How to avoid major mistakes when insulating a house with PENOPLEX® plates

Recommendation points

• Errors when choosing the thickness of thermal insulation
• Laying slabs without displacement
• Incorrect glue application
• Incorrect placement of dowels
• Incorrect wall insulation around openings
• Important mistakes of other stages

PENOPLEX^® – a highly effective means of protecting a house from cold in winter and from heat in summer. But for this you need to competently mount the structural units with heat-insulating plates. In this article, we will touch on the main mistakes that can be made in the process of insulating a private house..

Errors when choosing the thickness of thermal insulation

In the understanding of most of us, the thickness of the insulation should be sufficient in order to minimize heat loss and thereby save heating costs. It’s right. However, at the same time, the insulation must have a thickness that is safe for the wall material. Let’s explain in more detail.

The warmer the air, the more water vapor it can hold. Indoor air contains more moisture than outdoor air. In the cold season, when passing through a wall made of air and vapor-permeable materials (wood, cellular concrete, etc.), it cools. Its temperature at the inner surface of the wall is room temperature, and at the outer surface with external insulation, it depends on the thickness of the thermal insulation. If the thickness of the insulation is insufficient and the temperature difference is high, then moisture will begin to condense in the block. The appearance of condensation in the structure of the wall material will entail negative consequences. The tree will rot, the aerated concrete will be covered with mold from long waterlogging. To exclude the formation of a dew point and, accordingly, the accumulation of moisture in aerated concrete at the border with PENOPLEX slabs^®, it is necessary to calculate the thickness of the insulation in such a way that the heat transfer resistance of PENOPLEX^® would be half of the total thermal resistance of the entire wall structure. Recommended layer thickness PENOPLEX^® for thermal insulation of aerated concrete walls – 100 mm.

Laying slabs without displacement

To ensure effective thermal insulation of the PENOPLEX board^® it is necessary to lay with an offset, at a distance, in other words – as usual bricks are laid, not tiles.

Incorrect glue application

In many sources, you can find various recommendations for applying glue for installing PENOPLEX boards^® on the surface to be insulated: in a continuous layer, pointwise, in stripes, along the perimeter. It should be remembered that any method is possible in combination with perimeter application. Only glued edges of the slab will protect the insulated structure from cold bridges.

Incorrect placement of dowels

When mechanically fixing PENOPLEX boards^® it is important to securely fix the corners, so you need to place the dowel as close to the corners as possible, ideally right at the junction of the plates. Such a fastening may seem unreliable, however, a dowel washer for fastening thermal insulation (dowel-mushroom) with a diameter of 60 mm presses the plate well to the surface. If the dowel is placed with a significant deviation from the corner, then due to thermal expansion, the plate bends and a cold bridge immediately appears. The middle of the slab is also fixed with dowels for greater reliability. Their number is determined by the location of the plate. More reliably fixed are those slabs that are at the corners of the wall, at door and window openings, as well as in the upper rows, in these places there can be 12-14 pcs / m². In the middle of the insulated structure, the number of dowels can be reduced to 6 pcs / m².

In the photo: incorrect laying of PENOPLEX boards^®

In the photo: correct laying of PENOPLEX boards^® and the location of the dowels

Incorrect wall insulation around openings

When insulating a wall around a window or doorway, the slab joint should not be a “continuation” of the window or door line. To insulate the area around the corner of the opening, you need to cut out a “corner” or L-shaped figure from the slab. Sections of the wall on the line of openings are especially vulnerable to mechanical damage. If there is a joint between the plates, then the probability of damage to the adhesive mixture in the joint increases. Accordingly, the protective plaster-adhesive mixture may peel off, or even fall off along with the slab..

In the photo: incorrect insulation of areas around the corners of the window opening

In the photo: correct insulation of areas around the window opening with PENOPLEX thermal insulation^®

Important mistakes of other stages

Now we will briefly touch on mistakes at other stages of building a house, but directly or indirectly related to insulation.

When building an aerated concrete house, it is important to remember that this material comes from the factory humidified. If it is immediately insulated, then the moisture remaining in the structure of the wall will not affect the quality of the house in the best way. Therefore, aerated concrete blocks must be dried: either forcibly using drying equipment, or, naturally, after waiting two to four months.

But after external insulation of the facade with PENOPLEX plates^® do not delay finishing work. Many bring the house to a state acceptable for living: the structures are erected and insulated, utilities are connected and installed, you can live. And then they leave PENOPLEX for many years^® uncovered. Of course, this moisture-resistant material will not lose its heat-shielding properties and will not collapse either in rain or snow. However, it is in danger of sun rays. Sooner or later you will find that the surface of the slabs has become grainy. This is the negative effect of direct UV rays. Therefore, it is better to perform facade finishing work within six months after the walls are insulated with PENOPLEX plates.^®.

As for finishing work, when using decorative plaster, the outer surface of the board must be rough for the desired adhesion (adhesion strength of the board surface with the plaster-adhesive layer). PENOPLEX boards^®The WALL goes on sale already with the surface processed on a milling machine at the factory. But you can also use PENOPLEX COMFORT plates.^®, making notches on them with a hacksaw with a fine tooth directly on the site.

A typical mistake or deliberate violation of the technological process is the laying of a reinforcing mesh directly on the surface of PENOPLEX boards^® followed by the application of a base plaster layer. This threatens the separation of the finishing material. A basic plaster-adhesive layer is applied to the surface of the slabs, into which a reinforcing mesh is then embedded, then a primer and finishing are applied.

Thus, if in the process of warming the house with PENOPLEX plates^® do not make the mistakes set out above and use high-quality materials (glue mixtures, dowel kits, tools, etc.), then your house will be reliably protected from heat loss by effective, durable, environmentally friendly, bio-resistant thermal insulation that will last at least 50 years.