The UK insulation market is full of choices and in such uncertain times we often want to look at the choices we make for our homes and our businesses in order to see where we can make improvements. To that end, this article looks at what many consider to be most basic class of pipe lagging (which it is to a degree) but has a large number of benefits relative to it’s cost. 

So, lets start with the elephant in the room (an apt idiom, given the colour of the material); cost. 

PE Pipe Insulation is at the cheaper end off the market, though you still need to look at a good quality one to consider it a real value proposition – when a product is TOO cheap you may in fact not be getting what you thought you paid for. Over the last several years we have moved away from other brands of PE in order to focus on the Tubolit brand manufactured by Armacell in Oldham, a little over 30 miles down the road from us. We did this in order to offer better value to our customers in the first instance but it also allowed us to replenish stocks faster and offer a good quality product that has been in the market for over 40 years. When compared to other elastomeric or mineral fibre materials PE offers very similar performance for a fraction of the cost.

Polyethylene insulation has naturally low thermal conductivity, helping reduce heat loss in heating systems and preventing freezing in cold‑water lines when using the correct thickness of material; a good general rule of thumb is that you use the thinner wall material for domestic heating and hot water systems and thicker material for frost protection. Because heat loss has more to do with surface area a smaller pipe requires relatively less insulation to reduce heat loss. Frost protection calculations must consider the volume of water which is to be protected and a smaller volume of water will freeze more quickly, this is why a smaller pipe needs thicker insulation to protect it.

Because polyethylene is a closed‑cell foam it does not wick moisture, and helps prevent condensation forming and being absorbed so reducing the risk of mould or corrosion on your pipework. Nitrile rubber materials such as Armaflex ARE superior in this regard but PE materials such as Tubolit are still adequate in many domestic situations where offering basic, low cost protection can offset future costs.

PE lagging is also lightweight, semi-flexible, and easy to install making it ideal for both professional and DIY applications in a domestic setting. Although self adhesive versions have been offered in the market over the years by various flexible foam manufacturers, they tend to remove the key benefit of polyethylene in particular which is their low cost – adding self adhesive stirps has a certain cost implication which is why these materials are always more expensive; adding supplemental costs to a material which starts at a retail price of just over 60p/m including VAT (190m Box 9mm Wall 15mm Bore Tubolit costing inc VAT £124.56 at time of writing) quickly escalates to a point where the additional costs negate the original benefit.

The material can be easy installed with clips (a kind of cheap plastic “staple” that one pinches in along the seam to seal) or tape to ensure a good seal – this is an important part or installation that can be overlooked but if any insulation material is not properly sealed at time of installation then it is not functioning correctly.

Another often overlooked benefit of polyethylene pipe lagging is acoustic dampening; PE pipe insulation helps reduce noise transmission from water flow, improving comfort in residential and commercial buildings. We’ve all heard water from our central heating pipes moving around the system which is generally a sign that your pipes are not properly lagged but this is an easy fix.

Armacell’s Tubolit range is one of the most widely used PE pipe insulation products in the UK. Its benefits go beyond generic polyethylene performance:

Tubolit in particular is 100% non‑particulating, making it cleaner and more suitable for indoor environments. Tubolit can also reduce energy loss through hot water or heating pipework by up to 80%, significantly lowering heating costs and CO₂ emissions.

It is available in all common pipe diameters (15–76 mm and beyond) with thicknesses from 9–25 mm though not every wall thickness is available to suit every pipe diameter, as with all pipe insulation materials.

Armacell Manufacture to EN 14313 and quality/environmental standards such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 and the material is CFC/HCFC‑free and long‑lasting, contributing to lower environmental impact.

If you’re choosing insulation for domestic residential pipework, Tubolit offers a balanced combination of performance, price, compliance, and ease of installation and we are proud to offer a full range for national distribution.