A brand new product launched by Jablite, a leading UK manufacturer of innovative insulation gives clients, specifiers and contractors a lightweight, cost effective insulation for inverted roofs that creates the fall required to meet best practice standards.
Richard Lee, Managing Director, explains Jablite’s latest addition to its insulation range, “Inverted flat roofs offer one huge benefit, the waterproofing membrane is protected by the insulation on top of it - extending the life of the roof and reducing maintenance costs.
“Until now there has been one drawback to inverted roofs. The minimum 1:80 fall required by BS 6229 can only be created using a screed layer, which typically adds 40 ‘drying days’ to the project timetable.
“In wet weather it can take even longer for the screed to dry out sufficiently,” says Richard. “Plus a screed layer adds a substantial weight load to the building and is expensive. As a consequence, despite best practice guidance, many projects are being built with a zero fall inverted roof.”
Jablite’s newest insulation product creates the required fall, can be laid straight onto the membrane directly over the concrete deck, is 2% the weight of screed and, a recent Davis Langdon study found that screed costs £10 more per square metre than tapered insulation.
Richard is justifiably proud of this latest product development from Jablite’s innovations team, “The whole team are to be congratulated on this new, patented, BBA-accredited insulation. We have named Conrad Newberry as ‘patent inventor’ on the patent documentation to recognise his personal input into this outstanding new product.”
Jablite is becoming known as the UK’s leading innovator of insulation products; it had three trial projects funded by a Department of Energy and Climate Change/Technology Strategy Board Fund in 2013 and aims to launch at least 5 new products or product developments a year.
“Developing new products is about listening and understanding the marketplace,” says Richard. “There has been a lot written about the problems of zero-fall inverted roofs.
“The reality is that many inverted roofs have a zero fall because of the issues with the screed layer. In response, Jablite developed the first BBA-accredited insulation for zero fall inverted roof applications. Now we have gone one step further and created a tapered insulation that eliminates the need for a zero fall roof.
“We listened to architects and contractors who wanted to specify and achieve a best practice installation on an inverted roof and set out to create a product that would make that a realistic and cost effective objective.”
