Tell us the structure, the water condition and the access you have, and our technical team will write the build-up for your project.
• An ETICS facade fails in a small number of ways, and every one of them is decided during the fixing, not during the rendering.
• Boards dowelled too early. The adhesive has not cured, the dowel pulls the board out of plane, and the render cracks along the board edges a season later.
• The wrong dowel for the wall. A dowel designed for solid brick does not hold in aerated concrete, and a plastic nail does not hold mineral wool on a high, wind-loaded elevation.
• Dowel heads showing through the finish. A plate too small for the board compresses it locally, and every fixing point appears on the facade in raking light.
• No mesh where two materials meet. The render tears along the line between frame and infill.
• A base course that drinks. Where the system meets the ground, a board that absorbs water leaves a wet line along the bottom of the whole elevation.
” Insulation boards are made by board manufacturers, not by chemical companies; that division is normal in this industry everywhere. Daumer supplies the chemistry and the fixings, and the systems below work with EPS, XPS and mineral wool. “
1 · Standard residential and commercial elevations →
2 · Impact and moisture exposure, base courses, damp zones →
3 · Fire performance, high-rise, high wind load →
4 · The system meets the ground →
5 · Cladding, curtain wall and rainscreen facades →
• Substrate sound, clean, free of dust, laitance, release agent and old loose paint
• Substrate flatness checked; ETICS levels out small deviations, not structural ones
• Starting profile fixed level at the base
• Absorbent substrates dampened or primed according to the surface
Bonding. Either MANTELFIX or TERMOFIX, according to the route chosen above. The board is bonded to the prepared wall and left to cure.
Dowelling. After the adhesive has cured, not before. PROFIX P-SERIES carries a glass-fibre reinforced plastic nail, which does not conduct heat through the board the way a steel nail does. Codes: PT brick, PB concrete, PG aerated concrete.
Base coat. Either MANTELFIX again or TERMOPLAST, applied in two passes with PRONET-160 alkali-resistant mesh embedded in the first. The mesh sits in the outer third of the coat, not against the board, and overlaps by at least 10 cm. Vapour permeability keeps the wall able to dry outward.
Finish. DAUGUARD D-PRIMER over the cured base coat, then a DECOMIN mineral render.
• Dowels set flush, never proud and never sunk into the board
• Base coat cured before priming
• Finish applied in one continuous pass per elevation to avoid joins in the texture
Dowel after the adhesive has cured. A dowel driven into an uncured bed pulls the board towards the wall in one spot and leaves it standing off in another, and both show up as a crack in the render along the board edge.
Key outcomes
• The lowest-cost route to the required thermal performance
• No thermal bridge at the fixing point
• Non-combustible renders throughout the build-up
• Two ways to buy the same system: one product for both mortar layers, or a dedicated product for each
Products
– Bonding and base coat, one route or the other
• DAUMANT MANTELFIX · one product for both layers, polymer modified, EN 998-1 or DAUMANT TERMOFIX · board adhesive, high initial grab, TS 13566 · with DAUMANT TERMOPLAST · polymer-modified, fibre-reinforced base coat, TS 13687
– The rest of the build-up, in both routes
• DAUMANT PROFIX P-SERIES · plastic-nail dowel · PT · PB · PG
• DAUMANT PRONET-160 · alkali-resistant reinforcing mesh, 160 g/m², EN 13496
• DAUGUARD D-PRIMER · primer before the decorative finish
• DAUMANT DECOMIN / FINEART / LINEART · mineral decorative renders
Complementary · Optional
– Mesh reinforcement set diagonally at the corners of every opening, where cracks start
– Starting, corner and drip profiles, supplied by others
When it is preferred:
The board will be hit, splashed or buried. Base courses, plinths, damp zones, car park entrances, and any part of an elevation within reach of traffic, hoses or ground water. XPS has a closed cell structure, so it does not take up water the way EPS does and keeps its thermal value when it is wet.
• Everything required for the EPS system, plus:
• Board surface checked: a smooth extruded skin has to be roughened, or the board supplied keyed, or the adhesive has nothing to grip
• Waterproofing beneath the base course completed and continuous before the boards go on
The build-up is the same as the EPS system. The difference is at the two interfaces.
At the board face, XPS is smooth by manufacture. Adhesive applied to an unkeyed extruded skin bonds to a surface that will release, so the board is either supplied keyed or mechanically roughened before bonding. This one step accounts for most XPS debonding.
At the base of the wall, the insulation meets the waterproofing coming up out of the ground. The two have to overlap, with the waterproofing continuing behind the insulation rather than stopping at it. That is covered as its own detail in system 4.
• As the EPS system
• Impact-exposed zones inspected before the finish is applied
An extruded board with its factory skin intact is a release layer, not a substrate. Key it, or specify it keyed. This single point causes more XPS debonding than every other cause combined.
