Choosing The Right Type of Wall Assembly
Choosing the right type of wall assembly is very important when designing a home or building. Understand what the walls will have to go through during the building’s service life. Your wall assembly will consist of a system of components that fulfill the support, control, and finish function of the building envelope.
In this article, we will highlight two main wall assembly types. Both of these wall assemblies are build using a range of Soprema products that our customers have grown to love.
Continuous Exterior Insulated Wall Assembly
This type of wall assembly has the advantages that the insulation can easily be made continuous. The structure of building is kept warmer since it is on the warm side of the insulation.
In an Exterior Insulated Wall Assembly, most structural components are kept behind the insulation. This helps reduce the effect of thermal bridging in the assembly. This type of wall also allows for the installation of an Air and Vapour Barrier Waterproofing membrane to the structural wall.
Hybrid Wall Assembly
The type of hybrid wall, are the walls where insulation is in wall cavities and continuous on the exterior side of the structure.
In a hybrid wall, insulating materials are added in the cavities between studs, therefore moving the dew point inwards. In this assembly, the vapour barrier and air barrier functions are separated. A vapour barrier is installed on the warm side of the insulation and the air barrier is positioned outside the structure.
What Wall Assembly Should I Choose?
We know that it can be difficult to choose which products are best for a high-performance building and to prevent heat loss. In order to help our customers with that difficult choice, we’re happy to share the SOPREMA BUILD BETTER guide. This guide is intended for professionals involved in the design, implementation and construction of high performing energy efficient buildings.
To provide you with peace of mind and make your job easier, SOPREMA has collaborated with the firm Morrison Hershfield in the testing of wall assemblies that comply with the energy performance requirements of the National Energy Code for Buildings and much more!
Energy efficiency is about more than prescriptive energy code compliance. This guide includes tables that designers can use to validate the thermal performance of assemblies with more ambitious energy goals.
This edition of the Guide features ACS Composite Systems’ THERMAL CLIPS. These are SOPREMA’s preferred attachment system for panelized exterior cladding materials.
This versatile attachment system significantly improves the thermal efficiency of wall assemblies. To comply with strict fire restrictions, SOPREMA has carried out extensive research. They are proud to introduce, a protected wall assembly that has passed the fire test conducted by Intertek according to the CAN/ULC-S134 standard.
