Seco Flex: Thermocoat

[Edward W. Thompson]

I have come acrossa product called Seco Flex which is a resin coating for masonary and the like. The product is a cream like substance which when applied to masonary/brickwork prevents the absorbtion of water. It is claimed, based upon a paper by the University of Plymouth that heat loss from a building can be reduced by up to 30% if the outside is treated with this 'stuff'.

It all seems a little too good to be true. I suppose if a brick is fully staurated its thermal conductivity is markedly increased but does external masonary of houses in unexposed places, in cities for example, ever become sufficiently 'wet' that their thermal conductivity is significantly increased. Anyone with any knowledge of 'Seco Flex'?

[Scott M]

No doubt a good waterproof coating to keep bricks dry would be a good thing as far as insulation and spall-prevention would be A Good Thing.

The bit they don't address though is what happens if the brick gets wet from one of its five other faces and now can't dry out because it's behind an impermeable membrane...

[Tim Lamb]

Maybe evaporating moisture extracts some of its latent heat from the wall?

My house is in a river valley/frost pocket. There is a curiosity in that shrubs planted on a North wall thrive. The same shrub transplanted to an East wall suffers severe frost damage most years. My theory is that Sun melted frost draws more heat from the leaves than a slower melt due to a rise in air temperature.

[Chris J Dixon]

I have had a number of cold calls from companies promising that spraying something on my roof will reduce my heating bills.

When questioned further, the droids don't actually know anything. One chap insisted that it worked by reducing air leakage. When I mentioned mandatory ventilation he went quiet.

When I asked another caller how much difference a mm or two (if that) layer of gunk on my roof would make to a loft already very generously lagged, he had no numbers.

Chris

[fred]

In article , Edward W. Thompson writes

If that is the claim then it is a lie.

I don't care how they claim it does it, it is simply a lie.

[stuart noble]

Resin rich and 40 times thicker than a coat of paint, but it still "breathes" they say. Magic ennit? It's just another textured coating that lasts well enough on sound surfaces (as would any paint) but fails miserably on damp/porous walls.

[stuart noble]

Resin rich and 40 times thicker than a coat of paint, but it still "breathes" they say. Magic ennit? It's just another textured coating that lasts well enough on sound surfaces (as would any paint) but fails miserably on damp/porous walls.

[stuart noble]

Hope Virgin sort out this duplicate posting. Getting tedious now

[GB]

Up to 30% includes 0%, so unless you are claiming that it actually increases heat loss it is not a lie. :)

[fred]

They can only legitimately claim "up to 30%" if some successful installations can actually achieve the maximum quoted result so I think my analysis remains valid ;-)

What's the betting that the claimed 30% reduction in heat loss only applies when it's applied to the outside of a 1,000degC glass furnace? It's the usual BS that applies to thin layer thermo-radiant coatings.

[Chris J Dixon]

I complained to the ASA about the web site of some outfit with similar dubious claims. They didn't want to take it further, and I guess they have more lawyers than engineers. :-(

Chris

[michael]

[michael]

[harry]

Evaporation of water causes a cooling effect which this sort of product prevents. (By keeping the masonry dry). R value change is insignificant. There has been various ones over the years, dunno about this particular one.

[Andrew]

Read the bloody date, then eff off and spam your email address somewhere else.

[newshound]

No.

And I would want to read the Plymouth paper. It seems a *very* large gain.

[newshound]

oops another bloody zombie post. My current newsreader does not display the date of the first post in a thread.

[tabbypurr]

The idea that putting impermeable coatings on the outside of houses makes the wall drier is one of those tenaciously enduring myths.

NT

[Brian Gaff]

I wonder what happened in the last three years? Brian