BP Canada, a leader in the building materials industry, has made a significant impact on the construction and renovation of countless homes and buildings throughout Canada. Matthieu Danis, Product Manager-Wood Fiber, shares insights on the R5XP Insul-Sheathing Panel that contributed to the LEED Platinum certification of Ontario’s Leslieville Laneway home.
BP was very excited to participate in the Leslieville Laneway house project. We got involved through John Godden, and Clearsphere who were the energy advisors for this project. We have been working with John for several years and support his no-nonsense approach to improve the build quality while reducing the overall footprint of the building. We had also done several projects in the past with the builder, Barbini design.
Since we manufacture insulated wood fiber panels that provide superior performance while helping to reduce the buildings embodies carbon footprint, the choice for our product in the Leslieville Laneway house was a good fit.
In this case, our R-5 XP panel was chosen. It consists of laminated wood fiber panel with an extruded polystyrene facer. The overall performance of the panel provides an R-5 Continuous insulation on the exterior of the structure. The wood fiber portion consists of a ½’’ thick panel that provides R-1.5 insulation value, high vapour permeance and considerable structural strength, enough so that there is no requirement for additional let-in bracing, corner bracing or any other supplemental structural reinforcement. This wood fiber panel is laminated to a new low GHG formulation extruded polystyrene panel from Dupont that is 0.7’’ thick, which provides the additional R-3.5 insulation value. Since the thickness of the XPS is only 0.7’’ the overall panel is considered vapour open with a perm rating of 2. Even though the R-5 XP provides a superior insulation value as a C.I. panel, we believe that offering a panel that allows any moisture trapped in the wall cavity to evacuate to the exterior further reducing chances of mold and mildew development in the wall cavity allowing for a much healthier living environment for the homeowners.
In all cases, the combination of the XPS panel to a wood fiber panel, that is made of recycled wood sources, further contributes to lowering the products embodied carbon footprint.
The panels are light, at half the weight of a comparable OSB assembly panel and offer weather resistive and air barrier properties. By properly taping the panel joints, flashing the openings and ensuring continuity with the interior vapour barrier, these panels can become an effective weather resistive and air barrier system for the building’s exterior without the use of an additional housewrap, saving on additional costs to the homeowner.
Matthieu Danis
Chef de produit-Fibre de Bois
Product Manager – Wood fiber
bpcan.com