring, if outdoor temps should reach the 70’s during the day it is frankly welcomed with open arms, as we’re starved for warm sunshine at winter’s end. In the fall, if there’s an occasional too warm day, we simply open a couple of windows. So far we’ve never had to turn on the AC in October, for instance.

If there’s any failure in our set-up, it would be the family room couch. From the end of December until the end of January, if it’s a sunny day, regardless of how cold it gets outside, sitting on the couch is uncomfortable, if not impossible. Sitting in shorts and a tank top would be the only way to make it remotely comfortable.

Thankfully, we’re almost never on the couch during this time, so it’s never been a problem for us. Having said that, if this family room were dedicated office space and I needed to be sitting at my desk from 10am-2pm, it would be extremely uncomfortable. This is a good example of how carefully not just an overall floor plan needs to be designed, but how even individual spaces need special attention, in particular for year-round HVAC comfort based on how occupants are actually going to be using the space.

Overall, we’ve been very pleased with the layout of our windows and their ability, in conjunction with the roof overhang to the south, to allow in ample amounts of sunlight during the colder months while still being able to keep it out on the hottest days of the year. With detailed planning, our experience suggests that designing living spaces for a real passive solar benefit is still a worthwhile goal.

Although it may be safer to ignore this design strategy altogether in the hottest climates (simply designing to keep the sun outside year-round may be the better option, which would include the use of low SHGC glass as Lstiburek recommends), passive solar has proven to be a great source of enjoyment for us, particularly during our winters here in Chicago, which tend to release their grip too slowly and ever so begrudgingly.

If given the chance, we would definitely design our house again with these passive solar techniques in mind.

10:15 am - January 22, 2020 - Eric Whetzel

Completing our Wall Assembly: Rockwool Batts, Intello, and Drywall

4

Insulation for Exterior Walls

Once Wojtek and Mark were done installing our continuous insulation on the exterior side of our Zip sheathing (4″ of Rockwool Comfortboard 80), including the first layer of battens (no more errant fasteners through the Zip to worry about), I was able to move inside and begin installing Rockwool Batts (R-23) in our 2×6 wall framing.

Once we had moved on from our first builder, and after reading up on the available options for insulation, we decided to invest in Rockwool insulation, both the rigid Comfortboard 80 on the exterior of our sheathing and the Rockwool batts for inside our stud bays. Although more expensive, particularly the Comfortboard 80 for continuous insulation (used rigid foam would’ve been substantially less expensive), we felt that many of its properties made it worth the added cost.

In particular, by helping our wall assembly to be vapor-permeable (or vapor open), we felt the Rockwool could help mitigate any mistakes, should they be made, in the wall assembly details. This being our first build acting as a GC, we wanted to add some margin for error wherever we could find it.

More details on our wall assembly and how we finalized details, including our desire to maintain a high level of IAQ, can be found here: Wall Assembly

For environmental reasons, one of our goals was to try and be as “foam free” as possible throughout the build. In addition, beyond just this issue regarding the use of foam (in all its forms: rigid board and sprayed varieties alike), there’s increasing awareness about the carbon footprint of our structures, not to mention the total carbon footprint of our daily lives.

At any rate, if I had it to do over, I would at least seriously consider using reclaimed rigid foam for our continuous insulation over the sheathing (both for the potential cost savings and its status as a reclaimed material otherwise headed for a landfill), understanding that it does reduce a wall’s ability to dry to the exterior. As others have noted, using reclaimed rigid foam in this way may be the best, or “greenest”, use of foam insulation until the construction industry hopefully moves beyond its use altogether as better options become more viable (e.g., wood fiber insulation).

Here are some resources for reclaimed rigid foam:

http://insulationdepot.com/

https://www.reuseaction.com/sales/foam/

https://www.greeninsulationgroup.com/

https://www.repurposedmaterialsinc.com/polyiso-insulation/

I would also consider using dense pack cellulose in the 2×6 walls instead of the Rockwool batts if I could find an installer I was reasonably certain could do the work properly. During construction it felt safer to use my own labor to install the Rockwool batts, thus avoiding the possibility of any gaps in the wall insulation. I was hoping to offset the cost of the batts with my free labor, plus I just enjoyed doing the work. Had we gone with the dense pack cellulose, it would’ve been something I couldn’t do on my own (no equipment or training).

lights on in base 4 rockwool — *Basement ready for Rockwool batt insulation.*

Installing the Rockwool batts is fairly easy and satisfying work. They’re much easier to work with than fiberglass batts, which are horrible on your skin and tend to flop around as you try to get them into place. While the Rockwool also produces some irritating fibers when it’s cut (and requires a dust mask like fiberglass), I found that a shower easily washed them away. Wearing long sleeves during installation also easily mitigates this issue.

base knee wall w: rockwool going in — *Insulating the exterior wall in what will be the basement stairwell.*

Also, the fact that the Rockwool batts have a friction fit means they don’t require any additional staples or netting to get them to stay put once installed.

Because of the friction fit, it’s also easy to tear off small pieces to stuff into irregular shaped voids should the need arise.

rim joist w: and w:out rockwool — *Basement rim joist without and with Rockwool batt insulation.*

Like the Comfortboard 80, the batts can have some variation from one piece to another, with a change in the amount of density clearly visible. With the Comfortboard 80, this was significant enough that we avoided using the worst pieces, meaning those with the least amount of density (these pieces felt thinner and sometimes even crumbly). Although this inconsistency was still present in the batts, I managed to use almost every piece, saving the least dense pieces for use in some interior walls for sound attenuation (more on this topic below).

base kneel wall corner rockwool — *Corner of basement with knee wall and rim joists insulated with Rockwool batts.*

Overall, we were happy with the Rockwool batts, and would definitely use them again should dense pack cellulose not be a viable option. They’re also ideal for a self-build since anyone who’s reasonably handy can install them should they have the time available during construction.

rockwool around base beam — *Rockwool batts packed into gaps around the basement steel beam.*

In conjunction with the Intello that would eventually be installed over the 2×6 framing members and the Rockwool batts, we also used Flame Tech putty pads to air seal behind every outlet and light switch box. I had seen them used in a Matt Risinger video for sound attenuation:

The other option would’ve been to use airtight junction boxes. Here are a couple of examples: Small Planet Supply and 475HPBS.

In order to limit issues with all the air sealing I was doing, I tried to stick with products my subcontractors already used everyday. As a result, since my electrician wasn’t familiar with airtight junction boxes, I opted instead to come in after he had everything installed and apply the putty pads. I found installing them to be straightforward and pretty quick.

The putty pads are attached to release paper. Once the paper was removed the pads were easy to mold around each outlet and light switch box.

label putty pad — *Acoustical putty pads purchased on Amazon.*

Here’s a completed outlet box:

putty pad on outlet — *Putty pad molded around every outlet and light switch in exterior walls.*

The trickiest area to detail for the walls was at the ceiling and wall junction. In our case, the roof trusses sit on 2-2×6’s turned on their sides, which sit on top of the wall’s double top plate. The 2-2×6’s create space for our service cavity under the bottom chord of the roof trusses.

extoseal-encors-as-gasket — 2-2×6’s on edge, sitting on double top plates. **Extoseal Encors** acting as gasket once taped from the exterior face of the Zip sheathing over the top of the 2-2×6’s, thus completing an air sealed connection between the exterior (Zip sheathing) and the interior before roof trusses are set in place. More details here: **Roof Details**

Before cellulose could be blown into the attic, we installed Intello to the bottom chord of the roof trusses. At all outside edges the Intello was carried from the roof trusses down over the double top plates of the walls, anticipating the Intello eventually being installed on the walls, which required a connection point between the Intello on the ceiling and the Intello on the walls.

ceiling-wall b4 Intello - Rockwool — *Ceiling and wall areas before installing Intello on the bottom chord of the roof trusses and Rockwool batts in the walls.*

After the Intello was installed on the ceiling, a service cavity (or service core, or service chase) was created with 2×6’s screwed to the bottom chord of the trusses through the Intello.

string between junction boxes to make sure they're straight — *Service cavity with 2×6’s attached to trusses through the Intello. More info on the service cavity here: **Ceiling Details**.*

This gap was going to be a dedicated space for lighting and the 3″ Zehnder tubes of our ERV (as things turned out, we didn’t end up needing this space for the Zehnder tubes).

bare trusses - intello - intello w: single layer CB 80 - service chase — *Intello coming down from the roof trusses to cover the double top plates on the wall.*

Before installing the Rockwool batts in the walls, I was also able to fill this gap created by the two 2×6’s on their side that sit on top of the double top plates with leftover pieces of Comfortboard 80. The first piece of Rockwool fit snug inside the gap, while the second piece was attached to the first with some plastic cap nails and the friction supplied by the 2×6’s forming the service cavity. Some additional holding power was added at the gable ends by utilizing drywall clips (visible in the photo below):

intello onto top plates — *Connecting Intello to top plates with a strip of Tescon Vana tape, creating a clean and solid surface for the eventual Intello on the walls.*

The drywall clips were helpful in lending support to drywall anywhere that adding solid blocking would be time consuming or a physical challenge.

nailer for ceiling drywall — *These drywall clips worked great in places where the sheetrock needed additional support.*

Even though we utilized a 12″ raised heel roof truss, and we had 4″ of Rockwool on the exterior of our Zip sheathing, it was important to fill this gap created by the service cavity to make sure our thermal layer was unbroken around the perimeter of the house (4″ Rockwool on the exterior, 5 1/2″ Rockwool in the stud bays). The outside edge of the roof truss is also the most vulnerable to ice damming, so having the 4″ of Rockwool Comfortboard 80 directly below this area where blown-in cellulose would be installed offers some additional thermal performance to the attic insulation.

Another view of this area where roof truss meets the 2-2×6’s standing on their side, creating a gap between the bottom chord of the roof truss and the top plates on the wall below.

sealed top of wall from inside — *Roof truss on 2-2×6’s turned on their sides, which have been sealed with Pro Clima tapes. HF sealant completes the airtight connection between the Zip sheathing and the 2-2×6’s.*

If I had it to do over, I would go with a 24″ raised heel truss, as this would offer not only significantly more R-value in this area (for relatively little expense), it would also make any inspection or repairs in this area much easier to deal with.

mbr w: rockwool in walls — *Installing Rockwool batts in the walls of the Master Bedroom.*

As each piece of Rockwool batt was installed, it was important to keep any butt joints between cut pieces tight together. Also, once each piece was snug inside the stud bay I finished by gently fluffing the outside perimeter edges so the Rockwool sat as flush as possible to the 2×6 studs, thus maximizing their R-value.

mbr rockwool complete — *Master Bedroom ready for Intello on the walls before drywall gets installed.*

family rm w: rockwool — *Family room ready for Intello and then drywall.*

Intello

With 4″ of Rockwool Comfortboard 80 on the exterior of our sheathing, the code specifies that we could’ve just used latex paint as our interior vapor retarder (Class III).

