Accoya® Wood is being showcased in a new home being built live on UK television by designer, presenter and author Kevin McCloud at the Grand Designs Live show at ExCel, London. The construction of the house will be featured on Channel 4 each day from 4th to 9th May.
Two doors and eight windows for the new house will be constructed from Accoya® Wood. Westgate Joinery, enlisted by Accoya® Wood's UK & Ireland distributor, BSW Timber Plc, to support the launch of Accoya® Wood to the UK market, has used around 1.5 m3 of Accoya® Wood to produce the windows and doors ahead of the event.
Grand Designs Live approached Westgate Joinery to manufacture the windows and doors following recommendations from the project's RIBA (The Royal Institute of British Architects) award-winning architect, Duncan Baker Brown, who was impressed with Accoya® Wood's outstanding durability and performance credentials.
The windows and doors will be factory glazed with Pilkington energiKareTM double glazed units and factory finished with a three coat paint system manufactured by Teknos UK.
The challenge is to build a sustainable house in a week using traditional materials and techniques alongside cutting-edge 21st Century technology. At the end of the event the house will be moved to a permanent display location at the UK's Building Research Establishment's (BRE) Innovation Park at Watford.
Accoya® Wood's starring role at Grand Designs Live underlines its credentials as the UK's gold standard in modified wood. It has attracted significant interest since the full working stock for joinery, civil and cladding applications was introduced to the UK in June 2007.
John Alexander, head of business development at BSW Timber, said the use of Accoya® Wood at the show will demonstrate to end users the new potential Accoya® Wood creates for timber.
"Grand Designs Live offers the opportunity to illustrate the practical application of innovative new products such as Accoya®. Accoya® Wood is the culmination of years of extensive engineering, product testing field testing and market review by leading scientists whose aim was to create a more robust and sustainable material."
He added: "The market development and joinery manufacturers' reaction has been very positive and this will raise the awareness of this revolutionary modified wood. With its impeccable environmental credentials, we firmly believe Accoya® is set to become the industry standard for exterior applications."
David Pattenden of Westgate Joinery, said: "We were one of the first joinery manufacturers in the UK to commit to using Accoya® Wood and regularly take deliveries of 15 - 20m3 to use for a wide range of products ranging from bespoke conservatories and Victorian greenhouses to windows, folding doors, cladding and even windows and a wheelhouse for a Dutch houseboat moored on the Thames. In view of its credentials, Accoya® was the obvious choice for this project."
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About Westgate Joinery
Westgate Joinery is a trading division of Specialist Joinery (South) Ltd (www.specialistjoinery-south.co.uk).The group comprises three businesses all operating from a modern well equipped factory and office complex in Ringmer, East Sussex. All three businesses, Westgate Joinery, Hailsham Joinery and The Green-Wood Company, produce high quality bespoke timber and joinery products for the construction industry and private clients.
About BSW Timber
BSW Timber is the largest sawmilling business in Great Britain. The company has six sawmills in the UK and one in Latvia, producing a total of over 600,000m3 of sawn timber per year. Titan Wood Ltd has signed an agreement with BSW Timber for the rights to become the exclusive supplier and producer of Accoya™ wood in UK and Ireland, following four years of extensive collaboration between the two companies.
Titan Wood Limited (www.titanwood.com) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Accsys Technologies PLC (www.accsysplc.com) group of companies. Accsys Technologies PLC is listed on the London Stock Exchange AIM market and on Euronext Amsterdam by NYSE Euronext, under the symbol 'AXS'.
About The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
The Royal Institute of British Architects is the UK body for architecture and the architectural profession. RIBA provides support for its 40,500 members worldwide in the form of training, technical services, publications and events, and sets standards for the education of architects, both in the UK and overseas.
About The Building Research Establishment (BRE)
The The BRE Trust Companies, BRE and BRE Global, are world leading research, consultancy, training, testing and certification organisations delivering sustainability and innovation across the built environment and beyond. BRE's mission is to 'Build a better world', helping clients create better buildings and communities and solve problems with confidence.
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