ᐅ Thermal Bridge During Final Inspection of a House

Hello dear forum,

We are about to complete the inspection of our newly built house. However, I have noticed two thermal bridges where the concrete protrudes about 5-6cm (2-2.5 inches) and has not been insulated.

One is above a hallway window at the concrete roof slab, and the other is around the entire reveal of a basement window. I will now be reporting this to the responsible companies!

I would like to know how thick the insulation made of extruded polystyrene (Styrodur) should be in these areas.

Where is this specified, or where can I find legal regulations and calculations on how thick the insulation for a thermal bridge needs to be?

Possibly, the insulation thickness could lead to other changes, such as shortening a windowsill or relocating the hallway window out of the cold plane. Since the window frame above already sits very close to the concrete, embedding the frame in the insulation above would, frankly, look very bad.

I would really appreciate your help.

Best regards,
Uwe

Hello,

in principle, no thermal bridges should occur at all. Without an on-site inspection, it is obviously not possible to give any assessment from here.
What I would recommend, however, is that you get an expert for the final inspection.

Is there actually no plan for the house? Or were thermal bridges planned and nobody noticed? What does the site manager say?

Regards

Hello,

Harma schrieb:
...Where is this regulated, or where can one legally find the requirements and calculate how well a thermal bridge must be insulated?

For every new construction project, an energy performance certificate according to the Energy Saving Ordinance proof is required. It includes a standard loss factor for thermal bridges, usually 0.05 W/m²K (0.009 hr·ft²·°F/Btu). However, this assumes that the thermal bridge details at least meet the specifications of DIN 4108 Part Bbl.2. Otherwise, proof of equivalence is required. The designer is responsible for this. After the building is completed, an energy performance certificate according to the Energy Saving Ordinance proof must be produced. The purpose is to account for deviations between planning and execution. However, it is not uncommon for the proof and certificate to have the same issue date. 😉 Suspicious minds might think the worst!

This often results in violations of building regulations and/or subsidy fraud (KfW funding).

Best regards,