Top-Hats off to future-proof TITAN !

 When faced with a 3000 sq metre project on a new care home in Barnsley, Thistle Roofing of Elland knew this was not going to be just an ordinary roof.

The current building regulations stipulate that commercial and industrial buildings are built to yield a roof U - Value of 0.25 W/m2K, however due to this building's use the design was drawn up featuring a U - Value of "0.2 or lower" !   The added spice is that the roof purlins were thin timber trusses running with the slope !

Thistle's original engineered solution involved fixing aluminium Speeddeck secret fix roofing on top of a plywood deck, used as a liner sheet, with insulation and a traditional 180mm deep bar & bracket system, stiffened with anti sway components, sat on a small pre-fixed galvanised top-hat section running in line with the timber rafters. 

Although they are geared up for complexity, they invited QBM to work together to reduce the number of proposed components and fastener applications. Contracts Director Andrew Hardy said, "we need to make it comply with the regs, but lets try and make it simpler on site, for the guys."

QBM launched their TITAN spacer system last year, the 3 sided bar is designed to allow brackets to be spaced at up to 1500mm centres.  The three sided support brackets have enormous design strength. They are now available in heights up to 350mm and eliminate any additional components to combat sway.  Just a simple twist & lock into the bar before fastening down allows loading out of sheet packs directly onto the TITAN spacer system.

This project lent itself to deploying TITAN.  Thistle were able to ….

1. Eradicate the use of small top-hats

2. Fix 300mm brackets directly on the plywood liner sheet, through to the timber rafters

3. Eliminate the need for any additional anti sway brackets

4. Space the bracket centres at 1200mm in localised high pressure areas

5. Assemble and fix the spacer system quicker than a multi component solution

6. Comply easily to Part L building regs, obtaining an impressive U - Value of below 0.16W/m2K !

7. Stay within their estimated price for the spacer element !

"This product was so simple to assemble and easy to install" Andrew Hardy said, "I can see TITAN as a real alternative to building up spacers with top-hats and it can meet both current and future U - Values in the building regs."

The product range is growing fast and other projects needing extreme thermal considerations are now on site with 350mm tall brackets, and it's solidity is remarkable.  Used in conjunction with selected liner and top sheet, TITAN can facilitate twin skin constructions down to 0.1W/m2K  U - Values !

Which ever way the revised insulation thicknesses point us - TITAN can provide a unique and stable solution.