Page 30 - HW April 2020

pre-cladding & insulation
New Covertek branding for quality synthetic underlay
After two years in the market, Thermakraft 401 was superseded by Covertek 401 in February 2020. Designed to keep water out and let moisture escape, this cost-effective synthetic underlay joins three other Covertek products in Thermakraft’s roo ng range.
Generally used in residential applications, Covertek 401 is a synthetic alternative to black bituminous paper products and comes
in a new light-grey colour that makes installation easier as it creates less glare.
Self-supporting and offering high tensile strength, Covertek 401 is manufactured in New Zealand under the ISO9001 scheme and is fully BRANZ-appraised.
www.thermakraft.co.nz
have learned from the mad rush of last year and were getting underway early with the Healthy Homes programme around ducted ventilation in kitchens and bathrooms.
“ ey’re taking a bit more ownership of the process and are going to front-foot it to avoid what happened last time. We can expect more of a steady progression to cover the work.”
WHAT IS CONTINUOUS INSULATION?
Over at Kingspan Insulation, Sales Manager, Todd Lindsay, says the company was showing really good growth on the previous year before COVID-19 hit.
“We were feeling really optimistic about the year ahead. We had enjoyed a solid uplift in enquiry levels and engagement, and some of the messaging we’d been putting to market in the previous 12 months was clearly starting to resonate with our audience.
“Our biggest concern short-to-medium-term is how long the shutdown goes on, because these half- nished projects could get quite badly damaged from being left exposed.”
Kingspan focuses on continuous insulation, which, from a product perspective, is a primary point of di erence.
e continuous insulation concept has been around in Europe for a lot longer than it has been in New Zealand and a lot of
that knowledge has gradually ltered back here, especially via
architects.
“Continuous insulation,” explains Todd Lindsay, “can be part of
an external insulation or an internal insulation, and it generally goes inside or outside the frame or structure rather than within the structure.
“Our initial foray into continuous insulation in NZ was around warm roofs, where you put insulation over the top of the roof to isolate the external environment from the internal environment.
“Increasingly that whole mindset, and that approach to insulation, is creeping into walls and also oors. People are not allowing so much in the way of bridging between the external and internal environments, or they’re trying to eliminate it completely.”
Todd Lindsay says it’s refreshing to see an increasing awareness of the importance of looking at the entire envelope from a thermal performance point of view.
“It’s really positive that people increasingly understand the concept of a system rather than just the product’s R value.
“Historically the Building Code has tended to look at insulation in isolation; however, people are starting to consider thermal bridging and thermal breaks much more, and that’s why we are seeing a lot more interest in continuous insulation.
“People realise that they’re putting a 2.4 batt in a wall and they may only end up with a system rating of R1.2 once they factor in thermal bridging, for example.”
28 NZHJ | APRIL 2020
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