Forgotten Floors?
By Phil Harris, Marketing Director, Tarmac Topfloor
In early 2007, Housing and Planning Minister, Yvette Cooper delivered a rallying call to UK housebuilders for all new build homes to be fully zero carbon by 2016. The address followed the launch of the government’s Code for Sustainable Homes, a home star-rating system, which this month replaces the current EcoHomes standard.
Although not yet mandatory for the private sector, it is clear that as the government faces mounting pressure to tackle the energy efficiency and the carbon footprint of new homes. The Code for Sustainable Homes will soon be enforced, paving the way for an increasingly tighter set of Building Regulations.
The current 2006 Part L of the Building Regulations set maximum carbon emissions targets for whole dwellings, rather than a single element such as a ground floor. Under this existing system, specifiers and architects can choose to improve the envelope performance by including more insulation in the walls, floor and roof, or by changing the insulation.
The current preferred U-value for a new build domestic ground floor is 0.22W/m2k with 0.25W/m2K as the maximum permissible performance. The latter is only acceptable providing that the roof, wall and floor work in conjunction to reduce the heat loss from the building. Crucially, if just one of these elements performs below standard, it will act as a heat sink and undermine the whole insulation of a building.
Let us be clear. Existing legislation will now evolve quickly and in the very near future I strongly believe individual elements of the building envelope will be placed further under the regulatory spotlight. Emission targets prescribed by the next set of Building Regulations could potentially also be based on standalone components including walls, floors and roofs. Under this system, a calculation might also be based on the carbon index and the whole-life carbon emissions involved in the manufacture of all insulating materials.
With a proven track record in delivering improved thermal performance in domestic and non-residential buildings, precast concrete flooring is one element which is often overlooked, yet is well-placed to help deliver better insulation and energy reduction in new homes, now, and into the future.
The high density and thermal mass of a concrete floor enables heat to be stored in the fabric of the building, making precast ground floors ideal for providing high insulation levels required by existing legislation.
Critically, if floors are insulated to the U-value of 0.22W/m2K, homeowners’ heating bills could be reduced even further. These U-values and below can now be easily achieved by using precast concrete flooring systems.
At Tarmac Topfloor, we recognise that precast flooring must support the housebuilding industry’s drive to help deliver lower carbon homes by continuing to improve insulation. Heatsave Plus, our new thermally efficient flooring system is capable of achieving exceptionally low U-values of up to 0.18 w/m2k and comfortably exceeds the 2006 revisions to Part L of the Building regulations.
By combining the insulating properties of rigid, Expanded Polystyrene infill panels (EPS) and minimal cold bridging, the product delivers higher thermal performance, and eliminates the need for additional insulation or chipboard to significantly reduce installation costs.
Unlike alternative flooring systems that use polystyrene blocks flooring, the EPS panels used in the Heatsave Plus system are positioned between pre-stressed concrete beams rather than on top, so that loading is directly placed onto the beams. At 2.5kg per panel, the lightweight system is simple to handle, providing contractors with greater ease of installation on-site.
As we move towards the 2016 carbon zero target, revisions to the Building Regulations will become more stringent, with individual elements and building materials placed under more scrutiny than ever before. With high thermal efficiency, precast concrete flooring must now be considered an integral element of delivering greater insulation and energy efficiency within a residential dwelling.
See more on:
Heatsave Plus
Tarmac Topblock's Sustainability section
22 November 2007