Again, to improve our margin for error, I felt like it was worth the added expense and time to install a smart vapor retarder (CertainTeed’s Membrain product would’ve been another alternative) to avoid potential issues with diffusion in the winter.

When I asked a question on GBA about this issue, the consensus seemed to be that the Intello, although technically unnecessary, was a nice bit of insurance.

It also added a final layer to all of the previous air sealing details. With redundant layers of air sealing, even if small areas experience failure over time, there are still other areas to back it up, thus maintaining our overall air tightness for the long term.

intello at frt dr basement — *Intello installed in the basement stairwell by the front door.*

finishing intello mbr — *Intello in Master Bedroom nearly complete.*

Sealing the Intello to the subfloor was one of the final air sealing chores of the build. It was deeply gratifying to finally get to this point, especially since drywall and then flooring were up next.

tescon on intello at subfloor — *Intello taped to the subfloor with Tescon Vana tape.*

intello tvana complete mbr — *Intello complete in the Master Bedroom.*

Thoughts on Advanced Framing Techniques

If I had it to do over, I would use less framing around windows and doors, along with using pocket headers instead of the more traditional insulated headers we ended up with. Pushing the header to the exterior sheathing would mean being able to insulate the pocket on the interior side with Rockwool or dense pack cellulose, rather than the rigid foam we ended up with (unfortunately, XPS in our case).

Before we had to fire them, the two GC’s we were still working with as framing began were unfamiliar with advanced framing techniques, and they were already struggling to comprehend the many Passive House details in the drawings (not to mention many of the conventional details) so, as I’ve noted elsewhere, I had to pick my battles carefully.

Another change I would make would be at points where interior walls meet up with exterior walls. Rather than using ladder blocking to make the connection, which is still better than more traditional methods (creating a boxed in void that’s virtually impossible to insulate), I would utilize a metal plate at the top of the walls to make a solid connection. In addition to making drywall installation easier since it would create space between the two intersecting walls for sheets of drywall to be passed through, it would also make installing insulation, especially batt insulation, much more straightforward with clear and easy access (no horizontal blocking to get in the way).

intello at ladder — *Intello at partition wall that meets the exterior wall (using ladder blocking).*

A ProTradeCraft article discusses what builder David Joyce believes is ‘worth doing’ in terms of advanced framing techniques. Perhaps just as important, he points out what he believes can be safely ignored, or is just ‘not worth doing’ when it comes to OVE.

In this Matt Risinger video, architect Steve Baczek delves into some of the key components he uses to optimize advanced framing techniques:

In addition to the pocket headers, the idea of using header hangers instead of additional jack studs, seems to make a lot of sense.

And here’s a ProTradeCraft video regarding their own take on Advanced Framing:

One final change to our framing would be opting for 2-stud corners instead of the California 3-stud corners that we have. Although a relatively small change, I think a 2-stud corner is cleaner and allows for slightly more insulation in this vulnerable area.

Clearly each designer, architect, GC, or framing crew will have their own particular views on advanced framing, so there’s room to make individual choices without undermining the goal of balancing structural integrity with reduced energy demand. Local codes, along with the opinion of your rough framing inspector, will also have to be accounted for.

My guess is these techniques will continue to evolve, especially if specific products come to market to aid the process (i.e. reduce the amount of framing lumber required while ideally also lowering labor costs, all without negatively affecting the overall strength of the structure).

intello kitchen — *Intello in the kitchen complete.*

One final attempt at some additional air sealing was around outlet and switch boxes as they met up with the Intello. With a bead of HF Sealant, it was easy to make an airtight connection between the Intello and the box.

cu intello at outlet — *Completing connections around outlet and switch boxes with HF Sealant.*

At doors and windows, I finished these areas off with a strip of Tescon Vana tape, just as I had at the top and bottom of the walls.

intello complete br2 — *Completing Intello around a bedroom window.*

Because corners tend to be problematic in terms of air leakage, I also added a dab of HF Sealant to these areas for the sake of some added redundancy.

lwr lft corn wdw w: intello & tape — *Lower left corner of window with some added HF Sealant in the corner.*

upper rgt corner wdw w: intello — Upper right corner of a window just before final piece of Tescon Vana tape is run across the top of the window frame, tying together the Intello and the light blue Profil tape that is air sealing around the window.

Sound Attenuation

Since we designed our home with a smaller than average footprint, incorporating many Not So Big House principles (roughly 1500 square feet for the main floor, with another 1500 square feet in the full basement below), one way to make the floorplan feel larger than it actually is was to provide some sound attenuation in key areas (we incorporated several other techniques to “expand” the feel of the floorplan that will be discussed in upcoming posts regarding interior design).

For instance, we installed the Rockwool in the long partition wall that runs east-west down the center of the floorplan. This wall helps define the barrier between public areas (kitchen and family room) on the south side of the home and the private areas (bathrooms and bedrooms) on the north side of the home.

We could’ve used Rockwool Safe ‘n’ Sound, but at the time, during construction in the fall of 2017, it was a special order item in my area, whereas the batts were already in stock, both for my main 2×6 partition wall, a 2×6 plumbing wall, and the remaining 2×4 walls that we felt could benefit from the Rockwool.

In the photo below, the Rockwool in the main east-west partition wall is covering the refrigerant and drain line for one of our three Mitsubishi heat pump heads, along with the usual electrical conduit for outlets and light switches.

rockwool 2nd br entry hall — *Rockwool added to some interior walls for sound absorption, thus reducing unwanted sound transmission between certain spaces.*

Here’s another view of this partition wall, this time from the opposite side inside the second bedroom:

rockwool 2nd br interior side — *Same section of east-west partition wall from inside the second bedroom.*

We also added Rockwool to the wall that connects the master bath to the 2nd bedroom bath, and between the 2nd bath and 2nd bedroom. The Rockwool was even added to the wall between our kitchen and utility room, where we have our washer and dryer, in the hopes that it would limit the amount of noise coming from the machines (which it thankfully has).

rockwool bath walls — *Rockwool in bathroom wall around main waste stack.*

Although this doesn’t make for a totally sound proof connection between spaces (we weren’t prepared to take things that far — roughly equivalent to air sealing a Passive House in the amount of detail required), the ability of the Rockwool to significantly muffle sound between rooms is quite impressive and, for us at least, well worth the effort and added expense.

rockwool kitch - utility — *Rockwool in the wall between the kitchen and utility room.*

For instance, while standing in the master bathroom, should someone be running water or flushing the toilet in the 2nd bathroom directly on the other side of the wall, the majority of the sound that reaches your ear comes by way of the master bedroom doorway, not through the wall directly. Out of curiosity I tested this idea with music playing on a portable stereo in the 2nd bathroom with the same results — sound through the wall is dramatically muffled, while the same sound that easily travels out of the bathroom and makes it way via the bedroom doorway is crystal clear. With the door to the 2nd bathroom and our master bedroom door closed, this same sound is obviously further reduced.

It’s also nice to watch TV in the family room and know that as long as the volume is at a reasonable level you’re not disturbing anyone trying to sleep or read in the two bedrooms. This kind of sound attenuation also adds a level of privacy to the bathrooms while they’re in use.

And, again, it’s not that no sound is transmitted from one room to another, rather it’s almost entirely limited to doorways, thus significantly reducing the overall impact of the noise that is transmitted. In other words, our goal was rather modest, we were just after significant sound absorption, not sound proofing (e.g. the level of noise cancellation required in a professional recording studio or a high-end home theater room).

As a result, I would definitely use Rockwool for sound absorption again. In fact, I can’t imagine going without this kind of sound attenuation (or something akin to it using other products or techniques outlined in the videos above) now that we’ve been able to enjoy it in our new home. It effectively prevents the issues often associated with so-called “paper thin” walls.

Arguably, addressing this issue of unwanted sound transmission is even more important in Passive Houses or high-performance homes that are already much quieter than conventional homes because of the extensive air sealing and well above code levels of insulation. In our own case, outside noises either disappear entirely or are significantly muffled — this includes a commuter train a couple of blocks away.

As a result, any noises within the home itself become much more pronounced since they don’t have to compete with the typical noises coming from outside the home. For instance, when we first moved in the fridge in the kitchen was easily the most obvious, consistent sound in the house. After a couple of weeks it just became background noise we’ve grown to ignore, but it was surprising just how loud it was initially, especially our first few nights in the home when everything else was so quiet.

In addition to excessive air leakage and obvious temperature swings between rooms, along with poorly sized or placed window layouts, the lack of any sound attenuation between rooms is one of the issues we notice the most when we’re inside more conventionally built homes. Much like all of the conveniences associated with a modern kitchen, it’s easy to take something like effective sound attenuation for granted until you’re required to go without it (e.g. in the case of kitchens while on a camping trip or waiting for a kitchen to be remodeled).

With all of the Rockwool batts in place, and the Intello installed over the exterior walls, drywall could finally go up.

Drywall

We went with USG 5/8″ EcoSmart drywall (GBA article on EcoSmart). We chose the 5/8″ over 1/2″ mainly for added durability and some slight sound deadening between rooms.

I had read about Certainteed’s AirRenew drywall, but it sounded like the only VOC it absorbed was formaldehyde, which, if I understand the issue correctly, can be safely avoided with the use of appropriate cabinets and furniture. If memory serves, AirRenew works by utilizing a compound similar to triclosan, meaning a biocide, which some believe can have potentially serious health effects. It’s not clear to me, even now, whether the use of AirRenew drywall makes sense, or exactly what compound (or series of compounds) are utilized to absorb the formaldehyde since Certainteed has remained silent on this point, claiming the information is proprietary. Nevertheless, it has a Declare label, so ILFI must believe it’s reasonably safe to have on painted ceilings and walls.

At any rate, we wouldn’t be bringing in any new furniture that would have elevated levels of VOC’s (including flame retardants) once construction was complete. Since our last house was significantly larger, roughly 2,800 sq. ft., it was fairly easy to downsize, donating or giving away what we couldn’t use in our new house, while holding on to our favorite and most useful pieces. It also helped that we never really filled up our last house (e.g. we never got around to purchasing a formal dining room set), so we didn’t have as much “stuff” to discard as we might have.

Moreover, by being mindful of every finish we create or use (primers, paints, wood flooring, grout sealer, caulks and sealants, kitchen cabinets etc.), along with any other products we might bring into the new house (e.g. surface cleaners, new furniture, fabrics, even perfumes and colognes, etc.), we’re hoping to maintain a high level of IAQ.

The International Living Future Institutes’s Red List and their database of Declare products were a big help to us, even though we’re not pursuing any kind of certification with them. The Greenguard certified label was also helpful, in particular when it came time to choose tile and grout.

