A Surrey-based business specialising in the design and installation of modular garden rooms and home offices has based its manufacturing process around the performance benefits of West Fraser’s fully-certified SterlingOSB Zero T&G panels, helping it to offer clients high insulation standards, durability and value for money.
Established in 2015, Smart Spaces Surrey has up to four crews out on site installing the prefabricated buildings which are produced at its premises in Camberley. The company’s customer base stretches from the South Coast across Hampshire and Surrey, Berkshire and Greater London.
In order to speed-up the build process and deliver high insulation values, Smart Spaces Surrey has its own SIPs or Structurally Insulated Panel press where two sheets of 12mm SterlingOSB Zero T&G are injected with breathable PU foam to create a 97mm thick sandwich. Plastic spacers are used to leave a 50mm rebate right around each panel, which is filled by an interlocking strip of the foam as the pods are assembled on site.
In most instances, the floor structure features more of the SIPs fixed across a timber frame, supported by screw piles, and then the roof uses 18mm SterlingOSB Zero in a more traditional build-up to ensure good airflow and avoid condensation.
The company’s founder, Shade, says: “We specialise in bespoke rooms which are prefabricated in our workshop. We use a construction of SIP, which is a high-end insulation and structural timber by pre-building it in our workshop. This enables us to cut down the build time by more than half. We do all the cutting in the workshop so when it arrives on site, within seven days we can have it painted and finished. We installed close to 200 pods last year and use SterlingOSB Zero for the floors, walls and roofs to all of them. We originally chose it because of its net carbon negative credentials and find it very good to work with as well. The largest one we’ve created was L-shaped and had a floor area of 60 square metres.”
Available in thicknesses of 18 and 22mm, the 2400mm length boards come in widths of 625 and 1200mm. They are strong enough to meet most load-bearing applications, are BBA approved and recognized by NHBC Technical and Zurich Municipal standards for housing applications. SterlingOSB Zero T&G also bears the coveted UKTFA Q-mark, a quality certification which provides a benchmark for manufacturers, and offers confidence to designers and end-users across the UK.