Thursday 4 November 2010

All Trussed Up

The whole team rolled up their sleeves to help the adjacent village hall recently by re-decorating the outside of the hall as a thank you for their patience whilst we disrupt their car park and access. Luckily the sun shone, and the brilliant white paint caused several instances of reflected sunburn! There should be some photos on the gallery page.

The build is proceeding well, with the roof trusses going on to plots 1 - 6 and 11 - 14. Plots 7 - 10 will shortly follow. The large overhang on the eaves required for additional shading has been designed in two parts to break up the mass a little and there has been some discussion on site regarding the best fixing methods, but that is all now pressing ahead. We are wondering whether to fit some of the eaves insulation during the roofing process to ensure a quality fit and to make sure there are no gaps.

We had the first of a series of open meetings to show interested parties around on Tuesday, (2nd Nov), and the contractor kindly laid on guided tours after we (Parsons + Whittley) and Inbuilt had given presentations in the village hall on the principals of Passivhaus and their interpretation at Wimbish.

The windows should be arriving soon, and when these are fitted we plan an early pressure test to see how we are doing. You wouldn't believe the discussion around the window fixing detail, although for those who have built Passiv before, you probably would! The remaining membranes, tapes and grommets all need to be fixed pre-plaster so that we can detect any weak spots in the strategy.

Weekly design meetings on the site are helping to resolve issues before they arise, although the tea and biscuit supply to these meetings is taking far too low a priority in my view.


Chris Parsons
Parsons + Whittley Architects

Tuesday 2 November 2010

UK Passivhaus Open Days

The Wimbish Passivhaus development will be open on Friday 12th November as part of the first ever UK Passivhaus Open Days.

The construction site will be open for pre-booked visits at the following times: 11am, 12noon, 2pm and 3pm.

Advance booking only through Jane Barnes Jane.Barnes@davislangdon.com

Visitors will need to bring their own safety equipment (boots and hard hats).