Boise BCI joists in Ireland eco-building

Offering optimum energy performance, BCI Joists have been supplied by A-Frame - authorised distributor of Boise Cascade Engineered Wood Products, for a wall and roof construction.

The owner of a design and build company in the Republic of Ireland has chosen to use BCI joists from Boise Cascade as the structural core.

Stephen Young and his wife Sharon have built themselves a very modern, but highly sustainable, four-bedroom home on a sloping greenfield site in County Louth.

While externally it contrasts cedar cladding with a through-coloured render system beneath a shallow slate roof, Boise's BCI joists are employed throughout the entire building envelope.

Stephen Young explains: "The idea behind this project was to achieve Passivhaus performance but with a slimmer than normal depth of construction; and the Boise engineered timber joists, in combination with recycled cellulose insulation, allowed us to do this quite easily.

"The property is some 200 square metres in floor area, stepped over three levels due to the slope of the site, and relies on just a heat recovery ventilation system, plus a wood burner in the living room for its space heating.

While we are waiting for the project to be assessed to the Passivhaus standard, we know we have achieved U-values down as low as 0.12 W/m2K and are already planning to use the same construction for a three-classroom school development we are involved with in Dublin".

Internally, the walls are lined with Fermacell boards over a batten cavity and a Siga breather membrane.

Then, externally, Siga wind tightness tapes were used to seal the breather membrane to achieve an excellent air tightness figure of just 1.85 m/hr/m.

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