We have been somewhat distracted by the arrival of our first grandchild, born on 27 September, so our blog has taken second place for the past couple of weeks!
Since the steels were installed on 23 September, the Insul Hub team has moved on to install the Damp Proof Course (DPC) on the middle floor. Despite the basement having been fully waterproofed, there is still the chance of capillary action on the walls leading to damp rising upwards, hence the need for the DPC. In addition, the beam and block over the garage area, which has now been installed, has to be treated as if it is an outside wall. we have therefore had to install a membrane across the whole of that roof so that no damp can come in via that route. In due course, this will have 200mm of insulation above it plus 75mm of screed.
Concrete on this occasion was provided by local company Hazell & Jefferies using a volumetric mixer.
There has been considerable effort taken to ensure that any possible thermal bridges across the garage roof and around the cantilevered steels has been eliminated. In simple terms, thermal bridges occur where there is a heat conductive link between the outside of the building envelope and the inside of the envelope. For example, if one of the steels is open to the outside and connects all the way through a wall, this would create a thermal bridge which would allow heat top be dissipated from the inside of the building to the outside environment, this reducing the internal temperature.