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This webinar will cover the following topics:
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Self-Build options
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Design & cost considerations
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Energy efficiency trade offs
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Personal experiences with self-build
Building News is an information portal for all professional building specifiers. Here you can find all of the latest construction news from around the UK and the rest of the world.
Rinnai UK is continuing to be open for business throughout the current situation with staff able to take any orders or enquiries via telephone or online.
We believe it is both critical and a duty to do our part in helping stop the transmission of COVID-19. Therefore, we have staff who can and are working from home. And business is continuing as usual via phone and online.
The company supplies a range of continuous flow hot water heating units and systems for installation in commercial and domestic sites.
Rinnai has very good stock levels of all units in the range plus spares and accessories.
Please contact our company direct if you are having any problems in gaining access to the supply of units –
Call: Head Office 01928 531 870 or Rinnai London 0203 903 9030
Email info@rinnaiuk.com
Building and civil engineering company, Sir Robert McAlpine, has set a path to achieving net zero carbon emissions within the next five years.
The commitment came as the company launched a new sustainability strategy for 2020-2024. McAlpine has also targeted realising year on year increases on social value delivered across its operations.
The sustainability strategy aims to have a measurably positive impact on local communities and the environment. Working hand in hand with the supply chain, it tackles the challenge to deliver sustainable construction, operate ethically and address issues known to be underlying causes of climate change.
“As individuals, we are passionate about the work that we do and delivering quality projects for our clients, yet the impact that our industry has on the environment and society cannot be ignored.”
–Simon Richards
Head of Sustainability, Sir Robert McAlpine
Collective responsibility
“It is collectively our responsibility to address this” continued Richards. “This strategy gives our people and projects a framework to do so proactively and collaboratively with our supply chain partners and the wider construction industry.”
Environmental contractor of the year
The strategy builds on the previous sustainability roadmap, which earned Sir Robert McAlpine the title of “Environmental Contractor of the Year” in 2018. The strategy incorporates lessons learned from employees, projects and supply chain partners. The result is a sustainability framework with the flexibility to allow for targets that are specific and adapted to each project.
The strategy will focus on four key areas:
Becoming net zero carbon – Sir Robert McAlpine is focusing on reducing emissions through carbon reduction initiatives implemented across the business and industry collaborations, resulting in year on year reduction in carbon emissions and achieving net zero carbon emissions within five years. The Carbon Trust will provide third party certification to validate the claims
- Resource efficiency – year on year reduction of construction waste, maximising resource efficiency and applying circular economy principles in the delivery of projects. Achieved through the implementation of modern methods of construction, modularisation, offsite construction, as well as collaboration across the industry
- Ethical procurement – increasing the transparency of supply chains to ensure services are ethically sourced, and improving the responsible sourcing of building materials to minimise impact on the environment
- Social value – year on year increase of social value delivered across the company’s operations. A partnership with the Social Profit Calculator allows the business to set targets, forecast, monitor and improve the social value delivered by each project.
“We all have a role to play. Our strategy emphasises our skills and expertise to take up the challenge and lead on embedding change, making a meaningful, lasting difference.”
Source: ThisWeekinFM.com
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The UK’s house building target is often blighted by where to build, as a result a lot of recent housing projects have been developed on or very near to potential flood sites. As the evidence of climate change is being demonstrated more by the actual weather than the experts, flooding will become a far greater problem in the future than the one the UK is currently facing.
We have many villages and cities that have a long heritage with their footings going back centuries. It may well be that in the distant past of their beginnings when roads were nothing more than lanes, the land they laid their cornerstones on was well clear of the flood planes of the river ways that gave them commercial service. However as many of the Scandinavian countries know, the land is not fixed, over centuries it can be viewed as slow motion fluid and what was once out of reach of potential flood waters is now dangerously near.
So are we foolish to continue to build on potential flood planes. The answer would seem to be no and yes. No, if we continue to use the same old tried and tested specification that expects what is considered normal rainfall for the UK, because realistically that normal is quickly changing making our ‘normal’ quick build housing totally unable to cope with even minor flooding, but ‘Yes’ if we adapt to natures wrath and think more of not where we build but what we build.
Wuhan city in China has been in the news recently for reasons that I am sure no one needs reminding of, but in 1931 it headlined for a very different reason. Considered to be one of the worst floods in history, the effects of flooding in Wuhan in wreaked dreadful devastation and took the lives of more than 300,000.