By consciously choosing every product and material that comes into the home, it’s possible to at least reduce our exposure to harmful VOC’s and chemicals. While still imperfect (Who can you trust?), these kinds of programs do allow designers and homeowners to take some control over the environments they’re creating and living in, which is empowering to a degree. Far better if the US regulatory bodies operated under a precautionary principle model when it came to industrial products.

Frankly, in a rational system, one that was truly looking out for the best interests of consumers, this kind of research — time consuming and frustrating busy work to put a finer point on it — would be considered laughable if not horrifying. In a rational system it would be safe to assume that any product for sale, apart from some careful instructions on their use and disposal, would be safe to have inside your home without having to worry about short or long term health implications.

Nevertheless, if unintended health consequences are to be avoided during a renovation or a new construction build, consumers have little choice but to do the necessary homework (or pay someone else to do it for them) and be as thoughtful as possible with their selection of materials.

drywall family rm — *Kitchen and family room after drywall was installed. Ready for primer, paint, and flooring.*

Now that all of the elements of our wall assembly were complete, it was time to have some fun with final finishes: flooring, wall colors, wood trim, doors, kitchen cabinets…

Category: Passive House Tags: chicago passive house, diy passive house, Illinois Passive House, midwest passive house, passive house blog, passive house design, passive house insulation

12:27 pm - April 3, 2019 - Eric Whetzel

Blower Door (Air Sealing #9 )

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When it was time to schedule our blower door test we considered using Eco Achievers, but we only knew about them because they’ve worked extensively on projects for our original builder, Evolutionary Home Builders. We decided the potential awkwardness, or even a possible conflict of interest, wasn’t worth pursuing their services. An example of guilt-by-association I suppose, one that is probably unfounded but, nevertheless, the strong affiliation with our original builder made it difficult for us to reach out to them for help. They also hired one of Brandon’s former employees (this employee was nothing but nice and professional towards us as we were deciding to part ways with Brandon), which would’ve only added another layer of awkwardness to the situation.

Unsure how to proceed, I looked online and found Anthony from Building Energy Experts. He was able to come out and do a blower door test for us, helping me hunt down a couple of small leaks, so that we ended up at 0.34 ACH@50 for this initial test.

Here’s a Hammer and Hand video discussing the use of a blower door:

On a side note: all of the Hammer and Hand videos, along with their Best Practices Manual, were incredibly helpful as we tried to figure out all the Passive House details related to our build. It’s no exaggeration to say that without Hammer and Hand, the Green Building Advisor website, BSC, and 475 HPBS, our build would’ve been impossible to accomplish on our own. I owe an incredible debt of gratitude to all of these great resources who invest valuable time sharing such a wealth of information.

Below is a Hammer and Hand video noting the importance of properly detailing corners to avoid air leaks:

Because of this video, I sealed all of my corners for the windows and doors like this:

HF Sealant in corner of window with Tescon Profil and Extoseal Encors — *Adding Pro Clima HF Sealant after completing taping of the corner, just for added insurance against potential air leakage.*

I also added some HF Sealant to the lower portion of the windows, since some air leakage showed up in this area with Anthony where components of the window itself come together in a seam.

HF sealant and Tescon Profil tape around Passive House window — *Seam near bottom of window where components meet — sealed with HF Sealant.*

The areas where components come together often need special attention.

Tescon Profil tape and HF sealant in corner of Passive House window — *Close-up of this same area — seam in components sealed, along with the bottom corner of the window and the gap between window buck and window.*

Even with layers of redundancy in place, in the picture below there was a small air leak still present at the bottom plate – sub flooring connection. A coating of HF Sealant easily blocked it.

Once the stud bays were insulated (after most of the siding was up), the interior walls would eventually be covered with Intello (I’ll cover the details in a future post on interior insulation), adding yet another layer of redundancy for mitigating potential air intrusion.

HF sealant at sill plate and subfloor — *Area of kitchen sill plate leakage.*

Anthony didn’t have any previous experience with a Passive House build, so it occurred to me that it might be beneficial to reach out to Floris from 475 High Performance Building Supply (he had already done our WUFI analysis for us), and Mike Conners from Kenwood Property Development to see if there was someone locally who did. Mike is a Passive House builder in Chicago who had already helped me out with some Rockwool insulation when we came up short earlier in our project (the two GC’s we fired repeatedly struggled with basic math), and he was very nice to take the time to answer some other technical questions for me as well.

Both, as it turned out, ended up recommending that I contact Steve Marchese from the Association for Energy Affordability.

Steve would eventually make three trips to the house, doing an initial blower door test after the structure was weather-tight and all the necessary penetrations had been made through our air barrier, a second test after exterior continuous insulation was installed, and a final test after drywall was up to ensure there hadn’t been any increase in air leakage during the final stages of construction.

starting blower door test for Passive House — *Steve setting up the blower door for his first test.*

Following Passive House principles for our build, we also followed the same protocols for the blower door tests: Blower Door Protocol

With the structure under pressure from the blower door fan, Steve and I walked around the house while he used a small smoke machine in order to try and find any leaks that I could then seal up.

testing window gasket with smoke — *Steve starting at the windows. Here testing a window gasket for air leakage.*

The gaskets around our windows and doors proved to be some of the weakest areas in the house although, comparatively speaking, it was inconsequential since the overall air tightness of the structure was fairly robust (favorite word of architects).

using smoke pen to test window gasket — *Steve showing me the impact a window in the unlocked position can have on air tightness. The gasket, ordinarily squeezed in the locked position, works to bring the sash and the frame tightly together.*

using smoke pen around large window — *Looking for areas around the windows that might need adjusting or additional air sealing.*

For instance, even though no substantial air leakage showed up around this kitchen door, during our first winter this same door eventually had ice form outside at the upper corner by the hinges, on the exposed surface of the gasket where the door meets the frame.

After figuring out how to adjust the door hinges, there was no longer any ice showing up this winter, not even during our Polar Vortex event in late January.

Much the same thing occurred around our front door as well, with the same solution — adjusting the hinges to get a tighter fit at the gasket between the door and the frame.

using smoke to test attic hatch — *Steve testing the attic hatch for any air leakage.*

Steve was nice enough to go around and methodically check all the penetrations in the structure.

Steve testing plumbing vent in kitchen — *Steve testing for air leaks around the kitchen plumbing vent and some conduit.*

Steve testing for air leaks @ radon stack — *Steve testing for air leaks around the radon stack.*

smoke test around radon stack — *Close-up of radon stack during smoke test.*

There was one area in the guest bathroom where the Intello ended up getting slightly wrinkled in a corner during installation. With Tescon Vana and some HF Sealant I was able to address it so nothing, thankfully, showed up during the smoke test.

Steve testing wrinkled area of Intello — *Steve testing area of Intello that I inadvertently wrinkled during its installation.*

After looking around on the main floor, Steve moved down into the basement.

using smoke pen to test for air leaks around main electrical panel — *Checking for leaks at the main electrical panel.*

Steve testing for air leaks @ main panel exit point — *Checking for leaks at the conduit as it exits the structure.*

using smoke pen to test for leaks around sump pit lid — *Looking for air leakage around the sump pit lid.*

The lids for the sump pit and the ejector pit were eventually sealed with duct seal putty and some Prosoco Air Dam.

Steve testing for air leaks @ ejector pit — *Testing the ejector pit for air movement.*

using smoke pen around Zehnder comfo pipe penetration — *Checking for air leakage around one of the Zehnder ComfoPipes as it exits the structure.*

smoke pen test around Mitsubishi heat pump line set — *Looking for air leaks around the heat pump refrigerant lines as they exit the structure.*

Steve smoke at sump discharge — *Checking around the penetration for our sump pump discharge to the outside.*

Before the second blower door test, I was able to add some duct seal putty to the lids of the sump and ejector pits.

duct seal around lid of ejector pit — *Ejector pit lid with some duct seal putty.*

Below is a copy of Steve’s blower door test results, showing the information you can expect to receive with such a report:

Final Blower Door Test Results

For the last two tests Steve used a smaller duct blaster fan in order to try and get a more precise reading for air leakage.

0.2 @ACH50 blower door test result — *With Steve just after the initial blower door test was complete.*

Steve would be back two more times — once before drywall, and once after drywall — just to ensure we had no loss of air tightness develop in the interim stages of the build (especially after continuous exterior insulation with furring strips were installed).

Here are the final figures noting where we ended up:

0.20 ACH@50 and 106 cfm@50

We are well below Passive House requirements (both PHI and PHIUS), so there was a great sense of relief knowing that all the time and effort put into air sealing had paid off, giving us the tight shell we were looking for. Even so, it was still pretty exciting news, especially for a first build.

And here’s an interesting article by 475 HPBS regarding the debate over how air tightness is calculated for PHI vs. PHIUS projects, and the potential ramifications:

Not Airtight

Category: Passive House Tags: chicago passive house, diy passive house, Eco Achievers, Evolutionary Home Builders, greenbuilt home, Illinois Passive House, midwest passive house, passive house blog, passive house design

12:55 pm - July 24, 2018 - Eric Whetzel

Attic Insulation

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For high-performance structures relatively high R-values for insulation (at least when compared to current building code requirements) are required from the foundation all the way up to the attic (e.g. Passive House or The Pretty Good House).

After some initial research and product pricing, we knew we were going to predominantly use Roxul (with its recent name change, it’s now known as Rockwool) for our insulation needs. But after realizing blown-in rock wool wasn’t available (at least at the time anyway — presumably this will change in the future), and that batts didn’t make much sense for this application (too costly, and they’re considered more difficult to install properly), we knew we wanted some kind of blown-in insulation. The main options, currently, are fiberglass and cellulose.

Fiberglass vs. Cellulose

Best Attic Insulation

We wanted to avoid foam as much as possible throughout the build, both because of its environmental impact and the fire risk associated with its use, so we didn’t consider spray foam as a real potential option.

After evaluating blown-in fiberglass and cellulose, we decided that cellulose made the most sense for us.

The next decision was to figure out how much, meaning how many inches did we want to blow into the attic. Our first builder was going to do R-49, which is the current code minimum standard here in Illinois. At the time, even before things went horribly wrong with this builder, this felt like too little. I had read stories about other Passive House projects using significantly more, but many of these were in even colder climates than ours (we’re in climate Zone 5 here in the suburbs of Chicago).

How much do I need?

How much insulation is enough?

We decided that rather than settle on a hard R-value as our goal, we would just do a solid two feet of cellulose since we would be doing the installation of the material ourselves (less out near the 12″ raised heel trusses on the north and south sides of the house). There wasn’t a significantly greater cost in materials to go from an R-49 (just under 15″) to the approximately 24″ we blew into the attic.

