Government Pressure On Air Tightness Testing

Kingspan Insulated Panels has welcomed a tougher approach by the Government on Part L2 air pressure testing for buildings.

Kingspan Insulated Panels has welcomed a tougher approach by the Government on Part L2 air pressure testing for buildings over 1000 m2 - which has up to now been ignored by the industry - part of a drive to ensure, that non-domestic buildings actually meet the latest Part L compliance standards.

The intention of the Government to re-double its efforts in the area of air pressure testing has been brought into sharp focus by the recent clarification sent to Building Control Authorities from the ODPM (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister) noting that, "on the matter of airtightness, we feel that immediate action is needed to promote effective enforcement." Said Alan Murtagh, Divisional Marketing Manager at Kingspan Insulated Panels: "The Government's latest move is certainly a step in the right direction, the reality is that air pressurisation testing is not going to go away.

Building Control Officers have been instructed in future to refuse project completion certification for buildings that do not have an Airtightness Pass Report and additionally, should consider arranging their own air tightness testing if the developer is unable or unwilling to provide a satisfactory test report.

"Records indicate that over 50% of new non-domestic buildings tested fail to meet the Part L2 airtightness standard of 10m3/hr/m2 at 50 Pa.

These failures result in costly remedial work prior to re-test that also causes consequential delays in project handover to the client.

Such failures and delays could be dramatically reduced if the correct design, specification and construction quality is implemented for roof and wall systems used for the building envelope." In practice, the air leakage performance of roof and wall systems needs to be better than that indicated in Part L2 as the Regulations refer to the whole building air leakage level, including doors, windows, penetrations etc.

Typically the air leakage performance of Kingspan's insulated roof and wall systems is less than 5m3/hr/m2@50pa when installed to specification.

Warm construction methods such as those provided by Kingspan also offer effective energy efficiency and usage reductions of up to 60% due to their reliable thermal and low air leakage performance, compared to man-made mineral fibre built-up systems.

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