Fields of application

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.

Duringroof insulationthe 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.

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):

• Optimum acoustic protection: the inhabitants under the roof benefit doubly from the porous structure and high surface weight of the wood fibre insulation.
• Lower cooling and heating costs: thanks to the excellent summer and winter thermal protection provided by wood fibre.
• High fire protection up to F 90-B: your specialist craftsman will ensure this by dimensioning the room-side cladding with fibre-reinforced plasterboard or GKF boards.

For insulation between the rafters, use flexible wood-fibre insulation boards cut to size, such asGutex Thermoflexor theGutex Thermofibre blown-in insulation that fills the spaceyou can add extra insulation under the rafters, for example with rigid pressure-resistant insulationGutex Multithermthanks 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 withrigid wood fibre insulation materialsfor these roofs, 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 light roof with a wooden support structure and wooden formwork? If so, wood-fibre insulation offers you a particularly high level of comfort thanks to significantly improved acoustic and thermal protection. The same applies to support structures made of steel or trapezoidal sheet metal, which you can insulate with wood fibre that is highly resistant to pressure and tearing, and has a limited capacity to absorb water, such as Gutex Thermoflat hybrid roof constructions such as these are not only safe from the point of view of building physics, they can also be designed in a variety of ways - including greening.

EWIs are building-approved external wall insulation systems used in both new-build and renovation projects. They generally consist of layers of wood fibre insulation (WAP type), a base plaster with reinforcing mesh, a finishing plaster and a façade paint.

Thermal insulation composite systems for external insulation offer a number of advantages: for wooden external walls, your tradesman can fit the ITE directly onto the load-bearing wooden studs, because he doesn't need a substrate completely covered in panels - which saves on working time. What's more, insulation layers up to 260 mm thick enable you to make significant energy savings. What's more, thermal insulation composite systems such as Thermowall ITE are convincing in many respects from the point of view of building physics:

• Lower U-values, because the thermal bridging effect of the framing uprights is reduced
• Excellent sound insulation: thanks to the porous structure and high surface weight of the wood fibre insulation board.
• Optimum protection against heat in summer: thanks to its high specific heat storage capacity, wood fibre insulation significantly delays the flow of heat from outside to inside.
• Durable rendered facade: wood fibre insulation keeps surfaces warmer and drier for longer, significantly reducing the formation of algae.
• Reduced heat loss: wood fibre insulation ensures windtight construction.
• Comfortable, healthy rooms: few insulating materials manage moisture better than wood fibre.
• Approved systems provide lasting weather protection for the timber supporting structure.
• High fire protection: certificates are available for fire-resistance classes F 30-B, F 60-B and F 90-B for load-bearing and room-closing external walls, and F 90-B / F 30-B for the building enclosure wall.

To be able to install Thermowall external insulation, your specialist tradesman must have been trained by the manufacturer, and may only use materials, fasteners and system accessories approved by site supervision in accordance with the manufacturer's installation guidelines. To ensure that our Thermowall external insulation meets your requirements, our specialist partners can also count on the support of our team of specialists at all times.Application technology (AWT)of the company.

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 asGutex ThermoflexorBlown-in wood fibre insulation Gutex Thermofibreunlike 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 exampleGutex Multiplex-top,Gutex UltrathermorGutex Multithermand for this application too, wood-fibre insulation offers convincing advantages:

• Better U-values, because they reduce the thermal bridging effect of the framing uprights.
• This makes it possible to compensate for low mullions and the resulting thin layers of insulation - which is particularly interesting for renovation projects.
• Excellent sound insulation: thanks to the porous structure and high surface weight of the wood fibre insulation board.
• Optimum protection against heat in summer: thanks to its high specific heat storage capacity, wood fibre insulation significantly delays the flow of heat from outside to inside.
• Reduced heat loss: wood fibre insulation makes the outside wall windtight.
• Comfortable, healthy rooms: few insulating materials manage moisture better than wood fibre

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. Our websiteDurio façade insulation systemis the solution of choice: it provides insulation up to the level of passive houses.

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 boardGutex Thermoflexis 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 facing, lightweight partitions with sound reduction ratings of up to Rw = 61 dB can be produced. In principle, you can use all wood fibre insulation boards to create thermally insulating partition walls between heated and unheated rooms.

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 asGutex Thermoflex.

As a rule, solid ceilings provide good protection against noise on their own, but you shouldn't do without floating floors - 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 are created using compression sound insulation panels made of rigid wood fibres, such asGutex Thermosafe-wdorGutex Thermosafe-nfyou lay the soundproofing panels under the screed - or you use prefabricated screed elements with insulation panels bonded under the screed, so that you can 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).

1. Which ceilings are part of the massive construction?

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 boardsThermosafe-wdon 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 asGutex Thermosafe-homogenousorGutex Thermosafe-wdthe 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 panelsGutex Thermoflexand blown-in wood fibre insulationGutex Thermofibreto 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 easilyGutex Thermofibreas visible insulation.

If you want to use your attic as storage space, insulate the ceiling of the upper floor withGutex Thermosafe-homogenousand 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.

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 boardsGutex Thermoflexyour roofer installs the new underlay as a second water-conducting layer under the roof covering, using diffusion-open underlay panels such asGutex 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 exampleGutex Multitherm.

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.

1. Airtightness on pitched roofs - Why is it so important?

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 asGutex Thermowallif a static and physical examination of the existing construction reveals major defects, Gutex Durio is a convincing alternative, because our façade insulation system is specially adapted to difficult substrates.

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 asGutex Thermoflexas 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.