Improving Breathability in Traditional Buildings
What is the Definition of Relative Humidity
The Pitfalls of Using Cement for Pointing in Traditional Structures
How to Maintain Your Heritage Sash Windows
City centre living can be wonderful – restaurants, bars, culture and entertainment on your doorstep – but for some urban homeowners noise and pollution can be a concern. That was the situation Danny Sewell found himself in when he bought a historic Grade B listed townhouse on Atholl Street, Perth in 2018. The 1850s-built property needed complete renovation, but as a civil engineer, Danny was more than up for the job. Danny knew he needed to upgrade the beautiful traditional windows in his home, as they faced a daily onslaught of noise and dirt created by vehicles on Atholl Street, a main thoroughfare channelling traffic to Perth’s bridges over the Rive Tay. Danny also had concerns about condensation, finding the windows running with moisture almost every morning. Having been quoted astonishingly high figures for the type of double glazing specified by Historic Environment Scotland, Danny was determined to find a more affordable alternative that would also allow him to keep his lovely heritage glazing. As luck would have it, Danny’s friend Craig who is a recently qualified installer with Glaze and Save and persuaded him to consider InvisiTherm®. Initially, Danny was cynical; having studied in Edinburgh he had spent time in student flats with old fashioned secondary glazing which was clunky, intrusive and meant windows couldn’t be opened. Craig explained that InivisTherm® is, as its name suggests, almost invisible and would allow windows to be opened and the original internal shutters to be used. Craig also convinced Danny that InvisiTherm® would significantly reduce traffic noise and pollution in the property. A few weeks later and Danny had InvisiTherm® installed – by his friend Craig – and he is delighted with the results. “I used to be woken in the night by lorries thundering down the street, and I had to turn the TV up over the traffic noise at times, but that doesn’t happen now. It is just so much quieter. There’s also no more black dust settling on the inside of the glazing – that used to be a symptom of the pollution coming from vehicles outside. And there’s absolutely no condensation now, either.” In his profession, Danny is used to hearing great claims being made about new technologies, but reckons that InvisiTherm® is one of the very few products that delivers even more than it promises: “I am genuinely amazed at the difference InvisiTherm® has made. I believed Craig when he told me it would do what I needed, but the reality is so much better than I imagined. My house is much quieter, cleaner, easier to look after, and a pleasure to be in. “I love living in the centre of town, and it’s even better now that I have a quiet, clean home to come back to after a night out on the town.”
Jessie Mac’s in Birnam, Perthshire occupies an imposing B-listed property in the centre of this lovely village, and offers quality, affordable holiday accommodation. Described as ‘truly a world-leading example of sustainable and green business’ by Green Tourism, Jessie Mac’s has been awarded the Gold level in the Green Tourism Business Scheme and a plethora of other prizes. Seven years ago, as part of her commitment to make the business as sustainable as possible, Jessie Mac’s owner Brenda decided to do something about the huge original sash and case windows which made it almost impossible to keep temperatures in some rooms at a comfortable level through the cold winter months. Brenda previously headed a local authority’s sustainability and climate change team and knows a thing or two about how to work out cost effective solutions to eco challenges. She engaged with the Energy Savings Trust and the area’s conservation officer and realised that secondary glazing was likely to be the best way to reduce heat loss while maintaining the style of the building. After a couple of false starts with mainstream glazing companies who could not provide an acceptable solution – in particular their secondary glazing systems would not allow the original internal shutters to be used – Brenda heard about InvisiTherm® and approached Glaze and Save to arrange a survey. That survey, carried out by Glaze and Save CEO Tanya Ewing proved to be the point at which Brenda knew she had found the right solution. “Tanya is extremely professional and clearly passionate about what she does” says Brenda. “She made a suite of recommendations about what we could do to increase comfort and reduce our energy bills. She helped us ‘test the water’ by installing InvisiTherm® in our very coldest room to begin with – and what a difference that made! “We had found it impossible to raise temperatures in that room above 11C on winter nights and so we could not let it out for four months of the year. As soon as we had InivisiTherm® installed, the room became warm and comfortable and we were then able to accept bookings for the colder months.” That first experience of Invisitherm® was so successful that Brenda went on to commission more installations, focusing on rooms where warmth was of greatest concern. Brenda now enthusiastically recommends InvisiTherm® to other hospitality businesses seeking to up their green credentials while making a sustainable profit. “Looking purely at payback based on the extra bookings we had for that room, it took only ten extra nights to cover the cost of having InvisiTherm® installed. It doesn’t take an expert to know that is an amazingly quick payback time. I am a huge advocate of InvisiTherm® now, because I know how much it can contribute to the sustainability of a business.”
