K Panels sips sustainable success

What’s in a name? Well, in the case of K Panels, it means a company that is contributing towards meeting the demand for more affordable housing – and making them zero carbon too

The story began well before the Code for Sustainable Homes was a priority on the Government’s agenda, in Sherwood Forest, the home of Robin Hood, when Center Parcs were planning to construct more villas at its Nottinghamshire village and other locations.

Energy efficiency, environmental sustainability and a quick build time were must have items on the check-list along with quality and good design; a tall order that contractor Robert Woodhead Ltd found a solution to in the Kingspan TEK Building System – a structural insulated panel (SIPs) system manufactured off site with thermal performance built-in.

The company also introduced the TEK system to Longhurst Homes for one of the country’s earliest uses of this technology in social housing. On the back of these pioneering schemes, Kingspan TEK invited Woodhead to become a licensed supplier of the technology in the East Midlands. So in 2004 managing director David Woodhead established an entirely separate company, K Panels Ltd to specialise in the design, manufacture and erection of energy efficient homes using the Kingspan TEK building system. Based in Tuxford, Nottinghamshire, K Panels is currently one of only three UK licensed suppliers of TEK to have its own manufacturing facilities.

“Our product and company ethos is all about improving energy efficiency, providing a fast build solution and reducing site waste through offsite construction,” said Glenn Slater, K Panel’s head of business development. “Importantly TEK performs very strongly against the Code for Sustainable Homes’ energy/CO2 and waste criteria.”

The primary market is housing, and K Panels has designed, supplied and erected the system for housing associations, local authorities, private developers and self-builders, as well as specialist oak frame houses using SIPs as an infill panel.

Slater continued: “Since being established, K Panels has achieved consistent growth, with a turnover of £1.4 million in 2007, making us Kingspan TEK’s number one system supplier in the UK. We are expecting further growth this year, as the Code for Sustainable Homes becomes mandatory for registered social housing providers and beyond that,

2009, for all developers. Housing providers who want to achieve Code Level three, four, five and six with minimal wall thickness are increasingly choosing SIPs as their preferred method of construction.”

During 2006/7 working in partnership with its founding company, Woodhead, K Panels Ltd has supplied and erected 19 new properties for Amber Valley Housing across three sites in Derbyshire. It has built six bungalows and four houses for Eastern Shires Housing in East Bridgford, Notts. Broxtowe Borough Council commissioned 12 new homes: eight bungalows in Eastwood and four flats in Beeston. The technique and system has also been put to use on Nottinghamshire County Council’s Children’s Centre Programme to create eight centres since 2006.

So, it’s a versatile, but what exactly is the Kingspan TEK building system – and why is it so beneficial to the environmental and energy efficiency agenda? The short answer is that the structural insulated panels provide high levels of thermal performance and airtightness with minimal wall thickness. It is manufactured offsite with insulation built in and therefore has a big impact on site waste as well as the quality control benefits offered by a factory built system.

In effect SIPs arrive on site in a ‘flat pack’ form, ready to be assembled. The panels slot together to create the walls – including load-bearing walls – floors and roofs of a complete building, up to three storeys high. Additionally, using TEK as a roof solution permits a habitable room to be constructed in the roof space more easily. The panels arrive with the apertures for the windows and doors cut to shape and the rapidity of the build time means that the structure can be quickly put into place so that internal trades can get to work.

In some quarters there can be uncertainty regarding the longevity and proven capabilities of modern methods of construction. In part, that’s a legacy of an earlier era of modular construction, as well as the newness of some of the systems, but Kingspan TEK has earned its spurs sufficiently to earn the recognition of major building warranty providers such as NHBC and Zurich Municipal. It also holds BBA, IAB and Zulassung Certification.

The end result is a building that has high thermal efficiency and stands at the cutting edge of airtightness, which translates to a home that only requires minimal space heating. That means lower fuel bills for the occupant and also a much reduced carbon footprint throughout the property’s lifespan.

In addition to the super-insulating qualities of the panels, the thermal properties and airtight structure are enhanced by the way in which the panels slot together to make the enclosing structures. This means there is very little ‘cold-bridging’ required. To wax a tad technical, for a thickness of 142mm, its thermal performance rates at a U value of 0.2, but lower values are capable of being realised, according to Kingspan.

Slater said. “We are looking to increase our offsite capabilities and already have the capability to supply whole elevatons that can be craned into place, which further reduces build time and site waste – we see a strong future for TEK in meeting the government’s zero carbon targets

for future house building.”

And for housebuilders based in the East Midlands, the means to help achieve those objectives aren’t situated at the ends of the Earth. So that’s handy.