After doing a little research, and speaking with a Passive House consultant and a local general contractor who consulted with us on various issues as they arose, the consensus seemed to be that attic insulation was an easy, relatively inexpensive place to sneak in more R-value, which is particularly beneficial in our predominantly cold weather climate (the ceiling/attic is where a significant amount of conditioned air wants to escape in the winter anyway). The blown-in cellulose, like the Rockwool, also has some nice sound deadening qualities as an additional benefit.

How much insulation do you need for Passive House?

The cellulose brand in our local Home Depot is GreenFiber, so that was the product we ended up using. Their product is DIY friendly, even allowing homeowners to rent machines for the actual installation:

We started out with 200 bags delivered to the job site. We assumed we were going to need more (the GreenFiber insulation calculator suggested we would need 250 bags to reach 2′ throughout the attic), but thought it might be easier to estimate a final total once the first 200 bags were installed.

The boys, who helped us with various grunt work chores throughout the project, were nice enough to return and help us bring the bags of insulation indoors the night before we started the installation in the attic. We set up a bucket brigade between the driveway and the kitchen, so it went pretty quickly.

guys w: cellulose — *The boys after helping us bring in the first 200 bags of cellulose insulation: Luke, Smitty, **Eduardo,** my wife Anita, and Ricky.*

On the day of installation, getting everything set up and started was fairly straightforward. Apart from a loose hose connection at the machine, which a small strip of Tescon Vana tape rectified, we had no issues with the blower. While my wife fed the bags of cellulose into the blower, I was up in the attic directing it into place.

The first couple of hours were actually kind of fun, but getting a consistent two feet of insulation throughout the attic was time consuming and eventually mind-numbingly boring. The first 12″-18″ weren’t so bad, it was having to wait in each section of the attic for that last foot or so to be blown in place that it began to feel like real drudgery.

cellulose installed looking east — *From the attic opening, looking east towards the front of the house.*

It also didn’t help that I had a fever and a cold on the day of installation, so being up in the attic surrounded and covered in dust didn’t improve my mood. The process, although very DIY friendly, does require patience and a willingness to cover up — eyes, mouth, and nose — for adequate protection against all the dust floating around.

The day before blowing in the cellulose I went through the attic and marked my goal of 24″ of insulation on various roof trusses so I would have a good visual goal to shoot for. In fact, had I known just how dusty and challenging visibility was going to be during the blowing process, I would have marked every single roof truss at the 24″ level to make the job a little easier.

We didn’t have much in the way in terms of obstacles from various services, other than a few pipe vents for plumbing and radon, along with a small amount of electrical conduit for solar on the roof and a single light in the attic (we kept the majority of all services in our ceiling service core and our walls). This made for a fairly straightforward installation of the cellulose.

cellulose installed looking west — *From the attic opening, looking west towards the back of the house.*

south east corner w: cellulose — *Another view, this time a little further to the right, showing the far northwest corner of the attic.*

vents by bench w: cellulose — *Cellulose at its full depth around the plumbing vents and radon stack.*

cellulose at the attic hatch — *Finishing up. The attic access hatch is visible at the bottom of the photo.*

bench behind attic hatch opening — *The bench next to the attic access opening as we finish up blowing in the cellulose.*

building up cellulose around attic chutes — *Cellulose hitting the underside of the insulation chutes as it gets blown into place at the edge of the roof by the raised heel trusses.*

Thankfully I was able to keep the cellulose out of the insulation chutes, instead slowly piling it up just below each chute. The siding guys already had most of the soffits installed (this was the end of October, 2017 last year), including a channel for air flow for our “vented roof” assembly, so any cellulose that found its way into the chutes and down into the soffits would’ve been a real pain to remove (I’ll have a separate post later about the siding installation, including the many details of our rain screen and 4″ of Rockwool on the exterior side of the Zip sheathing).

The bench next to the attic access hatch ended up working out really well, and I was very thankful it was in place.

lid on bench w: cellulose — *Lid of the attic access hatch sitting on its bench next to the attic opening after the installation of the cellulose is nearly complete.*

By the end of the first day it was clear we didn’t have enough cellulose to finish the whole attic. We started with 200 bags, but we finished up the second day at just under 300 bags total (288 was the final number of bags installed, so a little more than the 250 recommended by the GreenFiber calculator). What we didn’t use we were able to return to Home Depot for a refund.

how much more cellulose — *My wife wondering how many more bags until we’re done — unfortunately the answer was simply ‘more’ as she popped her head up into the attic several times towards the end of the installation.*

Apart from the north and south sides of the attic around the raised heel trusses, we had a solid 24″ throughout the attic, in fact, a little more in the center of the attic where it was easiest to pile it up and let it accumulate (closer to 28-30″ in some areas). This probably explains, too, the additional 38 bags we used that exceeded the initial estimate by the GreenFiber calculator.

covered in cellulose — *This is where a degree from Michigan gets you. **#GoBlue**. It was a long day.*

On a side note, there was also some concern about the weight of the cellulose on the Intello (our ceiling air barrier), but in the end, even where the cellulose was at its deepest, there was thankfully very little sagging evident in the Intello. Even if it had been worse, the 1×4’s were in place to help support the Intello and the cellulose for the long term (the 1×4’s were spaced roughly 16″ apart between the 2×6’s of the service core).

sag1 — *Slight sag in the Intello evident after installing the cellulose in the attic.*

sag2 closer view — *Close-up of the slight sag in the Intello near the west gable end of the house.*

sag3 Intello touching 1x4's — *Another view of the slight sag in the Intello as it touches the 1×4’s directly below it.*

It’s worth keeping in mind that the cellulose will settle a bit, especially during the first few months. This is obviously very important when it comes to establishing what depth you’re initially going to blow in and your expectations about long-term R-value after settling has occurred (something to consider before signing a contract if you’re going to be hiring someone to do the work — both parties should agree and understand what the final R-value will be before the work commences).

I was back up in the attic recently as I finished up painting the master bedroom and closet. Since I already had drop cloths down, I thought I should take what will hopefully be one last look at the attic.

ladder in wic — *Ladder under the attic access hatch in the master bedroom closet.*

On average, the cellulose looks like it has settled about 2-4 inches below its original depth, depending on where I looked.

settling1 — *Some of the red horizontal lines at 24″ now clearly visible in some parts of the attic.*

Even with this settling, the attic probably still comes in close to R-70 on average —significantly less out at the north and south ends of the roof with the raised heel trusses, but a little more in spots towards the middle of the attic where some red lines are still hidden below the cellulose.

settling2 — *You can see my red arrow and horizontal line at the 24″ level off to the right.*

Just under or over R-70 in the attic is in tune with both the Pretty Good House and Passive House metrics for attic insulation for my climate region (Zone 5 here in the suburbs of Chicago).

While I was up in the attic I also noted that there was no evidence of any water or moisture damage on the OSB roof sheathing, or any indication of wind washing of the cellulose, so the attic seems to be performing as designed, which is a great relief.

Category: Passive House Tags: chicago passive house, diy passive house, Illinois Passive House, midwest passive house, passive house blog, passive house design, passive house insulation

8:19 pm - May 10, 2018 - Eric Whetzel

Attic Access Hatch (Air Sealing #7 )

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Our attic is designed mainly to hold our blown-in insulation (a future post will go over the details), as opposed to a place for running HVAC equipment, conduit for electric, or as a potential area for carving out additional storage space.

Nevertheless, in order to have access to our attic for future maintenance or repairs, I installed a well-insulated attic hatch in our master bedroom closet ceiling.

Following Passive House and Pretty Good House principles required trying to protect the thermal envelope, even in this relatively small area, in order to avoid what can be a notorious point of air leakage and heat loss (i.e., the stack effect).

There were two main products I considered using for this:

Battic Door (R-50 / without ladder)

They also have a product that allows for a built-in ladder for easier access to the attic (you won’t need to drag your ladder in from the garage) while also maintaining a high R-value:

Battic Stair Cover

The other product I considered using was from ESS Energy Products:

Energy Guardian Push Up Hatch Cover

We ended up going with the Battic product, which I purchased through the Home Depot website (this saved me a trip to the store since it was delivered to site).

Some other products that I’m aware of include:

475 High Performance Building Supply used to sell a Passive House certified version with a fold-down ladder included, but I don’t currently see it listed on their website:

WIPPRO Klimatec 160

Or this product that also incorporates a ladder is available from Conservation Technology:

Attic Ladder

Because the Energy Guardian hatch is made out of rigid foam, I thought the Battic door was the better choice since it seemed like it would be a little sturdier and more durable. To be honest, once the product arrived and I unpacked it, I realized it was something I, or anyone with basic carpentry skills, could put together themselves (assuming you have the time).

Following the directions, I cut an X in the Intello on the ceiling between two roof trusses (and our 2×6 service core below each truss) in order to establish the opening for the Battic frame.

I folded the cut edges of Intello up into the attic for the two long sides of the Battic frame. For the two shorter sides of the Battic frame it was easier for air sealing to push the Intello down into the living area.

At this point I was able to screw the Battic frame into place.

looking up into battic attic hatch — *Battic frame initially installed between roof trusses and 2×6 service core.*

Once in place, I used a mix of Contega HF Sealant and Tescon Vana tape to air seal the Intello to the Battic frame.

battic - taped sealed to intello — *Air sealing the Intello to the Battic frame (short side between trusses).*

tescon vana air sealed battic w: HF behind Intello — *Another view of the Intello sealed to the Battic frame.*

looking down at air sealed battic from attic — *View of the installed Battic frame from the attic.*

attic access air sealed - attic side — *Air sealing the connections between the Intello, the Battic frame, and the roof trusses in the attic.*

air sealed corner of battic — *Using HF Sealant to make the connections as air tight as possible.*

Once the outside perimeter of the Battic frame had been air sealed to the Intello, the only place left for air infiltration was where the lid would meet the frame of the Battic hatch once it was installed (more on this later when I discuss my first blower door test).

There was some additional framing required, but it was just a couple of “headers” between the roof trusses to add structural integrity to the two shorter sides of the Battic frame.

attic access from below — *Battic frame with additional 2×6’s on one of the short sides.*

Since we were using a significant amount of blown-in insulation in the attic, it made it necessary to build up the sides of the Battic frame in the attic with some plywood to get the top of the opening above where the insulation would eventually stop.

Here’s another view of the 3 sides of plywood installed:

The fourth and final side of plywood was installed just prior to blowing in the insulation — in the interim this made getting in and out of the attic much easier.

After a couple of practice attempts, it quickly became apparent that raising and removing the lid once in place, and fighting to get it back down into the master bedroom closet, wasn’t worth the trouble. Instead, I built a small bench in the attic next to the Battic frame so I could push the lid up above the level of blown-in insulation, this way it could have somewhere to safely sit while dealing with any issue in the attic.

bench for attic access lid — *Battic lid resting on the bench.*

It’s very easy to grab the lid off the bench and bring it back down into position while slowly walking down the ladder in the master bedroom closet to make the final connection/seal.

