Homes Refurbishment, Dudley, West Midlands

The search for a smarter way for replacing floors in council-owned homes led a Midlands local authority to a clean and efficient solution from Leca UK.

Faced with the task of regularly having to replace old solid or wooden floors to bring its housing stock up to Decent Homes standards, Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council conducted successful trials with Leca® Underfloor Insulation.

Providing a void filler and insulation in ‘one hit’, Leca® Underfloor Insulation is particularly popular with local authorities and housing associations. Each bag contains 15 kg of a special insulating lightweight aggregate manufactured by expanding clay at high temperatures.

FACTS

Leca Product: Leca® Insulation Fill

Interesting Fact: Faced with the task of regularly having to replace old solid or wooden floors to bring its housing stock up to Decent Homes standards, Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council conducted successful trials with Leca® Underfloor Insulation.

Delivery Method: 50L Bags

Feedback from Contractors

The 50 litres Leca® Insulation Fill bags are simply laid in the void and the gaps infilled with loose Leca® Insulation Fill, prior to the installation of the new floor slab.

In Dudley, which has a stock of approximately 23,500 homes to maintain, replacement of sunken solid floors or rotting wooden floors is often carried out as properties are vacated.

Contractors working on behalf of the council’s Building Services team formerly replaced floors by excavating and filling the voids with heavy MoT class aggregates, compacting in 150 mm layers, then cutting and taping insulation, prior to installing a new floor.

Now, insulation and fill is provided quickly in a single process by laying the Leca® Insulation Fill bags, with no need for compaction, prior to installation of a damp proof membrane and a new concrete slab topped by a 50 mm finishing screed. Explains a council spokesman: “As an authority we are constantly looking for more efficient methods and, in the first instance, we looked at Leca® Insulation Fill in bags because of health and safety regulations on repetitive lifting.

“We realised that this method would allow us to easily comply with the 20kg limit and also represented a cleaner and much quicker way to replace floors, saving substantial time and allowing earlier re-letting of properties.”

Installing Leca® Insulation Fill in 60 minutes

Leca® Insulation Fill is a lightweight expanded clay insulation that cuts foundation time by hours. It is available in 50 litre bags, making insulated foundations (which comply with the new Part L of the Building Regulations) a simple, one man process.