Case Study

Stonewood Projects at Cirencester

November 5, 2021
 

Stonewood Partnerships, which specialises in building distinctive new homes in beautiful locations, has selected our award-winning Sigma® II build system for their build at  Orchard Field, a sustainable development of 88 new properties in the village of Siddington near Cirencester, Gloucestershire and close to Siddington C of E School.  Orchard Field will comprise a mixture of 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 bedroom homes.

Stonewood Partnerships is undergoing an expansion phase across the south west of England after being chosen as one of five partners in the UK government-backed £300 million homes building fund. The company has set a target of building and selling 300 homes a year by 2026.

Stonewood’s design team has been working closely with us to develop the frames, which are 23.5cm thick – nearly double that of standard timber frames, using our Sigma® II system for the build. Once they are clad, the walls will be a heat-saving 45cm thick to fit the ‘fabric first’ ethos of building homes whose fundamental design is energy efficient, rather than relying on retro-fitting gadgets to produce that efficiency.

  • Each of the homes has been designed to meet Association for Environment Conscious Building standards, which demand excellent construction and low energy consumption.
  • By using a timber frame build system Stonewood have managed to find a high quality, low energy building system to build these homes, using more sustainable products and ensuring energy savings for the occupiers.
  • Other environmentally friendly features include ground-floor underfloor heating fuelled by air source heat pumps, the use of mechanical ventilation heat recovery, small-bore pipes delivering rapid hot water to sinks and showers, solar panels and electric car charging points.

The Siddington housing development will occupy just 11 acres of the site and the rest will be devoted to woodland, landscaping and a new pond.

  • 88 properties
  • First build in timber frame for Stonewood
  • Floor type: Factory finished floor cassette pre-fitted with 22mm Peel clean flooring
  • Roof type: Trusses and where required fully insulated roof system for room in the roof application
  • u-Value: 0.13
  • System: Sigma® II

Case Study

Taylor Wimpey at Hemlington

October 8, 2021
 

Taylor Wimpey were looking for an efficient and cost-effective solution to fully supply and erect 237 units during Phase 3 and Phase 4 of its Hemlington development in North Yorkshire and chose Stewart Milne Timber Systems to deliver.

Stewart Milne Timber Systems’ planned approach to integrated project management ensured reliable, high-quality production safely and without disruption.

The greenfield site is a stone’s throw from Hemlington in Middlesbrough. It is a mixed development of three- and four-bedroom semi-detached homes, including two-storey and two-and-a-half-storey homes. The community is located in beautiful countryside surroundings close to Hemlington Lake and Bonny Grove Nature Reserve. The area also boasts plenty of open-air amenities including playing fields and parks and is in close proximity to several schools including Hemlington Hall Academy.

The challenges we faced were that this was a new process implementation for timber frame construction for this region for Taylor Wimpey.  We needed to build this development at pace, and subcontractors needed help with pricing information which we delivered.

Our dedicated project scheduling and site management personnel ensured that each unit was erected in a day, on time, with a quality inspection record, allowing for a seamless production plan and a smooth helping hand throughout the construction schedule.

We used our open panel Alpha system with chipboard factory finished cassette flooring, as well as a trussed roof installed in situ, with the 2.5 storey homes fitted with an insulated roof cassette.  We completed the development ahead of schedule over a total timeframe of fourteen months.

The development also maintains our reputation as a sustainable construction company, as the timber frame construction used has a smaller carbon footprint than traditional masonry construction.

Working with them has been effortless, from doing the concept on site to calling them up. Dates were never missed for providing the timber frames. Organisation and working to the programme were both done well.

It was helpful having Stewart Milne Timber Systems as a support network. Andy oversaw technical issues and Ian was always on the other end of the phone if we needed anything. They provide high quality timber frames and perform well. Quality was up to scratch on the site. Problems never arose with the work done by the guys on the development.

I’d definitely recommend Stewart Milne Timber Systems because the experience we’ve had has been so good. There is no reason not to use them.”

