STERLINGOSB ZERO’S SHEAR STRENGTH LEADS TO SELECTION FOR WIKIHOUSE SWITCH

A programme of testing being carried out by one of the country’s leading research universities is expected to verify the team’s early findings around the WikiHouse offsite building system – indicating that West Fraser’s SterlingOSB Zero panels offer superior performance benefits for the production of their large format blocks, beams and other components. The material’s compressive and shear strength have proved key to the successful outcomes. WikiHouse has been developed to provide an economic and sustainable means of constructing low-rise housing and other accommodation which is straightforward to manufacture and erect.

WikiHouse is a zero-carbon building system, maintained in the UK by Open System Lab, and offers a comprehensive selection of key components which can be shared as code and produced in small local workshops, rather than a large factory. Crucially, the WikiHouse blocks are produced to an accuracy of 0.1mm and can be rapidly assembled by a small site team, requiring none of the traditional trade skills. SterlingOSB Zero has outstanding environmental credentials. Both the 18- and 22-mm thick panels are strong enough to meet most load-bearing applications, are BBA Approved and recognized under the NHBC Technical Standard for housing applications. SterlingOSB Zero T&G also bears the coveted UKTFA Q-mark. https://uk.westfraser.com

The construction of a stylish and sensitively designed riverside leisure centre in Northumberland is making full use of high performance tilebacker boards from the range of Marmox Ltd. throughout all of its wet areas: selected as a lining to blockwork walls in place of traditional render. The Morpeth Leisure Centre is being built by Willmott Dixon for the Advance Northumberland body. P. Plunkett Tiling Contractors Ltd. is the North-east based specialist sub-contractor involved, which carries out challenging commercial contracts of this scale across the country, while the company’s Managing Director, Steven Allsopp, proposed the use of Multiboard to the project team.

A total area of 2,600 square metres of Multiboards are being installed using 10,000 of the special Marmox dowels and Marmox waterproofing tape, ready for the installation of mainly white ceramic tiles to complete a fully waterproof lining to the poolside walls and other wet areas. Marmox Multiboards are manufactured from extruded polystyrene (XPS) covered in a layer of polymer concrete which offers an ideal surface across which to fix tiles, while they can be combined with the manufacturer’s special tapes and multipurpose sealant to create fully waterproof wetroom installations. www.marmox.co.uk