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Simon Cator is passionate about helping people to build better homes. Prior to becoming Regional Sales Manager for the Upper North Island at Pro Clima NZ, he worked for New Zealand’s online architectural products library – EBOSS and HRV before that.
In this introductory episode, I spoke with Simon about the diversity of his role at Pro Clima and how he talks with people throughout the whole building industry to help change the way we do things.
Products to Build Better
On the face of it, Pro Clima sells high quality and high performance building membranes and tapes. But Simon describes how much of his role involves educating designers, building owners and builders about the science of moisture control. It’s all in aid of encouraging and enabling people to build better homes.
Pro Clima products are divided into two main categories; weather resistive barriers for the outside of buildings and airtightness with vapour control systems for the inside. These building envelope systems work together to reduce the risk of interstitial condensation. Effective control layers also improve the health, durability and energy efficiency of a building.
The Four Control Layers
A well functioning building envelope is often described in terms of four control layers. Jason Quinn has a particularly good explanation of these over on his Sustainable Engineering website. While we often think of the various material layers (cladding, wrap, framing and insulation, and lining), the control layers are functional layers that work together to keep a building dry, durable and energy efficient. These control layers, in order of priority are:
- Water
- Air
- Vapour
- Thermal
Look out for future episodes where I’ll explore each of these in more detail.
In the meantime, if you need assistance with weathertightness or airtightness systems, or simply want to know a bit more about practical buildings science, Simon can be found at Pro Clima or on LinkedIn.