Steel and concrete are magnets for condensation and mould
Steel and concrete are excellent structural materials for their strength and value for money but they are also excellent thermal conductors. That means where you have steel and concrete crossing the insulation line for balconies, canopies and parapets, you have a powerful energy leakage that wastes energy and attracts condensation and mould.
Insulation on the other hand, is excellent for preventing such thermal leaks but is generally very low strength and can’t be relied upon for carrying structural loads.
That’s where structural thermal breaks shine. Minimising the thermal loss, condensation and mould while retaining the structural integrity of the junction.
Build Dry and Mould-Free
Whether you’re in a heating climate like Melbourne or a cooling climate like Brisbane, you need to thermally break the connection from inside to outside to prevent condensation and mould forming on surfaces and within the structure itself.
Save on Energy Costs
For large multistorey buildings, energy losses through balconies can be 10-15%. In this case, balconies act like the cooling fins on an air-cooled motor, sucking winter heat out of or driving summer heat into the building.
Get Local Advice and Support
We’re located in Canberra and can travel nationwide to provide advice in your office or on your site, wherever you are in Australia. Our practical expertise means we can help with design and installation know-how.
Engineered for Australia
We can provide engineering certificates for NCC compliance and our wide variety of products cover a range of loads, fire ratings, and structural details.
Schöck (pronounced “Sherk”) has been the world leader in thermo-breaking solutions for concrete and steel structures since 1962.
LAROS has partnered with Schöck to provide the Australian market with state-of-the-art German made structural thermal breaking solutions (structural insulation).
Remote Consulting
- Sending visual documentation, drafts and plans of the best possible Isokorb installation for your project
- Analysing pictures that have been taken during the installation of Isokorb products to verify product installation
- Attending online conferences for project discussions
On site guidance
- Supply of detailed installation instructions tailored to the products required
- Instruction for professional use and installation of products and materials including preliminary on-site training and assistance for every project
Technical Support
- Structural design calculations.
- Thermal modelling in all Australian climate zones.
- Custom solutions.
- Project- specific layout drawings.
- Detail drawings.
- Bill of materials and estimating support.
- Specification advice.
Verification
- Verification of the technical calculations and architectural detail drawings by an expert structural engineer
Schöck Novomur
The Schöck Novomur is a thermally-broken, load-bearing insulation element, which is used around the entire perimeter of the building’s foundational slab to ensure thermal disconnection between the building and the earth is achieved. Novomurs are also suitable to support and thermally disconnect slab pillars from the earth.
Schöck Novomur is the energy saving keystone for modern buildings. In comparison to brick and blockwork, which has thermal conductivity of approximately 1.0 W/Km, the thermal conductivity of Novomurs is only around 0.286 W/Km (a reduction of 75-80%).
The thermal outflow is therefore reduced to a minimum and the associated dangers of mould formation and structural moisture damage is as good as eliminated. The element is made to suit all standard wall thicknesses, and to a standard length of 750mm. Meaning of course, no straight joints. The toothed structure of the elements ensures good bonding too. All of which means that they can be laid with normal or thin-bed mortar.
Schöck Novomur is classed as brick/block density class 20 and come in a range of widths: 115mm, 150mm, 175mm, 200mm and 240mm.
Schöck Isokorb Concrete
Typical balconies and cantilevered construction elements which project through the thermal building envelope, thus breaking the seamless insulation layer, are notorious for creating thermal bridges.
The legendary and innovative Schöck Isokorb, with its advanced thermal break module, virtually eliminates thermal bridging while transferring load and maintaining full structural integrity. The Schöck Isokorb is the only element of its type to be accredited by the German Passivhaus Institute.
Isokorb units come in literally thousands of variants to cater for an enormous range of loadings, depths, structural details and fire ratings.
Schöck Isokorb Type S – Steel
Steel structures are very efficient at transferring load with small cross-section members.
The default solution currently in Australia is to use a thermal breaking pad, but did you know that with this solution, you can make the thermal bridge worse?
This occurs because you swap a structurally efficient continuous steel section with a larger, less efficient section of bolts.
The Schöck Isokorb Type S solves this problem by using a low conductivity, high structural efficiency box section to transfer shear load.
And at 80mm thick the thermal performance is at least four times that of a standard 20mm thermal pad.
Schöck ComBAR
Schöck’s glass-fibre reinforced polymer reo ComBAR, is resistant to chemicals and neither magnetically nor electrically conductive. ComBAR provides unique structural solutions for corrosion-free reinforced concrete structures, insulated sandwich concrete tilt-up walls without thermal bridges, eddy-current structural foundations, and much more.