When a residential development of 86 units required high levels of sound and thermal insulation on a fast-track programme, timber-frame contractors Frame Wise knew they could trust insulation from Saint-Gobain Isover to help provide the solution.

Frame Wise are nearly halfway through the nine-month, £1.5million build, for which Simon Orrells, Frame Wise’s managing director, explained: “Stock control and timed deliveries are crucial due to the quick programme on site but the first two blocks have recently been air tested and far exceeded the minimum requirements of 10m³/hm², achieving results of 5.2m³/hm².”

The Cobden Street development in Coventry is a nine-block mixture of units that range from two-storey houses to four-storey apartment blocks, all of which feature Isover insulation in their walls and floors.

The total contract includes the supply and erection of timber frame, supply and installation of floating floors and all acoustic compartment floors on battens to comply with Robust Details.

Around £300,000 of Isover products are being incorporated, ranging from 043 timber frame rolls in the external walls, APR 1200 acoustic partition rolls in the partition walls and floors, Spacesaver rolls in the apartment ceilings, and 035 rolls in the rafters.

All of these help Frame Wise and main contractor Bullock Construction meet the requirements of Part E of the Building Regulations as well as be confident the insulation is sustainable, as all Isover products are manufactured from silica sand, the earth's most abundant naturally occurring mineral. More than 80% of the raw material used in the production process is recycled post-consumer glass from building regeneration projects or reprocessed waste from bottle and flat glass manufacture that would otherwise go to landfill.

Frame Wise is equally as committed to sustainability as Isover, as Simon explained: “We can now achieve U-values from 0.30W/m²K down to less than 0.1W/m²K in open-panel timber frame with the Isover products. And our new double-panel system, which can get down to less than 0.1W/m²K, was successfully launched at Interbuild.”

No strangers to pushing the design envelope where multi-story timber-frame is concerned, Frame Wise always trust the Isover brand to provide quality products.

“Timber frame, coupled with Isover’s vast and ever-increasing range as a really easy solution to insulation requirements, proves itself as the way forward as an alternative method of construction,” Simon said.