What Is Cold A Cold Bridge?

With so much cold in the weather at the moment we thought we would talk about ‘Cold Bridging’ in construction......

In its simplest form, a cold bridge is a weak spot in the insulation surrounding a building. Cold bridges which are sometimes called thermal bridges occur whenever there is a break in the continuity of the insulation or a penetration of the insulation. Examples of cold bridges include:

Junctions between walls and floors, and walls and roofs

Reveals around windows and doors

Holes made by pipes and cables

Studwork in timber frame walls (interrupting the insulation)

Bridges can reveal themselves as unsightly black marks and classic examples are sometimes spotted on the plaster or timber round windows or black stripes on ceilings, this is where the internal warm air is condensing on a cold spot inside the building however, this can be designed out or at least minimised to a point where this won’t occur. At Spacetwo we would recommend using a warm roof design (insulation on the outside of the roof), which stops the black marks sometimes seen on timber frames where the roof joists transfer the outside temperature to the inside. We also don’t have to worry about a thermal bridge caused by interruptions in the wall insulation as the U value of our Austrian larch is so good that an extra insulation layer is not required. We fully air seal all windows and door junctions and any penetrations therefore eliminating the passage of cold air into the building and would also suggest a thermal break between any metal windows or Bi-fold doors you may install.