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Making a building airtight and ensuring vapour controls are in place are widely regarded as two crucial elements of the construction process.
A lack of vapour control can lead to interstitial condensation which can manifest as mould or structural degradation. Both can prove costly to fix as well as having a negative effect on the inhabitants.
If a building isn’t airtight, air can escape through gaps in the skin of the structure reducing energy efficiency. In a world where energy prices are at unprecedented levels, making buildings as energy efficient as possible has never been more important.
But what if there has been an oversight and vapour control and airtight elements are left out at the construction phase. Can the issue be rectified without going backwards to move forwards?
Our CEO and Founder, Adam White has a solution.
Can We Retrofit Passive Purple Or Airtight White Onto A Building?
A question we get asked all the time is can we retrofit Passive Purple or Airtight White onto a building because the contractor has left the vapour control out?
The short answer is yes, we can. It’s not the ideal method as it’s always best to get a fine lining behind everything so it’s one sealed unit.
The process involves adding Airtight White on top of the plaster board, but at the same time paying special attention to all plug sockets and any areas that we can’t get to – behind the plasterboard for example.
The plug sockets have to come off so the airtightness and vapour control can be added to those hard to get to areas. It’s no good just putting the air tightness and vapour controls on top of the plasterboard, as moisture and vapour will just move to where the plug sockets are, which undermines all of your work.
We then have to make sure we are sealing the bottoms of the plasterboard to the floor junctions and then going up into the joist zone as well with the plasterboard
Do You Need To Do Anything Else After Installing Airtight White?
We would always recommend that you use a primer to provide a nice solid surface for your paint to adhere to. Our Lime Prime product has a clever PVA mix, it will go on and can adhere to any pipe paint.