When Mrs D and her family moved from a 1960s villa in Warwickshire to a 200 year old Perthshire manse they were blissfully unaware of just how cold a stone-built house can feel in depths of a Scottish winter. Having fallen in love with the B-listed property, which is situated in an idyllic rural hamlet, in August 2017 the family moved in and set about redecorating and generally making the house a home. Confident in the previous owner’s installation of a ground source heat pump and numerous solar panels, along with three wood burners and oil-fired central heating, the family looked forward to a cosy festive period in their new home. However, they were taken aback to find that keeping the house warm every day was a real challenge, and that some rooms were completely unusable in winter. “We have a beautiful billiard room which also serves as a formal dining room and I had dreamt of a fabulous family Christmas centred around it; but even with extra heaters in the room it was just too cold. My dreams were shattered,” says Mrs D. As winter progressed, Mrs D began to investigate how the property could be made warmer and more welcoming. She searched online for glazing options, which were limited because of the house’s B-listed status. A local glazing company quoted for appropriate double glazing but the cost was completely prohibitive. Looking online again, Mrs D sought alternatives and came across Glaze and Save and its InvisiTherm® system and arranged for a survey to be done. “As soon as I met Tanya, Glaze and Save’s CEO and lead surveyor, I knew I was onto something. She is so incredibly knowledgeable and enthusiastic, not just about glazing but about all aspects of home energy use. Tanya did a complete energy survey, using a thermal camera to show me exactly where the coldest spots were in our house, and explained that InvisiTherm® would make a huge difference to the heat being lost through our windows. “It was hard to believe that something so lightweight and discreet could make a big difference, but we decided to go ahead with having the system installed in our billiard room, and in the family bathroom which was another miserably cold room.” A few weeks later and the billiard room and bathroom were given the InvisiTherm® treatment and the family felt the difference immediately: “The bathroom went from being too cold to enjoy to being warm and pleasant within 24 hours. What a change! And the billiard room was hugely improved too. Tanya came back to see how we were doing and helped us identify some more changes to the billiard room – insulating under the floorboards and draughtproofing the door – which completed the transformation to a warm room.” With such a great first experience of InvisiTherm®, Mrs D decided to go ahead with having the system installed on many of the other windows in her home. As a result, the whole house is much cosier, and Mrs D estimates that her energy bills have dropped by around £900 a year. Now Mrs D feels she has the warm, welcoming Scottish country house she had been dreaming of. “I now love having friends and family to stay. Thanks to InvisiTherm® and Tanya’s advice, I know they will be cosy and comfortable and we can concentrate on enjoying each other’s company - as well as the odd game of billiards!”
Iconic buildings are a feature of the Glasgow skyline, but few are quite so prominent as Speirs Wharf, which rises above the M8 on the northern edge of the city centre. Originally an office and warehouse serving the Forth and Clyde canal, the complex is one of Glasgow’s most desirable residential destinations. The building was sympathetically refurbished in 1989 and became a symbol of the cultural and economic renaissance that was linked with Glasgow’s time of European City of Culture in 1990. Thirty years later, Speirs Wharf is as popular as ever, but for some residents the rising cost of energy has prompted action to improve the energy efficiency of their apartments. One homeowner taking action to reduce bills is David Cameron, a change management consultant who has lived in Speirs Wharf for ten years. David describes his energy bills as ‘going through the roof’ in 2019 which prompted him to take action, with tackling heat loss through the property’s windows being a priority. “The paned, single-glazed windows in our building are real feature of the complex, but they can be cold and draughty,” says David. “There’s also a bit of a noise issue with being so close to busy roads. The B-listed status means our options for replacing the windows are quite limited and the double glazing that is allowed is incredibly expensive. I was determined to find an alternative and I was intrigued when an online search brought up Glaze and Save’s InvisiTherm® system as a possible solution. “Funnily enough what really persuaded me was a YouTube video showing a frail old lady easily removing an InivisiTherm® panel to clean it. I realised that the system was light, easy to handle and was almost invisible when in place.” David got in touch with Glaze and Save and shortly after had InvisiTherm® installed in his bedroom, which has two ground floor windows looking on to a busy road. The difference was immediate and dramatic: “The traffic noise was reduced to a low hum and the room was so much warmer – in fact on the second night I woke up in the early hours because I was so warm – that had never happened before. I had to turn the thermostat way down from then on!” There was an unexpected bonus, too: the installer showed him how sooty deposits had clogged up the vents on the windows and explained that InvisiTherm® would minimise pollution entering his bedroom, a reassuring thought. Turning back to the main diver for his investment in InvisiTherm® - rising energy costs – David is delighted with the result: “Because I was concerned about my electricity bills, I’d been monitoring energy use in each room of my apartment and I can see that when I had InvisiTherm® installed, energy use in that room immediately dropped by a third. “That’s given me confidence to have InvisiTherm® installed in the rest of my windows, and had made me a bit of an advocate for the system in my building. This is a brilliant, iconic place to live and it’s great to have found a solution that allows me – and hopefully my neighbours - to enjoy living here without worrying about energy bills.”
