Building Airtightness Specialists Offer New Solutions to Canadian Builders

475 High Performance Building Supply (475), a building materials company based in New York City, is offering a new solution for building professionals in Canada seeking to meet requirements for airtightness and indoor air quality mandated by increasingly stringent buildings codes and R-2000 certification. Leading German air and moisture control system manufacturer Pro Clima has recently agreed to grant exclusive Canadian distribution of their product line to 475. Pro Clima's membranes, tapes, and adhesives were awarded best-in-test by German consumer product testing organization Stiftung Warentest in 2012 and are ideally suited to building robust, highly insulated buildings in cold climate regions.

The market for high quality green building materials continues to grow as builders, architects and building professionals respond to demand for energy-efficient buildings that address climate change and increasing uncertainty of energy costs. A primary method for delivering on this demand is building enclosure airtightness. Considered more important than thermal insulation in providing a comfortable and energy efficient building, airtightness is also a prerequisite for ensuring high indoor air quality and to provide robust protection of the building structure from moisture damage.

Founded by architects, 475 is a source for building knowledge and components for North America. They focus on serving high performance design and construction needs, especially those interested in the Passive House building standard. The name "475" is a reference to the heat demand requirement of the Passive House standard, 4.75 kiloBTUs per square foot per year, representing approximately a 90% reduction in heating energy demand from average building stock.

"We're honored, excited, and motivated by Pro Clima's partnership," said 475 co-founder Ken Levenson, "although we've worked with Canadian customers from the start, this agreement allows us to build and strengthen our services there."

Among 475's most popular products is the INTELLO interior air barrier and intelligent vapor retarder. INTELLO is termed an "intelligent" membrane, due to its ability to respond to humidity and vapor buildup within the building assembly. The vapor permeability of the material changes to allow proper drying of the building enclosure, thereby ensuring continued protection from mold, rot, and structural damage over the life of the structure.