As one of the world's leadingmanufacturers of ecological wood-fibre insulation and systemsin Central Europe, we know exactly what's important when it comes to renovating or building with wood fibre, and we're happy to share our knowledge with you here. Discover now the many areas of application of wood fibre insulation for excellent living comfort.
If you're looking to insulate your roof, wood fibre is the ideal choice. Find out more about our insulating materials and systems for environmentally-friendly roof insulation.
Underlays provide additional protection from the rain. They are laid as a second water-conducting layer under the roof covering - independently above the rafters or on top of non-deformable insulation. In addition, the underlay serves as a temporary cover, protecting your building from rain and snow until the roof is covered with tiles, slates, sheet metal or similar. In high altitude regions, it also protects against backwater.
Rainproof underroofs made with hydrophobic (water-repellent) wood fibre insulation panels such as Gutex Multiplex Top or Gutex Ultratherm offer you the following benefits:
During roof insulation the insulation is located above the rafters, usually with a load-bearing inner formwork made of sheet piling or wood-based panels to close off the space inside. This is why roof insulation is also called rafter insulation. On the inner formwork, your craftsman lays a formwork strip with glued joints, which acts as an airtight seal and vapour barrier. This also provides temporary protection from the weather.
If you've already converted your attic, your living space won't be affected, because your craftsman will insulate the rafters entirely from the outside. In addition, roof insulation offers the following advantages for new builds and renovations:
What's more, for roofs with eaves, you can considerably reduce the risk of mould forming on the underside by laying the wood fibre underlay right up to the eaves formwork!
Roof insulation between the rafters is always the first choice when the roof is already covered. You will achieve particularly good results in terms of building physics, especially in combination with insulation over the rafters (alternatively, insulation under the rafters):
For insulation between the rafters, use flexible wood-fibre insulation boards cut to size, such as Gutex Thermoflex or the Gutex Thermofibre blown-in insulation that fills the space you can add extra insulation under the rafters, for example with rigid pressure-resistant insulation Gutex Thermowall 5in1 thanks to the tongue-and-groove perimeter profile, your tradesman can lay the insulation panels in a staggered pattern on the underside of the rafters, with virtually no off-cuts. Not only does this reduce the thermal bridging effect of the rafters, it also reduces the insulation layer between the rafters and, in many cases, the height of the rafters.
If you have a bungalow with a flat roof, you can insulate your roof with rigid wood fibre insulation materials. For these roofs, the waterproofing is also the outermost layer of the roof covering, in the same way as tiles or other materials are for a pitched roof. Roof waterproofing is impermeable to water and prevents the penetration of precipitation.
Does your house have a lightweight roof with a wooden supporting structure and timber decking? If so, wood fibre insulation offers a particularly high level of comfort thanks to significantly improved acoustic insulation and protection against summer heat. The same applies to supporting structures made of steel or trapezoidal sheet metal, which can be insulated using suitable wood fibre insulation that is highly resistant to compression and tensile forces and has limited water absorption. Hybrid roof constructions such as these are not only safe from a building physics perspective, but can also be designed in a variety of ways – including green roof systems.
If you're looking to insulate your facade, wood fibre is the ideal choice. Find out more about our insulating materials and systems for environmentally-friendly facade insulation.
External thermal insulation composite systems, or ETICS, are complete external wall insulation systems used in both new-build and renovation projects. They generally consist of wood fibre insulation boards, a base coat with reinforcing mesh, a finishing render and a façade paint.
External thermal insulation composite systems offer a number of advantages. On timber external walls, the insulation boards can be installed directly onto the load-bearing timber studs in suitable system constructions, without the need for full-surface sheathing. This saves installation time. Gutex Thermowall 5in1 can be used as a plasterable insulation board in the Gutex Thermowall ETICS on timber-frame constructions and solid timber elements. Insulation thicknesses of up to 200 mm enable significant improvements in the building’s energy performance.