Joe Evans, Site Manager, Hemlington Grange, Taylor Wimpey

Case Study

Barratt Lavender Grange, Lower Stondon

September 28, 2021
 

Lavender Grange is in the village of Lower Stondon in Bedfordshire.

A development of 2, 3 and 4 bedroom homes surrounded by idyllic countryside, it is within easy reach of everyday amenities in the village and only 10 minutes’ drive from Hitchin town centre.

Many of the homes benefit from plenty of flexible space and home offices to ensure that the space can be adapted to suit the homeowners’ needs.

Lavender Grange is close to several Ofsted-rated ‘Good’ and ‘Outstanding’ schools. At the heart of the development there is a fully equipped park and there are more than nine acres of open space for the whole family to enjoy.

Being recognised as a ‘Built For Life’ development means that important design elements such as adequate car parking and safe street design have been included and checked through planning.  There are electric vehicle charging points to 87% of homes on the development and to some of the visitor bays.

Stewart Milne Timber Systems worked with Barratt Homes North Thames to create and deliver adaptable homes as part of our design service.  As requested we used our Alpha open panel system and followed up the design with manufacturing and site build of 144 homes and achieved a U-value of 0.25.

  • Site build ahead of schedule.
  • Fascia and Soffits fitted to enable roofer to access roof sooner to achieve watertight stage faster.
  • Roof erected at ground level for greater safety and speed.
  • Floor cassettes factory built for greater quality, safety and speed of build completion.
  • Speed of build enabled the client to satisfy demand and realise capital return faster.
  • 144 units: 2, 3 and 4 Bedroom houses
  • Creating adaptable homes at a speed to satisfy demand
  • 140mm open panel Alpha system
  • Floor type 235mm Cassettes
  • Trussed roofs
  • U-value 0.25
  • Service: design, manufacture and erect
  • Project start 18th April 2019

Case Study

The AIMC4 project

August 11, 2021
 

AIMC4 was a unique award winning innovation partnership, created to research, develop and pioneer the volume production of fabric first low-carbon energy efficient homes for the future. It stands for ‘the Application of Innovative Materials, products and processes to meet the Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4 energy performance’.

The AIMC4 consortium was set up in 2009 to develop and apply innovative materials, products and processes to meet Level 4 energy requirements of the government’s Code for Sustainable Homes, through a fabric first approach with minimal building services and renewable technology solutions, thus building in a “fit and forget” energy efficient building envelope, delivering energy saving performance of the dwelling in perpetuity.

The consortium members comprised: developers Stewart Milne Group (Lead Industry Partner), Crest Nicholson plc and Barratt Developments plc, which were responsible for the design and build of the energy-efficient homes; BRE, which advised on innovative solutions and evaluated the technical compliance requirements; and Stewart Milne Timber Systems, the UK’s leading timber frame manufacturers and H+H UK Ltd, a supplier of aerated concrete products. BRE Scotland analysed and evaluated the design -v- as-built performance of the homes and undertook post occupancy evaluations, assessing occupant responses and behaviours over 12 months.

The ground-breaking Government funded flagship Collaborative innovative project cost £6.4 million overall: £3.2 million was invested by the government-backed Technology Strategy Board with the other £3.2 million coming from the consortium members.

Core Objectives

  • To develop a better understanding of consumers, their needs and aspirations relating to low-energy/low-carbon homes and their response to a range of possible fabric focused technology solutions.
  • To research and develop (interactively with the supply chain) new design approaches and build processes that would drive innovation in the existing supply chain and stimulate the emergence of new suppliers and partnerships.
  • Accelerate the development of new building fabric technologies, materials, components and systems, creating a supply chain capable of delivering a range of building system solutions to support a ‘fabric-first’ approach from within the UK, driving cost efficiencies.
  • To design and develop a minimum of 12 homes that meet consumer needs and deliver to energy standards of Level 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes, with a fabric-first fit and forget building envelope solution. These would be built in various locations across the UK and sold on the open market, across the three developers involved.
  • To use project outcomes at all stages to broaden wider industry knowledge and capability.
  • To underpin the cost-effective volume delivery of the fabric focused energy-efficient homes of the future with occupant and industry centred outputs, to meet government timescales.

