Synergie

Ostman Thermal’s primary objective in the promotion of Synergie products is to guarantee top quality products and technologically advanced solutions for the building envelope.

Under the Synergie brand, we offer a wide variety of top quality windtightness membranes, airtight membranes, airtight tapes, sealants and other products for achieving optimum raintightness, windtightness and airtightness results. All of these products are manufactured in Germany to the highest standards, in line with European harmonised standards for energy saving and carry CE Markings, where required, under the Construction Products Regulation.

Building companies of all sizes use our products to help them achieve national building code standards and to build energy efficient and passive buildings to the highest of standards.

Gaps which open up as a result of an interruption in a roof package and/or an unsealed wall can give rise to the following problems

Ingress of heat in the summer, making the structure uncomfortable
Loss of heat in the winter due to natural convection of warm air and the ingress of cold wind/draughts from the outside
Condensation in the outer layers in winter, where warm air coming from inside the building cools down and may condense
Condensation in the inner layers in summer, where humid air from outside cools down and may condense
Reduction in internal room comfort due to draughts
Exposure to noise

To minimise or eliminate these problems, if you specify and install the Synergie Airtightness system, you will get all of the following:

Synergie Airtightness System Benefits

Removes Draughts
Cuts Heating Bills
Prevents condensation
Protects and improves the performance of your thermal insulation
Protects from damage caused by mould – Health Benefits
Ventilation system works more efficiently
Lower CO2 emissions
Helps lock out odours, noise and unpleasant summer heat
Safe and quick to install
Environmentally friendly
No harmful toxins or solvents
Helps attain good Building Energy Rating (BER)
Helps increase the value of your property

Synergie Airtightness System Benefits

Removes Draughts
Cuts Heating Bills
Prevents condensation
Protects and improves the performance of your thermal insulation
Protects from damage caused by mould – Health Benefits
Ventilation system works more efficiently
Lower CO2 emissions
Helps lock out odours, noise and unpleasant summer heat
Safe and quick to install
Environmentally friendly
No harmful toxins or solvents
Helps attain good Building Energy Rating (BER)
Helps increase the value of your property

Remove Draughts

Research shows that up to half of all heat loss in buildings can be due to uncontrolled ventilation and air leakage through the external fabric of the building envelope. Despite increased insulation values due to improved building regulations, warm air can leak out and cold air can still enter through joints in the building fabric in the form of draughts. The main air leakage points that attention should be paid to are:

Joints between walls, roofs and ceilings
Joints between foundation and wood structure in timberframe
Overlaps and interruption of membranes
Joints between walls and window/door frames
Penetrations in the external envelope – pipes, cables etc.
Unplastered blockwork, such as between intermediate timber floor joists

A well installed airtightness system is the control of this air leakage.

Due to air leakage in the fabric of the building an average house needs to heat up to 4-5 times more air than is actually required to reach a comfortable living temperature. Heated air which can be expensive to produce is still escaping and can be pinpointed as a major source of energy loss. Proper insulation and a well installed airtightness system reduces this heated air loss, which in turn saves energy and reduces heating bills.

More central to all this is living healthily and comfortably. There are well documented risks associated with the presence of mould in buildings. Fresh, clean air is always highly desirable. Condensation, if unchecked, can lead to damp and mould forming which can have an adverse affect on both the building’s and the occupants health. Installing an airtightness system minimizes condensation risk, thus ensuring no structural damage from moisture, mould and damp.

Warm air rises. Warm air carries vapour. Heat that escapes from buildings carry a significant amount of moisture. As this warm, vapour-laden, air passes through insulation it can leave behind the humidity that it carries which will weaken the u-value or thermal performance of the insulation. If this moisture cannot dry out quickly it could lead to further damage in the fabric of the building. By installing an airtight vapour layer you are protecting the insulation, thus enhancing the thermal performance of the building.

