Insulation

The UK has some of the oldest housing in Europe, with approximately 20% of current dwellings built before 1919 – that equates to about 5.8 million homes in the UK that are over 100 years old. And, using data1 to 2017, 17% of the current housing stock has been built since 1990. That means that roughly 23.6 million homes across the country were built over 30 years ago.

Dan Court is a U-shaped seven storey building containing 138 one, two, and three-bedroom apartments in Wembley, London.

Following the ban on combustible materials in the external walls of relevant buildings over 18m1 in England which came into force in 2018, Catalyst Housing appointed Higgins Partnerships to undertake the reclad works and deliver a safe and compliant estate.

There is a real need to ensure we have a retrofit program that provides a sustainable solution for the existing UK building stock.

Buildings contribute 39% of global energy related carbon emissions, with the majority (28%) coming from operational emissions. This means that over a quarter of total carbon emissions are from the need to heat and power our homes.

With just one month to go until the Roofing Cladding and Insulation (RCI) Show, at Stadium MK in Milton Keynes on the 18th-19th October 2023, the time to register for your FREE ticket is NOW!

Brought to you by the RCI Magazine, we will be celebrating our seventh year as the UK’s dedicated roofing, cladding and insulation show!

The Problem
Armed with the latest U-value testing equipment, and excited by the improved thermal performance data shown by the next generation SprayCork material in the lab, Corksol set out to assess the product’s thermal insulation performance as a Thin Internal Wall Insulation in a real-life situation.

The background to the testing was the UK Government’s March 2021 report on Thin Internal Wall Insulation (TIWI), which highlighted the potentially very large nationwide benefits for both energy efficiency and fuel poverty from high performance TIWI systems. The chosen test property was an 1890’s solid walled Yorkshire stone detached cottage in Halifax.

Meeting the upcoming Future Homes Standard will likely require affordable housing providers and housebuilders to find new ways of constructing high-performing, thermally efficient homes. Coupled with the need for cost-control, speed of construction and repeatability of design, the off-site manufacture of components is also gaining momentum.

Tom Cox, Technical and Development Director at Saint-Gobain Off-Site Solutions discusses the company’s new closed panel timber solution, Thermistud™️ and how the business has combined the benefits of off-site construction with a tested structural system to offer a scalable solution for building sustainable and energy-efficient homes.

Façade systems, and especially the cladding of high-rise buildings, have been, and continue to be, the topic of increased discussion and scrutiny in the construction industry and beyond. Due to recent changes in building regulations, the main driver for recladding projects has been the improvement of fire performance, although new, modern cladding can also improve other aspects of the environment for the users of the building like the thermal and acoustic performance with the added benefit of an updated, aesthetically pleasing design.