RAINSCREEN DUO SLAB® is a Euroclass A1 non-combustible insulation, and is therefore unaffected by the UK Government’s decision to ban the use of combustible materials in the external walls of new buildings over 18 metres, covering flats, hospitals, residential care premises, dormitories in boarding schools and student accommodation.
For other building types over 18 metres, MHCLG has issued advice to all Building Control bodies that the only means of demonstrating compliance with Approved Document B is to either use components of limited combustibility, or failing that, the exact system as designed must be tested to BS 8414 and assessed to BR135.
So using non-combustible materials to design safe buildings does not compromise freedom of design; in fact the opposite is true – rather than having to stick rigidly to one of the few BS 8414-tested combustible designs that comply with BR 135, non-combustible materials are free to be combined in infinite variations.
Additionally, ROCKWOOL has continued to develop its wealth of 3D-modelled rainscreen thermal data, which now includes systems with steel rainscreen brackets – these brackets offer significantly improved thermal performance, allowing lower U-values to be achieved with dramatically reduced wall thicknesses.