'Airtightness' theme priority for insulation and sealing specialist

Airtightness drastically reduces E and S levels and increases the quality of the building envelope and the entire construction. Soudal, renowned manufacturer of quality products in the field of insulation and sealing, offers solutions for achieving a good level of airtightness with the liquid membranes Soudatight and the intelligent modular window mounting system SoudaFrame SWI. Soudal also invests heavily in the testing of its products. Thus, both the window mounting system and the membranes carry the Passive House certificate. 

Intelligent modular window mounting system

SoudaFrame SWI is ideally suited for exterior wall insulation systems (ETICS) and ventilated facade systems, where the interior wall is erected first and only then the insulation and facade finish are installed. 

This pre-frame is made of glass fiber reinforced plastic (GRP), a high-strength, lightweight material with high load-bearing (up to almost 800 kg/m) and insulating capacity. When the window is installed in the insulation plane, the isotherms run straight through insulation and window, achieving significantly better heat loss scores at the wall-window transition (psi values). 

"In addition, we wanted to get rid of the cumbersome sealing methods involved in using window anchors. The pre-frame, available in four sizes, can be assembled both in the workshop and on site and then mounted as a single unit on the wall using our hybrid adhesive Soudaseal SWI. This leaves the installer's hands free to further fully secure the pre-frame with a few bolts. Unique spring clips guarantee a uniform joint between pre-frame and window frame. Even before the start of construction, the exact amount of product needed to seal the window connections can be calculated," explains product manager Steven Van Orshaegen. 

"After the window frame is screwed directly into the SoudaFrame SWI frame, the clips can be removed and the opening sealed with Flexifoam, a flexible PU foam, and with our liquid Soudatight membranes."

Fresh, airtight membranes

With Soudatight, Soudal offers a series of high-quality polymer pastes that, once dry, form a completely seamless and elastic membrane, ideal for the airtight and vapor barrier finishing of penetrations, window, floor-wall, wall-ceiling and roof connections. The fiber-reinforced Soudatight LQ is applied by brush, the SP version airless sprayed. Soudatight Hybrid is applied with a flat brush or using a hand, battery or pneumatic sealant gun as a crease.

Soudal, meanwhile, continues to expand and optimize its family of liquid membranes. For example, it has been working hard to improve SD values, a factor that, by the way, is often used in specifications. The manufacturer is also putting a lot of effort into testing its products. For example, tests at the Dutch certification and testing institute SKG-IKOB once again confirmed the complete airtightness of Soudatight. After all, the sensors of the test modules were not sensitive enough to measure even a single air leak. Furthermore, Soudal recently invested in its own test wall measuring 2 by 2.5 m in order to carry out even more tests. In this way, the specialist wants to further deepen its know-how in the field of air tightness. 

Passive House certification

"The SoudaFrame SWI pre-frame system carries the Passive House certification. It even does so for three different climate zones, specifically cold-moderate, cold and warm-moderate. It is the first time that a component has been tested and passed the Passive House Institute's criteria of different climate zones," concludes van Orshaegen. 

"The airtightness membranes are also Passive House-certified components, allowing them to be used for projects with extremely high airtightness requirements. This certificate, combined with the ift MO-01/1 test, shows that we are able to guarantee high-quality and durable airtight sealing of window joints."