Paroc, one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of stone wool, has developed a new stone wool-insulated wooden element that makes it easier to adapt multi-storey buildings to the Passive House Standard. The Finnish market is the first to test the new technology.
“The market in Northern Europe is enormous. The industry has worked long and hard to find a simple and effective way of being able to renovate multi-storey buildings so that they adhere to the new requirements for energy consumption. We've developed wooden elements that are easy to mount and the result is in line with the Passive House Standard,” says Jukka Sevón, Product Development Manager and project initiator at Paroc Oy AB.
In Peltosaari in Finland, the company is currently busy with reconstructing the facade of a building with twelve-metre-high vertical wooden frame elements insulated with stone wool. The building was selected through a competition in an Innova project where the aim was to find and give grounds for innovative solutions that make it possible to renovate multi-storey buildings and, at the same time, adapt them into Passive Houses. Paroc in Finland is the initiator of the project, which is financed by ARA (The Housing Finance and Development Centre of Finland), among others.
The elements feature incombustible thermal insulation, ventilation ducts and ready-fitted windows as well as basic plaster on plasterboard. These prefabricated elements reduce the work on site, meaning the disturbance caused to residents is minor. The outermost shell of the building that, in this case, consists of concrete sandwich elements is pulled down and the old insulation is removed.
“Prefabricated elements considerably reduce the amount of work needed on site and this technology means that the residents avoid having to move out during the renovation period, which is one condition making it financially viable to carry out the renovation of this kind of building,” says Jukka Sevón.
Thanks to the thick wall design, the building’s sound insulation is also improved and the residents acquire wide, old-fashioned window recesses in the apartments.
For further information, please contact:
Jukka Sevón, Product Development Manager, Paroc Oy AB
Phone +358 468768033, jukka.sevon@paroc.com
Anders Olsson, Senior Adviser, Paroc Building Insulation
Phone +46 (0)500 46 90 00
Images for free publication: Anders Ekhammar
Phone +46 (0)31-701 33 37
