June 2020

Insulation Updates
BEST FOOT FORWARD
For further info on all these updates and more, visit www.total-contractor.co.uk
Kingspan Kooltherm K103 Floorboard has been installed in the ground floor of an expansive new development,
providing high quality office space at the heart of Cheltenham’s growing Business Quarter.
The rise of office to residential conversions has seen available office space shrink over recent years. With
Honeybourne Place, Formal Investments are helping to meet the urgent need for business space. Barnwood
Over 1,000m² of Kingspan Kooltherm K103 was
Construction acted as main contractor for the 6-storey building which has been constructed over a former car park. installed at Honeybourne Place in Cheltenham.
In total, the development provides almost 6,000m² of Grade-A office space, at a location which benefits from
excellent transport links to the town centre and railway station. In developing the design, the architects looked to raise the bar in terms of energy performance,
setting rigorous thermal performance targets for the building envelope including a maximum ground floor U-value of 0.14 W/m2K. To deliver this, they
specified over 1,000m² of Kingspan Kooltherm K103. The rigid thermoset phenolic insulation board has a thermal conductivity of just 0.018 W/mK across all
thicknesses, the lowest of any commonly used floor insulation. As a result, the project team were able to meet the U-value target with an insulation thickness
of just 75mm. This helped to limit the scale of groundworks and soil removal, avoiding potential additional costs associated with this work and keeping the
project on schedule. www.kingspaninsulation.co.uk
ACTIS WELCOMES MMC FOCUS
An ambition by Housing Minister Christopher Pincher to embrace Modern Methods of
Construction to help Britain recover economically and socially from the impact of the
coronavirus has been welcomed by insulation specialist Actis.
Insulation specialist Actis welcomes Housing Minister
Christopher Pincher's ambition to increase MMC
production to help tackle the housing crisis in a post
Covid world.
Mr Pincher was speaking at a webinar – Why Modern Methods of Construction are essential for recovery
Post Covid – chaired by the government’s MMC champion Mark Farmer and convened by Building Better.
He said he wanted to see more people employed within the MMC element of the construction sector to
help the country achieve its target of building 300,000 new homes a year by the middle of the decade.
“With a 60% reduction in on site working numbers and an 80% reduction in defects we can build homes
more greenly, more cheaply and to a better quality using MMC. This is going to play a significant role in
our emission targets. I'm convinced that MMC can play a large part in that,” he said. He added that for
every 100,000 new homes built, the UK's GDP was boosted by 1%. Actis UK and Ireland Sales Director
Mark Cooper, whose company works with a number of timber framers, is heartened by the passion and
enthusiasm for MMC shown by the government and housing associations: “Modern Methods of
Construction allow homes to be built more quickly, addressing labour and skills shortages and improving
the quality, consistency and energy efficiency of newly built homes. With timber frame being around 20%
faster to build than brick and block it is clear that more emphasis on this method will go some way
towards addressing the housing crisis.” www.insulation-actis.com
A1 FIRE-RATED RAINSCREEN SOLUTIONS
Kingspan Insulation has launched two rock mineral fibre insulation products with a Euroclass A1 fire
rating – classified as ‘non-combustible’.
K-Roc Rainscreen Slab has been successfully
tested as part of complete façade systems to
BS 8414-2: 2015 + A1: 2017, under the
performance criteria within BR135.
They provide an effective solution for rainscreen applications on “relevant buildings” above 18 metres in England and
Wales and certain building types and heights in Scotland as part of an A1 or A2 class façade system. K-Roc Rainscreen
Slab and K-Roc Rainscreen Slab HD achieve thermal conductivities of 0.034 W/mK and 0.033 W/mK, respectively. K-
Roc Rainscreen Slab HD also features a glass tissue based facing which can help to improve the overall airtightness of
external walls, as well as improving a building’s appearance during construction. www.kingspaninsulation.co.uk
48 TC JUNE 2020