SMARTPLY OSB HELPS RESTORE STOWMARKET BARN AND GUILDHALL ON TV’s ‘GRAND DESIGNS’
Now in its 10th series, the inspirational Grand Designs self build show, presented by architecture expert Kevin McCloud, follows self builders in pursuit of architectural brilliance, and an October episode featured SmartPly OSB (oriented strand board) from Coillte Panel Products in the conversion and restoration of a barn and ancient guildhall in Stowmarket, Suffolk. Three years ago Simon Bennett and his wife Jill bought two timber framed barns in Simon's home county of Suffolk which were ripe for conversion. However the smaller 'barn' - assumed to be a dilapidated cowshed - turned out to be one of the smallest surviving medieval guildhalls in the country, and of national importance. Simon and Jill faced two very different challenges: how to convert a single storey sixteenth century barn into a two-storey modern home, and what to do with its neighbour, a unique architectural gem. Kevin McCloud encouraged Simon to conserve as much of the guildhall's history as possible, including the agricultural additions and to restore it to its medieval splendor. The Tudor public building dating from about 1500, was restored and incorporated within the larger barn conversion, which features a number of renewable energy solutions including an air source heat pump, solar thermal panels, whole house heat recovery and high standards of insulation. As part of the ancient building's rebuild and restoration, SmartPly OSB was used as wall sheathing for the timber frames. Providing innovative and FSC certified solutions to ancient, traditional and modern projects, SmartPly Europe is an environmentally-friendly timber-based construction products manufacturer located in Waterford, Ireland. SmartPly OSB is a load-bearing panel suitable for a wide range of applications including timber frame construction and structural use. With a reliable distribution of strength, stiffness and spanning capacity both along and across the board, it is ideal for applications as diverse as roofing, flooring, hoarding and wall sheathing. Geoff Rhodes, marketing and business development director for Coillte Panel Products said: "SmartPly OSB is FSC certified, eco-friendly, high quality and very consistent, as well as being cost effective - all of which are necessary for grand designs, large or small, and the restoration of the Stowmarket barn and guildhall proved particularly impressive. SmartPly OSB has featured regularly in the timber frame construction projects on Grand Designs, which, as Kevin McCloud recently said, has the greatest viewer appeal and always brings in the biggest audiences!"
2 November 2010