Posted November 20, 2019
The best time to consider a healthy and sustainable home for your family is right at the design stage. This is when you look at all elements of your build that will impact your comfort and lifestyle in future. This is an especially important phase if someone in your home suffers from asthma.
A lot of respiratory issues are caused by the cold and damp environments that we live in. According to recent statistics, 1 in 7 children in New Zealand have asthma and 1 in 6 people suffer from respiratory diseases.
There has been much study on the triggers for asthma sufferers and it has been proven that a properly insulated, warm, dry home greatly improves the symptoms. A warm floor is also very important for people with poor circulation, and people who are inactive for long periods of time, as well as children and babies who live closer to the floor, and the elderly who have trouble staying as warm as younger adults.
A minimum of 18°C is recommended by the World Health Organisation for living areas and 16°C for bedrooms. Unfortunately 30% of New Zealand homes don’t meet these standards.
Often the last place considered to improve health, thermal efficiencies, home comforts, and more, is the slab your house is built on. Yet it might surprise you to learn that approximately 15% of a home’s heat is lost through the foundation. So it’s a great place to start to ensure your entire home is insulated, and not just your walls and ceiling.
However, not all foundations are created equal. Most insulated foundations only protect the edges of the concrete slab, allowing heat to escape through the sides. This effectively heats the grass surrounding your house, which is a giant waste of energy and heat that could be warming your home; not to mention the extra costs to heat your home.
Also, the cold from outside travels through a traditional foundation, causing thermal bridging, and creating uncomfortable cold spots within your home. To realise the full benefits from a well-considered foundation you need a fully insulated slab, to create a thermal break between the foundation and the ground around it. If a thermal break isn’t created, it’s like leaving a window open in winter.
MAXRaft® is New Zealand’s only fully insulated concrete slab company, doing its part to build healthy homes for New Zealanders. MAXRaft® 's fully insulated foundations offer superior performance when it comes to thermal bridging, resulting in consistent temperatures throughout your home with reduced cold spots to optimise energy efficiency. The additional heat retained in your foundation also reduces the ability of damp to rise at the juncture of wall and foundation. This in turn leads to a warm, comfortable living environment without that damp presence in the air.
By allowing the slow release of heat from your foundation, MAXRaft® maintains a balance by ensuring you enjoy that warm, comfortable feeling.
A MAXRaft® foundation is like a bathtub of insulation that acts like a thermostat for your home, giving you a comfortable temperature all year round and saving you money on energy bills.
As heating costs grow, and the environmental impact of fossil fuel use becomes clearer, using a MAXRaft® insulated foundation is more energy efficient and can save you significant amounts of money on an ongoing basis, and reduce your carbon footprint.
If you want a healthier home with consistently good room temperatures, and reduce doctor bills at the same time, choose MAXRaft®.
