Roof overhangs are an important component of the whole passive house strategy: keep the sun from hitting the facade during summer, let the sun help heat the house during winter. In the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) spreadsheet, each window not only includes size and orientation, but also overhang depth and position. This allows the heat gains to be calculated accurately throughout the year. However, this only works if the value entered in the spreadsheet is correct.

I was on a family trip to Norway and Portugal for two weeks. We got updates and handled some house questions while traveling, but it’s good to be back and see the progress with my own eyes. A lot has happened. Roof We have a roof! As the roof is at a low angle (4°), TPO works really well. We looked into a standing seam metal roof, but it would have been twice the cost, which was not worth it for a roof that’s mostly hidden.

Lots of progress in the last week. The walls are now complete; the last panel was a very tight fit. Interior walls Meanwhile, the interior walls are being built: first assembled on the floor, then raised to vertical. And the roof trusses have arrived. Airtight membrane The airtight membrane on the outside gets taped to the waterproof layer that went underneath the base plate. The membrane continues underneath the ring beam to be added on top of the walls, and then taped to the membrane underneath the roof, making the whole house as airtight as possible.