Air Tightness Strategy

kevh1987

Hi all, I am hopefully starting a new build in the new year and I would like to go down the road of having the house air tight. The house itself is a 4 bed dormer. Would anyone have a ''guide'' on how to go about fitting the membrane etc. I am an electrician by trade and fairly handy otherwise so I intend to takle it myself. Thanks in advance.

delfagio

There are a few crowds that do a day or two day courses on airtight applications. They cover how to do taping properly and how membranes should be installed and where. I'm sure if you look up something along those lines on the internet you might find something.

I didn't do this myself, but they are supposed to be very good at making you aware of air can leak into a house and how to prevent it.

Fair play to you looking at doing it yourself. There are others on boards that would definitely say it can be done yourself, the main thing is you just need a lot of time and patience, but it can definitely be done yourself if your quite handy. I taped around my own Windows and doors and while I was very particular and aiming for perfection at every bit, it did break my heart and sole trying to peal off backing tape with little or no nails, sticky fingers, going blind squinting ha ha, brings back happy memories but I was definitely 100% chuffed and happy with myself for doing it.

Best of luck

MicktheMan

While knowing "how to go about fitting the membrane etc" is very important, it is just as important to have a "plan" for airtightness developed before a sod is turned. Engage your air tightness tester really early on in the process to advise you on such a plan as he/she will have come up against all the weakness pitfalls which could/should have been designed out of the build at little or no extra cost.

Calahonda52

MicktheMan wrote: »

While knowing "how to go about fitting the membrane etc" is very important, it is just as important to have a "plan" for airtightness developed before a sod is turned. Engage your air tightness tester really early on in the process to advise you on such a plan as he/she will have come up against all the weakness pitfalls which could/should have been designed out of the build at little or no extra cost.

+1, especially in a dormer which will have its own issuee.
You also need, at the design stage, to address thermal bridges, as well as whether/how the services are going to pass through the AT layer or not

kevh1987

Thanks alot for the responses. Excellent idea on contacting an air tightness tester early on, its definitily something I will do. I have a good idea on thermal bridging. I remember reading on here that a poster sourced their own materials in Germany I think, if anyone had any info on this it would be great.