Three years ago, a chance meeting between Glaze and Save CEO Tanya Ewing and local business owner Rachel Weiss led to a partnership that has helped the wellbeing of many people in Perth. Rachel, a professional counsellor who runs Perth’s Rowan Consultancy, met Tanya when hosting a business networking event at her practice on the city’s busy Kinnoull Street. Tanya noticed that the Victorian building had beautiful, large sash windows that allowed the light to flood in. However, she also noted that the windows single glazed, draughty and with the city centre roads just outside, allowed a lot of noise to enter the building. Rachel had not thought anything cost effective could be done to improve the windows, and so, particularly as she rents the premises, she felt the practice just had to accept the road noise and draughts. One conversation with Tanya at the networking event changed all that: immediately Rachel realised that the InvisiTherm® system could solve her problems, and could be installed quickly and at an affordable cost. Soon after, the Glaze and Save team installed InvisiTherm® throughout the practice, working over the weekend so as not to disturb counselling and coaching sessions that take place throughout the week. Immediately Rachel and the practice’s other counsellors noticed a big difference. The rooms were much warmer and lest draughty, and, most importantly for the service they provide, road noise was hugely reduced. Rachel explains why the sound insulating qualities of InvisiTherm® are so important for her work: “The most important thing we do here at the Rowan Consultancy is to listen. The last thing we want is for people to have to repeat themselves because a lorry rattled past at an important point in our conversation. InvisiTherm® has made such a difference to the road noise. Our counselling rooms are so much quieter and help our clients to feel relaxed and safe when they are talking things through with us. It’s a much better environment in which to support people who may be facing some challenging issues. “I am delighted that I met Tanya at our networking event – it great to have found a solution to problem we thought couldn’t be solved.”
Listed building status can be a challenge to keep warm, due to strict requirements that can mean original windows must be kept, or single glazing maintained. Add to that list beautiful working shutters and it can seem an impossible task to find an affordable, aesthetically pleasing solution that tackles heat loss and noise issues. We caught up with Mr and Mrs Bell who just eighteen months ago were desperate to find a way of improving the single glazed sash windows in their beautiful B-listed 1830s home in Perth. Now, thanks to the InvisiTherm® system, Mr and Mrs Bell have draft-free windows that keep the heat in and the noise out. “It was quite by chance that we came across the InvsiTherm® system,” says Mrs Bell, who moved with her husband from Northern Ireland in the 1990s to be closer to family in Scotland. “We’d been thinking that we needed to do something about our windows, but the listed status of our home really limited our options. Our home was cold and draughty and the windows ran with condensation, with black lines forming where the glass meets the frames. “We’d had standard secondary glazing installed in our bedroom but we were disappointed with how heavy and awkward it was and it didn’t seem to be making very much difference. Shortly after we had that work done, I happened to receive an invitation to the Scottish Listed Property Show in September 2018, and I decided to go along. “As soon as I met Tanya, the owner of Glaze and Save, at the show, I realised I had found the answer to our problems. The InvisiTherm® system sounded exactly what we wanted – a very discreet panel that Tanya promised would virtually eradicate condensation, reduce noise and make our rooms less draughty and much warmer. I was delighted to hear that it would also let us keep our working shutters, which was really important to me. “Very soon after that, Tanya visited us to do a survey and we decided to go ahead with installation of the InvisiTherm® in almost all of our rooms, on both windows and external doors. The work was completed on 24 December 2018, and it was wonderful to have a lovely warm, condensation-free home for Christmas. It really was every bit as good as Tanya promised it would be. “We have an armchair adjacent to a large window in our lounge, and I used to be concerned that visitors sitting in it would be chilled by the draughts, but I don’t worry about that any longer. The windows are draught-free, there’s no condensation and no black line developing any more. “We were so pleased with the results that we even asked Tanya to replace the standard secondary glazing panels we’d just had installed. The only thing that bothered me about that was it seemed wasteful to get rid of something so new. Luckily, Tanya recycles everything she can, so she found a way to reuse panels – serving as propagators in the garden of another client. And in return we received eggs laid by her free range chickens – a truly unexpected bonus!”
