13 July 2009

Durisol Gets Top Marks for Green School Building

Durisol’s eco-friendly wall forming system is helping to cut the lifetime carbon footprint of a single-storey extension at Caen Community Primary School in the village of Braunton, Devon. Assembled by construction company Morgan Ashurst, the new building’s external and internal walls consisted entirely Durisol modular units – a cement-bonded building product which is manufactured from 80% recycled wood fibre, and itself completely recyclable.

Devon County Council worked on the project with its property services partner NPS South West Ltd in Exeter, a subsidiary of NPS Property Consultants Ltd. Nicholas Johnson, Lead Architect at NPS South West, managed the design and construction of the 300m2 extension at Caen Community Primary School, which provides pupils with three extra classrooms and a new toilet block.

Durisol wall units were selected to complement the project’s sustainable specification, said Mr Johnson. “We first read about Durisol in a trade magazine and logged on to their website to find out more. The product’s green credentials are very impressive and the wall units’ innovative tongue and grooved locating profile assists alignment and enables quick and easy wall forming on site - saving both build time and costs."

In addition to low carbon footprint and low embedded energy, Durisol units come with green mineral fibre insulation as standard which allows U-values as low as 0.19. NPS South West specified 365mm wide units with Rockwool mineral fibre insulation for the extension’s external load bearing walls. These are the largest units in the Durisol range with a sound reduction capability of 57dB. All units have a structural core thickness of 120mm and even without additional insulation, they can significantly enhance a building’s overall energy efficiency rating, which ensures superb sound insulation. Durisol’s 170mm units were used for internal walls and have an acoustic rating of 55dB without insulation.

According to the school’s Head Teacher, Karen Crutchfield, the sound insulation is "fabulous" and there is a noticeable positive difference when walking through to the new building. She comments: “There’s no echo, even in such a lofty, open area, which is particularly good for younger children’s classrooms as it adds to the comfort of the space and allows for calm and quiet as well as discussion and play." As Caen Community Primary School is located on a flood plain, materials used to build the extension must be able to withstand potential exposure to water. "Durisol units met this requirement as well," says Nicholas Johnson, “as they don’t rot or decay and won’t support fungal or bacterial growth - making them a really durable, green building solution."

Durisol modular units are simply dry-stacked without mortar, and then filled with concrete to create solid walls with excellent thermal and sound insulation. In addition, the building’s square, single storey design is ensuring high tensile strength which has eliminated the need for reinforcing bars - further reducing construction time and costs.

Durisol and its licensees have been producing wood fibre and reinforced concrete products for over 50 years in Europe and also in North America, Australia, Russia and the Pacific Rim. In addition to wall form products for building, the company also has a portfolio of products and systems including noise barriers and retaining walls.

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