Aerobarrier air tightness product/process

[thaldine]

Does anyone know if anything akin to this is available in the UK ?

https://aeroseal.com/aerobarrier/

 

..and if so its merits and/or demerits ?

 

Thanks.

[Andeh]

Also very keen to know!! 

[MMcGill]

Hi all - I know this is very late after these original posts but it seemed the right thread - I'd been debating Aerobarrier https://www.aerobarrieruk.co.uk for some time, I really wanted to build a house that's as efficient as possible but was stuck with a traditional build (brick and block)... My builder knew this and supported me with air tight roof membranes, parge coat, and air tight tapes to all windows and doors but I didn't think this would get me as far as I wanted - the passive 0.6ach

 

I spent quite a bit of time on the phone with the folk at Aerobarrier who were really patient with me as I asked them lots of questions to deal with my internal debates, but eventually took the plunge - the cost wasn't crazy so I had convinced myself to give it a go...

 

The Aerobarrier team spoke with my builder a few weeks before to run through all the work he had completed and they had agreed that the best stage to do this work was pre-plaster so my builder was a little concerned at what the initial test result would come out at!

 

The team spent most of the day on site, initially checking the completed work, and then using an air heater to warm the house (which helps with the sealant), the kit consists of several 'stations' set up around the house which is a computer controlled mist that comes through nozzles on tripods which contains the sealant. 

 

The initial test on the house came out at 1.84ach which we were fairly happy with, the team then kick the process off and I watched the house fill with the sealant, which runs for about 2 hours, as it's going you can start to see the numbers drop as very small holes are plugged, after a while a member of the team entered the house to spot larger holes (you can see where a lot of sealant is attracted to the holes as it forms a white mass) and manually sealed these leaving the process to continue to run...

 

And... The result for me was an amazing 0.41ach at the end of the day and this is pre plaster and floor tiles which I hope will at least keep me at this level - A very happy end result for me.

 

I thought I'd share my experience with you all as I know this is newish to the UK - I'll be waiting for my final post build air test now and making sure no new holes are made in the envelope!

 

I've included a couple of pictures which may help give a view of what I've explained about, happy to take any questions....

 

Edited October 11, 2023 by MMcGill

[MMcGill]

And another couple of pictures of the stations..

[Big Jimbo]

Sounds like a great result. I would be interested on a cost re your floor area. Best of luck getting finished now.

[Andeh]

That is very cool! As you can see I posted above wanting to know more, but never got to it due to windows badly delayed. Not tested out house yet.

 

How much did it cost?

 

Which areas did you find drafts small and large, after the initial work put in?

Edited October 12, 2023 by Andehh

[zzPaulzz]

On 11/10/2023 at 21:50, MMcGill said:

Hi all - I know this is very late after these original posts but it seemed the right thread - I'd been debating Aerobarrier https://www.aerobarrieruk.co.uk for some time, I really wanted to build a house that's as efficient as possible but was stuck with a traditional build (brick and block)... My builder knew this and supported me with air tight roof membranes, parge coat, and air tight tapes to all windows and doors but I didn't think this would get me as far as I wanted - the passive 0.6ach

 

I spent quite a bit of time on the phone with the folk at Aerobarrier who were really patient with me as I asked them lots of questions to deal with my internal debates, but eventually took the plunge - the cost wasn't crazy so I had convinced myself to give it a go...

 

The Aerobarrier team spoke with my builder a few weeks before to run through all the work he had completed and they had agreed that the best stage to do this work was pre-plaster so my builder was a little concerned at what the initial test result would come out at!

 

The team spent most of the day on site, initially checking the completed work, and then using an air heater to warm the house (which helps with the sealant), the kit consists of several 'stations' set up around the house which is a computer controlled mist that comes through nozzles on tripods which contains the sealant. 

 

The initial test on the house came out at 1.84ach which we were fairly happy with, the team then kick the process off and I watched the house fill with the sealant, which runs for about 2 hours, as it's going you can start to see the numbers drop as very small holes are plugged, after a while a member of the team entered the house to spot larger holes (you can see where a lot of sealant is attracted to the holes as it forms a white mass) and manually sealed these leaving the process to continue to run...

 

And... The result for me was an amazing 0.41ach at the end of the day and this is pre plaster and floor tiles which I hope will at least keep me at this level - A very happy end result for me.

 

I thought I'd share my experience with you all as I know this is newish to the UK - I'll be waiting for my final post build air test now and making sure no new holes are made in the envelope!

 

I've included a couple of pictures which may help give a view of what I've explained about, happy to take any questions....

 

Now you’ve lived with this for a while, would you still recommend it? Thanks! 

[ambient]

Also interested in how much this cost and whether you were ultimately glad you went ahead?

Edited July 27, 2024 by ambient

[peekay]

I would also be interested in an update. 

 

Thanks

[Rishard]

Are you able to share a cost for this? Would love to know. 🙏

[Nickfromwales]

15 minutes ago, Rishard said:

Are you able to share a cost for this? Would love to know. 🙏

AB give you a price per m2 iirc, so just pick up the phone  They don't tax you if you're masonry / leaky etc, they just turn up, do their thing, and vamoose!

 

Really good experience and an amazing result (1.2 test down to high 0.1's)....on a masonry refurb.

[Benpointer]

We've just had our As Built air-tightness test performed by Richard Harris of Peninsular Energy Compliance (good guy - recommended). 

 

The result is 1.16m m3/m2 at 50hPa on the envelope basis.  Virtually the same figure for ACH as our envelope area is 583m2 and our volume is coincidentally 580m3.

 

So c. 1.2 ACH which we are happy with.  

 

Reason for mentioning it on this thread is that we had Aerobarrier apply their treatment back in September when they reported an 81% leakage improvement to give a final result of 0.97 ACH, so lower than the as built test (but their test had masked off the doors and windows to protect them from the sealant).

 

The implication is that without Aerobarrier our result would have been 5.4 ACH, which I can believe because the standard of membraning and taping up was not the best and I had to part company with the team engaged to do it.

 

So +ve feedback from me for Aerobarrier.

[Nickfromwales]

8 minutes ago, Benpointer said:

We've just had our As Built air-tightness test performed by Richard Harris of Peninsular Energy Compliance (good guy - recommended). 

 

The result is 1.16m m3/m2 at 50hPa on the envelope basis.  Virtually the same figure for ACH as our envelope area is 583m2 and our volume is coincidentally 580m3.

 

So c. 1.2 ACH which we are happy with.  

 

Reason for mentioning it on this thread is that we had Aerobarrier apply their treatment back in September when they reported an 81% leakage improvement to give a final result of 0.97 ACH, so lower than the as built test (but their test had masked off the doors and windows to protect them from the sealant).

 

The implication is that without Aerobarrier our result would have been 5.4 ACH, which I can believe because the standard of membraning and taping up was not the best and I had to part company with the team engaged to do it.

 

So +ve feedback from me for Aerobarrier.

Thanks for updating and the recommendation.

 

That's a huge reduction, and 1.2 "ain't that shabby". Sucks that the detailing wasn't done better, but tbh if you taped the doors and windows back up you'd have soon got to below 1.0 I'm sure.

 

One more box ticked for your completion certificate!!  

[Nickfromwales]

1 minute ago, Nickfromwales said:

Thanks for updating and the recommendation.

@Jonny, take note!