Featured Article
| Part L Revealed |
Since the announcement last September by the Minister for the Environment of substantial improvements to be made under Part L of the Building Regulations, speculation has been rife in the construction industry about what the details of the updated regulations would entail. Jeff Colley examines some of the key parts of a regulatory improvement that will help the Irish construction industry to modernise and meet the demands of a rapidly changing world.
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Official magazine of Easca  |
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Case Studies
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Page 3 of 6
Masking tape protects a vent from the heat recovery ventilation ducting against the perils of wet plaster
Because of the high level of care required when working with and around the membrane, plus the repeated testing to prove the seal, airtightness is not popular among builders. Micheál Galvin points out however that testing does have additional uses. “It’s a fantastic snagging tool. You bring back the window guy, look the air’s coming through. You get the electrician back if there’s air coming through the socket… From the main contractor or the developer’s point of view, he shouldn’t look on airtightness as a nuisance. He should look on it as a new way of snagging.” The membrane in the walls and roofs is 1200 gauge clear plastic fitted on the warm side of the building, with Monoflex, a reinforced membrane, in the floor slab.
The 80mm of Kingspan in the walls delivers a U value of 0.27, while 100mm of foil-backed Kingspan in the floor carries a U value of 0.16. 300mm of Rockwool in the roofs delivers the same value, though there are plans to further increase the insulation specification in here, and thereby drop that U value to 0.12. Glazing was provided by True Windows in Sligo. “They were made with what’s known as finger-joined pine.” says Brian Raftery of the company. “It’s all Scandinavian pine. We buy scantlings, which are pre-manufactured pieces for use in windows and all of the timber we buy comes from managed forests.” The windows themselves are low-e, argon filled and carry a certified U value of 1.4 for the overall window and 1.1 for the glass.
If you have an airtight house, you need ventilation. In Friarshill, energy consultant Micheál Galvin put together a ‘hybrid’ solution incorporating a combination of single-room wall units in one set of houses and a small whole house system in another. The rationale, Galvin explains, was cost reduction. “The theory is you go after the energy rich areas, which are the bathrooms and the kitchen. There isn’t a whole lot of energy to be recovered from bedrooms anyway.” The bathroom wall units are Vent-Axia HR25’s with HR100w units in the kitchens. This single room solution, used in five of the ten houses – units B, C and D – has the additional advantage of eliminating the need for ducting, delivering a saving on both labour and space. In the larger, A type houses, a small whole-house system was provided and installed by ProAir, the ProAir 300. This system removes the heat from air exiting from the wet rooms – bathrooms and kitchens – and dumps it into the central stairwell of each of these three storey properties.
Colm Byrne of Glas holding a photovoltaic solar panel
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Issue 1, Vol 5 Out Now
The new look issue of Construct Ireland is available now. Click here to subscribe online and have the latest issue delivered to your doorstep
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