Fuelled up – Session 2 begins at #IBPC2019
After a quick break, the chair for the second session Paula Lopez Arce welcomed all the delegates back and gave a brief outline into the work she had been doing with University College London.
She then welcomed Graham Coleman to the stage who looked at “To vent or Not to vent – Subfloor Voids”. The presentation looked at the results of a small experiment conducted on a number of floor voids, the impact that sealing air vents had on humidity with the void and how it’s not always the expected.
Looking at the past – Preserving buildings into the future
I had the unenviable job of following Graham and gave a whistlestop tour of how methods of controlling groundwater in the built environment had changed over the course of time.
Soki Rhee-Duverne, Historic England finished the session and looked at assessing moisture in porous building materials, which reviewed different methods of determining moisture content and the factors that should influence the selection of method.
As with previous conferences, there were a number of trade stands for delegates to peruse including the opportunity to attend a KTP project & beyond update workshop, to learn more about the cutting edge work the PCA and UCL are doing to improve moisture diagnostics in buildings.
Into the final session at #IBPC2019
Session 3 looked at emerging challenges, chaired by Dr Tim Forman, Cambridge University and Lady Renee-Marie Young gave us a look at the new Homes (fitness for Habitation) Act from a landlords perspective, which included the perils of free surveys and choosing the wrong contractor.
Next to the stage was Dr Peter Rickaby who looked in detail at PAS2035 (a British Standard) which was released earlier this year to try and improve standards in retrofit insulation. Alterations we make to our building to improve energy efficiency can have unintended consequences and the presentation looked at how these should try to be avoided and how ventilation plays such a vital role going forward.
The final speaker in this session took us back to our wood preservation roots but with a modern twist as Robin Lancashire, BM Trada, looked at moisture issues with modern timber frame construction particularly CLT.
Who knew beetles loved rock music!
We then had “something completely different” from Nicholas Donnithorne, Rentokil and who would have thought that 70s English rock band ELO has helped to improve our understanding of wood-boring insects and that Deathwatch beetles are fans of Status Quo!