Sealing the Ceiling
Attention to Detail on the Kansas City Passive House
We recently sealed up the envelope at the Beacon Hill High Performance Home. Using Zip tape and OSB, we created the airtight layer in the ceiling. This carefully sealed layer will help to ensure a comfortable temperature is maintained inside the home.
A traditional home isn't sealed in this fashion. The air you’re paying to heat in the winter and cool during the summer is escaping through holes in your ceiling, to the attic, and out the vents.
Look up at the ceiling wherever you're reading this. What do you see? A ceiling fan. An air vent. A light fixture. Each of these essential items was installed by poking holes into the ceiling, allowing air to easily escape.
Once the ceiling layer is created and the seams between boards are sealed up with Zip tape, we create an additional layer to serve as a cavity for electrical wiring and space for LED wafer can lights.
Early on in the design process we make sure there’s room for HVAC within the envelope as well so no penetrations to the airtight envelope are necessary later in the process.
After all, it's not an airtight envelope if you have to poke holes in it.
