INTERNATIONAL PASSIVE HOUSE DAYS, in which Passive House owners open their buildings to the public, takes place Nov. 9-11. Hammer & Hand invites you to visit Glasswood on Nov. 9-10. View the heat-recovery ventilator and ductwork, mini- split heat pump and heat-pump hot-water heater, which were left exposed specifi cally for teaching opportunities. For more informa- tion , visit the following page on Hammer & Hand's website: bit.ly/RKG29s. Learn more about International Passive House Days at www. passivehouse-international.org.
ONE OF HAGERMAN’S GOALS WITH GLASS- WOOD IS TO DEMONSTRATE THAT ACHIEVING THE PASSIVE HOUSE STANDARD—ESPECIALLY ON A COMMERCIAL RETROFIT—IS EASIER THAN ONE MIGHT THINK.
3,000 square feet, was a prime candidate for a Passive House retrofi t because it was in a very dilapidated state. “The entire perimeter of the building was rotten through the rim joist,” Hagerman remembers. “We had to build the fl oor system on the fi rst fl oor all the way out to the exterior sheathing, and then we were able to take out most of the interior walls and replace them with beams. We were essentially left with two very large open spaces that we could improve upon.” Despite almost starting from scratch,
Hagerman still encountered challenges with
retrofi tting the space. He and Thomas decid- ed to make the second fl oor of the building the home performance and building science division’s offi ce; the fi rst fl oor would house Xico, a Mexican restaurant Thomas co-owns. Because of the challenges presented by the high loads of the restaurant and com- mercial cooking equipment, it was decided early on that they would not seek certifi ca- tion for the fi rst fl oor. However, the same Passive House principles were adopted and applied to Xico, making it an exceptionally high-performing restaurant space. (For an explanation about Xico’s high-performance characteristics, visit the following page on Hammer & Hand’s website: bit.ly/Se8MDd.) In addition, a parapet wall threatened
to derail the Passive House airtightness plans for the second fl oor. “I didn’t have any cost-effective way to retrofi t up and over the existing parapet wall and roof dia- phragm with the airtight layer,” Hagerman remembers. “Retrofi tting an airtightness layer through the existing parapet wall would have been extremely challenging, so I was really stumped until I realized I should simply move the airtight layer to the inside of the existing framing and frame a service cavity inboard of that.”
THE DETAILS Hagerman describes the 1,400-square-foot second-fl oor Passive House space as simple with 10 large windows and a large concrete fl oor. The 12-inch-thick wall construction from the outside is constructed with siding, a rainscreen, a layer of 60# paper, a layer of fi berglass-mat gypsum panels over 2-inch- thick expanded-polystyrene (EPS) insulation and a 3/4-inch structural sheathing CDX plywood over the existing 2- by 4-inch walls. A layer of 1/2-inch-thick oriented strand board (OSB) and air-sealing tape was placed on the inside face of the existing framing and then another 2- by 4-inch wall assem-