As we build more airtight and thermally efficient buildings the need for proper ventilation increases. Without a fully functional, well designed, ventilation system to remove high levels of humidity from our airtight buildings, condensation can quickly form. The ventilation system can range from simple natural ventilation right up to mechanical systems for low energy/passive standard house design. If you have a mechanical ventilation system installed, your building must be particularly airtight in order for that system to work efficiently, and to enjoy healthy, comfortable buildings. The mantra is to Build tight, Ventilate Right.

A lot of emphasis is placed on the use of renewable heating sources in order to achieve good BER Ratings. Careful attention should also be paid to “fabric first” principle regarding the external building envelope, in order to achieve efficient and resilient structures, thereby ensuring that the renewable heat sources achieve their full potential. Houses are well insulated now, under building regulations, and must meet minimum U-value calculations. However, a badly fitted airtight layer, or unrepaired damage to the airtight layer will reduce the U-value calculation. On the other hand, a well installed airtightness system will ensure that the desired U-value is attained, and will lead to optimum BER results for the lifetime of the building.

How to guarantee good airtightness and windtightness

Good airtightness on a roof or wall can be achieved by ensuring a “Synergie” between design and execution and by trying to ensure that there are two airtight layers present:

Internal Airtight Layer (for example a Vapour control layer)
External windtight layer (for example a highly breathable membrane)

The weak points are not large surfaces but all the interruptions and openings in the roof or wall. The rule of thumb is that if you were to go around the design of the house with a pencil, every time you lift the pencil is a potential air leakage point, such as conduits, waste and soil pipes and ducts, pipes for solar systems, window and door frames. The key is to totally seal these air leakage points:

Vapour control layers, barriers and breathable membranes should be sealed at their joints using Multi Tape
Large pipes, conduits and roof windows should be sealed on the outside using butyl tapes, such as Coll Flexi, to the breathable membranes and to the vapour control layer on the inside using Multi Tape
The internal walls of timberframe houses should be sealed at their joints with acrylic adhesive tape Multi Tape, butyl tape or sealants in cartridge containers
Door and window frames should be sealed with elastic expanding foam, and sealing tape around their perimeters where they meet the wall or subframe. You can choose Synergie Duo Variable Easy, with full waterproof adhesive, where the tape is to plastered on smooth blockwork or choose FI-D Window tape where the blockwork is rough and you need to adhere the tape to the substrate with acrylic adhesive, Synergie AK adhesive. Both tapes, once fully adhered, can be plastered over.

Airtightness Test

Under building regulations in Ireland and the UK the emphasis is set on achieving reasonable standards of airtightness, and it is compulsory to subject samples of newly built houses to an airtightness test. The current standard regarding the airtightness of a building is EN ISO 9972:2015. This standard does not specify a limit regarding airtightness but simply describes the measurement of airtightness. This standard distinguishes between two different tests – the preliminary test and the final test. The preliminary test’s purpose is quality control of the installed airtight layer and should be carried out immediately after the airtight system has been installed. This will help pinpoint if any improvements are required or if unintended damage has occurred to the airtight layer. The final test has to be carried out when the house is finished and ready to be moved in to. The method described in the standard is the Blower Door test in which a fan pressurizes and depressurizes the building envelope. The fan (mounted into the frame of an exterior window or door) is used to take a series of measurements which result in a regression curve which describes the air loss of the building envelope under varying pressure differentials.

Airtightness Test

Products

Windtight Exterior products

Head SL 155 – Breathable Monolithic Membrane

Head SL (Superior Line) 155 is our entry-level, highly price competitive, roof sarking membrane. It is the next generation of Superior Performance vapour permeable underlays. Head SL 155 is a three-ply diffusion open sarking membrane with the latest monolithic technology. The latest state of the art requires the processing of the following raw materials for the Superior line

Upper cover fleece: high quality, water repellent, UV and heat resistant, as well as anti-slip polypropylene spunbond fleece
Central membrane: the functional membrane using UV Bikom technology: monolithic, diffusion-open, driving rain-proof as well as UV and heat-resistant 28 g/m2 functional film.
Lower cover fleece: high quality, UV and heat resistant, grey polypropylene spun bond fleece.

