"External Thermal Insulation Composite System (ETICS) being added to a house in Dundrum."
This case study is one of a series produced by www.wallinsulation.ie to illustrate aspect of external Wall Insulation projects.
Before applying External Insulation in Dundrum
This Semi-detached house in Dundrum, with a semi brick front was getting a total makeover. As you can see from this set of pictures, the garage was converted and there were several other changes to the house also.
The least intrusive of all the changes was adding a layer of External Insulation (ETICS) to the outside of the house. All that is required is water and electricity and the ETICS staff do not need to enter your home.
ETICS makes building new walls very simple, just a single leaf of blocks is required for strength, plaster board on the inside and insulation plus render on the outside.
During the ETICS project in Dundrum
The first step is to apply the insulation, typically insulation is attached using both an adhesive and an insulated bolt. This combination of chemical and mechanical fixing is to ensure that the system stays in place regardless of the circumstances. You will notice that the alarm box stays in place on this Dundrum house during the whole operation. Even though the facade moved forward by about 120 mm in this project (which is almost 5 inches) we still keep all the essential services running during the upgrade. The presence of ESB, NTL and Eircom cables as well as pipe work and gates etc are normal in ETICS projects and we are more than capable of handling these items so they look better than new when we are finished. .
After External Insulation in Dundrum
While this house was getting its total makeover the windows were also upgraded to “A rated” windows. This gave us the householder the opportunity to have the new windows fitted flush with the old facade, this meant that there were no reveals when the windows were first installed.
The reveals that you can now see in these pictures we created from insulation and covered with a render finish. By eliminating the old reveals we totally eliminate that source of thermal bridging. Connecting the well insulated frame of the windows to the ETICS system means that there is a continuous thermal barrier all around your home protecting you from the cold.
Finish off with ETICS
Some people are deeply concerned about the effect of adding 120 mm of insulation and render to one house of a pair in a semi-detached block. Naturally there is lip or a discontinuity between the two houses. In a great many cases this discontinuity matches up with a drain pipe which shields the vertical line. But even when there is no drain pipe this discontinuity is not serious. The human eye has a wonderful way of not noticing this type of detail! For example when you walk out your door and you have ETICS ftted.
This photo was taken to show what exactly a step between two houses due to ETICS, looks like. It also shows the contrast between the old brick and the new facade.
Once these Insulation systems are in place clients very quickly stop noticing any cosmetic changes on the outside and start enjoy the warmth of their own homes.
Click here to return to examples of external insulation projects in the Dublin Area.
If you would like to learn more about External Wall Insulation please contact us now to learn how your home can benefit..