KORE was delighted to win the ‘Construction Product Innovation – Building Fabric’ Award for its industry-leading Insulated Foundation System at the recent Irish Construction Excellence Awards (ICE Awards) which were held in Dublin’s Convention Centre.
No stranger to awards ceremonies, KORE has been providing Ireland and the UK with high-quality expanded polystyrene solutions since 1997. From humble beginnings when it was set up by Tommy Brady, the Kilnaleck, Co. Cavan-based company has grown to employ 70 people and can count many of Ireland’s leading building contractors among its clients. KORE continues to go from strength to strength under the guidance of managing director Noel Brady (Tommy’s son) and his wife and commercial director, Caroline Ashe.
KORE’s Insulated Foundation System offers many benefits over building with traditional raft or strip foundations. The foundation system wraps an entire ground floor in a continuous layer of EPS insulation, virtually eliminating the critical wall-to-floor cold bridge while reducing the amount of concrete required by approximately 40%. The unique system provides U-values as low as 0.10W/m2K.
The on-site benefits of the system include speed of construction, allowing companies to build 25% or more units per year at a cost comparable or below that of a traditional foundation. The system provides confidence to builders, increases the safety and welfare of workers on-site, reduces the embodied carbon by eliminating block work from the substructure and by reducing the overall concrete required by approximately 40%. Furthermore, the system reduces waste on site by about two-thirds.
KORE’s Insulated Foundation is suitable for most ground conditions and build types, including masonry, timber frame, ICF, SIPs and steel frame.
Founded in 1993, the ICE Awards are the original and premier recognition of performance excellence for the contracting sector in Ireland, and provide an opportunity for the industry to showcase and reward best practice across the full range of construction disciplines and project categories.
“We are thrilled and honoured to receive this award. Not only does it reflect well on our Insulated Foundation System, but also on our team and manufacturing processes,” KORE technical manager Andrew Butler enthuses.
“It’s recognition for years of hard work and graft. It was the first NSAI Certificated Foundation System available in Ireland, surpassing Part L 2021. The Insulated Foundation originated in Scandinavia over 30 years ago and we’ve been manufacturing it for years. It has been growing and gaining recognition all the time.
“It takes time to change perceptions, especially when it comes to foundations, and for the first few years it was only used for one-off builds. But now developers are starting to see the benefits of it and are using it in many of their developments.
“Its growth is being driven by a lack of skilled block-layers, costs and the fact that it is so energy efficient. ‘Time is money’ as the old saying goes. Developers are also blitzing regulations in the process.”
Recently, KORE collaborated with Carroll O’Keeffe & Co Ltd on the fourth phase of a live timber frame residential project in Silverbrook, Tullamore, Co. Offaly, consisting of 90 three and four-bedroom homes. Carroll O’Keeffe decided to implement KORE’s Foundation System to combat the age-old issues they were having with risk mitigation in residential substructure construction.
The regular and organised system with defined start and end dates alleviated panic and work-related stress, and contributed to the overall happiness of the staff. The anticipated time savings were the overriding factor in switching from a traditional strip foundation to KORE’s NSAI-certified and award-winning system. Carroll O’Keeffe are now capable of constructing 25% more homes every year thanks to their use of the system.
The contractor’s programme required seven bases (14 units) to run as a batch of work. Once the key factors were agreed, the transition was seamless with a repeatable process in place of the entire project.
The family-run business’ other main products are KORE Fill Cavity Wall Insulation and KORE External Wall Insulation. KORE Fill Cavity Wall Insulation is Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) injected in bead form, along with a bonding agent, into a wall cavity to create an insulating mass. KORE External Wall Insulation is a high-performance EPS insulation board used in conjunction with an NSAI-certified composite external thermal insulation system.
“We’re a one-stop shop for retrofitting,” Andrew adds.
“We can help with the grant application process and manage the retrofit from start to finish.”
At KORE, they consider their customers as partners. Whether a one-off new build or a long-term partnership with many projects, they’ve learned that collaboration is the key to success. Offering world-class technical support services and technical back-up, they are always available to help, from planning permission through to completion.
Innovation is what they do. Through their market-leading products, they’re constantly searching for ways to exceed building regulations, lower energy usage and build a sustainable, energy efficient Ireland. KORE EPS delivers consistent results, whether you’re building to Passive House Certification or nZEB requirements.
With rapidly-changing building regulations, KORE’s team of industry experts can help you navigate the ever-changing landscape and ensure your project meets even the most stringent requirements. When you partner with KORE, you have access to a wide range of high-performance, high-quality insulation along with a team of experts with decades of combined experience.
ISO certification and standards are very important to KORE. They became the first company in Ireland to achieve certification for both ISO 9001:2015 (Quality Management) and ISO 14001:2015 (Environmental Management) in 2015. KORE was also the first EPS manufacturer in Ireland to be certified by the Irish Green Building Council (EPD Ireland) and Eco Platform Europe. In addition, the Co. Cavan-based company received an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for KORE products EPS70 White, EPS70 Silver, EPS100 White, EPS100 Silver, EPS150 White, EPS200 and EPS300 in March 2019.
KORE – Build Better, Together.
KORE Insulation
The Green,
Kilnaleck,
Co. Cavan.
Tel: 353 (0) 49 4336998
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.kore-system.com
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, October 2023, Vol 9 No 10
