Insulate Magazine Issue 14 - January 2018

Keeping Everything Moving
Supply and Demand
The last few years have seen the construction
industry supply chain adapting to the avail
bility - or lack of it - of certain materials. Now
similar upheaval has hit insulation, are manufacturers,
suppliers and installers stepping up to the
plate? Is there a good enough understanding about
product substitutions? by Paul Forrester.
The construction industry is a restless beast, unable to
remain still and which responds badly to restraint. After
all, building projects are living, breathing things; perpetually
animated, gears grinding, cogs whirring, keeping the
wheels of productivity turning.
Except for when they stop.
And building projects do stop. However much people
don’t want them to, and however much people dislike it
when they do, the restless beast ends up caged. Time,
money, weather, accidents, site issues, supply issues,
force majeure … you name it, it can bring things to a halt
and cause delays.
No Quick Fixes
When it comes to shortages of building materials, sites
have had to get used to long lead times on bricks and roof
tiles in the last couple of years. Both are fundamental to the
appearance of the building for which they’re intended; any
combination of local vernacular, planning conditions and
design intent mean swapping them is not necessarily the
work of a moment.
Even if a change can be made, the lead times on an alternative
may be no better, and project planning has had to
adapt accordingly.
Aerated/lightweight blocks have suffered shortages too
but, since they’re not a facing material, changing to another
block type is not an aesthetic issue. The difference
in thermal performance between a lightweight block and a
dense block, however, is a whole other hurdle.
No Room for the Future
Specifications, for cavity wall constructions in particular,
have been carefully engineered around the contribution
a thermally efficient block on the inner leaf makes. That
leaves only a narrow window for an alternative product to
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