Martin Morelli

Investigation of interior post-insulated masonry walls with wooden beam ends

The preponderant number of multistorey buildings constructed in Denmark in the period between 1850 and 1930 were built with masonry walls incorporating wooden floor beams. Given the nature of this construction, it is supposed that significant energy savings could be achieved by simply insulating the facades of such buildings. To maintain the exterior appearance of the facade, the only possible means of installing the required insulation is placing it on the interior of the wall. However, the installation of insulation on the interior of the wall assembly reduces the overall drying potential of the wall, and this in turn may lead to increased freeze–thaw damages and moisture problems at the beam ends embedded in the masonry, when the masonry facade is subjected to driving rain. This article presents a method to investigate retrofit measures of interior-insulated masonry walls having wooden floor beams based on a failure mode and effect analysis combined with hygrothermal simulations. The method was first used to determine the potential for failure in retrofitted walls and their effects and causes, and thereafter, the expected hygrothermal performance of the retrofit measures was further investigated using both thermal and hygrothermal simulation software. The results show that the risk to incurring moisture problems at the wooden beam ends can be resolved by not insulating that portion of the wall directly above and below the floor division. Additionally, this proposed retrofit measure would reduce the heat loss of the original wall structure by half.

A Performance Assessment of Prefabricated Bathrooms Installed in the 1990s

This chapter describe the design and build up of wet rooms (bathrooms and rooms with similar exposure to water and high relative humidity) in Denmark with emphasis on wet rooms made as part of a Danish research project—Project Renovation. In this project, 19 different types of bathrooms were made in new untraditional ways. A number of these bathrooms covering 11 different types were surveyed after approximately 20 years of use. The survey aimed at evaluating the bathrooms’ condition based on a non-destructive inspection. In general, the bathrooms are in good condition and perform well compared with traditionally made bathrooms. The paper describes the methodology developed to assess bathrooms and gives examples of the results.