concrete slabs

Viking House

Viking House wrote:

If you have your house insulated well and there is one weak spot i.e. the foundations where the wall insulation fails to meet up with the floor insulation which is 99% of the time in Ireland even in timber frame houses, then you can loose well over 50% of your houses heat through these areas.
Its like having one leg outside the bedclothes on a frosty night.

One advantage of using an ICF system is that you can have this cold spot properly insulated as well.

Still undecided as what to what type of path to put around the house

Mellor

I've been thinking a little about the details in question (traditional wall to floor)
And there is plenty of room for improvment, two ideas I had for improving the detail around the junction are:

A structural thermal break at the common cold bridge. This would defo remove the bridge but It would obviously cost more. I think its worth it.

Also I think that the drain is a good idea. And I had a little think about it and feel that it would work in a modified form with paving.

I agree that concrete would slow the ground in drying out, but I feel this is canceled by the fact that it would also slow the ground in getting damp during rain.

CJhaughey

What Scanhomes use is a High density EPS core with fibreglass reinforced concrete in a skin outside the EPS.
You can download the technical guide yourself and see the detail, at http://www.scanhome.ie/Technical-Guide.PDF
This effectively breaks the cold bridge.

Mellor

http://www.schoeck.com/index.php?scriptlet=Schoeck/Products&pID=15
Also manufacture structural thermal breaks. They are aimed at comercial products but they also do a product suitable for domestic applications.

CJhaughey

I cannot get that link to work Mellor , and I must admit my technical German is a little rusty.

Mellor

Mustn't work if i copy and paste it.

Try this one, go to products, then second in list on the left.
THERM. INSULATION AT THE FIRST COURSE IMPACT NOISE INSULATION
Schöck Novomur®/ Novomur® light


http://www.schoeck.com/index.php?scriptlet=Schoeck/StartPage&id=1&language=en

CJhaughey

Yep managed to find that alright.
Interesting looking stuff.