January 2005

An outstanding building envelope air leakage result of 3.12m³/h/m² has been achieved on a new building in Carlisle, in a successful partnership between Ward Insulated Panels and Border Steelwork Structures.

The new BMW facility, located on Kingstown Industrial Estate, Carlisle features 1,400m² of Ward IP1000 composite roof panel in goosewing grey. In addition, 1,000m² of Ward DW1000D white insulated wall panels were used to complete the building, which embodies a bodyshop, showroom display area and offices.

Border Steelwork Structures of Carlisle were responsible for the structural steelwork and roof & wall cladding. Design features include curtain wall glazing to one end to create a showroom display area and roof overhangs to both sides of the building.

John Pallister, Director at Cumbrian Industrials Ltd, the main contractors on the BMW project comments: “The air leakage result of 3.12m³/h/m² was achieved with both office windows being opened at the request of the testing engineer, as when initially these were closed, the building shell was proving to be ‘effectively airtight’. This result compared to the regulation air leakage value of 10m³/h/m² is an outstanding achievement, and in the words of the tester, ‘one of the most efficient structures’ he has encountered.”

Ward IP1000 insulated roof panels and Ward DW1000 wall panels are approved to LPC standards. The roof panel is through fixed and can be used for all building applications where the roof slope is 4° or more. Ward DW wall panels are secret fixed, can be laid horizontally or vertically and are suitable for all industrial and commercial wall applications.