Although the installation process was fairly straightforward and headache free for the Battic product, if I had it to do over, I think I would have the attic access point on the exterior of the structure, for example, on the gable end of the house in the backyard.

GBA – gable access to attic

Custom Gable Vents

AZdiy

Putting the access point above the air barrier would make meticulously air sealing the entry point for the attic less important, so keeping water out of the attic would be the main goal. An additional plywood buck would’ve been necessary, replicating what I did for our windows and doors (more on this later), but I think it still would’ve been the better option overall.

Putting the attic access on the exterior of the house would also mean avoiding an ugly hole somewhere in our drywalled ceiling. No matter how nicely trimmed out, these attic access points on the interior of a home never look right to me. We’ve tried to hide ours as much as possible by sticking it in our master bedroom closet, which has worked out well, but not having one at all on the interior of the house would make for a cleaner, better solution in my opinion.

If granted a do-over, I would also add a cat walk in the attic through the roof trusses. This would make getting to any point in the attic much easier to navigate. It would also help to avoid disturbing the blown-in insulation too much.

And here’s a photo of the bench in the attic, next to the opening for the Battic attic hatch, after the blown-in insulation was installed:

bench surrounded by cellulose — *Bench for the Battic hatch lid.*

Category: Passive House Tags: air sealing a passive house, chicago passive house, diy passive house, greenbuilt home, Illinois Passive House, midwest passive house, passive house design

8:26 pm - November 15, 2017 - Eric Whetzel

Basement Slab (Air Sealing #5)

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The Bottom of our Thermal Envelope

Following Passive House principles, we knew we were going to insulate and air seal our basement slab. As explained on the Passipedia website:

“The most important principle for energy efficient construction is a continuous insulating envelope all around the building… which minimises heat losses like a warm coat. In addition to the insulating envelope, there should also be an airtight layer… as most insulation materials are not airtight. Independently of the construction, materials or building technology, one rule is always applicable: both insulation and airtight layers need to be continuous.”

The illustration above also shows the “red pen test”, which is supposed to occur in the design phase of a project, when it’s much easier to address weaknesses or errors in the details of a design — not necessarily just for air sealing, it’s also effective when looking for points of potential water intrusion (e.g., this GBA article), or even to test the thermal layer for areas of thermal bridging. The basic idea is that if your layers aren’t continuous you’ll find yourself lifting your red pen, meaning it’s an area that needs to be addressed.

An effective way of thinking about a structure, utilized by high-performance builders, is to think in terms of 6 sides rather than just 4 when contemplating the details for air sealing and insulating: 4 walls, the attic/roof, and the basement (or frost-protected slab).

A similar approach to Passive House for building high-performance structures is adopted by advocates of The Pretty Good House concept, even if it’s less stringent, more open to interpretation, and tends to be more “rule of thumb” rather than energy model driven (e.g. PHPP or WUFI).

Based on our climate region, which is Zone 5, we decided we wanted to shoot for 16/20/40/60 for insulation R-values — the series of numbers represent R-values for under the basement slab/ the exterior foundation walls/ framed exterior walls/ and the attic (our attic R-value proved to be significantly higher than 60, but more on that later) — which is in the ballpark for both PGH and Passive House (here’s an excellent overall summary of the PH concept I recently came across: EcoCor).

Arguably, the “sweet spot” for how much insulation makes sense for these areas, even when adjusted for climate region, is still a topic for heated debate. Nevertheless, it’s important to keep in mind that the more simple the form your structure takes — for example, 2-story cubes without basements —

the easier it is to achieve Passive House, or similar building standards, since it simplifies framing, air sealing, and limits the exterior surface area in ways that a single story ranch that is spread out and has all kinds of nooks and crannies does not (the difference also has serious ramifications for overall heating and cooling demand). Likewise, simple forms also make it easier to figure out how much insulation you need to reach a benchmark like Passive House or PGH. A simple form can also have durability implications.

Our R-values were based on a number of considerations: the construction drawings of our original builder, information made available by Hammer and Hand (in particular their Madrona House project), and articles on the Building Science Corporation (in particular: 1 and 2) and Green Building Advisor websites. These resources, all of which have proven to be indispensable at every stage of the build, have made our project possible.

In terms of the details around the slab and the foundation walls, this article from the DOE also proved to be especially helpful: Foundation Handbook

2-04_no-cap — *Illustration courtesy of: foundation handbook.ornl.gov*

After considering various insulation choices (Wall Assembly), we decided to go with Roxul for under our slab, the exterior of our foundation, and our wall assembly (blown-in cellulose in the attic was the only significant deviation from the use of Roxul).

Here’s how the basement slab portion of our project progressed:

Roxul Comfortboard 80 (2″ + 2″)

To get to an R-value of 16 we used two layers of 2″ thick Roxul Comfortboard 80 (R-4 per inch).

We installed each layer with staggered seams, although the Roxul representative I spoke with via email insisted that because the Roxul is so dimensionally stable this isn’t nearly as important as it would be with rigid foam insulation (the same holds true with a double layer of Comfortboard 80 on the exterior side of wall sheathing).

roxul in basement 2 layers — *Putting down the 2 layers of Roxul Comfortboard 80 with help from the concrete guys.*

roxul long view two layers — *The second layer of Roxul being installed.*

roxul before stego — *Installing the Roxul around the rough-in bathroom pipes, sump, and ejector pits.*

One of the many benefits of using Roxul is that the material wants to stick to itself, whether in batt or rigid board form. This makes for tighter joints between pieces, and even when cuts around obstructions are less than perfect it’s easy to fill in any gaps with torn apart pieces of Roxul (again, this holds true for both Comfortboard 80 and their version of batt insulation).

roxul stuffed in around basement pole — *Stuffing bits of Roxul around the base of one of the steel columns.*

Close-up of the Roxul installed around the roughed-in bath PVC pipes.

Another view of the 2-layers, mostly installed:

A Roxul rep told me to take into account a loss of R-1 due to the compressive pressure of the poured concrete, thus our R-16 for two layers of Roxul is, according to Roxul, really an R-15. Having installed the two layers myself, walked on it during and after installing the vapor barrier (see below), my guess is in some areas this loss in R-value is even greater than R-1.

Based on the comments quoted in a GBA article (Sub-Slab Mineral Wool), I would have to say my experience was exactly the same: in some areas the Roxul seemed to lose most, if not all, of its rigidity. I’ve also noticed while working with both the Comfortboard 80 and their batts that there seems to be a variation in the material from one piece to another and even bag to bag. Some pieces are very easy to cut (these pieces are noticeably stiffer), while other pieces seem “mushier” or lacking in rigidity — either under or over-cooked perhaps — making them more difficult to cut and work with. This seems like less of an issue for vertical applications (i.e. walls), while potentially troublesome for horizontal applications under a slab — especially if you’re depending on that R-4 per inch to meet the demands of energy modeling for a certification program like Passive House.

I’m glad we’ve been able to mostly avoid foam insulation in the build, but seeing the Roxul in a real world application does make me wonder if some kind of rigid foam might’ve given me a more consistent whole floor R-value. Going with a denser version of Roxul would’ve been another, more expensive, option as well (Comfortboard 110).

Stego Wrap

Once the two layers of Roxul were down, it was time to install the vapor barrier over the insulation. While the Roxul acts like a blanket, helping to maintain a consistent temperature in the basement, the vapor barrier helps to keep moisture and soil gases (mainly Radon as I understand it), at bay.

The product I’ve seen used in most Passive House, Pretty Good House, or equivalent projects, is Stego Wrap. Here are two videos detailing its installation and its benefits:

Another product I came across while researching options was Perminator.

Here’s a video detailing the use of the product:

In my area — the suburbs of Chicago — the closest supplier of Stego Wrap was HD Supply.

starting stego around roug-in pipes — *Starting around the rough-in bathroom pipes.*

We used the 10 mil version of the Stego Wrap. The material is very durable and fairly hard to damage. Even when tears occurred, it was easy to patch with pieces of the Stego red tape, or a combination of a cut piece of Stego Wrap with pieces of the red tape.

stego going down — *Stego Wrap carried up the wall and taped to keep it in place during the pour.*

Installing the two layers of Roxul on the basement floor was pretty straightforward, while installing the Stego Wrap was generally a pain in the ass. Maybe I was just tired, but I really didn’t enjoy installing it at all. For example, it was difficult to keep it tight to the walls, although I learned to leave it hanging fairly loose at floor-wall junctions, which definitely helped. Getting the first row straight, flat, and smooth was time consuming, and annoying, but it did make getting successive rows installed straight much easier.

jesus helping me w: first row stego — *Jesus helping me install the first row of Stego Wrap.*

almost halfway w: stego wrap — *Making progress with the Stego Wrap.*

sealed basement pipe close up before pour — *Stego Wrap wth red Stego tape and a Roflex gasket from 475 HPBS.*

The pipes after air sealing with EPDM gaskets and red Stego tape:

sealed basement pipes with overlapping Stego

Once all the Stego was in place, we added a 1/2″ of rigid foam insulation at the floor-wall junction as a thermal break. I wanted to use Roxul Comfortboard 80 (their 1.25″ thick version) even for this, but time (Comfortboard 80 is still a special order item in my area, meaning it’s always about 2 weeks away from the time you place your order — hopefully this changes in the near future) and money made the foam an easier choice.

We kept the foam in place by running a bead of OSI sealant on the back of each section before pushing it up against the Stego Wrap. For the most part this seemed to work well.

stego w: foam at slab edge — *Roxul, Stego Wrap, and foam installed.*

Here’s a close-up of everything installed in a corner:

One of the real disappointments of installing the basement slab was seeing the concrete guys put down the welded wire mesh (typically noted as W.W.M. on construction drawings) — basically chicken wire with pointy ends (I exaggerate, but not by much).

If I could do it over again, I would look into using a concrete mix containing sufficient pieces of fiberglass, or some other alternative, so that using the welded wire mesh could be avoided altogether.

I was already familiar with the idea of fiberglass used in place of metal rebar in concrete forms, having experimented with decorative concrete last year and having seen videos like these:

I’m not sure why I didn’t think to ask for fiber reinforced concrete instead of the normal welded wire mesh — it was one detail that just got missed, unfortunately.

As the wire mesh went down, the guys could see how annoyed and concerned I was by the holes it was making in the Stego Wrap that one of them, Oscar, started helping me bend the pointy ends up. Once they were safely pointed up, I went around with the red tape to patch the many tiny holes in the Stego Wrap. Not a fun way to kill a couple of hours.

Why my architect or the concrete guys didn’t suggest a mix with fiberglass instead of the welded wire mesh is unclear. The reality with any green build, especially if you’re acting as GC, is you’re likely to be the only one who really cares about getting the many details right, especially if the architect and subcontractors have never built like this before — they were just doing what they always do.

