Insulation Board

What Is Insulation Board?

An insulation board is an insulated panel (a board with insulation). Continuous insulation, also known as rigid panel insulation, can be manufactured from foam plastics like polystyrene, polyisocyanurate (PIR), or fibrous materials such as rock wool or fiberglass.

Insulation sheets are effortless to fix and offer extra insulation in your home.

Here at Insulation Wholesale, we offer thermal board products of varying sizes, thicknesses, and materials. So, you can get the right insulation board for whatever project you have.

Benefits of Using Insulation Boards

Insulation sheets offer a reliable and long-term solution for energy saving. Ultimately, this translates to reduced heating and cooling costs. The insulation can be used in various applications such as walls, roofs, and floors. It meets the needed U-values with minimum thickness. Other advantages of foam board insulation include:

• The first benefit has to be energy savings that reduce your monthly utility bills.
• The insulation boards achieve the needed U-value with the minimum thickness. This saves the internal space in your rooms.
• The installation process of thermal board is easy and takes little time.
• The insulation sheets are made in convenient sizes for installation between cavity walls.
• They provide a cheaper alternative for home insulation.
• The boards are robust and don’t break easily. This makes it hassle-free to handle and install.
• The boards offer long performance after correct installation.
• The insulation sheets are lightweight and, therefore, easy to load off a truck.
• The materials conform to European standards on fire resistance.

From Kingspan to Recticel, all the manufacturers we work with provide a wide range of insulation boards. However, with this wide variety, it can be a daunting task for most people to pick the best thermal board for their insulation projects.

Therefore, you need to understand:

• Types of insulation boards;
• Available facing options;
• Where to install insulation boards.

What Are The Different Types Of Insulation Boards Available?

There are a plethora of affordable insulation boards for sale. Here are the most common options that we offer:

• PIR insulation boards – PIR is one of the commonly used insulation materials in most applications. Typically, it is an improvement of previously used PUR (polyurethane) sheets produced as a foam and utilised as a rigid thermal insulation. Most of our PIR insulation boards consist of rigid PIR insulation core fixed between two foil facings to create a durable, lightweight and tough insulation board.
• Rigid phenolic insulation – This is a rigid foam insulation panel with two flexible layers sandwiching it. It offers high efficiency and comes with lower U values compared to PIR boards for the same thickness level. It contains high closed cell content and simple cell structure. However, this board is more costly compared to the PIR board.
• Expanded Polystyrene foam insulation (EPS) – EPS is utilized for special applications such as basement walls. It is an excellent and cost-effective insulator.

What Are The Facing Option For Insulation Board?

Apart from choosing the insulation board to use in your home, you should also consider the best facing option. Some kinds of facing on insulations act as a vapor barrier, radiant barrier, or air barrier, while others offer flame resistance. We offer two main facing options: Insulated plasterboard and foil-facing.

• Insulated plasterboard – if you want to upgrade your internal solid wall insulation, this is the best option to opt for. It is directly fixed to the panel and, therefore, can be installed easily and quickly.
• Foil-faced – the insulation board is faced with a foil. It works by reflecting heat into the house and greatly enhances the U-value.

Where Can You Install Insulation Boards?

Here are the areas where you can install insulation sheets in refurbishment or new construction.

Walls

For interior walls, plasterboard is used. For exterior walls, we recommend insulation sheets with external-facing render.

Insulation boards offer high U values while still leaving a lot of interior space in your building. You can minimize construction costs by using timber studs and smaller fasteners. The boards are likely to serve you excellently for many years as they don’t sag over time like glass type insulation.

Also, you would have solved the problem of gaps appearing on your walls. In case of weaknesses on the boards, they can be sealed easily to enhance their thermal performance and airtightness.

Outer Side of the Building

You can opt for two types of insulation boards for exterior insulation; phenolic and expanded polystyrene insulation board.

Pitched Roofs

It can be installed over, between, or under the rafters, depending on the type of application.

• Rafter level rigid board is fitted under the roof;
• The joist level rigid board is fitted over the ceiling.

Generally, the installation relies on the roof’s layout (cold or warm), and therefore you need to evaluate it carefully.

For instance, if the boards carry a heavy load at the joist level (like walking on it), you should add a chipboard layer on the panels. This helps to spread the weight uniformly along the joists and boards.

Flat Roofs

Most flat roofs are insulated using insulation boards since the panels provide excellent compression strength and can withstand foot traffic.

The compression strength level is an essential point to consider, especially if your flat roof is a single-ply construction. The other materials don’t offer excellent compression strength, and if you use them, you could be risking a water pool, which ultimately leads to leaks on the roof.

Floors

Though often underestimated, floor insulation can significantly reduce your energy utility bills. Most of the heat lost through uninsulated floor escapes through the edges. The best way to prevent this heat loss is by installing insulation between the joists if you have a suspended timber floor. The insulation should be fixed under the floorboards and between the timber joists.

However, this is easier said than done. Floor insulation is not an economical undertaking and consumes a lot of time. So, unless you are carrying out additional renovations on your floor, this is not the best method to choose for insulating your home.

Cavity Walls

Most conventional buildings have two walls; inner wall and outer wall. A gap between the walls separates the two walls.

To create a heat barrier, insulation is installed between the two walls in the cavity. For a new built, you can consider these two options;

• Full fill cavity wall insulation – thanks to technology, insulation boards are created to allow full cavity insulation using rigid boards. This eliminates moisture passage.
• Partial fill cavity wall insulation – mostly used to create a barrier against rain passage. The insulation is applied on the inner side to give an open cavity, and cavity closers are used to close any opening.

What to Consider When Selecting Insulation Boards.

• The thickness of the insulation board – you can choose from available thicknesses which range from 20mm to 150mm.
• The U-value of the insulation sheet – low U-value implies better heat retention in your home.
• The cost – the average cost per M²  is £15-£20, including installation cost. However, this cost may vary depending on the material, brand, and finish.

Conclusion

Ideal for use in a plethora of applications, insulation boards guarantee value for money. Enjoy great savings today when you shop for your insulation sheets at Insulation Wholesale.

For any questions or queries regarding insulation boards, or product recommendations, feel free to call our team of experts on 02033 187 316 and they will be more than happy to help.