Tapes & Facades

Solutions for Different Facade Types

In the case of external wall joints, a distinction is made between connecting joints, structural joints, movement joints and expansion joints. When choosing the right sealing solution for the joint, construction considerations play a key role, as it is imperative that rainwater does not penetrate the façade from the outside. If moisture does get into the joint space then it must be able to escape to the outside of the building. This is important in order to prevent structural damage.

Renovations of facades are often very complex, as joints are not accessible internally and old sealing material can often only be removed with great effort. In addition, projections, joint tolerances and non-adhesive joint edges are likely to complicate the sealing project. Choosing illbruck's tapes, such as TP600, ensures reliable and long-lasting facade joints.

Also in terms of design, impregnated joint tapes provide different possibilities. Architects and installers can build the joints as a shadow joint or incorporate it as a design element by choosing a visual joint. It is even possible to color the joint with a paint after a test using the selected paint.

Requirements for a facade joint

Raintight: Prevents moisture from entering the building envelope from the outside. For many buildings, the facade joints should be resistant to driving rain of up to 600 Pa.

Vapour permeable weather tight barrier: In order to seal the outside of facades, weather protection joints do not have to be just rain tight, but must also be open to vapour diffusion in order to allow the escape of any entrapped moisture to the outside. 

Thermal insulation: The insulation of a new or refurbished building is not only about whether the external or internal shell is insulated, as all construction joints must be treated to avoid thermal bridges.

Acoustic insulation: Acoustic insulation is crucial for the comfort of building users and their quality of life. Joints contribute to reducing the transmission of noise between different premises or between the outside and inside of a building, in particular airborne sound (such as music, traffic, rail, planes, etc.).

UV protection: Tested by an external laboratory (MPA, IFT, BBA) Joint seals should be durable and must provide long-term UV protection.

The premium joint tape TP600 Compriband 600 fulfills all of these requirements with external technical and environmental certifications (MPA, BBA, ift, Socotec, EC1Plus, A+). This means that the safe and reliable sealing of external joints in a building’s construction (with the exception of façade components that are exposed to standing or hydrostatic water pressure, such as exterior waterproofing below ground) can be successfully achieved with TP600 Compriband 600 – quick to install and environmentallyfriendly.

Concrete Facade

With exposed concrete architecture, joints play a central role - as working, expansion or dummy joints as well as wall / ceiling connections. Expansion joints must be sealed to ensure energy efficiency, weather protection and optimal dehumidification at the same time. A lot of movement has to be absorbed by the joint material, including temperature fluctuations, shrinkage, swelling, wind and traffic loads as well as structural movement. Achieving this amount of movement absorption requires the sealing material to have high elasticity levels.

Renovating buildings made of precast concrete requires special considerations, as leaky but inaccessible internal connections often lead to warm air penetrating into the façade - which can dry out to the outside. Here you need a vapour-permeable seal to the outside environment.

If the gap in a two-layer concrete façade is filled with concrete, TP600 Compriband 600 seals the building joint and thus protects the visible façade from escaping cement water.

Between each double wall, the installer has to use an impregnated tape like illbruck’s TP600 Compriband 600 to protect the double wall finish against the concrete laitance. TP600 Compriband 600 could be used on a shadow gap or visible joint, according to the architect’s choice.

Brick Facade

The movement joints in a brick façade are exposed to heavy loads, because the rather small bricks exert strong horizontal and vertical movements. Therefore, the sealing material must also be able to handle these movements by having a high overall deformation so that the joints contribute to the long-lasting functionality of the facade. The weather resistant TP600 Compriband 600 is characterized by its high motion absorption (50% to 100%) and can reliably seal both very small joints and joints up to 40 mm.

Natural Stone Facade

With natural stone facades, the compatibility of the sealing materials with the natural stone is of especially high importance. This is because it is imperative that no components of the seal migrate into the stone and change its colour. The impregnated joint tape TP600 Compriband 600 is ideally suited for all natural stones. Even with natural stone facades, the high absorption of movement is an important product feature that is fulfilled by TP600 Compriband 600.

Dilatation Joint

In modern construction - especially in residential construction - you will find more monolithic masonry which is finished with plaster. For the sealing of the movement joints, a sealing material is required that has a very high movement absorption and that seals larger joints safely. Because of its functional properties, the illbruck TP600 Compriband 600 is very well suited to this task, as it has a movement absorption rate of over 50% and offers dimensions for joints up to 40mm wide.