The problems began in the spring as river water began pouring into the streets and mingled with effluent disgorged from overflowing sewers. Soon the whole city was permeated by a horrific stench, which only grew worse under the heat of the sun. Rickshaw pullers and other menial workers had to wade through filthy water to earn a living, while customers perched precariously on the awnings. This was one of many inequalities to define experiences of the disaster.
In late July, the dykes that encircled Wuhan collapsed. The water that had been held back now cascaded into the city at terrifying speed. Flood waves scoured whole neighbourhoods from the landscape. Thousands of people living in houses constructed from timber and earth drowned or were buried alive. Those who survived salvaged what they could – a little food, religious artefacts, anything buoyant – and began their search for refuge.
Chinadialogue.net
A grim picture indeed, as the century unfolded Wuhan continued to suffer with the rainy season almost guaranteed to produce flooding but in 2015 a project was begun to make 16 Chinese cities, ‘Sponge’ cities and one of them is Wuhan.
“A sponge city is one that can hold, clean, and drain water in a natural way using an ecological approach,” says Kongjian Yu, the dean of Peking University’s College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, who is helping to coordinate the national project.
Traditionally, Chinese cities handled water well, Yu notes. “But in modern China, we have destroyed those natural systems of ponds, rivers, and wetlands, and replaced them with dams, levees, and tunnels, and now we are suffering from floods.”
Reverse-engineering a city to make it more spongey requires a mental rather than physical shift, he argues. “It’s a whole new philosophy of dealing with water. It is about how we plan and design our cities in an ecological way. Not about piecemeal, manmade engineering projects.
The idea of a sponge city is simple – rather than using concrete to channel away rainwater, you work with nature to absorb, clean and use the water.
“Floods are not enemies,” explains Yu. “We can make friends with floods. We can make friends with water.”
During the dry season, the terrace is a park for residents to enjoy. But during the rainy season it can flood, protecting the city without the need for grey infrastructure like flood walls or dykes.
Not only does this safeguard the city by working with nature, but the water is clean, vegetation can grow and a habitat is created for wildlife.
It’s not just wetlands and restored riverbanks, though. Sponge cities also include green walls and roofs, permeable pavements and green buildings.
CLICK HERE FOR KONGJIAN YU’S VIDEO
Many other countries through out the world have experienced flooding to a much greater degree than the UK for a far longer duration, in 2016 writing for The Earthbound Report, Jeremy Williams sited 5 construction resolves that could help to hold back the potential destruction and havoc that water, out of control can deliver.
Elevation
This is the oldest and most obvious way to build a flood proof house. If you must build near a river or the sea, just make sure you lift your building above the likely height of the flood waters. There are a number of ways to do that. You can build a house on stilts, a traditional form in many places. You can build it on a raised platform like a beach house, or on a bank of earth or concrete. Larger office buildings might put a sacrificial car park underneath. A treehouse could also fall into this category. Here’s a an elevated house from Thailand and one from New Orleans.
Floodwalls
Rather than raise your home above the waters, a second common technique is to protect your home or property from the water by building a sturdy and waterproof wall. This can be done to protect whole towns and villages, but there’s no reason why it can’t be done on individual dwellings. Perimeter walls with watertight gates are one approach. You can also incorporate berms and walls into the landscaping, keeping the water out of a whole property or allowing the garden to flood while protecting the house. That’s what engineer Carl Canty did, below left, so his garden can be under three feet of water and his house is still dry. The example on the right is less subtle, but still effective.
Dry floodproofing
If you’re going to let the flood waters reach the walls of your house itself, you might want to make them watertight. This can be done with sealant, or building in a waterproof membrane. Doors and windows will need to be flood proof. Airbricks and utilities entry points can be raised or sealed. Essentially, dry waterproofing is all about keeping the water out of the building. Germany’s Hafencity, which I wrote about recently, uses this approach for properties on the waterfront. Those are some Hafencity storm doors on the right below, and a house in Grand Rapids demonstrating the principle on the left.
Wet floodproofing
Rather than keeping the water out of a building, an alternative approach is to let it in but minimise the damage it can do: fit a solid floor rather than wood, move power outlets up the wall and ensure that any unmovable furniture is made of a material that can safely take a soaking. Wet floodproofing is often used to retrofit flood-prone properties that the owners can’t sell, which is making the best of a bad situation. Houses built for it are much better, such as the house on the left below which is built to withstand a tsunami, or this waterfront hospital in Boston. Planned with climate change in mind, its lower floor has a swimming pool and non-essential services so that the whole thing can flood without interrupting patient care.