Key outcomes
• Thermal performance retained in wet and splashed zones
• Impact resistance where the elevation is within reach
• Continuity with the waterproofing below ground
Products
• DAUPOXY FULLFIX GROUT 3K · three-component flowable epoxy grout, EN 1504-3
Complementary · Optional
– Continuity with the below-grade waterproofing at the base course
– Double mesh layer in the first two metres above ground where impact is expected
• Everything required for the EPS system, plus:
Dowel count and pattern set by the wind load calculation, not by habit
• Board faces checked for loose fibres and dust before bonding
• Higher adhesive coverage allowed for; wool needs a fuller bed than EPS
Fixing. PROFIX S-SERIES carries a galvanised steel nail. Its higher pull-out resistance is what holds a heavy board on a high, wind-exposed elevation, which is why a plastic nail is not specified here. Codes: ST brick, SB concrete, SG aerated concrete.
Pressure distribution. Mineral wool is a fibre mat rather than a rigid foam, so a standard dowel head presses into it locally and holds the board at a point instead of over an area. PROFIX TY is the wide plate that solves this, in Ø90 and Ø120, and it is a required accessory on wool boards rather than an option. It fits every dowel in the PROFIX range.
Base coat and finish. As the other systems: TERMOPLAST with PRONET-160, then primer and finish. Vapour permeability matters more here, because a wool system is usually chosen partly for the wall’s ability to dry.
Fire. This is the build-up where the whole assembly can be non-combustible: a mineral wool board, non-combustible renders and a mineral finish.
• Board joints checked; wool boards are compressible and open joints appear in the finish
• Base coat cured before priming
A steel nail conducts more heat than a plastic one, and on a wool system that is accepted because pull-out resistance matters more. What is not accepted is a dowel head bearing directly on a fibre board: it compresses at every fixing, and the facade shows the pattern in the first low sun.
Key outcomes
• Non-combustible insulation with non-combustible renders over it
• Fixing designed for weight and wind rather than for cost
• Pressure spread over an area instead of concentrated at a point
Products
– Bonding and base coat, one route or the other
• DAUMANT MANTELFIX · one product for both layers, EN 998-1 or DAUMANT TERMOFIX with DAUMANT TERMOPLAST
– The rest of the build-up
• DAUMANT PROFIX S-SERIES · galvanised steel-nail dowel · ST · SB · SG
• DAUMANT PROFIX TY · wide head plate, Ø90 and Ø120, required on wool boards
• DAUMANT PRONET-160 · reinforcing mesh, EN 13496
• DAUGUARD D-PRIMER and a DECOMIN finish
Complementary · Optional
– Wide head plates on every dowel
– Dowel pattern from the wind load calculation for the building height and exposure
• Below-grade waterproofing completed and cured, brought up above finished ground level
• Starting profile fixed level, with a drip edge
• XPS specified for this zone rather than EPS
The waterproofing does not stop where the insulation starts. It continues up behind the insulation boards and past finished ground level, so that water rising or splashing at the base meets a waterproof layer rather than the edge of a board.
The insulation in this strip is XPS because it does not absorb, and the base coat is reinforced with a second layer of mesh because this is the height at which a facade is kicked, hosed and struck by machinery.
• Ground finishes kept clear of the base coat
• Drip edge kept free so water leaves the facade rather than running back under it
The base of an insulated wall is a waterproofing detail wearing an insulation coat. Design it as waterproofing first, and the insulation lasts as long as the rest of the elevation.
Key outcomes
• No wet line at the bottom of the facade
• Impact resistance where the building is actually touched
• Continuity between two systems that are usually specified by two different people
Products
• DAUPRO WATERSTOP C-20 or the waterproofing selected for the structure below
• DAUMANT MANTELFIX, XPS board, PROFIX P-SERIES, PRONET-160 in two layers, TERMOPLAST
• Starting profile with drip edge, supplied by others
When it is preferred:
The facade is a cladding system rather than a rendered one: aluminium composite panels, rainscreen cladding, curtain walling or structural glazing. Daumer does not supply the cladding, the framing or the glazing seals. What it does supply is the work that happens on the structure behind them, and those parts are usually bought from three different suppliers and coordinated by nobody.
What Daumer supplies here.
Bracket and substructure anchoring. Cladding brackets transfer wind load into the frame through a small number of fixings. DAUPOXY FIXER 2K beds and fixes profiles and brackets; DAUPOXY FULLFIX GROUT 3K fills larger anchor pockets. Where the connection is a calculated structural anchorage, see the note on assessed anchoring products under the anchoring systems page.
Backing wall protection. Two routes, and the joint decides which.
