The north elevation, with parge coated applied, ready for the application of external insulation.

The parge coat for the external insulation has been applied at Passfield Drive and application of the external insulation has commenced. The grey parge coat is a Polymer-modified cement based leveling coat and is applied directly to the existing face of the external walls prior to the external insulation to ensure that no draughts penetrate the envelope of the building.  The graphitized, ‘grey bead’ Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) is adhered directly to this parge coat. Sub-contractors were due to start the application of the external insulation on site on Wednesday but have not been able to make it to site until today (Friday).

The 250mm and 200mm EPS, being applied to the front and back of the property respectively, will substantially improve the U-Values of the walls and eliminate cold bridges. Insulating in this way also has the advantage of decreasing the energy requirements of the building without reducing the internal floor area or creating potentially damaging moisture build up in the walls. bere:architects believe that external insulation is the key to the future of low energy retrofits because it can be applied on homes throughout the country in large numbers with minimal disturbance to the building.

The first pieces of external insulation are adhered to the parge coat.

Before this insulation was applied bere:architects installed a temperature probe into the foundations of the house. The readings from this probe will enable us to compare the temperature of the soil beneath the house and the effect of the external insulation to the foundations.

The 300mm probe was inserted into a predrilled hole and penetrates in to the soil underneath the building

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