Head Wall 120

Head Wall 120 (120gramme/m2) is a wind and rainproof façade membrane for use in timberframe construction, for permanent protection of the building envelope and thermal insulation. It is a three-layer, diffusion open, wind seal for use with a ventilated closed façade. To guarantee the total seal provided by Head Wall 120 breathable membrane against water and wind penetration, the reinforced acrylic adhesive tape, Multi Tape must be used. This type of tape is particularly effective in different seal points, such as horizontal overlaps, vertical joins, or the joints between membrane and different building components (masonry, wood, doors and windows etc.).

Vapour Control Layers/Barriers

The airtight layer is located on the inside of the building envelope. At Synergie we currently stock two Vapour Internal Control layers

Synergie Sd Variabel 100 – an intelligent/active vapour control layer,SDO.2-Sd20 100, gramme/m2
Synergie Sd 2/100 – a vapour barrier with an Sd value of 2m, mass of 100gramme/m2

How does the Sd variable Airtight membrane work?

As mentioned earlier, increased insulation standards necessitate the need for careful moisture management in the structure of buildings. Our Synergie Sd Variable membrane has the ability to change its water vapour performance (Sd value), ie. the membrane becomes more diffusion open depending on the relative humidity (RH) in the area surrounding the membrane. In the colder, winter months, the micropores of the membrane stay diffusion tight, preventing vapour from the warm interior of the building diffusing into the timber roof/wall structure or insulated layer. However, in the summer drying out months, the micropores of the membrane open, allowing any vapour/moisture trapped in the insulated material to escape back into the building interior and dry out/ventilate naturally. In the long run, over a few years, this ability to act as a barrier in winter and a breathable membrane in summer, helps to protect the building from structural damage caused by excessive moisture trapped in the building fabric.

The Synergie Sd Variable membrane is ideally suited to flat roof make-ups which are not adequately ventilated or diffusion tight towards the outside. The Sd Variable membrane is also suitable in new build where excessive moisture accumulation has occurred during the initial construction phase of the building process where timber elements and/or thermal insulation has suffered an unplanned wetting.

Synergie Sd 2/100 Vapour Control Layer

The Synergie Sd2 100 Membrane, with its optimum fixed Sd value, Sd2, is suitable for the underside of ceilings in most pitched roof applications, where breathable roofing membranes (with typical Sd values of Sd 0.02) are incorporated, as they are diffusion open to the outside. The Sd2 vapour control membrane allows for an ideal level of vapour control. The rule of thumb is that the Sd Value of the Internal membrane needs to be a minimum six times higher than the Sd Value of the External roofing membrane.

How does the Sd variable Airtight membrane work?

Synergie Sd 2/100 Vapour Control Layer

Tapes and Accessories

Important factors to be considered when choosing an adhesive tape

Temperature

the adhesives on the tape form an immediate bond but develop their maximum strength over a period of 24 hours. The minimum temperature required for the adhesive to form an immediate minimum adhesive bond is -10 degrees C. Therefore, the lower the temperature the slower the immediate bonding reaction. Once the tape has been applied the process will develop its maximum adhesive bond as the temperature rises.

Pressing on the adhesive Tape

another essential factor for the perfect adhesion to the surface is to press on the adhesive tape after it has been laid; the more you press on the tape the more the acrylic glue penetrates the fibres of the membrane or the pores of the surfaces to be sealed, increasing its immediate adhesive strength and its strength over time. For best results, using the Pressing Roller for laying the tapes, is recommended.

Cleaning the Surface

it is essential that the surface to be adhered to is clean and dry, since any residues of water, humidity, frost, grease, dust or dirt will prevent the adhesive tape from adhering to the surface. Damp and/or dusty substrates can play havoc during the installation phase. After the substrate has been thoroughly cleaned (brushed down) the dry substrate can be stabilized using Synergie Spray Primer, allowed to dry, so that the adhesive tape can be successfully applied.

