SPECIFIER NEWSLETTER – ISSUE 3 – APRIL 2021
This month’s edition of The Build Up focuses on product manufacturing. We’re nearing the halfway point of the year, which means we’re also nearing the halfway point of the transition period from CE marking to UKCA marking.
What does that mean for the products you specify? We’ll try to answer that question, as well as give our regular round-up of news stories and useful design resources.
If there are any topics you’d like to see us cover in the newsletter, or if you have any feedback on what we’re sending out each month, you can contact us us at any time, or reach us via LinkedIn.
Demystifying Standards
Architects and specifiers are often told that they need to know all about standards and codes of practice. But many standards are big documents with a hefty price tag, meaning they are not always accessible or digestible.
Our new blog post series is demystifying some of those standards. We’re explaining how we apply them as part of providing you with extruded polystyrene (XPS) insulation products, and technical services such as U-value calculations. This month, we’ve chosen to focus on BS EN 13164 – what it is, how it relates to CE marking, and the transition to the UKCA mark.
What do architects need to know about BS EN 13164?
BS EN 13164 is one of a number of harmonised European Standards relating to the manufacture of thermal insulation products for construction. It covers extruded polystyrene (XPS) specifically. Read More.
Design Resources
The Get It Right Initiative, known as GIRI, is working to promote a culture within UK construction of learning from mistakes and seeking to eliminate error. Making improvements in this area would reduce waste and potentially save billions of pounds.
One of their resources is the Guide to Improving Value by Reducing Design Error, produced by the GIRI design working group.
At the end of 2020, GIRI hosted a webinar featuring the co-founder and director of the Designing Buildings Wiki. The session focused on knowledge sharing, and how better knowledge sharing can help to reduce error.
Getting More From Polyfoam XPS
As this month’s new blog post looks at manufacturing standards for thermal insulation products, it’s worth recapping what Polyfoam XPS produces at its Hartlepool plant.
We manufacture extruded polystyrene insulation, in accordance with BS EN 13164, for use in ground floor and inverted roof applications. You can view our complete range of Floorboard and Roofboard products, as well as accessories such as Slimline Zero WFRL for inverted roofs.
Product literature, declarations of performance and BBA certificates are all available online, or you can contact us to discuss which XPS product is best suited to your project.
What Caught Our Eye This Month ?
- Energy efficiency of new homes in England improves. (via CIAT)
- Construction organisations have urged the government to be more ambitious with the Future Buildings Standard. (via Construction Manager Magazine)
- Puerto Rican homes designed to withstand hurricanes.(via dezeen magazine)
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