Increasing Construction Quality of External Thermal Insulation Composite System (ETICS) by Revealing on-site Degradation Factors

Abstract

The installation of External Thermal Insulation Composite System (ETICS) enables to protect building envelope from natural weather effects and increase energy efficiency. As the system can be installed externally with simple work methods the usage is growing in European countries. The quality of the outcomeisinfluencedby design, material selection, and on-site construction process. The on-site fixing process of ETICS is guided by numerous regulations and guidelines which have aninsignificant impact on the actual construction technology. A list of Degradation Factors (DF) is created to classify the relevant on-site activities.

Categorised on-site Degradation Factors are basing onvarious studies, standards, and regulations set for products. The shortcomings are categorised in eight sets: substrate, mixtures, adhesive, insulation, anchors, reinforcement, finishing layer and auxiliary materials. Additionally, a field study has been conducted to test the occurrenceof on-site shortcomingsin Estonia. The collected measurements and observations did not reveal severe and systematic installation failures, but random deviations occurred in most layers which might lead to the degradation of ETICS.

The paper categoriseson-site shortcomings which can lead to theloss of technical performance during the service life of the façade.