A couple shots of the basement floor with the welded wire mesh in place:

A closer view with all the elements in place prior to the pour:

Concrete

Here’s various shots of the slab itself being poured:

hole in floor for basement slab — *It was necessary to cut a hole in the subfloor just inside the front door in order to get the concrete into the basement.*

long view of brace for pour — *The guys starting at the back of the basement.*

back corner of basement pour #2 — *One corner complete.*

troweling at stairwell — *Enrique completing the trowel finish.*

cement truck kissing corner of garage — *Side of the garage kissed by the cement truck.*

Slab Edge

Once the slab was in place, I wasn’t quite sure how to deal with the edge along the perimeter. As usual when I get stuck on some detail, I asked a question on GBA:

How do I seal…

Stego Wrap and Foam cut away from slab edge — *Cutting away the excess Stego Wrap and pink foam.*

close up of slab edge — *Close-up of the wall-slab junction after cutting everything down flush with the floor.*

Using the Prosoco Air Dam seemed like the best, and most straightforward, option. In addition, after considering various ways to cover this gap after the Air Dam was down between the wall and floor, and after priming and painting the basement walls, I realized the gap visually disappears for the most part, and really wasn’t worth thinking about.

wall-slab connection after air dam.jpg — *Junction between wall and slab after using Air Dam and priming and painting the wall.*

close up of wall - slab conection after air dam — *Close-up of Air Dam after primer and paint, at the wall-slab connection.*

another view slab:wall connection — *Another view of the slab – wall connection.*

By not putting anything down to cover this gap, if the basement ever does experience water damage, it’s one less thing to remove and replace.

Category: Passive House Tags: chicago passive house, diy passive house, Illinois Passive House, midwest passive house, passive house basement, passive house blog, passive house design, passive house slab

12:47 pm - September 19, 2017 - Eric Whetzel

Solar on the Roof

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After deciding to pursue a combination of Passive House and The Pretty Good House concepts, which entail careful planning and attention to air sealing, along with a significant amount of insulation, we knew we could have a shot at Net Zero, or Zero Net Energy (ZNE) — meaning we could potentially produce as much energy as we use by utilizing solar panels on the roof.

To find an installer in our area, we utilized the website Energy Sage. In addition to useful articles and information about solar, they also work with installers who can provide consumers with competitive bids. It didn’t happen overnight, but in about a week or two, we ended up with 3-4 bids before deciding to go with Rethink Electric.

laying out the solar panels pre-install — *The guys from Rethink staging the panels on the garage roof.*

The System

Based on the suggestions from Energy Sage and Rethink, we ended up going with the following system:

2.915 kW DC System
4,059 kWh of system production
11 Canadian Solar panels
265W Module Enphase M250 (Microinverter)
Also includes web-based monitoring of the system’s production

In theory, this system could produce more energy than we use (it’s just my wife, my daughter, and myself who will be living in the house), particularly if we stick to all LED lighting, use Energy Star rated appliances, the heat pump water heater works as advertised, and we’re careful about avoiding using electricity when it’s unnecessary (e.g. turning off lights after leaving a room, or trying to address phantom loads).

Anthony putting self-adhering gasket over solar conduit penetration — *Anthony, from Rethink, air sealing the penetration through the Intello, our ceiling air barrier, with a **Tescon Vana – Roflex** gasket before sending his 3/4″ conduit into the attic.*

Based on other projects I’ve read about, even homes initially built to the ZNE standard sometimes fail, in terms of overall performance, based on actual occupant behavior, so only time will really tell what impact our solar array will have on our utility bills. It looks like worst case scenario would be needing to add 4-6 more panels to get to ZNE or even carbon positive.

conduit for solar in the attic before gasket — *Anthony’s conduit entering the attic, sealed with a gasket from below.*

Installation by Rethink went really well, and they were happy to work with me on properly air sealing the conduit that runs from the basement at the main panel before going up into the attic, where it eventually terminates on the roof when connected to the panels.

conduit for solar in the attic after gasket — *3/4″ conduit sealed for a second time on the attic side of the Intello.*

solar mounting system being installed — *The guys setting up the racking system for the panels.*

close up solar base — *Close-up of the base that’s holding the solar panels.*

Rethink guys on the roof — *Anthony, Dan, and Cherif completing the install on the roof of the house.*

close up of solar panels being installed — *The low profile racking system has a very sleek look.*

Marking another big leap in the progress of the build:

solar panels on roof — *The view of our 11 solar panels from our neighbor’s driveway.*

solar panels installed on the roof.jpg — *Another view of the solar panels installed on the roof.*

It was only after the installation that I realized what’s wrong with the following picture:

solar on:off against Zip sheathing #2 — *My screw up.*

I was so worried about getting the air sealing details right on the interior, from the main floor to the attic, I completely forgot to let Anthony know about extending out his disconnect box 6″ to what will be our finished surface (once two layers of Roxul and two layers of 1×4 furring strips, along with cedar siding are installed). The day after they installed, I came walking around the corner of the house, saw this, and literally slapped my forehead (while spitting out a few choice expletives), as I realized my screw up.

Thankfully, Anthony was able to come back out and make the necessary adjustment:

The Cost

Here’s the cost breakdown on our system (if trends continue, a similar system should be less expensive in the future):

$12,519.50 Initial Investment

$(-3,755.85) Federal Tax Credit (ITC) 30%

$8,763.65 Net Cost of First Year

$(-3,816.00) Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SREC’s)

$4,947.65 Net Cost After All Incentives

It will be interesting to follow the performance of the solar panels over the course of a calendar year or two, just to find out exactly how well they perform. I’ll come back here and post monthly utility statements, noting output of the panels and our use, to give people a better sense of actual performance — hopefully this will help others in the planning stages of their own project to decide if solar (and how much of it) is right for them.

{January, 2021 Update: For actual energy demand and costs, please check out this post: Our Energy Bills}

Category: Net Zero Tags: chicago passive house, diy passive house, green building, greenbuilt home, Illinois Passive House, midwest passive house, Net Zero, passive house blog

3:02 pm - August 16, 2017 - Eric Whetzel

Ceiling Details (Air Sealing #4)

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Installing Intello

We thought about using the Zip sheathing as our air barrier on the ceiling, attaching it to the bottom of the roof trusses, something I had seen on other builds, but after learning about Intello we decided to use that instead:

Floris Keverling Buisman, from 475 High Performance Building Supply, did our WUFI analysis for us, and he suggested the Intello would be a better fit for our project. The Intello is a smart vapor retarder, so it can expand and contract when it’s needed, and it’s obviously less physically demanding to install than the Zip sheathing.

Once the air sealing was complete around the top of our outside perimeter walls, and the insulation chutes had been installed, we were almost ready for the Intello. At the gable ends of the house, one last detail needed to be put in place, circled in red in the picture below:

2x6 on its side — *2×6 on its side, circled in red.*

By adding this 2×6 on its side, which is in the same plane as the bottom of the roof trusses, it makes it possible to carry the Intello over the transition from the ceiling (under the roof trusses) to the walls (top plates). This is one of those details that is hard to ‘see’ when in the planning, more abstract, and two dimensional phase of designing a structure.

another angle of 2x6 on side — *Another view of the 2×6 lying flat in the same plane as the bottom of the roof truss (far left).*

Once the trusses were placed on the top of the walls and you start picturing how the Intello will be attached to the ceiling, it becomes much more obvious that something in this space at the gable ends of the house is needed in order to accomplish the transition from the ceiling to the walls.

long view w wdw to front door framing — *Marking progress: Ceiling ready for the Intello.*

After reading about so many other projects that utilized Intello, it was exciting to unwrap the first box.

unwrapping first box of Intello — *Big day: opening the first box of Intello.*

The directions are pretty straightforward, and the product is relatively easy to install as long as you don’t have to do it alone.

Intello instructions — *Reading through the instructions one last time before starting.*

I didn’t get a chance to touch and feel the product before ordering (always fun to do with any new product), so here are some close-ups of the Intello to give you some sense of what it’s like:

Intello close up front side 2 — *Front: shiny side of the Intello — this side will be facing the living space.*

I was curious about its strength and tried to tear it with various objects, including the cut ends of 2×4’s and the brackets we eventually used to help establish our service core. The material is surprisingly tear resistant, but a utility knife, or a stray sharp edge will cut through it (as our first plumber proved to me with his careless actions — a story for another post).

close up Intello back side — *Back: matte side of the Intello — this side will be facing the attic.*

Having never used the Intello before, I decided to start small and began by experimenting with it in a corner. Getting the corners fully covered while getting the material to sit flat before applying the blue Tescon Vana tape proved to be the most challenging part of using the Intello.

experimenting w: Intello in corner w: chutes above — *Starting in a corner to get a feel for how the material will work.*

Here’s two more pictures of the flat 2×6 helping to make the transition from the ceiling to the wall on the gable ends of the house:

In order to attach the Intello to the bottom of the roof trusses, we used the staple gun shown below. Loading it is kind of counter-intuitive (online reviews complain about it not working out of the box, but my guess is — like me — they were trying to load it improperly), but once I figured it out, it ended up working really well, almost never jamming, and it’s very comfortable to hold because it’s so lightweight. It should work with any standard air compressor. It was available on Amazon, and in Menards (a local big box store here in the Chicago suburbs).

We started with these staples:

But we ended up going with these instead:

They seemed to grab better (presumably the sharp ends make a difference), and they sit flatter on a more consistent basis (less time having to go back, or stop, to hammer home proud staples flat).

As we rolled out the Intello, it took some practice to get it to sit taught and flat before stapling.

The dotted lines near the edges of the Intello help you keep the rows straight as you overlap two sheets and progress from one row to the next. The lines also make it easier to maintain a straight line with the Tescon Vana tape (don’t ask me when I realized this latter detail — too embarrassing to admit).

taping Intello along dotted line — *Follow the dotted line…*

We checked our initial row from above in the attic:

first row of Intello from attic — *View from the attic as the first row is installed.*

Working our way through the interior walls, especially the bathrooms, was more time consuming and took more effort (I grew to hate those interior bathroom walls — first the Intello, then the service core details described below), but once we were out in the open the Intello was fairly easy to install.

Intello covering ceiling, chutes in bg — First three rows of Intello as they approach the basement stairwell. Note the insulation chutes in the b.g. in the attic — they took up so much time and effort, and now they slowly disappear (just like most important aspects of infrastructure).

northwest corner of air sealed attic w: Intello — *View of the Intello from a corner of the attic — note the 2×6, far left, lying flat, that helps the Intello transition from the ceiling to the top of the walls.*

Intello from attic at outside corner — *Another view of the Intello from the attic after installation.*

As Eduardo and Jesus rolled out sections of the Intello I followed, pulling on the Intello a little to help make it sit tight and flat before stapling it in place.

