BUILDING FABRIC 53
RETHINKING THERMAL EFFICIENCY
Mark Bowman of Marmox explains why addressing cold bridging has become more important than ever for specifi ers in the housebuilding sector.
E
ven with plans to utilise land in the so called “Grey Belt,” the new Government will undoubtedly fi nd it very tough to achieve its ambitions to build 1.5 million new homes during the next fi ve years: with a shortage of skilled labour as well as many types of materials, compounded by ever greater emphasis on cutting energy losses in the quest to hit net zero. The construction industry, then, must embrace technologies which offer answers to multiple challenges: simplifying the build process while ensuring the continuity of insulation across the outer envelope. Undoubtedly, wall and window performance have improved dramatically over recent decades, but getting the junction details right has remained stubbornly diffi cult since the BRE fi rst identifi ed the issue in its 1969 document
‘Avoiding Risks,’ with the wall-fl oor interface being the fi rst focus as most projects get out of the ground. Fail to deal adequately with the problem of thermal bridging, and the penalty is not just an unquantifi ed increase in the annual cost of heating a home, but also almost inevitable highly visible effects along the interior walls – and potentially life-threatening medical risks for building occupants. “Avoiding Risks” – like other publications cataloguing common short-comings with traditional construction techniques – contains numerous illustrations of the manner in which thermal bridging can cause condensation to form on plasterwork and other internal fi nishes, in turn leading to black mould disfi guring the surfaces and as the introduction of the Social Housing
Regulation Bill in 2023 underlined, the effect is not just visual, as mould growth releases dangerous microscopic spores into the living environment, presenting a particular danger to those living with asthma and other respiratory conditions. Named in memory of the tragic death of a young boy whose family lived in seriously substandard accommodation, Awaab’s Law stands as a chilling reminder not only to social housing landlords, but all property managers and the wider building industry: that poor construction practice can have the most serious consequences.
Certainly it is possible to wrap the entire structure in an ‘outsulation’ cocoon, but it is cumbersome and logistically diffi cult to achieve, while if a more traditional approach is sought, the load-carrying capacity of the materials
THE INDUSTRY MUST EMBRACE TECHNOLOGIES WHICH SIMPLIFY THE BUILD PROCESS WHILE ENSURING THE CONTINUITY OF INSULATION ACROSS THE OUTER ENVELOPE
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