The points where structural steel balconies, canopies or rooftop systems (such as HVAC or solar equipment) connect to a concrete structure often penetrate through the building envelope to cause age-old problems, as well as create new ones.

As in the past, steel penetrations rapidly conduct heat from warm interior concrete structures into the cold exterior environment, wasting energy and pumping carbon into the environment.

The advent of air-tight building envelopes, however, has worsened the problem. Because interior humidity levels during cold winter months is now sufficiently high for cold penetrations on the interior side of the envelope to form condensation, mold can grow and become airborne months and years before it becomes visible on room surfaces, exposing the developer to significant remediation and personal injury liability.

Isokorb® structural thermal breaks from Schöck can eliminate this problem by insulating warm interior concrete structures from cold exterior steel projections at the building envelope, while providing structural support equivalent to that of traditional steel projections.

The resulting assembly cuts energy waste and carbon emissions by up to 90% at the penetration, and up to 14% for the building overall, passively, for the life of the building.