Eduardo and Jesus helping me put up Intello on ceiling — *Eduardo and Jesus giving me a hand installing the Intello.*

There were a couple of sections, some of the first ones we installed, that I managed to wrinkle (one, in particular, became problematic during our first blower door test — and, of course, it was in a tight spot around the bathroom shower area), but overall, the installation of the Intello went pretty well. Like most things you do for the first time, we got comfortable and good at it just as we were finishing up.

Eduardo Jesus and full moon night sky in b.g. — Eduardo and Jesus helping me finish up the main areas as a full moon makes the night sky glow outside in the background. It was a long day — longer still for Eduardo since Jesus was talkin’ trash and nonsense all day (they’re football teammates). Needless to say, Eduardo has the patience of a saint.

Intello from attic w: insulation chutes in bg — *View of the Intello from the attic — offering up its 2001: A Space Odyssey glow.*

After learning about a project on the 475HPBS website…

Masonry Retrofit

… we decided to use the Tescon Vana tape to cover the staples, as well as all the seams, in the Intello. I have no idea what actual impact covering the staples has on air tightness, but visually as you tape over the staples you can see how, if nothing else, it will help the staples resist pulling out under pressure from the eventual blown-in cellulose in the attic.

Even as the build progresses, it’s interesting how details like this pop up, making building “green” a never-ending process of learning something new — someone’s always coming up with a new product or a new way to do things better, faster, or less complicated — which makes the process itself very exciting.

OB applying tape — OB — the Palatine High School legend — the man, the myth, helps me tape over the seams and staples in the Intello. One of the many jobs he’s been kind enough to help me get done. We’d be so far behind schedule without all of his help.

on plank — *View from above what will be the basement stairwell while installing the Intello on the ceiling.*

installing Intello on the ceiling around the basement opening — *Almost finished installing the Intello — saved the hardest part for last.*

This was a nice moment, being able to look back and see the Intello completely installed. It’s almost a shame that we have to cover it with drywall.

Intello on ceiling long view — *Intello installed and taped.*

2×6 Service Core

A design goal for the ceiling was to keep mechanicals, like HVAC and electric, on the conditioned side of the ceiling air barrier. By doing this, we avoid having to insulate any ductwork for HVAC, or air sealing and insulating around ceiling lights. In effect, we completely isolate the attic, making its sole purpose (apart from ventilating our “cold roof” assembly) holding our blown-in cellulose insulation (this set-up makes it much easier to air seal the ceiling and get the insulation right — at least based on the projects I’ve read about). In order to do this, we created a service chase, or service core, with 2×6’s:

service chase w: first couple of 2x6's — *First couple of 2×6’s going in.*

In addition to serving as a space to safely pass mechanicals through, the only other job for the 2×6’s is to hold up the ceiling drywall. The roof trusses, directly above each 2×6, are still carrying the load of the roof and stabilizing the perimeter walls.

Simpson L-Bracket w: fasteners — *Simpson bracket and fasteners we used to attach the 2×6’s to the underside of the trusses.*

Here’s what the 2×6’s looked like with their brackets once everything was installed.

close up service chase w: bracket-screws — *Service core 2×6 with bracket and Simpson SDS bolts.*

OB and my wife were invaluable as they helped me cut and install all the 2×6’s.

We installed the brackets first, before raising up each individual 2×6 to fit against the brackets.

jesus helping me install 2x6's — *Jesus helping me install the 2×6’s.*

Since the brackets were directly attached underneath a roof truss, we were able to keep the 2×6’s fairly straight, even when an individual board itself was less than perfectly straight.

service chase w: just brackets — *Brackets installed before the 2×6’s go up.*

A feisty Robin kept trying to set up a nest on our partition wall (our windows and doors aren’t in yet). Apparently she believed we had created an elaborate bird house just for her. It took almost a week before she finally gave up — but not before starting multiple nests in multiple spots along the wall.

bird nest — *Robin making one of her many attempts at a nest on our partition wall.*

Along the outside walls, at the top of the wall assembly, there was a gap that we utilized for maintaining continuous insulation. This meant there will be no break in our thermal layer going from the blown-in cellulose insulation in the attic to the monolithic layer of Roxul Comfortboard 80 (2″ + 2″) that will be on the exterior side of the Zip sheathing.

trusses - Intello - Roxul — *Adding Roxul at the top of our wall.*

layer of Roxul at top of outside wall — *Close-up of the Roxul going in on top of the top plates.*

Intello - Roxul - wall — *Another view after the Roxul has been installed.*

long view from west window w: service core complete — *Marking further progress: Intello and 2×6’s installed.*

Once the 2×6’s were up, we had to install our pieces of 1×4 in order to prevent the 24″ of blown-in cellulose that will be going into the attic from causing the Intello to sag.

The plans called for the 1×4’s to be installed right after the Intello but before the 2×6’s, which would have been a lot easier and quicker, but, unfortunately, the GC’s we fired installed the interior walls too high, making this impossible.

Here’s what it should’ve looked like if we could’ve done Intello and then the 1×4’s (photos courtesy of 475 HPBS) before installing the 2×6 service core:

475 Intello w: furring strips on ceiling

Having no choice but to methodically cut each 1×4 to fit between each set of 2×6’s, OB was nice enough to help me get it done.

close up of partition wall w: service core and 1x4 cross battens

Installing the 1×4’s between the 2×6’s began with some experimentation:

service core w: cross battens and L-brackets — *Using L-brackets at first — it proved too time consuming and expensive.*

After experimenting with a finish nailer (too easy to miss and penetrate the Intello), we eventually settled on Deckmate screws. It was definitely a laborious process, but eventually we got into a rhythm and got it done, although we wouldn’t recommend doing it this way — way too time consuming.

ceiling w: 1x4 battens — *Completing our service core.*

We tried to keep the 1×4’s about 16″ apart, which should prevent any significant sagging in the blown-in cellulose from occurring (I’ll post photos once the cellulose has been put in the attic).

A lot of blood, sweat, and tears have gone into completing this house.

Here’s some proof:

In trying to avoid puncturing the Intello, I would hold a couple of fingers on the back side of the 2×6, feeling for any screws that would come through on a bad angle. A couple of times I drove a screw too quickly and paid the price.

looking up at Intello and service core from basement — *View of the service core from the basement. Installing the 2×6’s and the 1×4’s also required walking the plank a few more times.*

installing ceiling w: OB — *OB making my life easier as I work on the plank installing the 1×4’s.*

Maintaining the Intello After Installation

Unfortunately, there was a delay in getting shingles on our roof, due in large part to our first disorganized and incompetent plumber (again, more on this later). Consequently, we were in the awkward position of having our ceiling air barrier and service core all set up but every time it rained we still had a leaking roof. In most areas it wasn’t a big deal, but in about a dozen spots rain would collect and, in some cases, cause a bulge in the Intello as it held up the weight of the captured water. To relieve and ultimately to avoid this pressure, I cut small slits in the Intello where the rain would consistently collect.

small hole in Intello for rain before shingles — *Slit in the Intello to allow rain water to fall through, marked with a red marker for easy identification later.*

Once the shingles were finally on, I went back and found all of these slits and taped over them with the Tescon Vana.

Tescon Vana covering hole in Intello — *Hole in the Intello covered and air sealed with the Tescon Vana tape.*

We also found a couple of weak spots in the Intello as we installed it, and even later, during the installation of the service core. These spots were marked as well, and they, too, got covered with the Tescon Vana tape just for added insurance against air leakage.

imperfection in the Intello marked for Tescon Vana — *Weak spot, or imperfection, in the Intello. This got covered with Tescon Vana as well.*

After having to fire our GC’s, we couldn’t have kept the project going without the help of family and friends. As awful as some aspects of the build have been, it’s been heartwarming to find people willing to help us see the project through to the end (much more on this later).

2 Cheshire Cats — *Couple of Cheshire cats — clearly up to no good — helping us to keep the job site clean.*

Category: Passive House Tags: chicago passive house, diy passive house, green building, Illinois Passive House, midwest passive house, passive house blog, passive house design

12:32 am - July 16, 2017 - Eric Whetzel

Insulation Baffles vs. Insulation Chutes

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Our structure was designed with a “cold roof”, or ventilated roof assembly. By having continuous ventilation in our north and south soffits, with a ridge vent on the top of our roof, outdoor air can freely enter the soffits and exit out the roof’s ridge vent. The benefits of this set-up are explained in these comprehensive articles:

BSC – Roof Design

All About Attic Venting

FHB Roof Venting

Here is the product we’re going to use in the soffits:

Cor-A-Vent

In order to make this kind of roof assembly work, insulation baffles or insulation chutes are necessary, especially if the attic is going to have any kind of significant amount of insulation, in particular blown-in insulation that could potentially move around and block off the soffit ventilation from the attic, thereby short circuiting air flow from the soffits through the roof’s ridge vent.

When it was time to install the insulation baffles, I assumed I could just go to one of the big box stores and (thankfully for a change) just buy something off the shelf. It didn’t work out that way.

At Home Depot they had Durovent (a foam based insulation baffle) and an AccuVent baffle (black plastic). Both were a disappointment.

I didn’t buy the Durovent — even just seeing it on the shelf and handling it in the store, it looked cheap and unimpressive. It was hard to imagine it holding up under the pressure of any significant amount of blown-in insulation pressing against it.

The AccuVent product Home Depot carried only worked in a straight line (no curve to wrap over the back of the Zip sheathing at the top of the wall assembly), ideal for a cathedral ceiling application. After looking around online, I found this other AccuVent product:

Seeing the video made me think it would be an easy installation, but once I had the product on the job site and tried to install one, the realization hit that they would be a pain to properly air seal, and again, I had concerns about blown-in insulation pressing up against it for years.

AccuVent out of the box — *AccuVent on the job site. It’s hard not to look at these foam/plastic baffles, regardless of brand, and not think: “flimsy”.*

Here’s the specific product info:

And here are the installation instructions:

When I realized the AccuVent wasn’t right for our project, it was a moment of, “Uh-oh, now what the hell do I do?”

I assumed there must be a sturdier plastic baffle, but I never found one. Instead, I came across this article:

Site Built Baffles

As usual, GBA — had already addressed the issue.

