Building air tightness has until recently been somewhat overlooked or at worst ignored during the construction process, it has been common to see the external breather membrane fitted to the wooden shell of new build timber frame building just flapping in the wind with no effort put into sealing the joints or making airtight connections where the window and doors fit into the shell.

If left unaddressed, once the building is completed, there is a very high possibility that the building will "leak" heat like a sieve, drafts will find there way through the poor breather membrane and simply blow the heat away, potentially, rendering the thermal insulation within the effected wall totally ineffective.

Poorly sealed buildings are often very uncomfortable to live in, and difficult to heat, in winter on an average day without excessive wind they warm up reasonably well, however, as soon as the wind increases the draft increases and the heat from inside the building is lost. This usually means the building cools faster than anticipated and can often feel cold and uncomfortable.

The increase in energy costs poor quality air-tightness causes can only be calculated on a building by building basis after testing using the very latest Thermography techniques. A thermal image of the building will identify any defect within the external skin of the structure, this non intrusive survey will guide the builders to the defective areas and speed up the remedial process. As the defects are pin pointed more accurately this also reduces the cost of the remedial action.

Generally speaking, new buildings currently being constructed in Britain and Ireland will require an air-tightness test, these buildings must achieve an air test rating of 10 or less to pass. These new building air tests, are expected in some limited form are due to appear within the Channel Island building regulations sometime during 2009 we understand.

In Britain, from 2009 these regulations require that a new building achieve a minimum standard loss of 8 or less, to be in compliance with the new standards.

If you feel you may have a problem with general building air-tightness please look at the Thermal Image section of this web site and contact us, we are here to help.