A look back at 2024: strengthening our range of hidden protectors

Launching our new fire rated membrane range – Protect FrameSafe FR

Our main headline is the launch of our new A2 fire rated membrane range – Protect FrameSafe FR. This exciting new addition to our product offering was unveiled back in February after extensive development and independent third party fire testing.

The launch of our Protect FrameSafe FR Class A2-s1, d0 external breather membrane allows us to offer our customers a fully tested solution for low, medium and high rise buildings over 11 or 18m. Our new range was further strengthened in November when we introduced the Protect FrameSafe 5000 FR membrane, which is an unbranded version of Protect FrameSafe FR, making it ideal for open joint façade cladding applications.

All systems go for sustainability

Sustainability remains at the heart of everything we do here at Glidevale Protect and this year we’ve made strides at our manufacturing facilities in Pinxton, Nottinghamshire and Merthyr Tydfil in Wales. The highlight was achieving ISO 50001 accreditation – the internationally recognised standard for energy management for both our sites.

We were also pleased to be awarded gold level accreditation by the Supply Chain Sustainability School – a virtual learning platform focused on sustainability – which demonstrates our commitment to continuous improvement around reducing our environmental impact as well as continuous engagement by Glidevale Protect employees undertaking learning and development and who are keen to learn more about sustainability and ESG practices.

Our dedicated Group Sustainability Board continues to drive our initiatives and sustainability focused developments with the aim of improving energy efficiency, conserving resources and reducing the environmental impact of our manufacturing operations.

At the same time, our products are also helping to improve the energy efficiency of the buildings where they’re installed. Earlier this year, our Protect TF200 Thermo external wall breather membrane and Protect VC Foil Ultra air and vapour control layer were installed at housebuilder Vistry’s Innovation Centre – a concept house and research facility to test products and technologies which will support the housebuilding industry on the road to net zero. We’re proud to be playing our part in this and other important research programmes, including Energy House 2.0 and Barratt Developments Plc’s Zed House.

Supporting specifiers and installers

Our technical team is always on hand to help and this year we’ve been busy curating a library of accessible resources, including a series of informative installation videos, to support those specifying and installing our products. We’ve also created two visual flow chart technical guides which can be used to determine the correct roof space ventilation requirements depending on the type of pitched roofing underlay used to ensure compliance with BS 5250. And, to help specifiers navigate the often-conflicting information about ventilation requirements for pitched roofs featuring in-roof solar PV panels, we published a detailed FAQ document which answers some of the most commonly asked ventilation questions.

Alongside our new digital resources, we’ve also been working closely with the NHBC this year and our training manager, Andy Mathers, has delivered practical training and demo sessions focused on the correct installation of our cavity trays at the NHBC’s Training Hubs across the UK.

In May, we became a member of the National Federation of Roofing Contractors (NFRC), demonstrating our ongoing commitment to roofing product quality and innovation, and we have continued to support apprentices via product donations to colleges throughout the UK.

Transparency is everything

As a manufacturer, we have a clear role to play in ensuring a building is specified using safe and sustainable materials. It’s a responsibility we take very seriously, and this commitment to transparency has underpinned our marketing activity throughout the year.

We are strong supporters of the guidance set out in the Structural Timber Association’s STA Advice Note 18 for external wall breather membranes, which highlights the need for all manufacturers to clarify and verify technical data provided. We do this as standard by providing aged thermal resistance values on our external wall reflective membranes to accurately reflect real life performance figures in a worst-case scenario. Our own best practice ensures that all thermal resistance results on our Protect TF200 Thermo and Thermo Extreme wall membranes also consider any logo printing on the low-emissivity surface and are based on the external membranes being installed with the appropriate maximum horizontal fixing centres of 600mm as recommended in STA Advice Note 18. We pride ourselves on always doing our due diligence and providing accurate technical information.

We’ve also demonstrated our commitment to transparency through the rigorous testing we conducted on the Protect FrameSafe FR fire rated external wall membrane. Reaction to fire tests were carried out by an independent laboratory, both free-hanging and also mechanically fixed to two different substrates which were tested separately: a Class A1 rock fibre insulation substrate and a low density Class A2 fire board. Alongside Protect FrameSafe FR, we also independently fire tested the Protect FR ancillary tape that we recommend using to seal the laps of the membrane, to ensure reassurance in the specification of a fire rated system.

Out and about

2024 has been an exceptionally busy year for events. Highlights included MMC Ireland and Architecture & Building Expo in Dublin, as well as the Tall Buildings Conference in London. We’ve also supported our customers at their open days, as well as attending various events organised by the Structural Timber Association and the Modular & Portable Building Association, organisations where we are supporting members. In addition to this, we were proud sponsors of the Heritage Roofing category in the NFRC’s UK Roofing Awards which took place in May, and in November we sponsored the Best Use of Concrete or Clay Tiles for a Domestic Project Award at the Pitched Roofing Awards.

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