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New airtight London apartments near completion
A new apartment development in one of South London’s up and coming districts is making use of Magply boards’ fire resistance and other performance characteristics, as the lining to a bespoke timber frame package.
This article was originally published in issue 31 of Passive House Plus magazine. Want immediate access to all back issues and exclusive extra content? Click here to subscribe for as little as €10, or click here to receive the next issue free of charge
The five flats are being developed on land adjacent to Peckham Rye railway station by Unboxed Homes, who have overseen all the service provisions and creation of the sub-structure.
Cambridgeshire-based White Haus is the timber frame specialist that has manufactured and erected the highly energy efficient structural envelope.
Crucially, given the proximity of the building to neighbouring properties, 9 mm Magply has been used to line the timber panels, before being sprayed with Passive Purple, a polymer-based liquid airtightness membrane. The purple/ white-finished Magply MgO boards are therefore the surface that purchasers are presented with to fit out according to their own specification and taste.
Project manager for White Haus Tony Buck commented: “We offer clients a bespoke service for the supply and installation of high-performance timber frames to meet various specifications — right up to passive house standard — building schools, hospitals and commercial premises as well as domestic properties.
While the timber frames normally have a plywood sheathing, we choose to use Magply internally whenever there is a requirement for fire protection as it offers up to 90 minutes resistance and meets the increasing threat of arson attacks on construction projects, as well as improving fire safety throughout the life of a building.
“Then, as with the Peckham development, once the 25 mm battens have been fixed to create a service cavity, we spray the surface with one of our membranes. Although this project isn’t actually passive house – which would require triple glazed windows – the sprayed PU insulation in the walls gives a U-Value of 0.15, while close fitting Magply boards and our Passive Purple membrane will give an air permeability down at 0.6 air changes per hour to work with the heat recovery ventilation system.”
