Steel Beam to Foundations Thermal Bridging

newbuild2013

I've been trying to research this issue without any luck and I'm starting to wonder if its that big of an issue. To me it would seem so but this isn't my field so learning as I go. Working it through with the engineer but no resolution yet.

So my concern is the thermal cold bridge that a steel beam will have that is plated straight to the foundations. (There are 4 of them supporting open plan and concrete intermediary floor) The beams will be on the warm side of the cavity so we will insulate behind it, however I would assume that a cold bridge exists from the foundation up through the steel. I don't really see much options apart from some insulating product that you can put under the steel between it and the foundations, however I haven't found such a product and also that would need to go through engineer for structure approval.

Has anyone had this issue in the past or is it even an issue. The foot print of these beams is small so am I over worrying about this. I would think that lots of houses have steel supports so would have thought other people have come across this.

Thanks in advance for any comments

BobMcBob

Will soon be in the same situation, have a few thermal breaks to detail. Did find a company in the UK who have a huge range of thermal break products including steel to concrete.

http://www.insula.ltd.uk/thermal_break_connections

BmB

newbuild2013

BobMcBob wrote: »

Will soon be in the same situation, have a few thermal breaks to detail. Did find a company in the UK who have a huge range of thermal break products including steel to concrete.

http://www.insula.ltd.uk/thermal_break_connections

BmB

Thanks, very interesting. Is is the thermal plate you are looking at?

http://www.insula.ltd.uk/thermal_plate

Did you get prices be any chance, you can PM if so. Thanks again

beyondpassive

This is a structural enquiry, so I am not speaking with any authority.

I've specified a few builds with thermal isolators above the holding down plate, where the loading is nicely concentic. These details were all designed by the Str eng. The detail I use is a stub post bolted to the pad, the stub post had a receiving plate on top and the post above had a base plate. These were connected through a thermal isolator. There are many names for this, Shock, Armadillo, Insulata etc. We have used bespoke versions, using 3 layers of neaoprene as the sandwich filler and M12 nuts as the spacer. However recently we have been using an Irish fabrication company who now do thermal isolators using the Farrat Isolators http://www.farrat.com/ . Please PM me for details of the Dublin based steel fabricator.

Carbonnet

newbuild2013 wrote: »

Thanks, very interesting. Is is the thermal plate you are looking at?

http://www.insula.ltd.uk/thermal_plate

Did you get prices be any chance, you can PM if so. Thanks again

Did you check the thermal conductivity statement on the datasheet?