Floating homes
Second-guessing how far future floodwaters might rise is a dangerous game in an age of climate change. If your house can float, it’s guaranteed to always be above the water. One way to do it is to build on pontoons and have a building that’s always floating. Below is an ice-bound floating development in the Netherlands, which has many examples of waterborne architecture. Amphibious houses are slightly different. They’re on land and only float when there’s a flood.
With three key projects under the spotlight, we hear more about Spantherm – the innovative insulated precast concrete ground-floor system which is being adopted by a growing number of housebuilders and developers in GB.
By producing high performance insulated structural concrete units offsite Creagh have redefined the speed of installing a fully insulated ground-floor. Spantherm is an efficient alternative to labour intensive beam and block installations. It has been utilised at a housing development in Peterborough by NRI Civils who opted for the work to be completed by Creagh’s expert fitting team, requiring no labour from them and saving them time onsite.
Adam Moody, Contracts Manager for NRI Civils said: “We chose Spantherm because one of the things that we are looking for as a business is to improve efficiencies, reduce costs, reduce labour and time onsite and when you’ve got a difficult site, where you’re struggling for storage, that’s exactly where Spantherm is perfect!”
Spantherm’s initial appeal is clear, as a typical floor on a detached house or a pair of semi-detached homes is fitted onsite in less than two hours. Once in place and grouted, the floor achieves its full structural capability within 72 hours, however building activity can commence on perimeter walls within 24 hours. “The team have been absolutely fantastic” adds Adam. “They are always on hand for technical support. We will definitely be using Spantherm again to help our optimum goal of achieving better efficiency and reducing costs and labour times.”
Spantherm has also been used in Nottinghamshire, where a new homes development is being built by Geda Construction. With no additional site works or laying out required, a typical 90m² floor can be installed in just 90 minutes and provides level base without camber for timber frame or block construction.
Installation is not affected by adverse weather conditions and secondary screeds with extended drying times are not required. Spantherm is designed to reduce cold bridging at wall / floor junctions making an important contribution to Part L performance, whilst achieving U-value as low as 0.11W/m2K.
“Geda used Spantherm to push the project along as its one operation that just makes it so much quicker and easier to facilitate onsite,” said Shaun Wormall, Site Manager for Geda. “We are impressed on the installation of the slabs and the time that it saves us onsite. From a site management point of view it’s been really good, Creagh have been very responsive and the production timescales and installation has been quick and painless. We would definitely use Spantherm again, brilliant product, well-managed and well-run.”
An increasing number of builders in GB are switching from traditional beam and block builds as its significantly reducing labour onsite. Malcolm Flinn, Director of Stapleford Oaks Ltd in Nottingham states “I chose Spantherm because it’s labour saving, has made life easier for me, its quick, efficient and clean”.
“I would use Spantherm again because the block and beam method takes so many more men and machines on site, and takes a lot longer
to lay. It also leaves a lot of work for the bricklayers to do at floor level. With Spantherm we are in and building off it almost straight away” stated Malcolm.
Watch the testimonial videos at
Here’s a question.: Are Modern Methods of Construction modern? Or are they old? Or are they both? In 21st century Britain, they are as modern as the Pyramids were in their day, as modern as the Athens Parthenon, Roman Aqueducts, the Coliseum, medieval cathedrals, groin vaults, pointed arches, flying buttresses, flushing toilets or the Eiffel Tower. More than the mere appliance of science, they feature the key elements of modernity: innovative thinking along with new materials and techniques which transform the construction landscape and the lives of those using them.
The Royal institute of Chartered Surveyors has identified key elements of MMC: these are offsite manufacturing, modular construction and design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA). Green Life Buildings (GLB) and the expanded polystyrene sandwich panels of the company’s Advanced Building System tick all these boxes and more.
And now another question for a constructors convention quiz. What links a Surrey bungalow built in 2020 with the iconic Paris monument erected in 1889? Answer: they are both examples of MMCs and share one critical feature: all their components are factory-created. From there, they are brought on site ready to be assembled and bolted together. For the Eiffel Tower, it took hundreds of trips by horse drawn wagons to transport more than 18,000 parts from a suburban Paris factory. By contrast, Green Life Buildings can ship all the Advanced Building System panels needed for a family home on the back of just one truck.
