What an experience we’ve had following along with the progress of architect Kyle Barber’s journey building a fully certified passive house. Check out our previous blogs here: Part one, Part two, and Part three.
Kyle’s home recently passed the rigorous Phius (Passive House Institute) sanctioned blower door test; a certified diagnostic designed to measure a structures airtightness while ensuring that it meets Phius’s stringent energy-efficiency standards. The test is done both during the construction process and again post-construction.
Following this milestone, the Barber’s hosted a Phius Alliance New York tour of their in-progress home, giving attendees a firsthand look at building a high-performance passive house from the owner’s perspective. Town officials, Phius verifiers, members and a team of Kyle’s co-workers gathered to share information, learn about the tenets of passive house construction and share in the joy of collaboration.
In the midst’s of all of this positive progress we caught up with Kyle to get an update on where he is and what comes next in his home building process. “There are a bunch of checklists and co-requisites as part of passive house that we have to meet. It's Energy Star, EPA WaterSense, EPA Indoor Air Plus, and DOE Energy Star Zero Ready Home and we just got our design certification. Which means they have reviewed our design and determined that we designed it to meet passive house.”
“The next step is through the construction process; my verifier will confirm that the house is being constructed the way it was designed so that we can verify that the building will perform the way that we assumed in the energy model. After the construction's done and that verification process is done, that's when you get the actual construction certification. That's the last step, then you get the plaque and you're completely certified.”
While the plaque marks a culmination of the Barber’s journey, the real story begins after the certification by transforming a passive house into a home.
Kyle says that when the drywall is completed, paint will follow, and then soon after Engineered Clean Ash flooring, crafted by our sister company Pioneer Millworks, will be installed. “Then probably once we're done with flooring, the big push will be exterior siding.”
After the dust has settled, all of the mechanicals including heating and cooling, and appliances will get booted up to get the air circulating and to ensure that everything's functioning at a safe and optimal level.
“There's a little bit of trim to be done, like interior doors and trim. We are a little bit behind on that, but that'll happen. We've also got a couple of areas where we are going to do Oak accent walls, and those will be Raked Oak also from Pioneer Millworks.”
After all of the planning, construction, late nights, and hard work, the final steps for the Barber’s passive house will be strictly for family fun. A pool will be going in the yard just off of the covered porch area, and then the biggest priority … a brand-new playground for the kids.