Open-joint cladding and rainscreens. Here the cladding is a screen, not a seal. Rain passes the joints, daylight passes them too, and the backing wall is the actual weather line of the building. It is treated as one: DAUPRO WATERSTOP ACRYPOL A-20 UV or A-30 UV over DAUPRO WATERSTOP ELIXIR primer. These are elastomeric acrylic membranes, so they bridge cracks that open in a block backing wall, and they are UV stable, which matters where light reaches the surface through the joints. They remain permeable to water vapour, so the wall behind them continues to dry.
Closed-joint cladding and ventilated cavities. Most of the water is stopped at the cladding, and the backing wall’s job is to repel what gets past it and keep drying. DAUFARBE TECHNISCH DRYTECH MB-200 is the coating for that condition.
The cavity behind a cladding facade is dark, cool and usually still air. Those are the three conditions mould needs, and it is the one part of a building that is never inspected after handover. The coating works on both sides of that problem: a hydrophobic film keeps the surface from staying wet long enough for growth to begin, and an active biocide content suppresses mould, mildew and fungal growth on the surface itself. It stays permeable, so the wall keeps drying outward while it is protected.
The same coating covers the places where this problem is visible rather than hidden: basement and garage walls, laundry rooms, bathrooms and kitchens, sea-facing elevations, and renovation work in older buildings where mould has already appeared once.
Substrate preparation. Where the backing wall is concrete or block, the render systems on the masonry and plaster page bring it to a state the coating can be applied to.
Fire protection of steel. Where the substructure or the frame behind the cladding is structural steel with a fire rating, the DAUFARBE TECHNISCH FIREX intumescent systems cover it. Those are set out on the passive fire protection page.
Movement joints in the structure. DAUFILL PU-40 seals movement joints in the backing structure.
What Daumer does not supply:
Stated plainly, because a specifier will ask: cladding panels, framing and brackets, structural glazing silicone, weather seals between panels, cavity barriers and fire stops, and the fixings themselves.
• Concrete substrate sound, clean, and free of laitance, oil and curing compound
• Substrate brought to saturated surface dry: damp throughout, with no free water standing in the pocket
• Anchor bolts, sockets and levelling shims set and checked before mixing
• Formwork built tight against the concrete on all sides, sealed at every edge
• A pouring head formed on one side, high enough to give the grout a head of material to push with
• An escape path left at the far side so displaced air can leave
Nothing is painted onto the concrete before a flowable grout. A bonding slurry brushed into a closed pocket skins over while the formwork is being finished, and by the time the grout arrives it is a film between two things that were supposed to bond. Saturated surface dry is the whole of the preparation.
These are cement-based, high-flow, non-shrink mortars. High flow lets the material travel under a plate and around bolts without being pushed; non-shrink behaviour keeps it in contact with both surfaces once it has set.
The pour is made from one side only. Grout entering from a single point drives the air ahead of it and out of the far side, and the space fills in one direction. Pouring from two sides traps the air in the middle, exactly under the load, where nobody will ever see it.
The head of material above the plate is what keeps the flow moving. When the head drops, the flow stops, and where the flow stops the fill stops.
• Formwork struck after the stated time, not when the surface looks hard
• Exposed grout edges cured and protected against wind and sun
• Load applied according to the strength figures in the data sheet
On a cladding facade the chemistry is invisible and decisive. The bracket that carries the wind load, the coating that keeps the backing wall dry, and the intumescent film on the steel behind it are all covered up on the day they are finished, and none of them is inspected again.
Decide the backing wall treatment by looking at the joint. If daylight and rain reach the wall through the cladding, the wall is the weather line and needs a membrane. If they do not, the wall needs a coating that repels water and keeps drying.
Key outcomes
• One supplier for the anchoring, the backing wall and the steel protection behind a cladding facade
• A backing wall treatment matched to the cladding rather than assumed
• A clear line between what is supplied and what is not
DECORATIVE FINISHES
Three mineral renders, chosen for texture. All are applied over DAUGUARD D-PRIMER on the cured base coat.
| Finish | Texture | Grain |
|---|---|---|
| DAUMANT DECOMIN | Grained | 2 to 2.5 mm |
| DAUMANT DECOMIN FINEART | Grained, fine and close | 1.5 to 2 mm |
| DAUMANT DECOMIN LINEART | Grooved, worked horizontally or in circles | 1.5 to 2.5 mm, groove thickness made to order |
Technical note
A fine texture shows every irregularity in the base coat beneath it; a coarse one hides some of it. Where the substrate is uneven or the crew is working at pace, the finish choice is also a risk decision. LINEART is made to order in the groove thickness required, so the sample panel is agreed before production rather than after delivery.
FIRE PERFORMANCE
• Every render in these systems is mineral and non-combustible, classified A1 to EN 13501-1: the board adhesive, the base coat and the decorative finish.
• The classification of the completed facade, however, is decided by the insulation board. With mineral wool, the whole build-up can be non-combustible. With EPS, the board carries its own classification and the system is classified accordingly, whatever the renders around it are made of.