The Gutex Thermowall ETICS with Gutex Thermowall 5in1 offers a number of benefits from a building physics perspective:
The Gutex Thermowall ETICS must be installed in accordance with the applicable system specifications and the manufacturer’s installation guidelines. Only approved and compatible insulation boards, renders, fixings and system accessories may be used. Specialist contractors can also rely on the support of the Gutex Technical Application Service when planning and installing the system.
External walls with a ventilated facade consist of a framework (load-bearing layer), a layer of insulation, a waterproofing film and a ventilated framework that supports the facade cladding - for example plaster, wood, slate or zinc.
For timber-framed, wood-panelled or wood-framed exterior walls, you can insulate the compartments with semi-rigid wood fibre insulation such as Gutex Thermoflex or blown-in wood fibre insulation Gutex Thermofibre unlike the composite thermal insulation system, however, lasting protection against the weather comes not from the plastered insulation panel, but from the curtain wall itself and the "water drainage layer" behind it. This is made by your craftsman from rainproof or moisture-proof insulation panels, for example Gutex Multiplex-top, Gutex Ultratherm or Gutex Thermowall 5in1 and for this application too, wood-fibre insulation offers convincing advantages:
Maximum design freedom included
You can design a ventilated façade as you wish: you can choose from a wide range of materials such as wood, zinc or slate in a wide variety of formats. Curtain walls can also be installed on walls or half-timbering, where they are not only particularly quick and easy to install, but also, and above all, safe from a building physics point of view.
Lightweight partition insulation
Wood-fibre insulation boards are ideal for insulating partition wall systems that form hollow spaces with wooden or metal framing: they also ensure a healthy climate in this application, as they are open to diffusion and can regulate air humidity very well - without significantly losing their thermal insulation effect. Semi-rigid wood-fibre insulation board Gutex Thermoflex is particularly easy and quick to install, as it is stable, pre-prepared and compressible over a 62.5 cm grid and a 6 cm timber frame. You can use all known construction panels for facing, such as plasterboard, gypsum or wood panels.
Depending on the type of framing and lining, lightweight partition walls can achieve weighted sound reduction indices of up to Rw = 61 dB in accordance with DIN 4109-3. In principle, wood fibre insulation boards can be used to provide thermal insulation in partition walls between heated and unheated spaces.
If you're looking to insulate your floor and/or ceiling, wood fibre is the ideal choice. Discover our insulation materials and systems for environmentally-friendly floor and ceiling insulation.
You're probably familiar with this phenomenon in many old buildings: walking on a beamed or plank ceiling without support is comparatively noisy - unless you're tiptoeing. By using DI wood fibre insulation, you can not only meet the legal requirement for sound insulation, but also reduce energy consumption. Minimum sound insulation in your living and working areas, but also meet the requirements for impact sound insulation. Even in single-family homes, wood fibre insulation used as a flexible ballast layer significantly improves sound insulation. Other suitable sound insulation measures include floating floors and decoupled false ceilings, in which the space below the ceiling is filled with flexible wood fibre insulation boards such as Gutex Thermoflex.
As a rule, solid ceilings provide good protection against noise on their own, but you should not do without floating floors if you want to further optimise impact sound insulation in your own rooms. Apartment ceilings that separate your rooms from other living and working areas have to meet higher standards. These requirements can be met using compression-resistant insulation and impact sound insulation boards made of rigid wood fibres, such as Gutex Thermosafe-wd or Gutex Thermofloor. You lay the insulation boards beneath the screed – or use prefabricated dry screed elements with insulation boards bonded to their underside, allowing you to carry out two operations in one.
In principle, all wood-fibre insulation can also be laid under floating screeds: with a cement or anhydrite screed on top of 30 mm thick sound-insulating panels (dynamic stiffness SD30), for example, you can achieve a clear improvement in impact noise of 26 dB (DLw,R).
Solid reinforced concrete ceilings, hollow reinforced concrete ceilings, solid lightweight concrete panels, cellular concrete ceiling panels, ribbed reinforced concrete ceilings, reinforced concrete beam ceilings with lightweight concrete intermediate elements, etc. and many more.
