ISO-Chemie Tape Has New Low Carbon Homes Sealed

More than 240 properties at Little Kelham on Kelham Island, on the banks of the River Don in Sheffield, feature ISO-BLOCO ONE tape, which provides a high performance airtight, acoustic and thermal seal for hundreds of new doors and Windows.

Developed by sustainable urban developer, Citu, in collaboration with Historic England as part of a city regeneration project, the houses have been built combining Scandinavian design and renewable construction materials to lower the carbon footprint of the occupants.

Sustainability is a key driver of the scheme, so self-adhesive foam tape has been used to seal the expansion joints and gaps around the window and door frames. This will significantly help to achieve a Passivhaus target of <0.69 m³/hour/m² measured at 50 Pascals airtight seal per completed building – a good standard for the construction industry is anything between 3 – 5 m³/hour/m².

The external seal area provides weather resistance and breathability with a minimum resistance of 1000 Pascals (hurricane forces). The intermediate seal area provides extra thermal and acoustic properties, with a U-value upwards of 0.8, while the tape installation itself gives less than 0.01 m³ air loss when tested at 1,000 Pascals air pressure difference.

Kelham Island features in the top 10 hippest places to live in the UK, and Little Kelham is right in the heart of it, said Mark Fox, operations manager at Citu. He added: “ISO-BLOCO ONE is an excellent product, meeting the requirements for an easy-to-install, cost effective and extremely reliable sustainable sealing solution.”

Andy Swift, ISO-CHEMIE’s national sales manager, said: “Developers like Citu are looking at new ways to deliver low carbon homes, which use sustainable technologies. Our sealant tape technologies support this approach.

“Involvement in this and other ground-breaking projects reinforces our strong environmental credentials and showcases the long term airtight, acoustic and thermal benefits of sealing tapes.”

ISO-BLOCO ONE offers a single product ‘fit and forget’ solution for fast and effective sealing based around the European RAL principles of three level sealing - the inside seal area is more airtight than the external one, allowing any trapped moisture inside the joint, or within the wall, to escape outwards rather than into the building.

Once installed, ISO-BLOCO ONE ensures a building is better protected from elemental factors like wind, dust and moisture ingress by accommodating the changes in structural movement caused by environmental, cyclical and settlement factors.

Product, which has Passivhaus certification, has CE marking and complies with energy saving regulations (EnEV) on windows and doors as well as the RAL quality assurance association, has an EC1 rating for very low emissions and a B1 fire resistant rating. It can accommodate extremes of temperature changes – from -30°C to + 80°C and is available with a 10-year performance warranty.