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Natural building materials for interior fitting and refurbishment - What about indoor emissions?
(2021)
Indoor air quality can be adversely affected by emissions from building materials, consequently having a negative impact on human health and well-being. In this study, more than 30 natural building materials (earth dry boards and plasters, bio-based insulation materials, and boards made of wood, flax, reed, straw, etc.) used for interior works were investigated as to their emissions of (semi-) volatile organic compounds ((S)VOC), formaldehyde, and radon. The study focused on the emissions from complete wall build-ups as they can be used for internal Partition walls and the internal insulation of external walls. Test chambers were designed, allowing the compounds to release only from the surface of the material facing indoors under testing Parameters that were chosen to simulate model room conditions. The emission test results were evaluated using the AgBB evaluation scheme, a procedure for the health-related evaluation of construction products and currently applied for the approval of specific groups of building materials in Germany.
Seventeen out of 19 sample build-ups tested in this study would have passed this scheme since they generally proved to be low-emitting and although the combined emissions of multiple materials were tested, 50% of the measurements could be terminated before half of the total testing time.
From the last decades the earth construction has a growing interest due to the high sustainability (low C02 emissions), thermal and acoustic performance, fire resistance and cost of the raw material (soil). In fact, earth construction can constitute a feasible solution for a more sustainable construction industry in developed countries. Nowadays the research areas on earthen construction focus from one side on the improvement of the materials for new buildings, on the other side on the Conservation of existing architectural heritage.
Historical earthen buildings are often damaged by static or dynamic loads in form of extensive cracking. All too often these cracks are insufficiently or inappropriately repaired, if at all, because of lack of knowledge and/or technology. In particular, the behaviour of crack repair by grouting poses a challenge in earthen materials and demands specific requirements for the grouting mortar, such as low water content, good water retention, low shrinkage, etc. Cracks in earthen construction can be repaired by grouting to re-establish structural continuity, and can also be used to consolidate voids and gaps, or as a complement to other strengthening techniques such as the introduction of tie-rods.
In the framework of earthen materials for new constructions, the major drawback is that traditional earthen materials are typically considered as non-standard. The great variability and heterogeneity of the properties of the available soils, the lack of quality control in the manufacturing of the earthen materials and in the construction process can be pointed out as the main reasons behind this Situation. Furthermore, only few countries issued Standards and recommendations supporting earth construction, discouraging the design of earth construction by the technical community in countries where these documents are absent.