Today we give our space to Toni Martos, Target Market Manager of Facades for Sika Spain, who talks to us about Sikatherm, the advantages of this system and why it is a good investment. Sikatherm is a sustainable, environmentally friendly construction solution that minimises energy losses in buildings.
What is the SATE?
Before introducing the brand name, let's put it in context. What is the SATE?What is its history, what are its advantages, why insulate a façade, what are the expectations?
Literally everyone knows it as Exterior Thermal Insulation System. I like to use the words of an old architect friend of mine, where he defined it as a "Sheltered Wall". In my opinion, it is an expression that makes it easy for everyone to understand its meaning, regardless of their technical level. A continuous skin that protects us from the inclemency of the weather. A protection that prevents us from losing temperature, allowing the façade to breathe and, of course, that is impermeable to rainwater. If, in addition to all this, we manage to have a good design, combining textures and colours, we will achieve an exceptional decorative effect.
History and advantages of the SATE system
As for its history, we can be sure that it is not an original construction system in our country. We can understand the SATE as an assimilation of construction techniques that have been developed over many years in other countries. The first known interventions date back to the 1940s in the Nordic countries. In Spain, the system was introduced by public administrations as a Thermal Rehabilitation System for Exteriors.
If we focus on the advantages of the SATE, I would summarise them as follows:
- Increase in the useful surface area of the dwelling, by insulating the outside.
- No thermal bridges. The continuous outer skin prevents or reduces thermal bridging.
- Impermeability to rainwater.
- Vapour permeability. Allows the façade to breathe.
- Decorative in a combination of textures and colours.
- Energy saving, reduction of energy consumption, heating and air conditioning.
- Reduction of the level of CO2 emissions from the building.
- Increased thermal inertia.
- Housing rehabilitation without eviction.
3 reasons to insulate a façade
But at this point I think we can ask ourselves this question: Why should I insulate my house? Depending on our profile, the motivations or interests that move us are different, but in summary I would divide it into three reasons.
Legislative reasons
In the field of building, the main standard that binds technicians is the CTE (Technical Building Code). It is a system that defines the minimum performance criteria that buildings must meet. In short, the first reason is that regulations must be complied with.
Economic reasons
A very important reason is the relationship between cost and benefit. In general, it is clear that the intervention in ETICS systems is an investment and not an expense. This helps us to economically reduce the energy consumption bill during its lifetime. In short, "I install ETICS because I save money".
Environmental reasons
We can neither return to the stone age nor continue with this savage system of destruction of our ecosystem. We have to promote new building solutions aimed at reducing energy consumption while minimising environmental impact. We have to insulate, but we have to think about all the materials and industrial processes that are used. We cannot insulate with materials that during their manufacturing process have an excessive energy consumption, which makes the intervention makes little sense.
We must insulate with materials with low energy consumption in their manufacture and high energy savings during their useful life. All this will directly help us to have a positive balance in the reduction of CO2 emissions.
What you can expect from SATE
At the market level, we can see that, for the next few years, the exterior insulation building solution will experience strong growth due to several factors:
- Financial aid for energy rehabilitation.
- Citizen awareness
- Growing constructive solution due to the substitution effect of other systems more
- traditional.
But like all things, everything has a risk, as one tyre advertiser says, "power without control is useless". If a construction system is developed without a clear focus on professionalism and quality, this can cause such systems to grow rapidly, but to disappear relatively quickly.
An exterior insulation system, as its name suggests, is a system, i.e. a set of elements that make it up. A set of parts that have been designed, manufactured and tested so that they have a specific function and can thus guarantee their useful life. If this is not fulfilled and we install a system in pieces that are not approved, we end up creating a "satenstein". Something that we do not know how it will work or how long it will last. In this process, all parties, technicians, manufacturers, distributors, applicators, etc., must be vigilant.
In reference to the latter two actors:
- A distributor specialised in SATE is the one who knows the system, has technical training and has the material in stock to be able to provide the service to his applicator customers.
- A professional applicator of SATE System must be accredited as an installation company which has received technical-practical training courses from the manufacturers.
Sikatherm, the brand of SIKA
Finally, I am going to talk about the Sikatherm brand. As you all know, in 2020 Sika will buy the multinational PAREX. This means that well-known product brands such as Cotegran and Coteterm are now owned by Sika. In terms of insulation systems, the company has decided to promote a global brand worldwide: Sikatherm.
In Spain, the Sikatherm and Coteterm brands will coexist in the coming years with the widest range of construction solutions for the building envelope.
