Foam Sealant Tapes: The Added Value Route to Installer Growth

With optimistic forecasts for sector growth in 2017, impregnated foam tapes can be seen as an increasingly attractive alternative to traditional silicone sealants for installers looking for rapid and longer lasting sealing around windows and doors, says Andrew Swift, national sales manager for ISO-Chemie.

Expanding self-adhesive foam tapes are gaining traction as an alternative to wet-based sealants for the effective sealing of joints around the windows and doors in new build and refurbishment projects.

Here, joint widths can vary considerably and installers can never be certain what they will face when they arrive on site, so it’s advisable to have a versatile foam sealant available that can cater for most eventualities.

The ISO-BLOCO 600 range of pre-compressed PUR impregnated foam tapes can be used by installers to quickly and easily seal joints up to 42 mm, providing a highly effective perimeter seal for windows and doors for both weather tightness and thermal/acoustic insulation, while still remaining permeable to trapped water and water vapour – similar to a flexible breathable style material for the building facade.

Installers fitting windows into multi-storey timber frame houses often have to deal with structures where they have to compensate for the large amount of differential movement (up to 36 mm) which can occur between the internal timber wall, or roofs, and the external brick or block work. Here, a solution is available with the ISO-BLOCO T-MAX sealing tape which has been specifically designed for the timber frame housing market.

Incorporating fire resistant qualities, the tape provides a highly effective ‘fit and forget’ perimeter seal for windows, particularly at heads, sills and under the roof eaves for both weather tightness and thermal/acoustic insulation, while still remaining permeable to trapped water and water vapour – similar to a flexible breathable style material for the building facade.

Quick-to-apply on-site, ISO-BLOCO T-MAX is capable of sealing larger joints ranging in width from 11mm to 50mm in a single tape size providing excellent thermal and acoustic insulation properties and can accommodate a temperature range of -30° to +90°.

It’s also impermeable to driving rain with a minimum equivalent to Storm Force 10, making it one of the best performing tapes in its class.

Another product to be considered, which delivers significant installation cost savings is the ISO-BLOCO ONE, which combines both the weather seal and airtight seal into a simple single product.

Hiring access systems, with the associated health and safety issues, can add significantly to the overall cost of a new build or renovation project.

However, foam tapes such as ISO-BLOCO ONE enable windows to be easily, and fully sealed from inside, avoiding the need to use time consuming and costly external access systems like scaffolding and ladders.

Moreover, because they can be used in the wet and rain, the installation of windows can be undertaken regardless of external weather conditions, avoiding time consuming and costly delays. This can lead to potential savings of hundreds of pounds per day.

ISO-Chemie supplies its products in a number of application specific packages such as ISO3-WINDOW SEALING SYSTEM for ease-of-use and to overcome issues relating to onsite access and conditions such as freezing temperatures in the winter months.

This system is based on the European RAL principle of three level sealing, offers an external seal providing weather resistance and breathability, while the intermediate seal provides extra thermal and acoustic properties, and the internal layer meets air tightness and humidity requirements.

All three levels are designed to accommodate any movement between the adjacent construction materials.

These tapes combine high performance with cost competitiveness, providing an effective sealing solution for the perimeter joint between windows, doors and walls in typical UK building.

And with BS8213-2016 compliant tapes alongside the GGF’s guide to window installation and the demand for installed windows with matching energy rated gaps, they can combine to provide installers with an added value sales package, presenting an up-sell opportunity for installers to close deals by offering a more complete installation to the consumer.