New Cladding Standards

18/12/2020 • Industry

The British Standards for the Design and installation of natural stone cladding have been completely rewritten by the B545 committee over a 5 year period.  There are 3 parts completed, with the Part 5 Internal stone cladding / linings to be completed next year:

  • Part 2 Traditional handset external cladding
  • Part 3 Stone Face Precast concrete cladding
  • Part 4 Stone cladding on rainscreen support systems

Each section deals with all the aspects relating to the stone selection and stone cladding design. 

All parts explains the importance of understanding the range of geological variations and technical data available for each shortlisted stone before the tendering process.  To understand the importance of a documented factory production control system and where technical information is limited or the stone doesn’t have a history of use in the vicinity to introduce additional testing of the stone through early stages of the manufacture.   

For parts 2 and 4 the technical data feeds into the loading section which determines the thickness of the cladding looking at; wind loadings, point loads and impact.  The wind loading require two separate calculations that are clearly set out including a simple matrix to establish the correct factor of safety.  There are examples of these calculations in the annexes of these documents using Jordans Whitbed as the example. 

To get a copy of these standards please visit the BSI Shop

Albion Stone, a fourth generation family business pride ourselves on having a helpful and skilled workforce as well as modern and traditional manufacturing process to enable us to produce the highest quality Portland Stone with minimal environmental impact.