The key to the success of the project was to engage with both known and new suppliers at all levels to develop design solutions and processes in order to deliver homes that met Code Level 4 energy requirements – through energy efficient fabric and minimal building services solutions – without requiring the use of renewable technologies. Achieving this goal would not only assist in meeting the government target of zero-carbon homes by 2016, but would reduce costs, introduce new product suppliers and supply chains, generate new construction methods and ensure that homes were designed to meet consumer needs without confusing or costly mechanical technologies.

The project had three key stages. The first was the preconstruction stage involving development of the supply chain and the design/technical specification, which were interactive and iterative processes that involved not only the supply chain but also the developers’ construction teams. The second stage was delivery, i.e. the construction phase. The third stage was as-built performance evaluation followed by a 12-month post-occupancy study. Dissemination of the findings was a continuous process throughout the project, via the AIMC4 website, technical papers, conferences, exhibitions and seminar presentations, press releases and visits to the AIMC4 sites.

The Development Sites and Homes Developed

A total of 17 AIMC4 homes were built. Barratt Developments selected a site in Corby to build four homes: one 4-bedroom detached house and one terrace of three houses (two with two bedrooms and one with three bedrooms).  They were built using H+H UK’s thin-joint mortar masonry system.

Crest Nicholson built five homes: one detached and four townhouses. They have been developed at Noble Park, the site of the former West Park Hospital in Epsom, Surrey. One of the homes was constructed using H+H UK’s thin-joint mortar masonry system whilst the other four units were constructed using Kingspan TEK’s structural insulated panel (SIPs) system.

Stewart Milne Group built AIMC4 specification homes on three sites: two 5-bedroom detached homes were built on a site in Portlethen, Aberdeenshire; a terrace of three 2- and 3-bedroom homes was built in Prestonpans near Edinburgh; and a terrace of three 2-bedroom affordable homes was built in Preston, Lancashire, for Communities Gateway Association. The five homes built in Scotland all used variations of Stewart Milne’s Sigma® II Build System (closed-panel timber frame) whilst the three homes built in England used the more established Sigma OP4 open-panel timber-frame system.

Following the development of an initial technical specification, the process of finding suppliers with the potential to develop products to meet the requirements began. This involved a novel approach to engaging with suppliers that was key to the success of the project. Ecobuild 2010 was used to publicise the search. The search focused not only on the construction industry, but also aimed to reach suppliers to non-construction sectors such as the automotive and aerospace industries.

Evaluation

A critical part of the project was the post-construction evaluation in order to understand how the homes perform, not only against technical criteria, including energy efficiency and carbon emissions, but also in terms of occupant satisfaction, i.e. how happy the occupants of the homes are with their living environment.

The first stage of the evaluation was a design -v- as-built evaluation of the energy efficiency of the AIMC4 fabric performance. In order to understand the actual thermal performance of the fabric, co-heating and heat flux tests were carried out prior to occupation. Thermal imaging was also used during the co-heating test to identify any potential areas of thermal bridging and/or air leakage. The AIMC4 co-heating research remains one of the biggest samples, of design -v- as-built homes energy efficient assessment in the marketplace.

The second stage of the evaluation, which started in 2012, is the post-occupancy evaluation, measuring in-use energy performance and customer behaviours and perceptions. Information was being gathered to better understand lifestyles and living habits, how occupant behaviour affects a home’s performance and how well the home provides thermal comfort and effective control of the building services, such as ventilation. Tailored home user guides were produced for the residents of each of the dwellings, including quick-start guides for specific technologies such as smart heating controls and ventilation systems.

All homes were subject to a comprehensive environmental audit to establish what equipment was being used in the homes and the potential energy use of that equipment. Electricity, gas and water sub-circuits were monitored. Sensors established indoor air quality, temperature levels and the impact of opening and closing windows on the overall energy analysis. A weather station put energy and ventilation use in the context of external conditions.