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If consultant Mark Farmer is right, the prospects for the British building industry are grim. It faces strong competition from European suppliers of modular housing and shortages of skilled labour exacerbated by Brexit. As Mark Farmer sees it, the British construction sector must modernise or die.
One company helping the drive to modernise the British construction business is Green Life Buildings (GLB). For 15 years, company CEO Chris Williams – a highly qualified and experienced materials scientist – has lived with his family in a house constructed almost entirely of prefabricated expanded polystyrene panels. Chris imported the panels from Italy and with the help of friends built the house himself. It has proven to be an easy-to-run, comfortable home, warm in winter and cool in summer and very energy efficient.
In 2020, start-up GLB is manufacturing the panels in its Corby Northamptonshire factory for supply to the British construction industry. Using Emmedue (M2) Advanced Building System technology, the GLB factory will have a capacity of 700,000 square metres of panels a year, enough to build more than 3,000 average-sized family homes.
The ultra light EPS panels, enclosed in galvanised steel mesh with connectors, can be made to any specification and tailored to work with almost any design. They demonstrate high levels of fire, noise and heat resistance. Transporting the panels is easy and economical: they can be delivered flat-packed to any site. Once the panels are in position, onsite, a sprayer gives each panel a load-bearing concrete coat. Alternatively, the GLB factory can ship complete accommodation modules – using standard templates or bespoke designs – to serve as individual homes or even, if stacked, to create larger, multi-storey buildings. They can be delivered straight or curved in a wide range of sizes to meet demanding architectural specifications.
The M2 Building System may be little known in the UK, but it reflects 35 years of Italian engineering excellence and continuous technical innovation. Globally, these adaptable panels are the building blocks for structures of many shapes and sizes. These include simple homes and imaginatively designed factories, airport terminals, multi-storey hotels and corporate headquarters. They have proven their strength and stability in earthquake zones and their durability in widely varying climates and conditions. More than 100 million square meters of M2 panels in all shapes and sizes, already provide the basis for tens of thousands of buildings world-wide.
At the turn of the 20th century, when the internal combustion engine started to take over from horse power, cars were built by hand like the horse-drawn carriages they were replacing – until Henry Ford introduced the automobile equivalent of MMC. But even the great innovator would have been astonished at today’s electronically sophisticated cars and production technology. A visit to one of today’s automated factories would have had him staring agape at the agile, swivelling robots that outnumber their human co-workers. And who, today, wouldn’t opt to drive a smooth, modern car over one made with technology pre-dating Henry Ford?
Compare British home building with automobile production. How much has fundamentally changed in the last 100 or so years in how Britain builds its houses? Concrete, bricks, mortar, slates or tiles are still the norm with a complex, weather-dependent process taking skilled workers many months to complete. Take a look at a typical noisy, dirty British construction site. From start to finish, streams of trucks deliver the different building materials and components needed for the various stages of the construction process, polluting the neighbourhood and disturbing neighbours, while local traffic is disrupted or diverted to get cranes working onsite.
A number of companies now offer modular offsite construction and systems that qualify for official recognition as MMCs. But Green life Building and its Advanced Building System offer unique advantages to developers and building contractors: the lightness and strength of its basic panels obviate the need for cranes or other external equipment, reducing the risk of onsite accidents and greatly speeding the onsite building process.
Corporate giant JCB has recognised the unique benefits of Green Life Building’s methods and technology, choosing a demonstration of GLB’s Advanced Building System to show off its latest rotating telehandler. In an unusual example of David and Goliath teamwork, GLB and JCB showed how as partners they enhance safety and cut construction time and costs in new house building.
Simple and light to transport and manoeuvre in even the most adverse conditions, M2 panels weigh no more than 5kgs per square metre before concrete coating. This means that one worker, on his own, can easily handle and position a room-high wall panel before it gets its shotcrete treatment in situ. In a striking advance to simplify the whole construction process, M2 panels – used singly or doubled up – can serve as internal or external load-bearing walls, as floors, ceilings and even as stairs or roofs. The unique, unitary approach to construction components guarantees great cost benefits compared to traditional construction methods or to alternative modular MMC systems.
The Green Life Buildings business model also offers builders unique financial advantages compared with other offsite MMCs. Typically, an offsite MMC manufacturer will require 100% upfront payments on order, putting significant strain on a developer’s cash flow, especially where SMEs are concerned. In stark contrast, GLB charges only a 15% deposit prior to delivery of its Advanced Building System materials.
