Part L Seminar

YH Part LPresentation by Celotex, Scunthorpe 15 September 2011

Bill Woodham, Area Sales Manager for Celotex Limited, gave an informative presentation on Part L of the Building Regulations 2010 at The Kingsway Centre, Scunthorpe, on Thursday 15 September. This was the second time that Celotex had given a presentation with the previous one covering the Code for Sustainable Homes.

The first part of the presentation looked at Celotex as a company. The turnover is around £90 million per year with the main focus on PIR boards. The board is lightweight, achieves Class 0 surface spread of flame and comes in thicknesses of between 12-200mm. It also achieves A+ green guide rating and is the lowest life costs of comparable products. PIR can be 100% more thermally efficient than many fibre products and is moisture resistant.

The uses include:

  • Pitched Roofs
  • Internal and external walls
  • Floors
  • Flat Roofs
  • Concrete Soffits
  • Conversions and Refurbishments.

The PIR market was around 5% in 1990 but expected to be around 40% by 2013. In terms of Part L of the Building Regulations, new dwellings required a SAP 2009 submission and other new buildings required an SBEM submission.

The 2010 version of Part L required a 25% improvement on CO2 emissions compared with the previous version, and a 45% increase in U values.

Thermal Bridging was an issue with the options of accreditation with testing; default to 0.15 or intermediate value with penalties. Party Walls were also included and required effective perimeter sealing. Air tightness was limited to 10m3/h/m2, although a value of 5 was recommended.

The presentation then covered the differences in U values and insulation thicknesses between the 2010 Part L and the previous document.

Comparisons were made on costs to achieve compliance with Part L 2010 as opposed to Part L 2006 on a typical threebedroomed semi-detached house. This was estimated at £34k fabric first approach as opposed to £37k for a mixture of fabric and renewable energy initiatives.

The presentation finished with examples of typical insulation thicknesses for different products. Overall, this was a well-received presentation with an audience that included ABE Chief Executive, John Hooper.

Martin Salmon
Yorkshire and Humber Committee Member