The testing and certification body Ift Rosenheim has created new installation guides for windows, doors and curtain walling. The resource is published by the RAL quality association of window and façade manufacturers.
Over more than 300 pages, the guidance explains how professional sealing, insulation and fastening is to be conducted, as well as building physics and the scientific and practical principles of installation. The guides are marketed as ‘a must-read for all builders and planners who want to install building elements professionally’.
This edition of the guides takes changes to thermal insulation and energy saving in buildings, sound insulation, joint sealing tapes and structural waterproofing into account, as well as new regulations for fixing windows that require burglar resistance and safety barriers. The innovations in fastening have meant that the guides now include a more practical definition of load cases.
There are two standard cases, one special case and simple sample calculations for the professional dimensioning of fastening. Further, instructions for fastening safety barrier elements as well as extending burglar-resistant building elements to wall systems with highly insulating bricks are included. This description should simplify the technical discussions of window manufacturers and installation experts with architects, building owners, building supervisory authorities and structural engineers.
The interface between structural waterproofing and the sealing of floor-level elements has been reworked and adapted to the current standardisation. In addition, two-stage installation with preliminary frames has been included in a new chapter.
Chapter seven, “Practical execution”, is supplemented with many new examples for solving potential weak points, as well as barrier-free threshold designs. In chapter eight, new drawings have been added and the thermal calculations have been redone. This makes the installation guides ‘an ideal practical support for the planning and execution of professional installation’, its creators say.
In the course of revising the English version, the Polish installation guide for windows and exterior doors was also updated. The installation guide is supplemented by the Ift installation planner, which is available online and enables fabricators, planners and fitters to carry out professional planning of window installation in terms of building physics with just a few clicks, they say. It is also available in English. Use is free of charge and takes place after registration online at ift-montageplaner.de/ift.