The very first order for a GMB home is for a bungalow in Surrey; and plans are afoot to create more homes using GLB’s Advanced Building System in the South of England. With the Green Life Buildings factory gearing up to full production capacity, the GLB team is busily creating networks and partnerships in the construction, housing and finance industries.
With sophisticated finance partners, GLB is working to offer turnkey funded solutions for cash conscious Housing Associations, Local Authorities and developers. In return for a minimum 20-year lease agreement, GLB’s partners will fund a project, thereby relieving financially constrained or prudent housing bodies of the major burden of raising or finding upfront capital to cover the cost of building works. With GLB focusing on design and product supply, this financing model should help speed the development of sorely needed new homes. With architects already at work, a Birmingham Housing Association will this year build 30 homes using the scheme.
A survey by the NHBC asked builders and housing associations to list in order of importance the benefits they look for in an MMC. Green Life Buildings meets each one of these goals:
Faster build programme – Complete a watertight shell with GLB in 7-10 days.
Improved build quality – GLB’s Advanced Building System delivers precision tooled components.
Tackle skills shortage – GLB’s factory panels reduce need for a high-skilled, high-cost workforce.
Reduce costs – No cranes needed using GLB materials – one truck delivers a family home.
Improve profitability – Speedier completion with GLB materials minimise capital costs.
To learn more details about how the GLB Advanced Building System can help you build houses better, cheaper and faster, go to the company website, where you can ask questions and get answers from the company’s experts.
By Carl Davison Technical Services Manager at Kingspan Industrial Insulation.
Thermal comfort has become the focus of increasing attention in recent years as designers and project teams look to create a healthier built environment. Whilst the enhanced thermal performance and airtightness provided by some offsite envelope solutions can help to make indoor conditions more easily controllable, careful attention must also be paid to potential heat sources within a space which can lead to overheating. Research from AECOM has now shown that pipe insulation specification can have a major bearing on how easily properties overheat, as well as on their overall energy demand.
Requirements
The minimum insulation requirements when specifying hot water and heating systems are contained within the Domestic and Non-domestic Building Service Compliance Guides1. For optimal system efficiency, however, the Energy Technology List (ETL) recommends a higher performance pipe insulation specification based on NES Y50 Enhanced levels.
A wide range of pipe insulation options are now available and a key differentiator between these is their thermal conductivity. Insulation materials with a lower thermal conductivity are more effective at preventing heat transfer through conduction, meaning a reduced thickness can be used to achieve the desired level of insulating performance. Premium phenolic pipe insulants are amongst the most thermally efficient options, with a 25-year aged thermal conductivity as low as 0.025 W/m·K (at 10°C mean), and are available with phenolic insulation pipe supports to further minimise heat losses.
Research
To investigate how these different specifications can affect overheating and system performance, AECOM carried out a detailed evaluation using IES dynamic thermal modelling. The research assessed the performance of three insulation systems on LTHW (Low Temperature Hot Water) and DHW (Domestic Hot Water) pipework, within a multi-unit residential extra-care building with a constant circulation of hot water:
1 Man Made Mineral Fibre (MMMF) Pipe insulation specified to BS 5422: 2009 with rubber lined pipe support brackets.
2 Phenolic pipe insulation specified to minimum standards within BS 5422: 2009 with phenolic insulation pipe support inserts.
3 Phenolic pipe insulation to the enhanced
ETL specification with phenolic insulation pipe support inserts.
The study also considered the use of extraction fans to dissipate heat.
Results
To evaluate the impact of each specification on overheating, AECOM calculated the percentage of hours with a dry resultant temperature of greater than 25°C2 and 28°C3.
The results showed that, when compared with the MMMF system, the BS 5422 phenolic specification provided a reduction of up to 15% in overheating hours at a room temperature greater than 28°C, and up to 9% at a room temperature greater than 25°C. The ETL specification offered significant further benefits with falls of up to 32% in overheating hours greater than 28°C, and 25% in overheating hours over 25°C.
In some scenarios, the modelling showed that rooms with the MMMF specification would have experienced over 100 additional hours at temperatures above 28ºC when compared to the ETL specification.
These reductions also produced considerable energy cost savings. The projected average energy cost of the MMMF specification was calculated at £3,973, rising to £4,105 when the impact of additional extraction fans was considered. The BS 5422 phenolic specification achieved annual savings of £431 or £463 depending on whether the impact of extraction fans was taken into account. With the ETL phenolic specification even greater savings of £1,252 and £1,384 could be achieved.