Overall Results

The overall results for the fourteen dwellings that were monitored were that five of the homes were within ±10% of the regulated energy usage shown in SAP. Four homes used less energy than SAP (76-86%) and five homes used more (up to 196%).

The learning from this research highlights some potential areas for improvement in SAP, in home design and in construction practice. For example, the triple glazed windows and waste water heat recovery systems have performed particularly well.

The results also highlight, the perhaps obvious point, that how the occupants use their homes is a major driver for their performance, and that this can have a larger impact on energy usage than the low energy design features of the homes. This shows the necessity for occupant-centred design and effective communication with purchasers.

The occupants found that the AIMC4 homes were comfortable and pleasant to live in with no indications of any health or additional maintenance issues. They were overwhelmingly satisfied with their fuel bills.

Our customers and our partners want low-carbon housing delivered at low cost and that is exactly what AIMC4 is delivering. By concentrating on a fabric-first solution we are driving important advances in materials, products and processes that will bring sustainable benefits to the house building industry and the UK supply chain.

Mark Clare, CEO, Barratt Developments plc

This is a ground-breaking solution to develop cost-effective fabric-first solutions to low-energy homes, with the consumer at the heart of the thinking. The collaborative approach is unique in the sector and draws in the skills and talents across the industry in one common goal.

John Slater, Group Managing Director, Stewart Milne Homes

What is the Code for Sustainable Homes?

The Code for Sustainable Homes is part of the Government’s programme to improve the sustainability of new dwellings, with a view to national targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions but taking a more holistic approach by considering a wide range of environmental and social impacts of new homes. It is used in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Code has six performance levels – Levels 1 to 6 – and assesses both new dwellings and the development site against nine categories. The category of relevance to this project is the mandatory requirement for energy efficiency at Code Level 4 (see Code for Sustainable Homes, Technical Guide, November 2010, Department for Communities and Local Government), that requires an improvement in dwelling emission rates of 25% over those set out in the English Building Regulations 2010 Approved Document Part L1A (in earlier versions of the Code this used to be a 44% improvement over the 2006 Regulations – which is roughly equivalent).

At the start of the AIMC4 project it was anticipated that this dwelling emission rate would be incorporated into English Building Regulations in 2013.  This was since delayed due to financial crisis, but has re-emerged as climate change pressures increase, and is now embedded in the UK Government’s Commitment to Net Zero Carbon Homes.

AIMC4 was a trailblazer project, winning several innovation and energy efficiency Industry Awards. It is interesting to note that in Summer 2021 the UK government introduced Fabric Energy Efficiency Standard (FEES) as a building regulatory requirement to ensure the building fabric performance standards are driven forward and that overheating and thermal comfort is a regulatory requirement to ensure thermal comfort levels are acceptable to occupants.

AIMC4 has played a major role in shaping the learning and solutions, driving a step change in energy efficiency and reduction on low carbon fabric first, fit and forget, building envelope design and construction.

Case Study

The Sigma House 2007

August 11, 2021
 

A Model for Green Homes.

UK’s first near zero carbon home – CSHL5

In 2007 Stewart Milne Group built the award winning Sigma Home, the first home in the UK, designed and built to Level 5 of the Code for Sustainable Homes.

Constructed at the BRE Innovation Park Watford in eight weeks and comprising a pair of semi-detached homes, one complete and one left unfinished to demonstrate the innovations, the Sigma Home benefited from modern methods of construction using SMTS award winning Sigma® II closed-panel timber building system, with a fabric first highly energy efficient building envelope at its heart.

The Home focused on Offsite Construction assemblies using a prefabricated foundation system, of pre-cast piles and beams, and the construction consisted of highly insulated Sigma® II closed panel timber frame system, with pre-fitted windows and doors, three different pre-fabricated timber floor cassettes, and pre-insulated roof cassettes. Bathroom pods were also pre-fabricated and installed during the construction process. The building was clad with a non-masonry, render and timber feature façade system.

