NaturHeld – A new wood fibre insulation partner.

At the beginning of 2024 we started working with a new wood fibre insulation manufacturer in Germany, called NaturHeld (NatureHero in English), part of a group of companies that work in the timber industry. Early purchases confirmed the quality of the products and flexibility in the composition of the products we wanted to buy, which got us very excited about providing a new range of products to our own specification.

What’s new?

Rather than trying to fit our specifications around a limited set of offerings from other suppliers, we have been able to specify exactly the density, thermal conductivity, sizes and edge profiles of the boards. This has allowed us to specify the NaturHeld wood fibre boards in applications where we were previously limited in one way or another.

From our T&G range, the thinner 40 or 60mm boards are a high density form of dry-process wood fibre board which gives them much greater compressive strength and rigidity. Not only can they be used in roofs or clad facades but this makes them ideal for rendering over too, particularly at ground level where impact is likely.

The high density boards are also much more fire resistant and allow us to utilise some of the generic fire testing from Europe which, in conjunction with a gypsum board, offer 30 and 60 minute fire protection to timber frames.

To make the boards more suitable for manual handling, we’ve kept the T&G thicknesses from 80 to 140mm at a lower density, which also improves their thermal conductivity (0.041 W/mK) and allows us to target very low U-values in walls and roofs.

To make handling and transporting the boards as efficient as possible we’ve also restricted the size of the boards to 1500mm long, making efficient use of space on transport vehicles. Often the boards were 1800 or 2000mm long, which is fine for large sites that are ordering lots of material and have forklifts to unload and move it all, but it is cumbersome on smaller sites. Installation of large boards on anything other than roofs is also awkward and so this size makes it easier for installers to use in many different scenarios.

We will also be offering square edged wood fibre boards with exceptionally low thermal performance, down to 0.037 W/m2K, later this year. These are quite low density, for wood fibre insulation, but this will allow us to achieve very low U-values without quite such a thick build-up as the denser boards would create.

Another huge bonus for NaturHeld’s products is that their soon-to-be-released EPD documents show the huge amounts of biogenic carbon stored within the products. The manufacturing plant is only 3 years old and uses a lot of renewable energy to manufacture the products, keeping the carbon emissions from production extremely low.

Currently the NaturHeld brand has the highest levels of stored biogenic carbon, weight for weight, of any of the mainstream wood fibre insulation producers. This is currently at around 1.25kg CO2 per kg wood fibre insulation from the factory gate.

The final amount locked away depends on your location and how the products reach you but for every kilogram of wood fibre insulation you use, you’re locking away upwards of a kilogram of carbon dioxide into your building.

We’re very pleased with this recent addition to our product portfolio. It helps us to specify wood fibre insulation further and wider than before and helps our customers achieve the biggest impact in the climate change challenge. To see where these wood fibre boards can be used, please see our Specification Generator.

To see more information on the NaturHeld wood fibre insulation boards, please see the product page, or if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.