Finally, the study showed that when the extract fans were considered, the ETL specification would have an immediate payback.
In control
The move towards a healthier, more energy efficient built environment requires project teams to think more holistically about how all of the elements will interact. As the AECOM research shows, by paying close attention to areas such as pipe insulation specification, it is possible to achieve considerable reductions in both energy demand and overheating hours.
www.kingspanindustrialinsulation.com
1 This expands on the specifications within BS 5422: 2009 (Method for specifying thermal insulating materials for pipes, tanks, vessels, ductwork and equipment operating within the temperature range -40°C to +700°C)
2 The recommended acceptable indoor design operative temperature within CIBSE Guide A 2006
3 The preferred maximum temperature for thermal comfort
JCB, the world’s number one telehandler manufacturer, is extending its portfolio, with the launch of a totally new JCB rotating telescopic handler.
Recognising the growth in popularity of rotating machines with heavier lift capacities across Europe, the company will initially launch the JCB 5.5-210, offering a maximum lift capacity of 5.5 tonnes and a maximum working height of 20.5m.
Features will include:
• Highly versatile rotating telescopic handler offering 20.5m lift height
• Maximum lift capacity of 5.5 tonnes
• Rapid set-up time boosting productivity
• All-round visibility improving site safety
• Wide range of options including winches and aerial work platforms
With more than 40 years of expertise in the telescopic handler design and manufacture, JCB has designed the rotating machine to meet the needs of specialist lifting contractors and the rental market. Utilising a robust boom construction and a familiar driveline, JCB has focussed on reliability, versatility, productivity, ease of use and safety, as a means of delivering improved uptime and increased customer profitability.
To ensure that set-up time is minimised, the outriggers have Auto one-touch deployment, stowage and levelling. Competitive lift end cycle times and high auxiliary flow rates for efficient winch work, boost productivity further. With a lower chassis engine layout, the machine offers excellent access and class-leading serviceability. A low, clean boom design gives excellent all-round visibility, augmented by comprehensive work light options and camera kits, including a boom head camera for precise placement at height.
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The machines are powered by JCB’s proven highly efficient Ecomax engines, offering a high degree of parts and service commonality with other Loadall models. The JCB LiveLink telematics system is fitted as standard and will incorporate features that enable operators to fully exploit the performance of this versatile machine.
With a maximum lift capacity of 5.5 tonnes, the machine offers excellent highly competitive load charts. Easily selectable lift end speed profiles and lift envelope limits help the operator to optimise the machine for specific tasks. A range of specially developed JCB attachments using RFID technology can be identified by the machine, to automatically offer the correct load chart for safe operation.
At launch, the company will offer pallet forks, a 5.5 tonne carriage winch, a 2 tonne x 2m jib winch, a reduced height jib, 5.5 tonne hook, light duty buckets and a range of fork-mounted accessories, such as waste skips and concrete placing skips. Remote lift end operation and access platforms will also be offered.
The JCB 5.5-21 will meet the changing requirements of contractors across the world, as a greater use of off-site pre-fabrication calls for heavier lift capacities and increased on-site versatility. Rotating telescopic handlers have become a genuine cost-effective replacement for smaller mobile cranes, offering rapid set-up and the ability to carry out technical lifting operations.
Buildings need to come together more quickly than ever. To do so without compromising integrity and quality depends on every little detail being thoroughly considered. This detail comes right down to the fasteners and fixings that hold the building envelope together, explains David Fraser, NVELOPE® Business Unit Manager at SFS UK.
Almost everywhere you look in the field of construction, there is talk of needing to build faster and more efficiently. Whether it’s because there’s a lack of crucial infrastructure, or simply because there’s not enough labour, it’s evident that we need to streamline our approach to construction.
This is clearly evidenced by the UK’s housing shortage crisis. In 2018, it was estimated that England had a backlog of 3.91 million homes, meaning 340,000 new homes need to be built each year until 2031. Yet at that time, the government was only targeting building 300,000 homes annually, and any shortfall only further compounds the problems.
However, as the old saying goes, haste makes waste, and this couldn’t be truer for buildings. Structures that are not planned out and correctly specified can cause waste from construction right through to building operation. For example, poor specification can lead to unnecessary servicing and maintenance, and needing to replace materials that don’t meet their expected lifespan.
To ensure that we can maximise construction efficiency, while still maintaining the quality and integrity expected of multi-million-pound buildings, it all boils down to detail. This is especially the case with fasteners and fixings, the very components that hold structures and building envelopes together.
