Saint-Gobain Exterior Solutions has launched a gas-fired fixing installation method for external wall insulation (EWI), which it describes as a first for the UK EWI market. The system replaces the conventional drill-and-fix sequence with a single-shot gas-powered tool that drives the fixing straight into the substrate through the insulation board, with no pre-drilling.
What actually changes on site
Standard EWI fixing is a three-stage operation per fixing: drill the hole through the board into the masonry, insert the sleeve, then hammer or screw the pin home. On a full house wrap that runs to hundreds of fixings, and every one of them is drilled with a hammer drill held above shoulder height for the upper courses.
The gas-fired method collapses that into one action. Saint-Gobain cites independent installation trials showing installation times around 30% faster than traditional drilled fixings, which it puts at roughly half a day saved on a typical home.
The health and safety angle is the more interesting one
The time saving is what gets quoted, but the exposure reduction is arguably the bigger deal for a UK EWI contractor. Removing the hammer-drilling stage cuts two things at once:
- Hand-arm vibration. Hammer drilling into masonry is one of the higher-vibration tasks in the trade, and EWI installers do it in long, repetitive runs. Under the Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005, employers have to assess and limit daily exposure, and drill-heavy days on an EWI wrap eat into a daily exposure budget quickly. A fixing method that removes the drilling stage removes that exposure rather than just managing it.
- Noise. Percussive drilling on a lived-in street generates both a noise-at-work issue for the operative and a complaints issue for the client, which matters on social housing retrofit where residents are usually in occupation throughout.
There is also a dust point: no drilling into masonry means no drilling dust at the fixing stage, which is relevant given RCS (respirable crystalline silica) exposure controls.
Who it is for
This is aimed squarely at EWI contractors working on retrofit programmes — social housing decarbonisation schemes, ECO4-type funded work and private retrofit. It is a system launch rather than a standalone tool you buy off a merchant shelf, so expect it to arrive tied to Saint-Gobain's EWI system specification and installer training rather than as a generic fixing gun.
Watch for: confirmed fixing pull-out performance across substrate types (solid brick, no-fines concrete, block), because gas-fired fixing into variable older masonry is where the practical questions sit, and whether the fixing is approved across the full range of substrates that UK retrofit stock actually presents.
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