THE BUILDING LIMES FORUM NEWSLETTER, Volume 8 Issue No 3 August 2006

Following a suggestion from the Scottish Lime Centre, Bristol University based SUMACON, agreed with Professor Phil Banfill, head of Construction Materials at Heriot Watt University, to hold a 2 day workshop on sustainable building materials over the 26th and 27th of June.

The original plan was to repeat the programme of events held at Bristol University’s Burwells Hall in October 2005 and reported previously in the Newsletter. However a number of new speakers and subjects became available providing an interesting new programme. Approximately 40 attended and the first day began with a rather frightening report on a Scottish study into masonry falling from buildings presented by Dr Linda Sheridan. At the end of the first year no less than 269 incidents had been reported. These covered a variety of materials but it seemed the most serious were lumps of falling masonry, frequently as a result of poor quality repair work. Dr Gill Menzies of Heriot Watt reported on her work on Life Cycle Analysis and later Dr Pav Bingle talked about his work on Environmental Profiles. Both these scientists made the point that, even though their work was very complex it was being made far more difficult by the reluctance of industry to provide the necessary and correct data.

Pav Bingle gave a second presentation on Fire Resistance of Clay Bricks and as part of it he outlined new draft EU fire regulations which if they come into force seem likely to provide yet more weighty documents to cause sleepless nights and head scratching! Douglas Johnston, formerly of Mason’s Mortars and now working for The Scottish Lime Centre, talked about the very low standards of performance in the construction industry.

Heriot Watt University provided a superb dinner for delegates and the following day after a second morning of presentations the conference moved to the Scottish Lime Centre where the Director, Ros Artis - Young gave a talk about the Centre. Before departing, in beautiful Scottish summer sunshine Ros, very kindly, gave delegates a conducted tour of the famous Charlestown Kilns. Most of the presentations can be downloaded by visiting the SUMACON website www.sumacon.org

THE BUILDING LIMES FORUM NEWSLETTER, Volume 7 Issue No 4 November 2005

SUMACON

Government funds via a number of agencies find their way into many research and development projects. One of the difficulties is that often there can be a lack of communication between academic institutions themselves as well as industry. To help improve contacts and the flow of information the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has funded a communication network called Sustainable Masonry Construction (SUMACON).

This network is being run by the Interface Analysis Centre at the University of Bristol which in recent years has achieved an enviable reputation for fundamental research into building limes. The secretary is Dr Richard Ball, Tel no: 01173311175 e-mail Richard.Ball@bristol.ac.uk.

Although several routine meetings have been held, the SUMACON ran a two day workshop at the Burwalls Centre on the 17/18 October 2005. A very wide range of speakers covering an equally wide spectrum of subjects addressed the conference which was attended by 45 delegates. It began with presentations from Senior Civil Servants of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister who outlined the likely developments in planning and building policy. Some of the presentations were indeed high science for example Professor Agnes Smith of Limoges who talked about Interface Chemistry in Mixtures of Cement Based Materials and Natural Fibres.

A great deal of emphasis was placed by several speakers on developing technologies to do with earth blocks, lime/hemp materials and unfired clay bricks - I am sure we are going to hear much more about these materials very soon!

There was a very thought provoking but “scary” talk by Professor Sue Roaf of Oxford Brookes regarding the realities of global warming. However for your editor the highlight was Dr Margaret Carter’s presentation on the “Water Retaining Characteristics of Mortar in Soft State” or in simple terms - how much water gets sucked out of mortar by the masonry units. While empirically we all know it is a very important business, to the best of my limited knowledge, and for the first time, Margaret has been able to measure and quantify it. Eventually, it seems likely that that she will be able to produce detailed charts which can be used with various types of masonry.

Mike Farey

UNIVERSITY NEWS (BRISTOL) - July 2005 Issue 39

MATERIALS WORLD - Volume 13 Number 7 July 2005