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Planned to Perfection
As with many things in life, well-planned projects minimise the chance for errors to occur during construction, which can be costly to rectify further down the build chain.
Building envelopes, brackets and subframe systems need to be especially well considered. They need to withstand whatever the elements throw at them, from wind loads, to corrosive substances in the air and the substrate they are fixing back to. Meanwhile, they also need to be able to assure the deadweight of the cladding that is being installed on them.
Identifying these components correctly though is easier said than done. For architects and specifiers, trawling through datasheets and product specifications can be time and labour intensive.
Here is where manufacturers can help at the planning stage. With expert knowledge and tools, manufacturers can help suggest rainscreen and cladding systems that are fit for purpose, which was the case during the refurbishment of Kew Tower in Richmond.
This refurbished office building, had the upper floors of its building reclad by building envelope contractors, using the NVELOPE® NV4 system from SFS. The key to the success of the project was as much in the NV4 system as it was in SFS’ Project Builder tool.
Project Builder provides a comprehensive, project-specific cladding solution involving only a two-step process. The tool factors in considerations such as local wind loads, height of the façade, the substrate that the rainscreen system is being fixed to, selected cladding material and the cladding zone.
With this forward-thinking, planned-out approach, Kew Tower achieved an ‘Excellent’ BREEAM rating following the refurbishment. The NV4 system will also help the building endure for many years to come, thanks to built-in adjustability that allows for contraction and expansion in extreme weather conditions.
Fast and Furious Fasteners and Fixings
Raising buildings faster is not just in the planning – it’s in the detail. This includes selecting the most appropriate components that are designed to help installers on the job, such as fasteners and fixings.
Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of fasteners and fixings need to be secured on a given building. The time needed to install these components can quickly add up, leading to costly labour expenses. Here, any incremental gains can lead to major reductions in construction time.
This was certainly the case with the refurbishment of Parsons Tower, Newcastle College. The tower block, which dates to the 1970s, was refreshed with a contemporary zinc and copper façade with the help from SFS’ specialist fastening systems. To secure the cladding back to composite panels on the building, low profile, high-grade stainless-steel fasteners were required. The solution was the SX2/8-D9 self-drilling fastener in A4 316 austenitic stainless steel. As well as giving excellent pull out values, the thread design helped construction time by reducing over-driving.
Similarly, construction time was significantly reduced when installing the PIR insulation into concrete deck of the roof. The contractors were facing issues with extensive drilling and the need for multiple combinations of fasteners and polypropylene sleeves. The isotak® TIA adjustable fastener system from SFS was the ideal solution in this instance. The system reduced fastener and polypropylene sleeve combinations by 50% and in turn, dramatically decreased drilling times.
Buildings? Here’s one I made earlier
As well as planning and choosing the right components to help achieve faster builds, a big shift in the way buildings are realised is through modular construction. More and more, buildings and their components are being prefabricated off-site under factory conditions.
Much like fasteners and fixings that aid installers on-site, manufacturers must also be able to adapt to these new offsite construction techniques and adapt their products to suit.
In reality, this can be as simple as inserting fasteners into their sleeves before they are sent to site or supplying brackets pre-assembled. Crest Girls’ Academy in Neasden, which required modernisation to its various buildings, is a great example of pre-fabrication. As well as using the Project Builder to create a detailed design to support approximately 6,000m2 of timber and cedar cladding, the project also utilised vertical point brackets with thermal isolators to help reduce thermal bridging. These brackets were pre-assembled from SFS, to speed up construction time and also prevent loss of materials on-site.
Fast Tracked for the Future
The future of our world very much depends on the construction projects of today being built right and being built to stand the tests of time for years to come.
While we improve the pace at which we construct new buildings, it must not be to the detriment of the finished products themselves. Building envelopes must be well thought out and designed, to minimise the need for amendments both during specification and installation. They must also be well considered so that they can be as thermally efficient and sustainable as possible. By looking at all these details closely, we can facilitate faster construction and create buildings where future generations can live, work and play in comfort.
Buildingspecifier.com’s Joe Bradbury discusses the topic on everyone’s lips at present – flooding.
“It’s a bit black over Bill’s mothers” is an understatement. Apparently, according to the Met, England has received 144% of the average February rainfall this month, and as a resident of Tamworth, a town in the Midlands that two rivers pass through, I’m inclined to agree. Record river levels have been broken on the Colne, Ribble, Calder, Aire, Trent, Severn (which passes through Tamworth), Wye, Lugg, and Derwent.
