The MEDITE SMARTPLY OSB factory in Ireland has been a hive of investment in recent years, with major technological overhauls helping to produce a bigger range of high quality products.
The Waterford factory was originally built in 1996 as a joint venture between Louisiana Pacific (LP) and Irish state forestry company Coillte. Coillte took sole control in 2002 and expanded into MDF by acquiring the MEDITE MDF factory from Weyerhaeuser at Clonmel in 2006.
The Waterford facility was not the first OSB plant to be established in the UK and Ireland – that right belongs to the plant in Inverness currently operated by West Fraser.
Since 2016 the company has invested significant sums upgrading production, with an initial spend of €59m seeing new forming and finishing lines with a Siempelkamp continuous press. This helped in making the OSB panels smoother and flatter.
A further €44m investment was invested to upgrade drying and screening, plus build a new biomass energy plant.
The facility, which has a design capacity of 500,000m3, will be approaching its 30th anniversary in 2026. The company’s innovative strategy and array of valueadded products are seeing a growing list of applications.
VALUE-ADDED APPLICATIONS
A quick recap shows how SMARTPLY’s list of value-added products has grown.
For high strength and performance, SMARTPLY ULTIMA is an OSB4 panel designed for the most demanding structural applications in offsite manufacturing and construction.
SMARTPLY PATTRESS PLUS is a high strength OSB3 panel with a continuous recess – a ready prepared modular panel that speeds up installation of pattressing.
The Max DB product focuses on sound reduction qualities, helping to achieve 40dB building regulation requirement.
SMARTPLY STRONGDECK is a 30mm thick tongue and groove OSB4 panel for mezzanine flooring and heavy-duty racking.
SMARTPLY SITEPROTECT is a pre-primed OSB3 board that speeds up installation of site hoarding and comes ready to paint.
Two further products – SMARTPLY AIRTIGHT and SMARTPLY SURE STEP DB – have recently been used in a very large housing project in Leeds, England, built to Passivhaus principles.
UK housing developer Citu has a mission to create beautiful places, with high-performance buildings. It believes in redefining urban living through innovation and sustainability, wanting to see positive, impactful change across places and cities.
Although Citu is currently focused on its work in northern England, its long-term intention is to create a national, then global ripple effect with its approach to housing.
Its recent developments include the Climate Innovation District within the Leeds South Bank – a sustainable urban regeneration of a former industrial landscape.
Naturally, it wanted to use products that further the low carbon credentials of the development, which extends to 200 homes built to Passivhaus principles using timber construction methods.
Citu has an interesting approach to development in that it takes responsibility for every stage of the process, from land acquisition to design and fit-out, ensuring all materials used align with its sustainability goals.
SMARTPLY AIRTIGHT and SMARTPLY SURE STEP DB allowed the houses to achieve airtightness levels of 0.6 air changes per hour (ACH), which equates to the best scores in Citu’s history.
The prefabricated kits replaced the previously used vapour-control (VC) foil. The move offers airtightness, greater durability, easier installation and detailing.
The SMARTPLY AIRTIGHT OSB3 panel, with integrated vapour control and an air barrier, provides structural inner sheathing in timber frame wall and ceiling assemblies in low-energy buildings. The factory-applied specialist surface finish technology provides increased and constant vapour resistance on the warm side of the construction. removing the need for separate VC membranes.
One of the attractions for the developer was the ability of the panel kits to maintain their integrity after transportation to the construction site and during installation, reducing susceptibility to damage compared to flexible membranes.
The two products outperformed competitive solutions, offering superior airtightness properties, ease of use, and consistent vapour resistance across the panel’s surface.
Citu also used SMARTPLY SURE STEP DB, a tongue and groove low-slip OSB3 floor decking panel. Independently tested and certified airtight by the Passivhaus Institute in Germany, the panel is designed both to ensure airtightness of the floor deck but also offer safer working surfaces due to its low slip features.
“We are excited to offer a better way of achieving airtightness and vapour control for the construction industry, especially at a time when the sector is facing numerous challenges,” said Tim Price, commercial sales manager at MEDITE SMARTPLY.
“It’s not just about meeting the standards but also about addressing the clear need for more efficient solutions, making installation easier and getting houses completed faster.”
The success of the Leeds project underscores the importance of innovative building solutions in meeting the growing demand for sustainable, low-energy housing.
Citu’s achievements have been widely acknowledged and acclaimed by the industry, with more than 60 awards won to date, including Home Builder of the Year 2023 at the British Home Awards and The Guardian Sustainability Awards.
