airtightness #2

Intermediate floor airtightness achieved… or so we thought!

Today we set about fixing a pesky screw that was sticking through the airtightness membrane above one of the external doors! Aaargh!

The pesky screw.

As the windows are fitted on brackets to the structural frame, and in some areas the structural openings extend right up to the intermediate floor rim beam, there are a few places where the brackets had to be fitted on the outside of the membrane. Despite our best efforts at running through the importance of the airtightness layer, and double checking the position of all fixings before fixing (if you see what I mean) with the window fitters, this one managed to slip through in the wrong position!

So the first step for the repair was to grind off the screw back as far as possible... Unfortunately as there was a bracket right behind it (as that was what it was supposed to be fixing to the structure!) it meant we couldn't push the membrane back to get to the hole with a bit of tape.

This left us with a hole through the membrane which has the remainder of the screw at the back of it. We then pumped the hole (and around it) as much as possible with Orcon F, which is an airtight, multi-purpose flexible joint adhesive which can be used internally and externally equally well. Now we just have to keep our fingers crossed for the airtightness test!