Roofing Vapour Control Layers & Thermal Insulation from Dynamic
Australian Institute of Sports Aquatic Training and Testing
Centre
Proctor Roofshield 2,600m2
Design out
condensation risk
Indoor aquatic centres differ in one very significant
way from other buildings - they contain a large
surface area of heated water. Moisture laden
warm air rises and tries to find an escape via
the easiest route - usually into the roof space.
Thermal insulation helps keep the ceiling warm
thus reducing the surface condensation. However,
without a well installed vapour control layer, the
warm moist air will pass through the ceiling and the
insulation into the roof space where condensation
can cause problems such as corrosion of ferrous
metals, rotting timber, mould formation and loss
of insulation performance due to saturation of
insulation from condensate.
Avoidance of roof space condensation in high
humidity buildings requires careful consideration
at the design stage on the correct use of closed
cell thermal insulation, vapour control layers and
breathable membranes that allow your building
to breathe. Unfortunately, as these photos show,
too many building designers are getting this detail
dreadfully wrong.
You don't need to be a rocket scientist to get the
detail right!
Installing a vapour control layer on the warm side
of a closed cell insulation material helps reduce the
amount of vapour laden warm air penetrating into
the roof space, allowing for the controlled escape
of vapour whilst restricting the ingress of moisture
back into the building envelope.
The A Proctor Group has a range of Vapour
Control Layers that have been designed for high
humidity applications such as aquatic centres and
climate controlled buildings. Profoil from Proctors
is a heavyweight reinforced vapour control layer
with a aluminium foil core with an extremely high
water vapour resistance of over 44,600MNs/g.
The aluminium foil is protected on both faces by
a lamination for use in corrosive environments
such as those associated with chlorine in swimming
pools. The woven extruded polypropylene
multifilament scrim reinforcement provides
superior resistance to tears and punctures.
A Proctor Group Australia offers a service to
architects including condensation risk analysis at
the early design stage using independent software
built up from a long experience in the diagnoses
and prevention of vapour control related problems.
Would you like to know more?
Visit: www.dctech.com.au/mba
Collapsed swimming pool ceiling in The Netherlands.
Photo courtesy Stainless Steel World Magazine December 2001
For further information contact:
Dynamic Composite Technologies
Address: Unit 8, 171-175 Newton Road, Wetherill Park, NSW, 2164
Phone: 02 8788 9....
Fax: 02 9604 7....
Web: www.dctech.com.au
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