Let’s have a careful look at a partially deconstructed wall, the brick outer skin has been removed already and we are looking at the face of the partially remaining blockwork inner skin. There are several serious defects to note:-
- Thermal bridging of bricks used as a top course above the blockwork.
- Sparse use of dots, with no continuous ribbon of adhesive
- Air leakage from the cavity into the void between the blockwork and the plasterboard thermally bypassing any insulating effect the blocks may have had.
- Too few wall ties, perpendicular joints not fully filled
- There was no parge coat, we would see white edges on the far edges of the blocks were it there
- Air leakage path from the plasterboard void into the voids between the first floor joists. From there a draught can enter the house.
Should we really build houses like this, they are barely more than plasterboard tents, draughty ones at that, cold with high energy demand yet in theory compliant with regulations even called sustainable and eco .