VIEWPOINT
WHAT ARE THE INSULATION PRIORITIES FOR 2025? Matt Neary, national sales manager at Knauf Insulation
CHANGING REGULATIONS SHAPED demand for insulation in 2024, and this year will be no different. Housebuilding is likely to accelerate in 2025 and drive the need for low- carbon, non-combustible and high-performance insulation. Energy prices are also increasing, underlining the need to retrofit Britain’s notoriously leaky homes. For builders’ merchants, this is an opportunity to help meet the demand for better insulated buildings.
Cost-effective solutions
The need for loft insulation is evergreen. Insulating a loft space at ceiling level is one of the most cost-effective retrofitting measures for improving the energy efficiency of a building. And it’s an essential aspect of meeting tighter regulations in new homes. The maximum limiting U-value for all types of new roofs is 0.16 W/m2K and regulations stipulate that the minimum depth for loft insulation is 270mm.
Although this can be achieved with two layers of insulation, many housebuilders are now going much further, using three layers to a depth of 500mm to mitigate thermal bridging and maximise energy efficiency. For merchants, a healthy supply of loft insulation is a must. Loft conversions are a popular option for homeowners looking to make the most of their
available space. The roof will require after level insulation of course, but something that often gets overlooked is the need for acoustic insulation and fire resistance in the separating floor. Regulations require a minimum fire resistance time of 30 minutes for separating floors, while Approved Document E (Resistance to the passage of sound) asks that all building elements provide ‘reasonable sound resistance’.
Rock mineral wool is ideal for this application as it is non-combustible, provides fire resistance and has sound insulation properties. Rocksilk® Flexible Slab, for example, meets the requirements for sound absorption in Part E and offers up to 60 minutes of fire resistance in a separating floor.
Acoustic set
Acoustic insulation offers a great opportunity for add-on sales. To reduce both external and internal noise transfer, you need to increase mass, create separation, and add absorption. For example, in an internal wall, the mass comes from the
January 2025
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net
plasterboard, the separation from the cavity and absorption from a noise-reducing material such as mineral wool insulation. As a guide, we recommend that contractors and installers should purchase 1m of acoustic insulation, such as Knauf Insulation Acoustic Roll or our OmniFit® multi-application products, for every 5m of plasterboard. Both products meet and exceed the acoustic performance requirements defined in Part E for internal walls and floors.
Wider cavities are the new normal
Standard practices are changing across the industry, including the move towards building wider wall cavities. In a survey of housebuilders, 41% said they have already adopted the 150mm cavity and this number is likely to increase. This approach to cavity wall insulation allows housebuilders to meet Part L requirements using non-combustible, lower-carbon materials such as mineral wool insulation.
Updates to Approved
Document B (Fire safety) of the Building Regulations guidance have tightened legislation
and many local authorities, insurers, and architects have adopted blanket bans on using combustible materials in the fabric, regardless of the building’s height or use. Demand is also rising for materials with low embodied carbon – the emissions released from non-operational processes, such as manufacturing and transport.
DriTherm® Cavity Slab 32, for example, has the best possible Euroclass A1 reaction to fire classification and is made from glass mineral wool, which has the lowest levels of embodied carbon of any mainstream insulation material in the UK.
The switch to wider cavities is also driven by the move towards ‘real performance’, closing the long-recognised gap between how buildings are expected to perform and how they do once construction is complete. Mineral wool insulation is easy to install correctly, being flexible enough to move with the construction and less prone to air gaps, helping to maximise the real performance of the building.
Preparing for change A substantial regulatory shift in construction is still taking effect and there are more standards on the horizon that are likely to impact the demand for insulation. Expected in 2025, the Future Homes Standard (FHS) aims to reduce operational carbon emissions in new homes by 75-80% compared to 2013 standards.
Merchants looking for commercial opportunities should stock insulation that offers more than thermal performance – fire safety, acoustic insulation, and reduced embodied carbon are all becoming priorities and need to be considered when stocking for the year ahead. BMJ
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