Good Building Score: 47

Recommendation: Nopal Favorite

Our heroic labeling is reserved for special recipes. These require careful planning and a skilled team. When done correctly, they deliver ultimate performance across the board. However, they do cary extra risk due to the extreme insulation levels. These aren’t for the beginner team.

Woodfiber insulation has an ideal thermal diffusivity for climates with large day to night temperature swings. This assembly fills a deep open-webbed truss of at least 12” with Blown-In Woodfiber Insulation, protected on the interior with a Vapor Variable Membrane. It then goes the extra mile with an exterior ventilated metal roof as a belt and suspenders to allow moisture drying in both directions.

The ventilated roof assembly helps keep exterior moisture out during all seasons. Ideally these assemblies have a 3:12 or greater pitch to allow the use of a Mid-Permeability Exterior Membrane to allow cavity moisture to make its way out during winter, rather than only summer interior drying. With a lower than 3:12 pitch roof most teams go with a Non-Breathable Exterior Membrane , trading winter cavity drying for extra protection from exterior bulk water.

An interior service cavity contains electrical and plumbing lines to reduce the number of penetrations through the Vapor Variable Membrane.