Closing in the Passive House - Putting on the Roof

Kilbroney Timber Frame have made great progress in the last 2 weeks. The roof is now going on, we've decided to go for a warm roof, which is unlike most Irish roofs (where the insulation is on the flat of the room ceiling) in having the insulation on the slope at rafter level. In addition the build is being made windtight ( as evidenced by all the tape) using Siga products and the roof will have a sarking board ( 9mm panelvent, a vapour diffuse wood fibre sheet) to decrease wind infiltration into the structure. Warm roofs, wind tightness and sarking board are very common techniques in Europe and Scotland but are not common in Ireland yet - I strongly suspect they will as they dramatically improve building thermal performance quite cheaply.We have used Panelvent in preference to other products due to its wind resistance and ability to release any condensation that occur ( i.e. breathability) rather than trapping it like some products like OSB do. in addition the frame is covered in breather memebrane on the outside and is windtight using siga products.

Also we're looking at the plumbing, heating and bathrooms to finalise the requirementd and get equipment and sanitaryware ordered. The windows arrive in mid February at which stage the building will be weather tight & internal works will start at pace. We even started putting in some plants last week as this is prime planting season.

Also work will be starting on running services - gas, power, comms, foul, water, stormwater - over the next few weeks now that much of the heavy vehicle movement is over and hence damage to newly buried services will hopefully be limited. Will be interesting to see how busy the services providers are at the moment & how much they will try to charge!

Passive House Self Build : Snow & Progress

Weather in Ireland in December was obviously fairly poor , now just as we start the new year we are up at tool level with all the main structural walls up and the roof, including slates, due to go up over the next few weeks. We are very happy with the quality of the structure and with the attention to detail being paid to airtightness, this should result in a good airtightness result from the preliminary test in a few months. The initial documents are going to the Passive House Institute in Germany shortly which should help smooth the process.
The windows are now due to arrive in about 6 weeks ( mid Feb) so by the end of February we will have a well sealed building and the initial internal works ( insulation, airtightness, mechanical & electrical ) will start then. A few photos of the last few weeks attached.

As the detailing of how the build is to be completed has been agreed in advance there are less variables on site. However, the protection of the airtight layer, some of which is installed as the frame is being erected, is paramount.