Even our local theme park Drayton Manor is currently closed, due to their lake bursting its banks. Make no mistake, Britain is waterlogged. We must not underestimate the destructive power and danger of flooding. Not in this day and age.
Global warming
Did you know, the world’s population is currently consuming the equivalent of 1.6 planets resources a year? The Global Footprint Network estimates that if we continue to consume at current rates we’ll blow the global carbon budget and lock in more than 2C of global warming in approximately 17 years.
Over the next 100 years with 2C+ global warming locked in, the very existence of some atoll nations is threatened by rising sea-levels. Limiting warming to 1.5C may restrict sea level rise below 1 metre; yet even at 1.5C warming, regional food security risks are significant. Africa is particularly vulnerable, with significant reduction in staple crop yields in some countries. Between 1.5C-2C increase, mountains lose their glaciers meaning people will lose their water supplies. The entire Indian subcontinent will be fighting for survival. As the glaciers disappear from all but the highest peaks, their runoff will cease to power the massive rivers that deliver vital freshwater to hundreds of millions. Water shortages and famine will be the result, destabilising the entire region. The whole Greenland ice sheet would vanish within 140 years. Miami would disappear, as would most of Manhattan. Central London would be flooded. Bangkok, Bombay and Shanghai would lose most of their area.
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Lack of awareness
A recent YouGov research identified an alarming general lack of flood risk knowledge across the UK.
Ten years since the devastating summer floods of 2007, which saw over 48,000 homes affected by flooding, it seems the UK population is still failing to take adequate steps to understand whether their homes are at risk of flooding, with more than half (53%) of respondents to the infamous survey confirming they have never checked whether their homes’ in an area officially considered to be at risk of flooding.
This actually increases to 63% when specifically asking people in Scotland and higher again, 75%, when questioning people in Northern Ireland.
In addition, when asked what their biggest concern would be if they were to find out their home is located in an ‘at risk’ area, 31% said the potential for loss of damage to personal possessions was their main worry.
It was clear that those surveyed felt that the likes of construction companies, local councils, government and environmental authorities could be doing more to raise awareness and manage defence against flooding with 35% saying their confidence is about the same as it was in 2007. The online survey highlighted that consumer knowledge of how to check whether a property is considered at risk from flooding was limited; 39% said that checking online via Google or other search engines would be their first port of call, followed by asking the Environment Agency (25%) and then asking their local council (13%).
The same number of people also (13%) also stated that they would not know where to turn for this information at all.
Should we build houses or an ark?
An article in the Guardian this week revealed that more than 11,000 new homes are planned to be built on land at the highest risk of flooding in the regions battered by the worst winter storms in a generation.
The article stated that “an analysis of planning documents reveals that 11,410 new homes have been planned for land the government considers high-risk in the seven English counties where thousands of properties have been devastated by flooding since November.”
Greenpeace’s journalism project Unearthed and the Guardian conducted a joint analysis of housebuilding plans for the next five years in those areas already affected.
Unearthed’s coverage noted that “parts of the West Midlands have been devastated by the resulting floods. Whole areas of Shrewsbury were left underwater, with villages and towns affected all along the Welsh border.
“Local plans for Worcester, Shropshire and Herefordshire councils, which were badly affected, show they are planning for 1,224 homes to be built over the next five years in medium and high-risk flood areas.
“In Herefordshire alone, 325 homes are set to be built in flood-prone areas. Some of this land has already been left under water by Storm Dennis and other new developments had caused problems downstream for older homes that had never flooded before.”
John Harrington, the council’s cabinet member for infrastructure, described the government’s housing policy as “completely and utterly flawed” and that it was forcing local authorities to approve “idiotic” developments on floodplains so they can meet demands from Whitehall.
“Central government just say ‘There’s a housing target, now go do it’. It’s really quite stupid. It’s devolving responsibility without giving the authority any power or money to deal with the situation. It is absolutely unacceptable.”
In summary
When it comes to dealing with flooding, planning ahead really is the best policy and knowing whether your property is at risk from flooding will ensure that you are better prepared.
After seeing first-hand the impact of the flooding in and around the Midland’s alone, it is clear that the growing threat from more extreme weather events means we must reassure ourselves, and those communities at risk, that our defences, our modelling and our future plans are robust… So are they? Let’s take a look.
As building specifiers, I ask you; is building on flood plains a good idea? Let us know in the comments below.
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