Glidevale Protect supports the Persimmon Homes Innovation Centre

17 Feb 2025

Leading building products manufacturer Glidevale Protect is proud to be supporting national housebuilder Persimmon Homes by providing a range of products for its new Innovation Centre Trial House – a model home research project built offsite which showcases the latest in housebuilding technology.

The Innovation Centre Trial House, a three-storey home built by Persimmon Homes to the latest building regulations, features a variety of current and new technologies including a prototype brick façade which has been factory-fitted to the timber frame.

Glidevale Protect provided a mix of products including its Protect TF200 Extreme external wall breather membrane, Protect VC Foil Ultra reflective insulating membrane on the internal walls, Protect VP300 vapour permeable roofing underlay on the pitched roof and the Protect UniRoll dry fix ridge and hip system to provide high level ventilation. The products supplied will each provide a role in improving thermal performance and airtightness as well as ensuring condensation control. The Innovation Centre Trial House offers the chance to monitor products like these to record their impact in a real-world setting.

Persimmon Homes will be using the facility, which is based at its Space4 timber frame factory in Birmingham, to trial and test new construction technologies with the aim of gaining insight into energy efficiency and the benefits of offsite construction methods using timber frame technology. It will also be used by Persimmon Homes to train staff, subcontractors, suppliers and manufacturers.

The centre was officially launched at an event hosted by Dave Griffin, Group Build Director at Persimmon Homes at the hub where Glidevale Protect joined several supporting contractors and suppliers involved in the project to look around the model home. This included BDC Roofing, a specialist Midlands based roofing contractor who undertook the roofing works and installed Glidevale Protect’s products.

‘Forefront of construction innovation’

David says: “We’re really proud to launch our model home to contractors and suppliers and are confident that this will enable Persimmon to be at the forefront of construction innovation.

“With the Government hoping to build 1.5 million homes over the next five years as well as Future Homes Standards being implemented in 2025, our mission to place efficiency and sustainability at the heart of our business is of ever-increasing importance.

“We look forward to seeing our trial home put to good use over the coming year, helping us to achieve our goal of developing sustainable, quality homes for local people.”

‘An important role’

John Mellor, Head of Marketing at Glidevale Protect, comments: “The Future Homes Standard is set to place emphasis on improving the energy efficiency and thermal performance of new homes.

“Hidden protectors like our external and internal wall reflective membranes can play an important role in building homes of the future as part of a fabric first approach, so it’s great to be able to get involved in projects like this with Persimmon Homes.

“We’re the only membrane producer to have supported innovative research projects with four major national housebuilders and we’re proud to continue to play our part in the future of housebuilding.”

In recent years, Glidevale Protect has provided products for research projects including Barratt Development’s Zed House, the Vistry Innovation Centre (pictured below) and Bellway’s Future Home at Energy House 2.0 at the University of Salford.