Moisture management specialists, Safeguard Europe, are presenting the findings of their collaborative insulation research paper to industry experts at the first International Conference on Moisture in Buildings being hosted online by the UK Centre for Moisture in Buildings (UKCMB) on the 28th and 29th of June 2021.
Insulation retrofits continue to increase in number as part of the UK Government’s efforts to reduce CO2 emissions to net zero by 2050. This increase in insulation installations has also revealed an increase in instances of insulation failure due to insufficient protection from moisture ingress via rain penetration.
To investigate solutions to the matter, Safeguard Europe partnered with Simmonds Mills Architects and the Association for Environment Conscious Building to initiate a scientific study on the effects of installing internal wall insulation (IWI) in a solid brick wall property in a moderate exposure zone for penetrating rain, and how this affected the moisture content in the wall.
The study compared the performance of unprotected IWI against the performance of IWI that has been protected using an external coating of Stormdry Masonry Protection Cream on a traditional solid brick-wall semi-detached home. The moisture content of both the unprotected and protected IWI was monitored over a period of eight years using data loggers. The data showed that Stormdry Masonry Protection Cream significantly reduced the moisture content within the wall and insulation interface for the entirety of the study.
The results were compiled and published in The Monitoring of Wall Moisture in a Property Retrofitted with Internal Wall Insulation research paper on the ScienceOpen research publishing network.
Clementine Walker, one of four authors of the paper and Development Laboratory Manager at Safeguard, will be summarising and analysing the results in a session at the UKCMB conference.
“The International Conference on Moisture in Buildings is the first industry event to exclusively focus on the increasingly relevant topic of moisture management in buildings,” said Clementine Walker, “It’s an important event and I’m looking forward to presenting our findings and contributing to the development of sustainable and effective insulation retrofit methods.”
The International Conference on Moisture in Buildings takes place on the 28th and 29th of June 2021. It is an online event and tickets can be booked via the UK Centre for Moisture in Buildings’ website.
