The Passive House airtightness bar
The Passive House standard sets airtightness at 0.6 ACH50 or below. Both the European PHI and North American PHIUS programs use this as a hard requirement. Most builds approach it through obsessive tape-and-membrane detailing at every penetration, joint, and corner — a process that's both expensive and hostage to trade execution.
AeroBarrier doesn't replace good detailing — it backstops it. We pressurize the finished envelope, atomize sealant, and the air pressure itself drives the sealant to every micro-leak. The graph stops falling when there's nothing left to seal. That's how a project hits 0.35 ACH50 — better than the standard.
Why builders use us for Passive House
- Backstop, not replacement: your tape and membrane work still does its job — we just close every gap that survived
- Predictable result: graph-based, not "we hope this is tight enough"
- Single day on site: no multi-week tape-detailing marathons
- GreenGuard Gold sealant: healthy-home compatible, no off-gassing
- Documentation: blower-door report you can submit to PHI/PHIUS reviewers
Where this matters most
Passive House projects tend to cluster in the high-performance corner of BC's market: custom estate builds in the Okanagan, intentional-community developments, and architects who want to demo what's possible. We've supported all of these. Whether the project is certified PHI, PHIUS, or "Passive House-grade" without certification, the airtightness math is the same — and the sealing approach is the same.
Cost vs. tape-and-detail
For a typical Passive House-grade single-family build, AeroBarrier is often cost-neutral or cost-positive once you account for: trade hours saved on detail tape, blower-door retest fees avoided, schedule pressure reduced, and the simple fact that an envelope rated by tape is rated by trade execution — and trade execution varies. Pressure-driven sealing doesn't care which sub installed which run.