Above Sheathing Ventilation – Part 0: Flat Roofs
Download Article What’s a Ventilated Flat Roof? It is a low-pitched roof (≤10º) with an additional ventilated cavity space below the roof cladding. According to our European colleagues, it provides the opportunity to implement a diffusion open/permeable layer on the outer side of…
Above Sheathing Ventilation – Part 3: Fighting the Sun
Summer brings another set of challenges, but ASV is ready to take on the fierce forces of the Sun!
Above Sheathing Ventilation – Part 2: The Blue Planet
Download Article Earth is just a pale blue dot in the context of our solar system. It’s a pretty wet world, 70% is covered in water. Our planet’s blue colour is the result of all this water reflecting blue wavelengths of light from…
Thermoplastic Elastomer Ether Esters: What are they, how do they work?
Download full article Exterior membranes for roofs and walls by pro clima incorporate a monolithic Thermoplastic Elastomer Ether Ester (TEEE) film. The TEEE forms a state-of-the-art Weather Resistive Barrier (WRB) and when combined with TESCON EXTORA® forms the SOLITEX® system. The membrane, unlike conventional…
Above Sheathing Ventilation – Part 1: Rise of the Cavity
Download Article The Origin Story Every superhero needs one. If Above Sheathing Ventilation (ASV) is the superhero of roofs that work, then how and why did ASV come into being? We have a problem with the way we’ve been doing roofs in Australia and…
Building Science Soup
Download Article Building science is well established in many parts of the world including Europe, Canada and the US. However building science terminology varies between all countries, even those where the specialisation is just emerging among the fields of architecture, engineering and construction. New Zealand…
This is Australia
Mark ‘Cal’ Callaghan recalled that it started as a poem in his notebook, reflecting on the time that his family moved from England to Bundaberg in Queensland, a major culture shock for him. “To lie in sweat, on familiar sheets, In brick veneer on financed…
A Bridge Over Troubled Moisture
Previous article on metal back pans investigated the likelihood of creating condensation behind metal back pans on the outside of insulated apartment walls. The intent of the article was to highlight the failure of vapour impermeable sheathing materials in managing moisture in the building envelope….
Is Non-Combustibility Good for your Health?
In the wake of Grenfell tower disaster in London, an out of cycle amendment was made to the building code to increase fire safety of façade systems. A new provision was included in March 2018 to combine a series of requirements and concessions for non-combustible…
High R-Value Structures
With increasing demand for high performance housing in Australia people are seeking R-values that exceed the limit to which a 90mm stud cavity can facilitate (maximum R2.5 – R2.7 glasswool). The increasing uptake of passive house and/or utilisation of passive house concepts is driving people…