Airtightness, Benefits and Purple Stuff

WHATS IS AIRTIGTHNESS

Simply put, Airtightness is the property of a building that prevents air flows through its structure or fabric, i.e. by infiltration – from the outside to the inside, or by leakage – from the inside to the outside. properties can be retained even when subject to wind forces.

Airtightness is an essential part of creating a healthy, comfortable, energy-efficient living environment. In contrast, air leakage is where leaks occur due to gaps and cracks that should not be there in the first place. This can account for up to 50% of all heat losses through the external envelope of a building. There are many factors which can cause air leakage such as poor build design, poor workmanship, or indeed the inappropriate materials used.

VENTILATION?

I believe correct ventilation should used in ALL buildings, not just high-performance ones. It is key to construct buildings which are both airtight and gap free and then introduce a designed and controlled ventilation system, which ensures that adequate fresh clean air is supplied into the house to meet the needs of healthy, comfortable living for its occupants.

WHAT TO DO NEXT?

Here a quick list of making Airtight easy

Design – have the architect design the building with key airtightness details in mind. Keep it simple with the details. Intelligent Membranes have an on-hand Passive Purple detail brochure ready to download in an instant to be used at your disposal.

Build right, build well. -  Once the best design and details have been put in place, Ensure the Passive Purple Airtight details have been carried out correctly by the contractor in charge and ALL contractors on site who interact with the Passive Purple airtightness layer are trained and install their own products correctly. i.e. ensuring all penetrations etc are dealt with in the correct manor and promptly.

Air test - Once at a point of construction where your windows/doors are in and sealed, insulation and Passive Purple Airtight/VCL is in place and all plumbing/electrical works done. Then you will want a Mid-stage air test to check the structure for any unwanted leaks and deviations, before going ahead with the next stage of construction. This test will give you physical evidence and knowledge of performance/Airtight results allowing you to make any amendments (if any) easily do able.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF AIRTIGHTNESS?

-            Most importantly, IMPROVED HEALTH! With the Airtight detail stopping any cold draughts, polluted air and allergy causing substances passing through your home through gaps and leaks in the fabric, the mechanical ventilation then changes the air a certain amount of times per hour (ACH – air changes per hour) taking out any old unclean air and replacing it with fresh, clean, unpolluted air. Making this design twice as effective for your well-being. Also reducing overheating in summer and insulating better in the winter!

-  Reduced energy bills. With minimum heat loss throughout the building fabric, this greatly reduces heating bills for maintaining a certain temperature and costs less to achieve your desired goal.

- Improved Building Durability. Airtightness protects the building from moisture damage such as condensation in the building fabric and mould.

- Improved Acoustics. Air is very effective at transporting sound. Greater levels of airtightness results in a more effective reduction of sound transfer.

- Quality of works, keen eye for detail. With airtightness being a key importance to every trade, the littlest of details don’t get overlooked. Resulting in quality workmanship and mentality throughout the build.

PASSIVE PURPLE!?

Passive Purple is a liquid applied Airtight vapour control membrane. It is Passivhaus and BBA certified, VOC FREE (volatile organic compounds) and certified Radon Barrier.

 BUT…WHY USE PASSIVE PURPLE?

Passive Purple adheres to any form of construction allowing you to achieve maximum results for your desired goal. Once dry Passive Purple forms an extremely tough yet flexible polymer membrane allowing it to move with the building settlement, whilst at the same time being super effective against impact damage, also eliminating the inevitable rips, tears, unstuck tapes, staple holes and large number of repairs you would expect to find on the classic paper membranes. Intelligent Membranes have eradicated the need for paper, tapes and staples which eradicates all the problems that come with it i.e. labour time, large quantity of damage repairs and waste material, effectively saving you money aswell as achieving your goal without the worry of failure. With certified airtight score of 0.03ach, that 20x more than the required 0.6 need for passivhaus and over 200x more required for a normal dwelling.

Now we know what you’re thinking, is it a nasty chemical? Well, No!! passive purple is a VOC FREE water based product. So it’s completely free of any nasty chemicals or fumes…also as a water based product, cleaning your paintbrushes and airless spray device is an easy, no mess task.

Passive Purple is so quick and easy with an airless paint spray device; this fast application method allows a single operative to apply up to 300 m2 per day.

Also adhering to any form of construction its perfect for retrofit!

PASSIVE PURPLE CONTINUED…..

Envelope areas

Passive Purple Liquid Airtight Vapour Control Membrane is applied on all areas of an external envelope of a building including them difficult connections of floor, wall, roof and joist areas. As long as Passive Purple is used on the warm side of the insulation Passive Purple can be applied to either face of the external envelope.

The wall/ceiling/floor connections also need to be made airtight, certainly when the connections are made of two different types of construction materials such as red brick/concrete, steel/concrete or timber/concrete. Different construction materials react differently to changes in humidity, temperature and move at different rates which can lead to small cracks in plaster or another type of finishing, and so creating air leaks that will cause the energy performance of your building to suffer and potentially opening the gateway for damp and mould to appear. Passive purple adheres to all construction types and has a 350% elongation which allows for this movement and settlement. Far exceeding any other form of airtight/VCL membrane

Envelope penetrations & Passive Purple Brush

Pipe and wire penetrations can be the downfall of any airtightness testing. Passive Purple and Passive Purple Brush is applied around objects that penetrate any surface to the external envelope sealing where most tapes and membranes fail.

Have you ever tried taping round and circular objects or anywhere high up/down low and awkward i.e. around tight joist zones and in small workspaces?

Many factors make Airtight tapes and silicones redundant and extremely hard to apply and with no guarantee you’ve done it perfectly.

-         Sharp angles

-         Dusty surfaces

-         Damp surfaces

-         Awkward objects and shapes

-         Substrate material? Brick – aluminium – timber

-         Small spaces

-         High/low areas

Passive Purple Brush is perfect for these exact issues, being a VOC FREE, Fibre-reinforced thicker version Passive Purple, simply whip round any joint, penetration, connection and potential problem areas with ease using a paintbrush and Passive Purple Brush… effectively using it like a filler for anything upto 5mm, larger gaps may require a fast setting cement or airtight foam firstly, then once dry go over with our super robust Airtight brush paint. This will adhere to any combination of substrate changes, will not peel back or come unstuck due to issues raised above like tapes and papers commonly do.

Window/Door reveals

Passive Purple can be applied (and is tested) on different construction materials such as concrete, brick, wood, PVC, aluminium, polyurethane foam and with a coat of Passive Purple/passive purple brush, the whole window/door reveal can be made airtight.

FINAL NOTES:

PASSIVE PURPLE and PASSIVE PURPLE BRUSH is certified to last as long as the substrate its adhered to. Unlike all other product on the market, PASSIVE PURPLE does not drop in performance over time and will be as completely effective in the future as it is in the present.

Mechanical fixings

Unlike paper membranes passive purple welcomes mechanical fixings as it self-seals around the penetration. Whereas a paper membrane will now have a penetration leak spot, (x) times that by 100 and you start to have an issue.

Also being adhered to the substrate, Passive Purple is extremely hard to penetrate and if accidental penetration of our membrane has occurred then the airtightness is still in full effect as the air still can’t travel behind the Airtight barrier. Again, unlike paper, any penetration to the building fabric allowing air leakage will not be allowed to flow behind the membrane and find its way through. Also making this very easy to identify any issue in the pre completion air test stage. Where air may leak due to accidental building fabric damage or uncomplete works. Air flow physically must come from the same air leak location in the membrane as the building fabric. Whereas papers can hide these air leak spots.

Many Thanks, Alex White