Build healthier
The wish of more and more builders for a healthy house is growing. Health is our most precious asset, our most vital nutrition is the air we breathe. Indoor air is of special importance, particularly when you think that we spend an average of 80 % of our time in closed rooms.
Healthy building should not be a luxury, but should be a benefit for all building families at a good value-for-money price, something of which Johannes Schwörer (managing director) is fully convinced. Accordingly, SchwörerHaus is subject to the strict assurance process of the Sentinel Haus Institut and TÜV Rheinland for the health-promoting quality in the interior rooms of Schwörer houses.
What is healthy housing?
A house tested for harmful substances with a very good indoor air is the basis for a healthy living. Headaches, lack of concentration, tiredness, dizziness, rashes, asthma – the list of disease symptoms that can be caused by harmful substances in a house is long. They escape from walls and floors or are in furniture.
Therefore, it is important for a healthy house to choose the right building materials so that as few harmful substances as possible manage to get into the house. Not only harmful substances in the indoor air are amongst the keywords affecting healthy housing, also electro-smog, permanent noise pollution, sufficient daylight and protection from summer heat are all components of a lasting healthy life.
Your Schwörer house
We take the wish of an increasing number of builders for a healthy housing very seriously. In order to document our commitment in this area as comprehensively as possible, we decided – together with the renowned Sentinel Haus Institut and TÜV Rheinland – to put ourselves to a large-scale practical test: as proven, SchwörerHaus build houses assessed for their health that meet the highest demands for indoor air quality.
Managing Director of Sentinel Haus Institut
Peter Bachmann
"Just to test one house from a thousand built and then spread general statements like: 'We build healthy housing, we are certified' – this is not possible with Sentinel Haus. We issue one test certificate for each house with a serial number. This means that each customer can enjoy safety in his own house."
Components of healthy living/housing
Natural building material wood
Thanks to drying and conditioning, when it comes to timber-based construction materials, Schwörer can do without chemical wood preservers.
Certified building and extension materials
Materials relevant for the quality of indoor air are tested for harmful substances from a health perspective.
Fresh air
The Schwörer fresh-air heat-recovery technology – a system to control the ventilation of living spaces – continually provides for fresh air even when the windows are closed. Pollen filters can be added as an option for allergy sufferers.
Plenty of daylight
Sufficient supply of daylight is also important for the health. The optimal size and clever arrangement of the windows is just as important as the overall window area.
Good sound insulation
Thanks to high-quality building materials and well-thought-out construction, Schwörer houses score excellent sound insulation values.
Why is healthy housing so important?
The requirements of the German Energy Saving Ordinance on the building envelope are becoming more stringent every year. Hence, for energy reasons, houses are becoming more airtight.
In the past, harmful substances were able to pass through the air-permeable building envelope to the outside and fresh air to the inside. In new, energy-saving air-tight buildings or renovated buildings, this exchange of air can no longer take place. Harmful substances can therefore accumulate inside the building.
Especially in these houses, harmful and burdensome building and extension materials must be reduced. A sufficient exchange of air additionally contributes to healthy housing. A controlled ventilation system with heat recovery is an optimum addition.
Schwörer building blocks for healthier buildings
PEFC certified timber from regional forests is cut in the Schwörer sawmill, carefully dried and processed into high-quality, quality-tested building materials. This is the prerequisite that we are able to do all our work without chemical timber preservation.
Without chemical timber preservation
The Schwörer Cospan panel in exterior walls and floor and ceiling slabs provide for an excellent sound insulation. The special solid building material patented by Schwörer consists of natural timber and cement.
Cospan panel for sound insulation
The controlled ventilation system with heat recovery provides for dehumidification of the living spaces and ensures a healthy exchange of air without any loss of heat – the best prevention against moisture damages.
Controlled ventilation system
The dry construction method used and the construction optimised to prevent thermal bridging in interaction with the air-tight building envelope are the fundamental prerequisites for preventing mould growth.
Building methods and construction
verification certificate 'Healthier Buildings'
- Manufacturers are required to provide evidence of substances used in all products.
- After the individual assessments, component systems such as wall and ceiling superstructures are tested by TÜV Rheinland in their test chambers for any possible interactions between their components. For interior walls for example, panel materials, coatings, adhesives, tiles, joints and sealing materials.
- In the next step, the MONO Schwörer show house in Mannheim was tested. The results of the indoor air measure were excellent.
- To underpin the positive values, ten other Schwörer show houses - all built in different years and from different series - were tested for their indoor air quality. They all scored consistently top positive results.
- With this positive confirmation, SchwörerHaus decided to submit itself to a large-scale practical test according to the standardised procedure of the TÜV Rheinland and the Sentinel Haus Institut with approx. 650 customer houses.
- The 650 evaluated indoor air tests conducted to date (August 2017) confirm the positive test results. The insights gained from the tests have been incorporated in practice into the assembly and extension specifications - a behavioural guideline has been developed.
Healthy housing black on white
Schwörer houses are verifiable certified for residential health that meet the requirements of the highest indoor air quality. In cooperation with the renowned Sentinel Haus Institut and TÜV Rheinland, we also offer certified indoor air measurements. This means that every customer has his test results in black and white.
The first “Healthy House of Schwörer”
“Light. Air. Life. ” This is the motto of the first Schwörer Healthy House, in which more than 40 brand manufacturers from the European construction industry are project partners demonstrating what an ecological and healthy home can look like today: among other things including a multifunctional roof for daylight and energy generation, shading by electrochromic glazing as well as a holistic lighting concept.
Thanks to this exemplary partnership under the direction of SchwörerHaus, the first “Schwörer Healthy House” was built in Mühlacker – not as a show house, but as a real residential building on a specific plot of land in compliance with building regulations and according to the wishes of the clients Christine and Norbert Weimper. The experienced construction specialised journalist and construction blogger (bau-blogger.de) wanted to use his own construction project to show what modern house construction has to offer when many innovative individual products are combined into an ambitious, functioning complete ensemble – energy-efficient, healthy and yet affordable.