Tapes and Accessories

Important factors to be considered when choosing an adhesive tape

Temperature

Pressing on the adhesive Tape

Cleaning the Surface

Synergie Multi Tape 60mm & 100mm

Multi Tape, available in 60mm and 100mm widths, is a Universal acrylic adhesive tape with mesh scrim reinforcement for both inside and outside use. It is slightly stretchable, making it perfect for use around small pipe and wiring penetrations. This ability to stretch is very useful where there is settlement in timber elements. It can be used for permanent sealing of Synergie breathable membranes, Synergie vapour control layers and barriers at the overlaps or directly onto the lateral surfaces of roof windows, vents etc. as well as sealing the joints in OSB boards/plywood. It is suitable for connections to metal surfaces, such as RSJs. timber and concrete (prime the concrete with Synergie Spray Primer, if necessary).

The innovative Synergie Multi Tape Easy Rip 60mm is a multifunctional, universal acrylic adhesive tape that is manually hand tearable for ease of application.

Synergie Multi Tape 60mm & 100mm

The innovative Synergie Multi Tape Easy Rip 60mm is a multifunctional, universal acrylic adhesive tape that is manually hand tearable for ease of application.

Synergie Fassaden Tape FT 60mm

Professional, universal, UV-stabilised, polyethylene 60mm wide adhesive tape, with polyester reinforcing mesh with highly adhesive acrylic glue. It is black in colour. It is ideal for concealing overlap joints on Synergie Façade membrane installed behind open jointed ventilated facades, such as cedar cladding.

Synergie Membrane Tape 60mm

Synergie Membrane Tape 60mm is an adhesive tape on PE treated paper coated highly adhesive acrylic glue for internal use. The tape has been specifically produced for bonding Synergie vapour control layers with the purpose of providing a seal against air, wind, vapour and noise on interuptions in roofs and/or walls. It can also be used for internal sealing of OSB boards in timberframe construction. On surfaces to be bonded, make sure they are free from dust and moisture. Cut the tape to the desired length, remove the protective liner and lay the adhesive tape onto the overlap of the membrane, then press firmly along the length of the tape with the Pressing Roller so that the adhesive bonds properly.

Synergie Repair Tape 60mm

Synergie Repair tape, available in 60mm width, is a adhesive tape in nonwoven fabric of polypropylene with highly performing adhesive acrylic glue. It is used to repair unintended tears in breathable membranes. It is also used for airtight sealing of the building envelope which need a following plastering, such as the adherence of the vapour control layer to dry, clean wall structures, that have been primed where required.

Synergie Coll Flexi CF

Synergie Coll Flexi is available in 100mm width and is a highly flexible butyl adhesive tape. It is totally hand malleable and permanently elastic, can be pressed down by hand then rolled in flat with the Pressing Roller. Once properly adhered it has very strong adhesion properties and mostly works without the need to prime the surface. It is ideal for use as a permanent seal both inside and outside at all penetrations in the building structure.

Synergie Bold SB

Synergie Bold SB is a double-sided reinforced adhesive bead for indoor use. It is permanently elastic and has super strong bonding properties. It is primarily used to bond vapour control layers to any type of building surface, masonry blockwork, wood or metal, to guarantee airtightness at the junction of membranes and structures.

Synergie Adhesive Paste 310ml

Synergie Anschlusskleber AK adhesive paste, in 310ml cartridges, is designed for gluing and sealing the overlaps of vapour control layers or breathable membranes and for gluing them to other surfaces, such as blockwork, plaster and wood. Can be used around small gaps along timber floor joists in a continuous bead. It is also suitable for fixing FI-D Window tapes for door and window frames on adjacent blockwork. The surfaces on which the Adhesive will be applied must be clean, dry, stable and free from dust or grease. Using a mastic gun, apply a continuous bead of between 6-8mm in diameter to the substrate. If the surface is particularly rough, increase the bead size as appropriate. Then gently press down on the vapour control layer or FI-D window tape, but do not press the adhesive completely flat. The drying time will depend on the porosity of the surface, the temperature and the amount of adhesive applied.

