This 9th edition of the UK Building Insulation Products Market reviews the market for insulation products used in buildings for thermal, acoustic and fire protection applications. The main structural applications covered are; roofing, external walls, floors and building services/HVAC.
The main applications for structural thermal products are primarily lofts (cold roofs), pitched (warm) roofs, flat roofs, cavity walls, internal solid walls, ground floors and underfloor heating systems. Acoustic insulation products are mainly used on party walls, intermediate floors and partitioning. HVAC and pipework insulation is used on heating and air-conditioning ductwork, hot and cold water pipework and process pipework and storage tanks used in industrial applications.
In 2015 the market for building insulation products experienced a downturn, driven by a significant fall in government-subsidised retrofitted installation activity, which had been a large end use sector. The Green Deal was scrapped that year, and reduced funding to deliver the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) resulted in far lower levels of domestic installation activity compared to under previous government initiatives such as CERT and CESP, which ended in 2012.
This sharp decline of the retrofit market has been largely offset by the accelerated rates of new housebuilding and growth in non-residential construction, but overall market value fell slightly in 2015, before recovering in 2016. 2017 was a particularly strong year both for new housebuilding and commercial construction, boosting market value by an estimated 8%, and growth continued in 2018, albeit at a slower rate.