Project Background
The elements of this project include leading-edge concepts that further establish our waterproofing services offerings and provide the level of expertise and knowledge our clients require. This new four-story building will be one of less than 50 buildings in the United States to incorporate “Passive House Design”.
Passive building comprises a set of design principles used to attain a quantifiable and rigorous level of energy efficiency within a specific quantifiable comfort level. “Maximize your gains, minimize your losses” summarizes the approach. To that end, a passive building is designed and built in accordance with these five building-science principles:
- Employs continuous insulation throughout its entire envelope without any thermal bridging.
- The building envelope is extremely airtight, preventing infiltration of outside air and loss of conditioned air.
- Employs high-performance windows (typically triple-paned) and doors.
- Uses some form of balanced heat- and moisture-recovery ventilation and a minimal space conditioning system.
- Solar gain is managed to exploit the sun’s energy for heating purposes in the heating season and to minimize overheating during the cooling season.
The work we performed included:
- Bituminous Dampproofing on below grade foundation walls
- 29,000 SF – Fluid-applied AVB on exterior plywood sheathing
- Sealing 25,000 LF (approx. 5 miles) of sheathing joints and all fastener heads
- Applied 11,000 LF (approx. 2 miles) Liquid Flashing around openings and transitions
- Caulked 12,000 LF (approx. 2.3 miles) of joints
The project’s testing was extremely successful with airtight results.
