How to Make an Old Leaky Masonry Row House Airtight

The historic masonry row house is a common contributor to the character in many cities and small towns. When renovating them, we must not only look to concerns of historic preservation but be sure to make them as energy efficient as possible and maximize their climate impact for the better. Luckily, we can make our historic buildings very energy efficient while retaining their essential historic fabric.

We’ve developed comprehensive guidelines to historic masonry retrofits as part of our Smart Enclosure series. Here, in this post, we’ll take a focused look at achieving Passive House levels of airtightness when undertaking retrofits, in the following order:

• Rundown through the critical areas that airtightness must address

• Discuss locating inboard vs. outboard airtightness

• Inventory the details, materials and methods to address each area and location

• A reminder about blower-door testing

• Concluding with emphasis on continuity

Continue reading in the original 475 blog post.