It was nice to have a solution, but I also knew it would be time consuming and back breaking (also neck straining) — the only thing worse than working with sheet goods is working with sheet goods above your head on a ladder. Nevertheless, I would sleep better knowing it was panels of OSB rubbing up against 2 feet of blown-in cellulose insulation rather than sheets of flimsy plastic. Long term solutions do wonders for peace of mind.

first chute installed and sealed — *First insulation chute installed.*

I used small, cut pieces of 2×4 (six per OSB sheet) as a screwing base (visible in the photo below) to install each insulation chute — screwing the blocks first to the roof trusses, then, after putting the OSB into place, screwing through the OSB and into the bottom of each 2×4.

close up looking down chute before sealing — *The blocks were first screwed to the trusses, before each sheet of OSB was attached to the 2×4 blocks from below.*

Then, after installing each sheet of OSB, I went around the perimeter sealing all the gaps. Here’s the product I used for that:

close up Quad Max product label — *The OSI sealant I used to cover the gaps.*

Here’s what the chutes looked like once they were installed on the south side of the house:

And this is what the chutes looked like when completed at the top of the Zip sheathing:

sealed top of wall w: sealed insulation chute

There weren’t always sizable gaps where the OSB chute met the top of the Zip, but when there were, this was pretty typical:

unsealed warped chute before sealing w: small piece

Same area after adding a thin piece of OSB to help cover the gap, and then sealing the area with the OSI sealant:

Looking down a chute before sealing with the OSI:

Same view after sealing up the gaps:

I showed up on a rainy morning to continue installing the chutes, and this picture shows the dramatic before and after view of without chutes and with chutes installed and sealed:

blue glow before and after chutes — *On the left: no chutes and light visible through the soffit. On the right: chutes installed and completely sealed.*

Here’s a long view of the chutes:

epic long view of insulation chutes — *49 installed with one to go (far left corner).*

insulation chutes in corner — *Final chute installed and sealed.*

insulation chutes from outside — *View from outside showing the ends of some of the OSB chutes peeking over the edge of the soffit.*

close up of OSB insulation chutes from outside — *Closer view of the top of the Zip sheathing meeting the OSB chute.*

Once the chutes were installed, I was finally ready to put the Intello on the ceiling, which thankfully I didn’t have to install by myself.

[December, 2020 Update: If you’re trying to avoid the time and materials associated with installing site-built plywood chutes, a newer (at least to me) product like Smart Baffles is probably worth considering:

https://dciproducts.com/smartbaffle/

Although, as with any new product, it’s worth the time and effort to do a mock up, in this case with a roof assembly (much like the one shown in their video), along with a partial wall assembly, in order to see how the product works (evaluate the durability of the product, ease of installation, final fit, etc.), especially where (and how) the baffle will meet up with the top of the outside walls. With a mock up, you can avoid (or work through) any issues with the product before you’re on the job site actually installing them (when time and money really matters).]

Category: Passive House Tags: chicago passive house, green building, Illinois Passive House, midwest passive house, passive house blog, passive house roof, site built baffles

2:57 pm - July 4, 2017 - Eric Whetzel

Roof Details (Air Sealing #3)

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Top of Wall and Roof Connection

Once the wall assembly details were figured out, and our ceiling set-up detailed, the transition between the two became the next challenge. In other words, how to carry the air barrier over the top of our exterior walls.

I found this helpful article by Chris Corson from The Journal of Light Construction:

An Affordable-Passive-House (pdf)

Using a waterproof peel-and-stick membrane to wrap over the top of the wall (going from exterior sheathing — in our case 7/16″ Zip sheathing — to interior side of the top plates) seemed like the easiest way to maintain a continuous air barrier at the wall-to-roof junction. The membrane would also have a nice air sealing gasket effect after the trusses were set in place.

I also found this excellent Hammer and Hand video on YouTube (one of their many helpful videos):

Wall-to-Roof Air Barrier

Also, by being able to carry the Zip sheathing up above the top plate of the wall, hugging the bottom of the trusses, meant our 4″ of Roxul Comfortboard 80 over the Zip sheathing would rise above the top of our walls, so that thermally we would be protected going from the exterior walls to the attic, which will be filled with 24″ of blown-in cellulose — making our thermal envelope continuous for the whole house: under the basement slab – exterior of foundation – exterior walls – attic (except for one small gap at the footing-slab-foundation wall connection, which I talk about in a separate post: Foundation Details).

A high R-value wall meets up with a high R-value attic, with no thermal bridging, making our thermal layers continuous. When this is combined with an equally air-tight structure, conditioned air cannot easily escape — resulting in a significantly lower energy demand for heating and cooling (and therefore lower utility bills), and added comfort for the occupants.

Here’s a nice illustration from Fine Homebuilding magazine showing a similar set-up:

I tried using rolls of conventional peel-and-stick window flashing membrane, purchased from Home Depot and Mendards, but they performed poorly, even in unseasonably warm temperatures for February in Chicago.

I then switched to Grace Ice and Water Shield, normally used as a roofing underlayment along the first 3-6′ of roof edge.

grace-ice-water-shield — *Purchased this box at Home Depot.*

Since it came on a long roll about 4′ wide, my wife and I cut it down to a series of strips that could more easily be applied to the wall-top plate connection.

While the sun was out, the Grace membrane worked fairly well, especially when pressure was applied with a J-Roller.

grace-vycor-in-the-sun-ii — *Grace Ice and Water Shield applied to the top of our wall — covering the Zip sheathing/top plate connection.*

Unfortunately, the sun and warmer temperatures didn’t stick around long enough for me to finish.

sealing top of wall w: Grace Vycor in sun — *Using a J-Roller to get the Grace Ice and Water Shield to stick better.*

grace-vycor-in-the-sun — *This Simpsons sky didn’t last long. In a matter of hours it was back to rainy, gray, and cold — typical Chicago winter weather for February.*

When the weather went gray and cold again, we started to use a heat gun to warm up the Grace membrane, which had turned stiff and nearly useless in the cold.

wagner-heat-gun — *Wagner heat gun for warming up the Grace membrane.*

After wasting a lot of time and effort trying to pre-heat the Grace membrane before installing it, I finally relented and switched to the much more expensive (but also much more effective) Extoseal Encors tape from Pro Clima. Where the Grace membrane lost virtually all of its stickiness, the Extoseal Encors stuck easily and consistently, with the J-Roller just helping it to lay flatter and more securely.

It was a case of trying to be penny wise but ending up pound foolish. Looking back, I would gladly pay an extra $300 in materials to have those hours of frustration back (including the time it took to run to the store and buy the heat gun, which turned out to be ineffective anyway).

installing Extoseal Encors on top of wall cloudy — *Finishing up the top of the wall.*

After finishing sealing the Zip sheathing-top plate connection on all the outside perimeter walls over the weekend, it was time for the trusses to be installed.

Trusses

Zach asked me to stand by the front door rough opening and give the crane operator hand signals. It was a fun way to watch the roof take shape.

first-truss-swinging-into-place — *First truss swinging into place.*

trusses-going-in-from-inside — *Sammy, Zach, and Billy (out of view to the right), landing and setting the trusses.*

Once the trusses neared the front door, Zach could signal the crane operator himself, so I was able to get some shots from just outside the construction fence.

starting-garage-trusses — *Sammy, Zach, and Billy landing trusses on the garage.*

long-view-of-crane-and-house-east-side — *Setting the trusses on the garage. The basic silhouette of the house starts to come to life.*

Once the trusses were on, and the guys had a chance to install the final top row of Zip sheathing (up to the bottom of the trusses on the exterior side of the wall), I could move inside to seal all the connections from the interior.

Top of Wall (Interior)

Because of the cold, the Grace membrane was beginning to lift at the edges in certain spots, so just to make sure it had a nice long-term seal, I went around the perimeter of the house and used a layer of Tescon Vana (3″ wide) tape to seal the edge of the Grace membrane.

sealed top plate from interior — *Trusses sitting on Grace and Extoseal Encors (other sections of top plate), with the final, top row of Zip sheathing sealed to the trusses with HF Sealant.*

The picture below shows all the connections involved: top of Zip sheathing meeting the roof trusses and the top plate of the outside wall:

view of top row of Zip sheathing 1 — *Looking up at the top row of Zip sheathing attached to the outside edge of the raised heel trusses.*

Shingles

We had to wait for shingles for quite some time. First we had to fire our GC’s, and then I had to find a roofer and a plumber (to make penetrations through the roof before the shingles went on). But before the plumber could even start, I had to get the Intello installed on the ceiling. And even before that, I had to figure out the insulation baffles, which I’ll talk about in a separate post.

It took awhile to find a roofer since they would have to make three separate trips for a relatively small job. The first trip was just to set down the Grace Ice and Water Shield at the edges of the roof, along with a synthetic roof underlayment (the consensus was that typical roofing felt wouldn’t hold up to long term exposure). As it turned out, it took weeks before the plumbers made their penetrations through the roof sheathing (literally the day the roofers showed up — a long, horrible story in and of itself that I’ll save for later).

synthetic underlayment at roof peak — *Synthetic underlayment covering the ridge line until the shingles and a ridge vent can be installed.*

The second trip out was to install the shingles on the roof of the house, while the third trip to install shingles on the garage roof could only happen after the Roxul on the exterior of our Zip sheathing was installed (in order to make a proper sealed connection between the wall of the house and the garage roof).

There weren’t many roofers willing to work with our unique Passive House sequencing, but our roofer was kind enough to take it on.

Grace ice and water shield rolling up after wind — *Grace Ice and Water Shield rolling up on itself after the wind got ahold of it.*

Unfortunately, the day after the guys installed the Grace membrane and the synthetic underlayment, we had a cold, blustery day. Once the wind grabbed the Grace membrane, the membrane rolled up on itself, turning it into a real mess.

Because of our recent past bad experiences with general contractors, I just assumed I was on my own, so I spent a couple of hours putting down new layers of the Grace membrane. When Peterson roofing found out, they were shocked I did it myself, and assured me I could’ve called them and they would’ve come back out. We were so used to people not following through, that low expectations meant it didn’t even occur to me to call them.

We initially were going to use Certainteed’s Landmark TL shingle, which mimics a cedar shake shingle profile, but Armando from Midwest Roofing Supply in Schaumburg, Illinois was kind enough to take the time to walk me through the options available, and explained that because our roofline isn’t steep, only the neighbors from their second story windows would get to appreciate the effect. He recommended we save some money, while not giving up on quality or durability, and go with the Landmark Pro product.

shingles being installed w: vents — *Shingles going down on the roof of the house.*

The shingles went on quickly since we have a relatively small and simple roof. In addition to the aesthetic leap the shingles made on the appearance of the structure, it also meant I didn’t have to go around cleaning up the subfloor every time it rained.

Although the synthetic underlayment worked pretty well at keeping the rain out, if there was significant wind combined with rain, the water easily found its way under the underlayment where it could then drip and fall on the subflooring below — pretty depressing showing up to the job site after a hard rain knowing I was going to spend the first hour just cleaning up and looking for leaks.

roofers shingling south side — *Seeing this felt like a tremendous amount of progress was being made. It also meant an end to our roof leaks on the interior.*

shingle installation progressing — *Shingles going on quickly. Only two penetrations through the roof — main waste stack and radon.*

After they cut the opening for the ridge vent, but before it was installed, I managed to get this shot from inside:

attic just before ridge vent installed — *Attic as cathedral.*

Category: Passive House Tags: air sealing a passive house, chicago passive house, diy passive house, green building, Illinois Passive House, midwest passive house, passive house blog, passive house design