Andrew Bulger opened his retrofit Passive House project on Greenpoint ave - the views from the roof are amazing - at the same time on the interior there was much to discuss regarding the challanges of making a brick building airtight.....although bricks and mortar are pretty solid and hard, they leak air like there is no tomorrow (by PH standards) and thus need to be sealed to get anywhere near 1.0ACH. At Greenpoint this is done with a liquid applied WRB - Henry airbloc. The airsealing connections that remained and where visible, were the connections to the plywood window boxes to this brick - a 2" gap still needed to be insulated and sealed - discussions how to do that with tape and membrane after the insulation is installed. The window boxes themselves were the tightest I had ever seen, installation gap of less than 1/8", very impressive.
Remaining unknown is the connection of the brick walls to the roof/ceiling........ The lessons learned was that all first are dificult, and specifically creating a continuous airitightlayer in a gut rehab. It was great to have an open house, to see and share ideas so retrofit passive houses will get tighter and tighter in NYC in the near future.
More info regarding the greenpoint project will be posted here: http://21greenpoint.tumblr.com/
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