The pair of homes were very innovative in their design utilising a small footprint to maximise urban space, split level design to create internal feature spaces, roof terraces to maximise high level views and provided external space whilst flooded with natural daylight. The homes each had passive stack natural ventilation through the staircase, to assist the dissipation of heat and draw in cool fresh external air. One side was suitable for simple conversion from a 3 bed terrace to a 4 bed terrace home. The other side was designed with a live/work unit on the ground floor, with a triplex home above, each with a separate entrance. The design allowed for these spaces to be converted in the future to one full home or a granny/disabled annex to the ground floor, subject to lifestyle changes.

The home underwent extensive design -v- as-built testing, including whole house co-heating testing to determine its actual heat loss performance. In addition, the home was occupied by a local family who lived in it for two weeks each season over the course of a year, to determine its thermal comfort and occupancy responses. Findings from the project were used to inform industry and evolve future home designs and MMC building systems, from the Stewart Milne Group.

In 2011, Rexel Energy Solutions and the Stewart Milne Group formed a partnership to refurbish the Sigma Home. Rexel refitted it to showcase and test the most innovative low energy products and technologies.

This was an evolving project which was constantly updated to incorporate the latest advances in the marketplace.  The decision to create this five-star accredited house as a reality gave Stewart Milne Group the opportunity to explore the challenges, identify practical solutions and assist key influencers in the housing sector in the feasibility of building near zero carbon homes in an affordable fashion.

Materials & Technologies

  • Building Envelope – High levels of building fabric insulation, thermal detailing and air tightness, provided by prefabricated closed panel wall, floor and roof elements coupled with pre-fitted high-performance triple glazed timber windows.
  • Renewable energy – heating and hot water provided by solar thermal, waste water heat recovery, mechanical ventilation and heat recovery, photovoltaic solar panels and a roof mounted wind turbine.
  • Thermal Comfort – Regulated through passive stack heat dissipation, natural passive cooling ventilation, couple with MVHR and innovative use of phase change wall board to regulate indoor temperature.
  • Offsite Construction – Prefabricated foundations, Sigma® II Award winning closed panel timber building system, pre-fitted windows and doors, pre-insulated closed panel roof cassettes, prefabricated bathroom and en-suite pods and lightweight timber and render building façade system. Pre-Manufactured Value was estimated at around 66%.

Achieving Level 5 compliance – key features

 Carbon Neutral

The house was designed to be carbon neutral in terms of space heating, hot water, lighting and ventilation fans. High performance building fabric, with triple glazed windows/doors made it a highly energy efficient design. The building fabric used award winning Sigma® II timber building system, offering a very low embodied carbon solution, along with added benefits of carbon sequestration, not recognised in regulations.

The house also included other carbon reducing measures such as low energy appliances, high efficiency condensing gas boiler, mechanical ventilation and heat recovery, photovoltaic solar power generation, solar thermal hot water, waste water heat recovery from showers, and wind turbine power generation, along with car charging, cycle storage and grey water recycled water systems.

Low water use

Water saving devices were used throughout – washbasin, bath and shower water was collected for flushing the toilets. Water usage was intended to be kept below 80 litres per person per day. Water butts were provided to collect rainwater from the roof for watering the garden.

 Flexible design

The house was designed with an open-plan layout to suit modern lifestyles. A central core contained bathrooms and other highly serviced areas along with the stairway, which provided vertical circulation. Floor plates were connected onto this core, allowing a flexibility of sizes and uses of space. This also allowed the home to change over time along the principles of Lifetime Homes. The adjoining house was built to show how it could be easily converted to a one bedroom flat or work unit on the ground floor and a 3-bed house above. The house was split-level, which gave interest to the spaces and high ceilings on the ground floor; this also kept the circulation to a minimum, which was required on this tight site. The open plan design also allowed  views, daylight and ventilation across the levels. Safety and security was enhanced by using a domestic sprinkler system combined with fire and security alarms.

 High density

Maximising family living in city centres is essential for true sustainability and we believed that this four-storey family home uses significantly less land than a traditional four bed home, making the proposal more affordable and in line with Government’s current thinking on increasing housing density.

 Solar chimney

On the roof of each house was a solar chimney positioned above the staircase.

