A house without thermal bridges

Cold bridges - a big problem. You can check for problem areas in your home, using a thermal imager. Several dozen cold bridges have been found in almost every building. How to make the perimeter of the house is equally warm? How to reduce the number of vulnerabilities in the house with the greatest heat loss? Read more about it in this article.

Who is to blame, or common errors

Any member of the construction process may be guilty and is neglected in lower quality results. At first, for it to pay contractors and managers of construction works, technical supervision of engineers and, in the final version clients.

Unfortunately, the market of country building a lot of hack-builders, who generally are not interested in quality work. For them, it is important to finish the house as soon as possible, because the sooner they do, the faster they will get the money. Superintendents, although notice some irregularities and ask them to fix it, it does not always check whether all is done and fixed.

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Another problem - stupid architects - designers. A majority of homes built just directories, without adaptation to the climatic conditions. Architects, designers think about how to meet the tastes of customers in terms of interior and exterior, and not how to avoid cold bridges. But as customers themselves do not understand the importance of proper project.

In addition, the owners themselves contribute to the emergence of cold bridges because they do not know the basic rules of building energy-efficient homes, self-construction of houses.

But, despite the tragedy of the situation, there is a solution. He is deeply rooted in the intricacies of building technology, supervision and vigilant monitoring of all phases of construction. Since many owners now have to follow the construction process, the information provided in this article will be useful for them. Consider how to solve cold bridges, upwards from the foundation to the roof.

Thermal imaging survey of a country house

Description of thermal bridges

cold bridge - a piece of the plane of the outer house, which is characterized by a lower, that is the worst insulated than its neighbors. The energy efficient homes is believed that at these locations the heat transfer coefficients greater than 0.30 W / m2- ° C. Cold bridges are highly undesirable, as they cause spot cooling surfaces. Consequently, at these locations can condense wetting the structural or insulating materials, and may even cause fungus and mold. And it always leads to a significant loss of heat energy.

The weakest part of the house, where thermal bridges often are formed:
1. Joints foundation walls with the floor of the ground floor;
2. The joints of foundation walls with bearing exterior walls of the building;
3. The joints of the outer bearing wall along the roof;
4. Window openings;
5. Opening the door;
6. Balcony slabs;
7. Decorative design elements;
8. Any site of attachment of various structural parts of the building to the box.

It seems cold bridges along the perimeter of the frame on a photograph taken imager

cold bridges are clearly visible in the window openings, at the intersection of the wall and the floor, walls and ceiling junction.

Weak areas of the house

Possible locations of cold bridges are structural units and all joints of external elements, made of different materials. Basically this compound with a base plate, a foundation slab and the outer wall, window and door openings, with compounds of the roof wall. The list includes a balcony, the edges of the walls, attaching metal brackets points, while those for TV antennas. cold bridges can be avoided, bearing in mind that the insulation applied on the outside, must be continuous.

Compound foundation wall with the first floor

Building a house on the conventional technology involves the construction of the foundation, erection and wall insulation and waterproofing. Individual structural elements are the exterior walls of the first floor, which may be single, double or three layers. On the ground floor in energy-efficient homes should always be insulated, whether heated or not. The junction of these three elements must be designed and made so that no cold bridge originated.

In the next article we will see exactly:
- Linear or spot cold bridges;
- The joint foundation walls and floors on the ground;
- Thermal insulation of walls of foundation;
- Installation of windows without thermal bridges;
- Compound of the outer wall with the plane of the roof;

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