Thermal bridging / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

...thermal overcoating: a homeowner's & pro's guide Comprehensive thermal overcoating is the process of wrapping an existing building envelope in a continuous blanket of high-performance insulation to eliminate thermal bridging and move the dew point safely outside the structural wall.  This guide provides a deep dive...

...thermal bridging in roof assemblies Thermal bridging occurs where heat flows through conductive materials like rafters. This is a major issue in cathedral ceilings where insulation is limited to the rafter depth. The most effective solution is to install a layer of continuous rigid insulation over the roof deck. This c...

...Thermal bridging and effective u-value For building professionals, the U-value is a more accurate measure of a component's real-world performance because it is the only metric that, when properly calculated, accounts for thermal bridging. A thermal bridge is a point in the building envelope where the insulation is inte...

...thermal bridging in construction One of aerogel’s most critical uses is addressing thermal bridging, a major issue where heat finds a path around or through insulation via less resistive materials, typically the structural elements like wood studs or steel beams. The compact, high-R nature of aerogel makes it ideal for...

...thermal performance. Eliminating thermal bridging In conventional wood-framed construction, the wood studs, headers, and other structural members act as thermal bridges. They conduct heat at a much higher rate than the insulation between them, creating pathways for heat to escape in winter or enter in summer. This sign...

...thermal bridging, which is a major source of heat loss in traditional basement walls. Understanding thermal bridging Thermal bridging is a phenomenon where heat escapes or enters a building envelope through a highly conductive material, like wood or steel studs. In a conventionally framed basement, the concrete wall i...

...thermal resistance and can even act as a thermal battery, storing heat in the summer and releasing it into the home. Not that brick 'should' have an R-value when you think of it as just an exterior cladding, in modern home construction the siding is not commonly part of the thermal envelope. The reason to insulate over...

...thermal performance. This is in contrast to traditional stucco, which is simply a cement-based plaster.   The key to EIFS's effectiveness lies in its 'outboard' insulation. By placing the insulation on the exterior of the structural wall, it creates a thermal break, preventing thermal bridging through the framing studs...

...thermal foil with air bubbles as insulation), and some rigid insulation boards such as polyisocyanurate have them attached on one side to act as a radiant barrier, a vapor barrier, and when taped and not punctured, an air barrier as well. The intention of a foil radiant barrier is primarily to reduce cooling costs by m...

Home insulation - how much is too much? A House can definitely be under-insulated (millions of homes throughout the United States and Canada have this very problem), but can a home have too much insulation? In short, yes it can. In reality, there is an optimal balance between the up-front cost of insulation and the lon...

...thermal bridging Thermal bridging around windows and doors results in loss of energy, cold spots, condensation points and potential wall damage. To demonstrate the importance of window and door placement relative to the wall's exterior, we ran some thermal transmission tests with the following results.    Images like t...