Cold feet are just as unpleasant as having to pay excessive heating bills. To avoid both these problems, lay wood-fibre insulation boards on your solid storey ceiling - as single-layer or multi-layer ceiling insulation. Depending on the height of the insulation and the working load on the storey ceiling, you use compression-resistant, highly compression-resistant or very highly compression-resistant insulation boards. For this application, we offer you load-resistant wood-fibre insulation boards Thermosafe-wd on the ceiling, floating screed, dry screed or planks provide the desired acoustic insulation.
To reduce heating costs in your building and increase comfort in rooms under the roof, you can insulate the solid wood beam or veneered ceiling of your unheated attic with wood fibre insulation such as Gutex Thermosafe-homogenous or Gutex Thermosafe-wd the use of Thermosafe-wd is particularly recommended if you wish to convert your roof at a later date. You can also lay the insulation layer between the beams, using the high-strength flexible panels Gutex Thermoflex and blown-in wood fibre insulation Gutex Thermofibre to protect the insulation from dirt and damage, you should have a layer of protective insulation applied. In the case of ceilings that are not accessible, you can also install the insulation quickly and easily Gutex Thermofibre as visible insulation.
If you want to use your attic as storage space, insulate the ceiling of the upper floor with Gutex Thermosafe-homogenous and only use installation panels in traffic areas and under heavy objects, so that you can take full advantage of the diffusion properties of the wood-fibre insulation.
If you want to renovate your old building and make it more energy-efficient and comfortable, then wood fibre is the ideal choice. Discover our materials and insulation systems for the ecological renovation of your old buildings.
External insulation is the first choice if you want or need to keep the roof cladding on the room side (keyword: monument protection). In this case, you need to cover the roof to replace the existing insulation between the rafters - either up to the top edge of the rafters, or entirely - for example with flexible wood fibre insulation boards Gutex Thermoflex your roofer installs the new underlay as a second water-conducting layer under the roof covering, using diffusion-open underlay panels such as Gutex Ultratherm.They are sized according to the thermal protection required.
If the roof covering, sub-roofing and, where applicable, the insulation between the rafters of your house are still intact, it is preferable to renovate your roof insulation from the inside. To do this, your specialist tradesman will remove the room-side cladding, fit a new vapour barrier membrane and new continuous insulation under the rafters, for example Gutex Thermowall 5in1.
Whichever way you insulate your roof, it must have an airtight construction layer. If you're renovating from the outside, your roofer installs an airtight, diffusion-open membrane over the loft insulation. If you're renovating from the inside, he uses a new vapour control strip bonded airtight.
Building materials through which little or no air can pass are known as airtight. In the roof, they prevent uncontrolled heat loss through ventilation, ensuring not only comfort but also little or no dew water loss through convection. This is because when warm, moist ambient air passes uncontrollably through the roof structure at cold outside temperatures, water vapour condenses in the insulation. As this condensation affects the thermal insulation and can lead to the formation of mould, any thermal insulation in a pitched roof must be protected by layers of airtight building elements.
If you're looking for a new façade, external energy improvement is the first choice because it protects against condensation and prevents thermal bridges - for example, by installing a composite thermal insulation system, such as Gutex Thermowall 5in1. If a structural and building physics assessment of the existing construction reveals major defects or an unsuitable substrate, the façade insulation solution must be planned individually.
In the case of listed façades or façades worthy of preservation, which preclude insulation measures from the outside, insulation of the inside walls is the alternative. The same applies to blocks of flats in which the flats have to be insulated one after the other - for example when there is a change of tenants. To insulate the inside walls, your installer installs either a lining with wood-fibre insulating mats such as Gutex Thermoflex as compartment insulation and a vapour-barrier layer with an inward facing, e.g. in the form of plasterboard or gypsum fibreboard, or a compression-resistant wood-fibre insulation board as Gutex Thermoroom, Gutex offers the Intevio Internal Insulation System as a safe internal insulation system for improved thermal protection and thermal comfort.
Energy improvements using wood-fibre insulation are basically carried out in the same way as for a new build. Before starting work, however, you need to check the structure of the building - especially the load-bearing capacity of the ceilings, as the new insulation will add weight. If you are insulating your floor slab without a cellar, your installer will need to install a moisture barrier beforehand.