Synergie Window Tapes

Synergie Duo Variabel Easy Tape

Synergie Duo Variabel Easy tape is a white, multi-layered (PET.PA) thermobonded tape with a high performance, moisture resistant, acrylic coating. We stock the product in four widths; 75mm, 100mm, 150mm and 200mm. The tape has the dual advantage of being suitable for internal and external applications. The tape has a Variable Sd value, ranging from Sd 0.5 to Sd 20, which protects against condensation. In winter, becomes vapour tight to minimise moisture entering the building fabric and condensing. In summer, the tape becomes vapour open to allow any moisture that entered during the winter to dry out to the inside of the room. The tape backing has full adhesive and comes with split finger lift liners. The tape is ideal for laying at the joints between frames and walls to guarantee airtightness (internal) and windtightness (external). The surface of the tape has been designed to be plastered over, where required. Application; Identify the surfaces to be sealed, making sure all surfaces are dry and free from dust and grease. We recommend the use of Synergie Spray Primer on porous surfaces. After cutting the tape to the desired length, remove the 25mm protective liner from the acrylic adhesive tape, apply the adhesive surface to the border of the window/door frame and press firmly with the Pressing Roller along the entire surface of the adhesive tape so that the glue bonds properly. Then remove the other split liners and place the adhesive side on the surface of the wall and press firmly with the roller along the entire surface of the adhesive tape so that the glue bonds properly. Be extra careful to ensure you get a full bond to the substrate along the length and across the width of the adhesive tape, and that the tape lies fully flat along the substrate. If the substrate is uneven, particularly rough blockwork, then we recommend that any gaps that exist between the tape and the substrate are filled with a bead of Synergie adhesive paste, gently pressed down, to fill these gaps. Once the tape is fully bonded to the substrate it can be plastered over.

Synergie FI-D Window Tape

Synergie FI-D window tape is the most cost competitive fleece tape in the market. It is a universal tape for indoor use. With an Sd value of Sd 40 it helps control vapour diffusion. It adapts to all types of surfaces and can be plastered over. The tape has a single adhesive strip for attaching to the edge of the window/door frame, which will achieve a very strong bond after it has been rolled in using the Pressing Roller. The other side of the tape is plain for applying the Synergie Adhesive paste. We recommend that a 6-8mm bead of adhesive is applied to the substrate before gently laying the tape on top of the bead of adhesive. The corners are then sealed with grey fleece Repair tape 60mm, or a strong bead of Synergie Adhesive paste, to guarantee an airtight seal. The FI-D tape can be used for masonry and wooden surfaces, such as solid wood, laminate, OSB, plywood etc. The tape is stocked in three widths, 100mm, 150mm and 200mm and comes in rolls 30metres in length.

Synergie

Synergie Airtightness System Benefits

Synergie Airtightness System Benefits

Remove Draughts

How to guarantee good airtightness and windtightness

Airtightness Test

Airtightness Test

Products

Head SL 155 – Breathable Monolithic Membrane

Head Wall 120

Vapour Control Layers/Barriers

How does the Sd variable Airtight membrane work?

How does the Sd variable Airtight membrane work?

Tapes and Accessories

Temperature

Pressing on the adhesive Tape

Cleaning the Surface

Tapes and Accessories

Temperature

Pressing on the adhesive Tape

Cleaning the Surface

Synergie Multi Tape 60mm & 100mm

Synergie Multi Tape 60mm & 100mm

Synergie Fassaden Tape FT 60mm

Synergie Membrane Tape 60mm

Synergie Repair Tape 60mm

Synergie Coll Flexi CF

Synergie Bold SB

Synergie Adhesive Paste 310ml

Synergie Window Tapes

Synergie Superior Line

Synergie Head SL 155

Synergie Façade Membrane

Synergie Head Wall 120

Synergie Vapour Control Layers-Barriers

Synergie Syn Sd Variable 100

Synergie Syn Sd 2- 100

Synergie DUO Variable Easy

Synergie FI-D

Synergie Multi Rip

Synergie Facades Tape FT

Synergie Membrane DB

Synergie Spray Primer SP

Connection Adhesive AK

Synergie Coll Flex CF

Synergie BOLD SB

Synergie Kont SK

Synergie Catalogue

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