Why investors are buying period buildings again.
A building-physics reality check in nine lessons — on insulation systems, life cycles and the kind of fabric that can still be repaired in a hundred years.
Course language: German · Checkout on our course platform in German
A compact system check for everyone who buys or holds property. You learn to judge a building not by its efficiency class but by what it costs over its entire life cycle. Afterwards you walk through every viewing with the eyes of a structural engineer.
An energy certificate assesses a calculation. Not a building.
What the market sells
- The airtight, insulation-wrapped façade with an A+ certificate is considered the ultimate — yet what is assessed is a calculated value, not the service life of the construction.
- After 30 to 40 years, the efficiently calculated build-up becomes a crack-prone, inseparably bonded composite that has to be disposed of as hazardous waste.
- These disposal costs appear in no sales brochure and no financing calculation — but they will arise nonetheless, and you will pay them.
- At the same time, the Wilhelminian building is regarded as a renovation risk, even though its load-bearing fabric has demonstrably stood for more than a hundred years.
What building physics says
- 51 cm of solid brick masonry, combined with capillary-active lime putty and clay plaster, regulates moisture without technology and without wearing parts.
- Every layer remains repairable on its own. That is the real lever for returns: you repair locally instead of replacing a composite system entirely.
- The embodied energy in an existing building has long been invested. A well-planned renovation of a period building is around 50% more climate-friendly than a replacement new build.
- From now on you assess a property by material quality and repairability — and recognise the difference between substance and building trend.
Four modules, nine lessons — from problem to proof.
The modules build on each other: first the miscalculation, then the physics behind it, then the numbers, then your conclusion.
The life-cycle lie — the problem
Why a building’s calculation only adds up over its full life cycle, and why a good rating on paper says nothing about what the façade will cost after four decades.
- The 43-year trap
- The energy certificate bluff
Building physics uncensored — the analysis
The system comparison over 150 years: how an external thermal insulation composite system ages, what solid brick masonry does differently structurally, and why repairability is the most important value of a construction.
- The plastic façade
- The 150-year system
- The law of repair
Real asset instead of hazardous waste — the proof
Embodied energy as a lever for returns, and what empirical consumption data actually show about the heating costs of a solid period building — beyond the theoretical values in the energy certificate.
- The hidden CO2 return
- The heating myth
Your investment shift — the transformation
X-ray vision for sales brochures: distinguishing durable material quality from synthetic building trends, turning the supposed drawbacks of a Wilhelminian building into arguments for the bank — and recognising when you need a system for the renovation itself.
- From dazzler to genuine real asset
- The reliable renovation roadmap
I am Thomas Tergan.
Civil and industrial engineer, DGNB Consultant and Auditor. My working day consists of assessing existing buildings — and deciding what is preserved and what is not.
In this work I regularly see the same calculation go wrong: a building is judged by what the energy certificate promises for operation, not by what its construction actually costs over 50 or 100 years. Anyone who includes production, maintenance and demolition comes to a different result than the market for many building elements.
This course is the compact walk-through of exactly that calculation. No ideology, just building physics, life-cycle costs and the question of which construction can still be repaired in thirty years.
What the system check includes.
4 modules, 9 lessons
Compact format: from the life-cycle problem through building physics to the consequences for your next viewing.
The 150-year system comparison
Composite insulation system versus solid, repairable period fabric — calculated over the full life cycle.
X-ray vision for sales brochures
How to recognise genuine material quality and which details in a brochure say nothing about durability.
Your investment roadmap
How to turn the apparent drawbacks of a Wilhelminian building into sound arguments for the bank.
A bad purchase costs more than any training.
Disposing of a bonded external insulation composite system is not an item any sales brochure lists — it arises nonetheless, and it falls to whoever owns the building by then. Anyone who opens this calculation before buying decides on a different basis.
The system check gives you this calculation in four modules — learned once, applicable to every property you look at in the future.
37 €
one-off, incl. VAT
Regular price: 97 € one-off
Unlock the course →Secure checkout via our course platform · Course language: German
Now you know what you are buying. Next comes the how.
The last lesson of this course ends exactly where the next task begins: you have decided in favour of the fabric — now the renovation has to be planned, costed and awarded.
That is what the Renovation Code is for: seven modules from the building survey through the construction schedule to awarding contracts.
To the Renovation Code →How the two courses relate
- The Polystyrene Deception answers the question before buying: which fabric is worth your money?
- The Renovation Code answers the question after buying: how do you bring this fabric safely through the renovation?
- Both work on their own. Together they cover the path from the viewing to awarding contracts.
Questions before you enrol
Which language is the course in?
All lessons and the checkout on our course platform are in German.
Who is this course for?
For everyone who buys a property or holds a portfolio and faces the question of whether a new build or an existing building is the better decision. The course requires no construction experience — it explains the building-physics relationships so that you can apply them yourself at your next viewing.
Is this a renovation course?
No. This course is an assessment course: it answers the question of which building fabric is worth its money and why. The implementation — building survey, budget, construction schedule, contract award — is the subject of the Renovation Code.
What comes after this course?
Module 4 ends with the renovation roadmap and thus on the threshold of concrete planning. If you want to go further at this point, the Renovation Code is the direct continuation. For a specific building you can book a one-to-one consultation with me at any time; it is booked separately and not included in any course price.