SEARCH RESULTS FOR “insulation”

How do you improve an Insu­lat­ed Con­crete Form wall that already out-per­forms most wall sys­tems in all cli­mates? You move the con­crete mass toward the liv­ing side of the wall.

Although R‑values are con­sid­ered to be the stan­dard mea­sure for insu­la­tion, they are not the whole sto­ry when it comes to choos­ing insu­la­tion.

Improv­ing the insu­la­tion of block walls sig­nif­i­cant­ly enhances ener­gy effi­cien­cy, com­fort, and dura­bil­i­ty in both res­i­den­tial and com­mer­cial spaces. Block walls, often made of con­crete mason­ry units (CMUs), are stur­dy but noto­ri­ous­ly poor at retain­ing heat with­out prop­er insu­la­tion.

For gen­er­a­tions, the con­struc­tion of exte­ri­or walls has fol­lowed tra­di­tion­al prac­tices that have pri­mar­i­ly involved wood or steel fram­ing. These meth­ods have been the back­bone of res­i­den­tial and light com­mer­cial con­struc­tion, by pro­vid­ing shel­ter, sta­bil­i­ty, and a cer­tain lev­el of insu­la­tion.

Any sus­tain­abil­i­ty con­sul­tant will tell you that a building’s insu­la­tion is a cru­cial part in con­struct­ing an ener­gy-effi­cient, high per­for­mance home. Choos­ing the right mate­r­i­al and insu­la­tion method for a build ensures home­own­ers will have a sus­tain­able build­ing enve­lope for the life cycle of the home.