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….
Why Do Adhesives Stick?
Adhesive tapes: how do they work, what should they be able to do, and what can they do? Adhesive tapes are used as bonding aids in a wide range of applications in the creation of airtight building envelopes. Several hundred meters of tape is often…
Hunting for Air Leaks
The Blower Door test is a tried-and-true technique of measuring the air leakage rate of a building with confidence. It is so reliable, repeatable and universally comparable that building codes around the world require them by law. They offer the ability to sum up the…