October 18th, 2009 - SterlingOSB for Devon's flagship sustainable school
Sterling OSB from Norbord has been chosen to provide the wall sheathing and internal partitions for Devon’s first carbon neutral school building. Bideford College is Devon’s “One School Pathfinder” project, a £54 million scheme being built as an exemplar to the best and latest design in school buildings.
 

Sterling OSB from Norbord has been chosen to provide the wall sheathing and internal partitions for Devon’s first carbon neutral school building.

Bideford College is Devon’s “One School Pathfinder” project, a £54 million scheme being built as an exemplar to the best and latest design in school buildings.

Designed by property consultancy, NPS Group, the new school comprises a complex of buildings which use a range of environmental and ecological technologies to reduce CO² emissions and get as close as possible to carbon neutral in operation.

The client, Devon County Council, specified that all materials used in the construction of the new college must be A-rated in the BRE Green Guide to Specification. As a result, main contractor, Morgan Ashurst, is using Norbord’s Sterling OSB, incorporating it on both sides of all external walls as well as all internal partitions.

Manufactured in Scotland from home-grown softwood timber, Sterling OSB is the sustainable alternative to conventional plywood. It is CE-certified, meets all Building Regulations and has unrivalled environmental credentials.

Sterling OSB was the obvious choice, according to NPS Group. Building structures (including floors, walls and roofs) incorporating Sterling OSB consistently score an A+ rating in the BRE Green Guide to Procurement. The same designs, substituting plywood for the OSB element, never score more than an A and are invariably more expensive.

“We specified OSB because it is a sustainable and cost-effective material and it has the robustness we needed” explains Nigel Bushell, member of the NPS design team.

“Fixed between the timber studding and the plasterboard dry-lining, OSB provides strength to the internal partitions and allows flexibility for fixing pipework, radiators, shelving and other components to the wall” adds Mr Bushell.

At Bideford College, Morgan Ashurst is now well advanced, with parts of the new college now glazed and clad with its larch and brick facade. The new college will be open for teaching in September 2010.