Roofs with tiles glued directly on its construction are built mostly in the South Europe. The architecture and the execution details need to be adapted because of climate changes. Glued roof tiles are one of technical adaptations to the current climatic conditions.

Execution:

• vapour permeable secondary roofing, which is required for smaller roof pitches (up to about 25…) is applied directly onto the massive roof construction.
• FIBRANxps 300C boards are glued onto the concrete, brick or wood base with a special PU foam, and mechanically fixed in several places. Due to the channelled surface of boards, roof tiles can be glued directly onto the surface of thermal insulation. Adhesive mortar or PU adhesive foam for gluing roof tiles is applied in intermittent strips, which provides continuous ventilation under the roof tiles in the direction towards the ridge.

Internal roof insulation – cold roof

When a massive roof construction is thermally insulated from the inside, such a constructional element is called cold roof. Thermal insulation is applied from the inside of the massive roof construction only in exceptional cases. In practice it usually means a combination of external and additional internal insulation. If insulation is applied only on the inside, it has to be glued over the entire surface.

Cold roof is chosen mostly in cases when maintaining constant temperature in a space is more important than the accumulation of inner heat or cold in the massive construction. Internal thermal insulation is applied in cold-storage chambers, swimming-pool centres, and in buildings that are heated only part of the day.
 

Adequate thermal insulation
When applying internal thermal insulation, the selection of the type of insulation and the sequence of layers is much more important than with other uses of insulation. It is advisable to consult an expert in order to provide the most functional insulation.

If internal thermal insulation is made as a rendered surface, FIBRANxps ETICS boards are used, specially manufactured for this purpose.

If thermal insulation remains visible, long insulation boards FIBRANxps MAESTRO are selected. Boards with smooth surface and the tongue-and-groove edges create suitable flatness. FIBRANxps MAESTRO boards can remain visible or f.i. be painted in order to make an artistic designed ceiling. 

If thermal insulation is applied only from the inside of the construction,we need to consider the possible forming of thermal bridges and excessive diffusion humidification of the construction elements.

Note:

If we do choose to apply internal insulation, there is a limited choice of thermal insulation products which meet the requirements. One of the most adequate products is thermal insulation made of extruded polystyrene, such as FIBRANxps ETICS, because of its closed cell structure, which is not affected by the possible moisture. For fibre thermal insulation to be effective, a strong vapour barrier foil is required, but to achieve a long-term good quality sealing on joints is a very difficult task. Condensation, and consequently mould, can form between the insulation and the roof construction, and besides that, the water vapour permeable thermal insulation loses its effect due to moisture laden air.

Façade plinth is a junction between underground external wall and façade.

Thermal insulation of plinth
Plinth is exposed to rainwater; therefore it needs a waterproofing protection up to the required height level, depending on the location of the building. As plinth is exposed to moisture, and is a part of the building’s exterior envelope, it must be thermally insulated with long-term thermal insulation made of water resistant material.  If plinth is rendered or cladded with stone or ceramic tiles, load bearing boards with inner closed cell structure and open surface cells are used as thermal insulation. FIBRANxps ETICS GF or ETICS BT with grooved surface for better adhesion and betterload-bearing capacity in case of heavier cladding, are selected. If insulation is not part of the finishing layer, i.e. in case of brick-cladded or hanged façade, we proceed with installation of thermal insulation boards FIBRANxps 300-L, which have been applied for insulation of the underground part of the external wall – ceiling wall. Due to non-insulated plinth a very unfavorable thermal bridge is formed in the façade envelope. If inadequate insulation is applied, it absorbs a certain quantity of water with time, and thus it looses its thermal insulation performance. Therefore, heat losses occur in winter and give an unpleasant feeling of a cold part of the wall.

Fixing
The most critical part of plinth insulation is fixing the insulation boards onto waterproofing, and, before this, quality fixing of waterproofing on the wall.

• Mechanical fixing is not allowed as it could damage the waterproofing.
• Overheating of waterproofing and gluing thermal insulating boards with softened bitumen is not recommended, as the waterproofing could melt, thus losing its function, and besides this, the use of naked flames in the vicinity of non-protected thermal insulation is not permitted.
• Gluing with adhesive plaster is not successful, as smooth surface of waterproofing does not have open cells for good adhesion.

Special polyurethane foam for gluing XPS on the waterproofing has proven most successful up to now. For more information call….

In case of heavier cladding of plinth we recommend fixing of FIBRANxps ETICS BT boards with anchors above the upper edge of waterproofing.

Window and door jambs, reveals

Windows and doors in a façade represent areas with increased heat flow, compared to the thermally insulated building envelope. They represent the so-called thermal bridge between the inside and outside of the building. As it is not recommended to save money by installing smaller windows, thus letting less light in the building, windows with better thermal insulation performance are selected, and by adding façade insulation on jambs the façade envelope is enhanced.

A jamb (reveal) can be thermally insulated along the entire surface with FIBRANxps ETICS GF boards before the windows are installed, or thermal insulation can be added to outside and inside reveals jambsafter the windows have already been installed. Insulated jambs should be taken into consideration already during the design process, so that the window opening and the designed lighting are not reduced.

Jambs in low-energy buildings
The windows in low-energy buildings, almost zero-energy (passive) buildings are installed within the façade insulation layer, outside the wall level. Windows are installed with special hangersthus preventing direct contact of window frame with the wall. Façade thermal insulation continues into the inside jamb, thus maintaining it “warm”, which reduces the heat flow on the surface around windows or doors. With low-energy buildings a relatively thick façade envelope should be taken into account. In order not to reduce the lighting of a space due to this fact, the thermal insulation on jambs should be cut following the angle of incidence of light.