Twenty years ago, Firth introduced New Zealand’s most innovative, insulated, strong and efficient flooring and foundation system - Ribraft®. This innovative system brought a new level of under floor insulation to the NZ residential flooring market. From 1996 to present, Firth RibRaft® systems have saved thousands of home owners heating costs due to its inherent insulation properties.
The robustness of the Ribraft® system in Canterbury saw the development of Ribraft EQ® and RibRaft TC3® systems - engineered and developed specifically for seismic soil types.
As we head into an era where energy efficiency and sustainability defines how homes are designed and built, the Firth technical team focussed their attention to the foundation edge beam which is exposed to the outside environment.
Firth commissioned BRANZ to model Ribraft® thermal performance with and without edge insulation. 3D thermal analysis have shown to provide a minimum of R1.0 to the edge beam of Firth RibRaft® floors resulting in an overall R-value increase to floor area of up to 50% with Hotedge® as an integral component of the edge foundation (refer to BRANZ insulation guide 5th Edition).
With design and analysis input from one of NZ’s leading Universities, BRANZ and industry partners, Firth engineers developed RibRaft® HotEdge®.
Introducing Firth RibRaft® HotEdge®
Firth RibRaft® HotEdge® is a fully integrated slab edge insulation system that assists in attaining Homestar® points.
The RibRaft® HotEdge® System has been designed specifically for Firth RibRaft® floors. Some unique key features of the system are:
- RibRaft® HotEdge® is a fully integrated system. It is placed inside your RibRaft® foundation boxing before Firth RaftMix® concrete is poured and structurally connected to the Firth RaftMix® concrete edge beam, making it an integral part of the foundation
- RibRaft® HotEdge® is a closed cell extruded insulation - pre-meshed and plastered Foamular® high strength foam profiles are setup with normal Firth Ribraft® components. The system is highly resistant to moisture, retaining its R-value year after year, and is extremely strong and durable (up to 10 times stronger than expanded polystyrene insulation - EPS)
- The system has the added benefit of inherent toughness of aluminium corner protectors and is easy to install
- With the RibRaft® HotEdge® system you don’t need to increase the framing size in your design: standard 90mm framing applies.
- The system is fully compatible with Firth’s RibRaft EQ® and RibRaft TC3® foundation systems
For durability, seismic and thermal R-rating - Get the Edge. Specify a RibRaft® HotEdge® floor.
