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!

[Post and beam]

Discussed this before elsewhere on the forum. I paid £2100 for a 200 sq metre house last autumn.

 

Result went from 3.8 to 1.4 over a few hours. 

 

The guys did have a couple of leaky nozzles on their kit which left an invisible gloop on my walls. It is a bitch to remove, as i found out once i discovered what had happened.

[Nickfromwales]

8 minutes ago, Post and beam said:

Discussed this before elsewhere on the forum. I paid £2100 for a 200 sq metre house last autumn.

 

Result went from 3.8 to 1.4 over a few hours. 

 

The guys did have a couple of leaky nozzles on their kit which left an invisible gloop on my walls. It is a bitch to remove, as i found out once i discovered what had happened.

It's a bit like PVA, and the floors, or any other flat surfaces stay very tacky for a few days. The screed was like the sticky carpets in a rough pub for days, but I was pleasantly surprised at how there was no 'overspray' on the vertical surfaces at all.

[Great_scot_selfbuild]

Hi All,

 

I'm just about to cancel getting Aerobarrier done and this is just a final check to make sure we're not missing something, as the figures involved are tiny.

 

Situation:

Current test result: 0.64

Contracted arrangement with timber frame = 0.6, however there are tiny leaks out of the window frames, sliding doors and velux (velux are by far the worst areas of leaks).

The TF company has been brilliant and would be willing to go halves on Aerobarrier to both make sure we're as happy as possible, and helping achieve a well-below 0.6 result (even though it's rather unlikely to be solely down to the TF airtightness).

 

The current performance will get worse(?)

1. There are ducts in the floor that are fully taped and sealed and in reality at the end of the build there are likely to be small leaks in these areas.

2. The air tester stated that at completion, the way the volume is calculated differs from this stage - they will measure each room individually rather than using the outside envelope of the house, therefore the volume of the wall thicknesses and intermediate floor depth will be deducted from the current volume - hence 0.64 of a larger volume will equate to a higher ACH of a smaller volume.

3. I've not yet found any documentation to confirm this - can anyone point me to detail as to how ACH and volume is calculated at initial and final stage of build?

 

Cost:

Aerobarrier have quoted c.£4,300 for 304sqm footprint (we'd split the cost with the TF company).

 

Summary:

Our thinking is that the £2k+ would go a long way for more benefit elsewhere in our build.

Will we notice the performance? Is there a financial benefit to being able to state 'Passivehaus performance level' (without rounding down - 🤣!); we plan to live in the house for 40+yrs so I figure today's passivehaus reference may not be very relevant.

 

 

 

[Andeh]

You're already in the top 0.1% of air tight homes, spending £2,000 (and £2,000 of TF money for use elsewhere...) to enter the 0.01% of homes is not worth it IMO.

 

Future sellers won't care, friends and family won't care and realistically you'd never notice the difference even if you really really tried on a really windy day. The second anyone opens a door you've undone several hours of airtightness anyway.

 

Ours is at 2.7 (no sniggering at the back...) as a hugely volumetric bungalow with several sliders everywhere... And despite wibbling about it for years, and being obsessed with trying to seal everywhere that I could....  Its fine...

Edited 2 hours ago by Andeh

[JohnMo]

1 hour ago, Great_scot_selfbuild said:

Current test result: 0.64

So assuming this is without all the plasterboard etc fitted. Going better than 0.64 is chasing numbers, to say look at me. Further gains aren't worth the cost.

 

Get a couple of tubes of air tight mastic if needed.

[saveasteading]

2 hours ago, Great_scot_selfbuild said:

today's passivehaus reference may not be very relevant.

It doesn't change the location or the general layout or build quality.

It would be part of a list of merits on the sales particulars, and not near the top.

Some other target will have become fashionable by then, or the criteria will have changed.

And you need some fresh air.

So keep the money.

 

A passing few thoughts.

Will aerobarrier still be performing in 40 years?

Will dust gradually filling these pinprick do the job for no cost?

Are greater leaks appearing over time due to weather, deterioration of seals and other erosion.

[Nickfromwales]

0.64 is very very good, so bin that off and keep the £2k for sure. 
 

I’d get AB in if I found the initial test to be 1.0 or above, simply to maximise MVHR and heat / cool efficiencies, but also to future proof the AT getting progressively poorer over time.

 

If you sealed up the leaks associated with fenestration, you’d be around 0.45 I’d guess, maybe better, and if you know that air is leaking through these then you’d defo NOT want the AB product sealing those locations; I would be advising you to fully mask off the doors / windows / roof lights and only allow the AB product to find every other nook and cranny instead.

 

Your as-built test will be warts & all, including open (wetted) traps in all kitchens, bathrooms and utility etc / open service ducts (albeit you would defo be sealing these back up long term with FM330 foam / CT1 / AT tape etc of course) / MVHR (open pathways to atmosphere), and more.

 

Leave it alone now, as you’ve done plenty good enough a job sealing the fundamental fabric of the dwelling. 
 

So, “congrats on a good job’”  👍

[torre]

2 hours ago, Great_scot_selfbuild said:

volume is calculated differs from this stage

I'd be interested if you do get clarification on the difference. 

Space between floors is about a 10% difference, so 0.64-> 0.7+

 

Personally I'd be happy enough but if the TF quoted knowing your window spec etc to meet 0.6 and the real figure looks like heading over 0.75 maybe there's a conversation to be had with the TF along the lines that you'd be happy with them chipping in 1K towards your resulting higher bills to save them 2K towards aero barrier, maybe not worth the goodwill cost though

[torre]

14 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

MVHR (open pathways to atmosphere)

Are you sure? A couple of 150mm diameter holes open when testing?