Specialist contractor Kenton Jones was commissioned by the Isle of Anglesey County Council to construct the new homes using a high-performance timber frame system. Managing Director, Kenton Jones explains how Wraptite was key to achieving a quality airtightness solution which was suited to modular build.
“After 10 years of building an open panel high-performance timber frame system, we moved to a factory insulated closed panel system which had the airtightness and VCL applied in the factory and simply taped on-site. This worked well when the airtightness layer was fully accessible before services were installed on site.
“In 2019 we built a new module factory and delivered our first set of modules early 2020, it was then we realised internal airtightness was going to be a difficult detail. When building modules that are fully factory finished internally but need to be craned together on-site to form the same dwelling both in a vertical and horizontal joint, we identified that there would be areas of the building which would remain inaccessible after installation on site.
“The first stage of the project was supplied with internal airtightness applied off-site that had very technical, vulnerable details to continue the airtightness around the dwelling within the small access areas left for finishing on-site after installation. This method proved very time consuming in the factory swapping from our usual airtightness board to flexible airtightness membranes between the modules. The cost of this was not sustainable so we needed to look for an alternative.
“We chose Wraptite to achieve the low value airtightness we required for the module system. The benefits of having the airtightness layer externally were a huge saving in time in the factory and impressive simplifying of details to achieve the same quality results. Wraptite was installed off-site in a factory environment for speed and ease and simply taped together on-site between modules to achieve the airtightness.”
“Overall we saved time and money with Wraptite, we now have a set of high performance technical details for the airtightness in our module system which help maintain a robust quality control system.”
