Knauf Drywall says plasterboard is top of its class
Dry building systems based on gypsum plasterboard have a big future in 21st century schools, says Charles Johnston, Regional Specification Director, Knauf Drywall.
Whichever direction the new government takes, it cannot avoid the need to continue redeveloping the educational estate, to bring all schools up to standards appropriate for the 21st century. Whether newbuild solutions or refurbishments are selected, school buildings need to meet current specifications for acoustic and thermal performance, fire resistance and sustainability – and all this within tight budgets. Gypsum-based dry building systems deliver interior solutions that score well on all these criteria, and enable education authorities and their contractors to build truly top-class learning environments.
Building Schools for the Future (BSF) has already seen many outdated school buildings replaced by architecturally exciting structures reflecting trends in education and design – as well as the possibilities of modern building materials. Gone are the seemingly endless straight corridors and box-like classrooms, and in their place are curves, atriums, mezzanine walkways and a variety of teaching areas sized and shaped to meet particular needs. Most interior walls – including curves – can be built from systems consisting mainly of plasterboard on steel studs. Other gypsum products go into systems for ceilings and floors to meet the special challenges found in schools.
In schools where refurbishment is chosen, dry building systems can quickly bring performance up to specification – and meet changed space requirements with new walls that can be built in a fraction of the time and cost of building an equivalent area of masonry.
Knauf Drywall, as a leading manufacturer of plasterboard and dry building solutions for indoor and outdoor applications, has made specifying for schools as simple as a-b-c with a range of optimised partition systems that meet virtually every requirement under Building Bulletin 93 (BB93) and other regulations applicable to school buildings.
The Knauf Performer range of optimised partitions for use in all sectors includes eight ‘school’ partitions providing the toughness to withstand frequent impacts, airborne sound resistance options from 40dB(Rw) to 65dB(Rw) and fire resistance from 30-120 minutes.
These ratings cover the required levels of separation between most areas in schools, with acoustic separation especially important for teaching areas, to avoid distraction as a result of extraneous noise. The need for higher specification acoustic separation between ‘noisy’ and ‘quiet’ rooms can usually be avoided by designing them at opposite ends of the building, or at least with ‘buffer’ rooms between. The optimised solutions are all proven in the field and are good for schools as they simplify design and construction. They require a minimal range of components – all eight, for example, can be built with just three types of high performance plasterboard, two types of steel studs and two types of acoustic insulation.
Another key reason for choosing gypsum plasterboard: it’s a highly sustainable building material. Some natural gypsum may be used in the core of the board, but generally the main raw material is FGD gypsum – a recycled by-product of flue gas desulphurisation – which has the same physical properties as natural gypsum, but is usually more readily available. Many types of plasterboard also contain a proportion of gypsum recycled from production waste, or building site waste.
Plasterboard’s green credentials get a further boost on the production line, where greater energy efficiencies, reduced water content and less waste are among the tools that we and other manufacturers are using to turn environmental awareness into meaningful action. We also make use of low-pollution transport for deliveries – and encourage architects and other specifiers to minimise plasterboard waste by designing to avoid cutting boards wherever possible.
The relative thermal transparency of gypsum board has an ‘eco-positive’ spinoff in our recently introduced Knauf Brio Dry Floor Screed. This fast, easy-to-lay and extremely durable gypsum fibreboard is designed for use over underfloor heating systems, providing a tough floor surface which readily allows heat to pass from the UFH pipes to the room above. This makes the conventional heating system even more efficient and needs lower temperatures – with reduced CO2 emissions – to produce comfortable conditions in the room above. It also makes highly efficient heat pump technology more attractive, because there is no need to ‘waste’ energy to heat up the mass of a conventional concrete-type screed before heat reaches the room.
Building efficiency can also be enhanced by use of the latest in plastering technology to produce durable, high quality finishes on plasterboard, masonry and other surfaces in new or refurbished schools. Machine applied or ‘spray’ plasters – increasingly used in the UK on projects involving large areas – can be significantly faster than traditional hand applied plasters, and require considerably less effort to achieve an ‘old fashioned’ quality finish.
Dry building systems and plaster products have much to offer the education sector and, as a manufacturer, we are always happy to assist specifiers and contractors through any challenging aspect of a project.