Our surrounding built environment has a tangible impact on our quality of life, and more so as the amount of time we spend indoors increases. A significant consideration is the air quality inside our buildings, which is determined in part by the building materials used.

This makes it essential that all building products specified be aligned with the occupants’ health and wellbeing. All major environmental building standards such as BREEAM, LEED and The WELL Standard now recognise this.

Advances in technology have allowed timber construction panel manufacturers, including MEDITE SMARTPLY, to crucially prioritise the health, safety and wellbeing of both contractors and building occupants.

MEDITE SMARTPLY’s range of innovative products not only meet but exceed emissions standards and are able to contribute to healthy environments both indoors and outdoors post lockdown.

Addressing challenges with innovative solutions

MEDITE CLEAR MDF was developed especially for the most sensitive interior applications such as hospitals and care homes, which have been crucial environments during the pandemic. However, there is no reason why it should not be specified by residential and commercial architects to consciously manage the level of formaldehyde emitted by building products in any project.

Manufactured with no added formaldehyde, MEDITE CLEAR has been shown to reflect less than 1.0mg of formaldehyde present per 100g: the equivalent to that of natural wood - but it still brings with it all the versality of MDF.

Other selected specialist MEDITE products that are manufactured with no added formaldehyde which are ideal for interior fit outs include: MEDITE FR CLEAR, for sensitive applications that also require a Euroclass B or C fire rating; MEDITE MR, for moisture resistance; and MEDITE TRICOYA EXTREME (MTX), for water resistance.

The entire MEDITE MDF product range exceeds CARB2 certification, one of the world’s most stringent tests for emission of formaldehyde.

All of the SMARTPLY OSB range is manufactured with absolutely no added formaldehyde as standard, providing low VOC peace of mind that a developer or architect is able to pass on to tenants, as well as enabling the building to achieve or maintain its all-important BREEAM rating or similar.

SMARTPLY PATTRESS PLUS can contribute in exactly this way, as a pre-rebated, pre-sized engineered OSB3 panel can enable contractors to install reliable, heavy weightbearing pattressing at speed.

As office employees seek to feel more secure in their environment on returning to the office, it’s possible that more enclosed, specialised office designs will return, and with them the need for partition walls strong enough to hang monitors or equipment from.

Despite its weightbearing strength, PATTRESS PLUS can be lifted by a single person, helping dryliners to work independently when necessary, for example when observing social distancing at work.

Other interior SMARTPLY products are SMARTPLY MAX FR, for applications that call for regulation fire rated materials used along fire escape routes or within floors and ceilings; and SMARTPLY ULTIMA for the ultimate in weightbearing OSB which is able to be used for both interiors and exteriors.

All of MEDITE SMARTPLY’s timber panels are responsibly sourced from its own FSC® certified forests in Ireland, guaranteeing a clear supply chain. Let’s do the right thing for post lockdown fit outs with MEDITE SMARTPLY!

Timber panels for a post-lockdown world

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