Concrete panel walls

H+H UK has provided the shell of Barratt’s three-storey Green House, the first house to be built by a volume housebuilder to level six of the Code for Sustainable Homes. 

The shell, constructed by contractor Minett Group, incorporates storey-height aircrete panels 600mm wide and 200mm thick, together with 610mm x 270mm units fixed with Celfix thin-joint mortar.

Storey-height aircrete panels are widely used in Scandinavia but are not yet marketed in the UK. Aircrete’s aerated structure, which comprises thousands of tiny bubbles with thin-layer mortar joints that reduce thermal bridging, provides insulation. The solid aircrete walls gain an A rating under the BRE Green Guide and a U-value lower than 0.15W/m2K.

The panels were externally lined with insulation before receiving a render finish, while internally the walls are dry-lined, with services running in the void between the wall and the plasterboard. The aircrete shell also works in conjunction with the precast concrete floor slabs to provide high thermal mass which mitigates the peaks and troughs of temperature change within the home.

The Green House will be evaluated over two years to assess every aspect of the design, construction and materials. Barratt then plans to put the most successful aspects into practice.