An award-winning beachfront home in Perth complements its beautiful location and design with a higher energy performance facilitated by flexible insulation from Kingspan Insulation.
Located off the stunning coastline of South City Beach, Western Australia, the home designed by architect Paul Hofman and built by Tony Tomizzi, one of Perth’s most awarded builders, features five bedrooms and four bathrooms in a resort-style layout with the interiors filled with natural light and opening out to some amazing views of the beautiful landscape.
Multiple outdoor living areas, large bedrooms, a swimming pool, beautiful high ceilings and an outdoor kitchen are some of the highlights of this well-designed home.
The winner of HIA’s 2017 WA Home of the Year and Customer Build Home of the Year also has a few hidden features inside its double brick cavity walls. Kingspan’s AIR-CELL Permicav XV, a permeable flexible foil has been installed in the cavity wall. Featuring a thin profile, Permicav XV not only reduces the risk of condensation in walls and cavities but also boosts the energy rating of any double brick cavity home.
Builder Tony Tomizzi says he has been using Permicav XV ever since the energy provisions of the Building Code introduced the use of insulation in building wall cavities. New energy provisions introduced to the National Construction Code (NCC) in 2011 require buildings to reach a minimum 6-star energy rating and increase the use of cavity wall insulation.
According to Tomizzi, using Permicav XV in the cavity wall has helped them achieve a higher energy rating in this build. Additionally, by providing a moisture barrier in the cavity, the insulation reduces the risk of condensation and moisture build-up within the walls.
Kingspan Insulation’s Technical Services Manager, Killian Smith observes that moisture build-up and condensation can affect the performance of cavity insulation, lowering its thermal performance. The insulation can become completely ineffective in a worst-case scenario. However, selecting the right insulation for this application can avoid such a situation, he added.
Kingspan’s Permicav XV’s thin profile combined with high thermal performance makes it an ideal insulation choice for cavity wall applications. The thin profile allows for the cavity to remain unfilled and compliant with the weatherproofing provisions of the NCC. Permicav XV’s installation methodology is also CodeMark certified.
Tomizzi finds Permicav XV to be a better product to work with compared to other alternatives. He also considers Kingspan’s supporting materials such as cavity biscuit spacers and foil joining tape to be far superior.
“The product is quick and easy to use, very strong and durable during construction, and the cavities remain free and unfilled,” concludes Tomizzi.
Photography: Andrew Pritchard Photography
