PHPD discovers how Catnic’s Thermally Broken Lintels helped to deliver thermal performance across Malcolm Lippiatt Homes’ Longmead development in Somerset.
The Longmead development is located approximately eight miles from Bath city centre, close to the village of Norton St. Philip. The new houses being constructed, which include properties aimed specifically at over 55s, have been designed and constructed to achieve excellent levels of energy efficiency, with Bath based Malcolm Lippiatt Homes taking a fabric first approach.
Steve Nelson, Construction Director at Malcolm Lippiatt Homes explained: “Our core focus is on creating quality homes that offer the features that our customers value. This includes an energy performance that will have benefits in terms of lowered fuel bills. With each element of the design, we looked at how this could be achieved.”
The latest phase of the development has made use of Catnic’s TS90 Thermally Broken Lintels to span the 90mm wall cavity. The BRE certified Thermally Broken Lintel (TBL) range features a complete thermal break and has no brackets connecting the inner and outer leaf of the lintel, therefore there are no additional thermal bridges that need to be considered.
To comply with the standards set out in Appendix R of the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) the lintel detail must have a Psi value of no more than 0.05 W/mK. Catnic’s Thermally Broken Lintels meet and exceed this standard with psi values of between 0.02 and 0.05 W/mK depending on the wall construction.
Malcolm Lippiatt Homes’ choice of TBL followed use of the company’s standard lintels on several previous developments, as well as the first phase of the Longmead site. To facilitate a simple conversion, TBL has been designed with the same safe working loads as the Catnic CG, CH and CX cavity wall lintels.
Matthew Drummond, Area Sales Manager at Travis Perkins commented: “When Steve and the team at Malcolm Lippiatt Homes explained what they were looking for we were confident in recommending the Catnic TBL, especially as they had worked with Catnic for a number of years.”
Catnic TBL is installed in the same way as conventional lintels and no propping is required on site due to the stability and strength of its design. The flat top on Catnic’s Thermally Broken Lintel provides a simple, consistent junction with the cavity wall insulation. This reduces the risk of a ‘performance gap’ as it does not rely on the quality of installation.
The Longmead development also benefited from the Catnic Lintel Advance Scheduling System (CLASS). The service includes the creation of a detailed document that provides full lintel descriptions, price, delivery time and a guaranteed structural accuracy.
Steve Nelson concluded: “The change to Thermally Broken Lintels has been issue free with every item delivered on time and a straightforward installation on each property. We plan to continue to use Catnic TBL on all future phases of the development.”
