Marmox Thermoblocks underpin Abbey restoration project
- 15 hours ago
- 3 min read
The £4.8 million restoration and redevelopment of the Stable Future project of the 19th century disused agricultural buildings at the Delapré Abbey in Northamptonshire is making use of a novel foundation detail featuring Marmox Thermoblocks, as part of a highly energy efficient design for a new extension which will become part of Stable Future Wellbeing Hub the visitor and well-being centre.
The highly sensitive work at Delapré Abbey, located near Northampton town centre, is being led by the Manchester office of Buttress Architects – a conservation and sustainable housing specialist - acting on behalf of the Delapré Abbey Preservation Trust, and supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund together with the Architectural Heritage Fund.
The two-year scheme is seeking to create a wellbeing hub to promote the physical and mental health of local people and those visiting from further afield while community organisations and retail led business will occupy various spaces.
The new build wing to the old stable block is being built by Briggs & Forester Special Projects, with Marsh Construction (Luton) Limited taking responsibility for all the civils work, including drainage and sub-structure. The very substantial footings feature trench foundations supporting dense concrete blockwork walls, with two different widths of Thermoblocks running in parallel along most of the length.
The Contract Manager for Marsh Construction, Steve Gallagher, comments: “As a civil engineering specialist, we are undertaking the foundation and services work for the new extension located in the courtyard to the former stables. The element we have built so far is a substantial returning wall along one side, which then forms part of the new building on the other side.
The use of Marmox Thermoblocks was specified by the project architects in tandem with David Smith Associaites, civils consultant on the project. Laying the Thermoblocks proved to be a straightforward exercise for our bricklayers, employing the special adhesive and there has been no issue at all with cutting them or making the overlap joint with the adhesive. The work is currently all on programme and on budget.”
The Project Architect, Sebastian Chambers, reflected: “As a company, we do quite a large amount of low-energy and Passivhaus standard, residential work around Manchester, so our ‘Resi’ teams have regularly specified Thermoblocks on a variety of projects to date.
"Feedback from our colleagues on these projects has been that the Marmox blocks are at least the equivalent to other market products and are also more cost-competitive, which gave our Arts, Culture & Heritage team the confidence using them at Delapré Abbey.
"At the Stables, we’ve used several sizes of Thermoblock to remove thermal bridging in the new extensions – this includes at the supporting base of the timber frame construction, as continuous line to cap off a retaining wall as part of the landscaping solution and within new masonry walls. All of these new additions exceed the requirements of the Building Regulations thermally.”
Thermoblocks are available in widths of 100, 140 or 215mm and are formed from sections of XPS (extruded polystyrene) encapsulating two rows of high strength, epoxy concrete mini-columns. These are attached at either end to the top and bottom layers of glass-fibre reinforced polymer concrete, to ensure a good bond with the rest of the structure.
Importantly, the columns themselves offer a very low thermal conductivity so do not create a cold bridge, while being able to support a loading of 9N higher than the typical dense or aerated concrete block.
Set within the highly insulating XPS section, the units achieve a combined thermal conductivity of 0.047 W/mK and crucially being able to deliver a very low transmittance, derived by thermal modelling and actual measurement, offers a far more advantageous option than adopting the default figure available under SAP and other assessment methods.
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