A variety of British Gypsum’s Thistle Plasters have been utilised to their full extent at a new Passivhaus home in the heart of Shropshire, improving indoor air quality, protecting walls from accidental damage and adding a bit of playtime fun.
Architect and homeowner, Jon Chadwick, embarked on his self build journey in 2015 when he decided to build a Passivhaus home for his family, after learning its benefits from being the project architect on the UK’s biggest commercial Passivhaus Project.
Jon commented: “As well as benefitting from the added user comfort that a Passivhaus provides, we also wanted to ensure that we tailored the interior of our new home to suit our busy family life style.
“Having worked with British Gypsum extensively on numerous projects during my career, I have always been provided with good support in product specification and the technical aspects of the applications. Therefore, when it came to designing our new family home, I knew I wanted to incorporate British Gypsum’s Thistle Plasters within the build – including some of the more innovative products like Thistle Magnetic Plaster.”
The latter is a finish plaster that attracts magnets, leaving a quality surface for internal walls and a durable base for applying decorative finishes.On this project it was applied to the walls of the children’s bedrooms and the family room, as a fun way for them to display their artwork and change designs regularly without any hassle or redecoration.
British Gypsum’s Thistle UniFinish, Thistle DuraFinish, Thistle BoardFinish and Thistle PureFinish plasters were also specified for the project, thanks to each product’s unique performance characteristics.
Jon continued: “During the construction of the house, there were a number of potential sources of formaldehyde within the fabric of the building, including the engineered timber which was used. Although we tried to minimise the formaldehyde emissions as much as possible, we thought it would be a good idea to apply Thistle PureFinish, which captures formaldehyde and converts it into inert compounds, to some of the walls in order to reduce them further. Indeed, creating a healthy indoor environment with good air quality was a priority – especially in the children’s bedrooms.
British Gypsum’s Thistle UniFinish was applied to the moisture resistant plasterboards on the ceilings in the bathrooms, as well as the walls that were not being tiled. In the general high traffic areas such as the stairway, Thistle DuraFinish was specified thanks to it being able to protect the walls from knocks and scrapes.