Week 36, Day 5:
- More electrical first-fix
- Including some air-tight detailing around the front door
- More plastering
Week 36, Day 5
Today’s featured topic is the air-tight detailing around the front door, where several cables need to pass through to the outside. The build team have a standard approach to these:
- Using PRO CLIMA ORCON F air-tight adhesive to seal the cable inside the hole
- This stays permanently flexible and hence remains air-tight for decades
- The “hole” is actually a 20mm UPVC conduit, to stop the PVC cable insulation coming into contact with the EcoBead Platinum cavity wall insulation (which is made of expanded polystyrene)
- The problem with PVC and polystyrene is that the polystyrene tends to leach the plasticizer out of the PVC, making it brittle
- The coating on the EcoBead Platinum should help to prevent a reaction but the installation notes specifically state:
In cavities where electric cables can come into contact with expanded polystyrene, in accordance with good construction practice all PVC sheathed electric cables should be run through ducting.
- Using a PRO CLIMA KAFLEX air-tight cable grommet on top
- The rubber grommet stays tight around the cable, as a further air seal
PRO CLIMA ORCON F air-tight adhesive used to seal cable penetrations through wall above front door, with KAFLEX air-tight cable grommets as back-up
Conduit sealed into wall ready to take control cables for front door lock
Week 36, Day 5 by Marsh Flatts Farm Self Build Diary is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.