Keeping costs under control is a crucial part of securing contracts and gaining repeat business. Historically, one way contractors have been able to make savings on tapered or flat roof insulation specifications is by selecting hybrid insulation solutions. These typically combine a thin, highly efficient insulation board (such as Polyisocyanurate (PIR)) with a cheaper, lower performing material such as mineral fibre. In practice, this usually meant making a trade-off in the overall thickness of the insulation solution. Nowadays, however, Building Innovation is able to work with contractors to reverse engineer hybrid schemes to a thinner PIR tapered or flat roof insulation solution whilst actually saving money – a win-win.
In this blog, we’ll look at the advantages of switching to a full PIR insulation solution.
Reduced thickness
The depth of the insulation layer is a key focus when tackling any flat roof project. In order to reach a compliant U-value with a slim solution you need to pay attention to the thermal conductivity of the insulation material. Materials with a lower thermal conductivity are better at preventing heat loss through conduction, so you can hit your desired U-value with a thinner insulation layer.
Building Innovation offers a number of flat roof insulation options with a range of thermal conductivities as shown below:
| Insulation material |
Typical thermal conductivity (W/mK) |
| Rock mineral fibre |
0.039 |
| Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) |
0.034 – 0.038 |
| Extruded Polystyrene (XPS) |
0.033 |
| PIR |
0.022 – 0.026 |
As you can see, our PIR insulation boards are streets ahead of the alternatives in this area. This allows us to achieve some sizeable savings in the overall depth of the insulation solution and the height of upstands when compared with our hybrid options.