 Energy

  • The Sigma Homes utilised renewable energy by way of heating hot water from solar thermal and photovoltaic roof panels, roof mounted wind turbines and solar gain.
  • A solar stack and ‘whole house’ mechanical ventilation and heat recovery system-controlled temperature in a passive system.
  • The high levels of insulation provided by the wall, floor and roof elements coupled with high performance timber windows gave excellent thermal performance of the external envelope.
  • All timber and timber products were from sustainable sources.

This innovative project involved experts at many different levels within the Group, creating a team approach in which skills and experience across all divisions worked together to produce this end result.

  • Air Tightness Result : 1.00 m3(h.m2) at 50Pa
  • Element Value: U value W/m2K
  • Walls: 0.15
  • Glazing: 0.68 triple windows
  • Roof: 0.15
  • Floor: 0.18

Case Study

AIMCH

August 11, 2021
 

The UK Government has stated that the UK needs an additional 120,000 homes each year. The housing sector faces many challenges in meeting this target, including skills shortages, an ageing workforce, poor productivity, low output and low affordability.

Set up in 2019, AIMCH (Advanced Industrialised Methods for the Construction of Homes) is a three-year research & development project aiming to help tackle the UK housing crisis by building new homes faster, to higher quality and more cost effectively than masonry methods using panelised MMC systems.  The project will complete April 2022.

 The project is a collaboration between Stewart Milne Group, Barratt Developments PLC, London & Quadrant Housing Trust Ltd, the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre (CSIC) and Forster Roofing Services Ltd.

With funding by Innovate UK, the project was set up to tackle the challenges faced by the housing sector and become a major player in the housing sector by identifying and developing industrialised offsite solutions needed to meet current and future housebuilding demands. These have been trialled on live housing projects, with successful new methods then being commercialised and brought to market in volume.

The goal of the project is to support the sector by delivering up to 300,000 home target. The project has potential to impact on 35,000 homes being delivered by AIMCH partners across the UK each year.

Outputs

The project has already published its two year report, outlining in more detail outputs delivered from the project thus far. The focus of activity and outputs are centred around:

  1. Digital Working & BIM
  2. Standardisation
  3. Industrialised Housing Pattern Books
  4. Advanced Manufacturing
  5. Future Factories
  6. Panelised MMC systems and solutions
  7. Site Trialling and Prototyping
  8. Site Productivity Monitoring
  9. Embodied carbon
  10. Whole Life Costing
  11. MMC Viability

All outputs from AIMCH project are freely available for review and download from

  https://www.aimch.co.uk/outputs

Stewart Dalgarno, AIMCH Project Director and Stewart Milne Group Director of Product Development, said: “Despite the challenges of Covid-19, the project team has worked hard to build momentum and has delivered some important outputs which confirm panelised modern methods of construction (MMC) as a very real and viable alternative to masonry.  Over the final year we hope to take this to a new level.”

Mark Farmer, MMC expert and AIMCH Chair, said “The AIMCH project has already made great progress across a number of fronts which will better enable greater MMC adoption across all parts of industry including SME’s. The work done on design standardisation, panelised and sub-assembly system applications, productivity and carbon measurement and manufacturing process optimisation are all rich sources of knowledge for others to learn from and use.”

Prime Minister’s Visit

The Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Barratt Homes’ Stretton development Kings Quarter in August 2020, having the chance to see AIMCH homes being constructed using panelised (Category 2) modern methods of construction (MMC). The visit came as part of Johnson’s build back better campaign, visiting sites across the country to speak on new planning reform and learn more about the future of the construction industry. Barratt Developments’ Chief Executive David Thomas gave the Prime Minister a site tour along with local MP Andy Carter.

David Thomas, CEO Barratt Development said: “We were delighted to show the Prime Minister around our high-quality Kings Quarter development in Warrington and to hear government’s plans to reform the planning system.”

Next Steps

Visits like this are an important part of the AIMCH project, as one of the project’s goals is to further awareness and understanding of offsite manufacturing and construction. AIMCH will continue to inform and consult with key government and industry stakeholders as the project moves towards conclusion in 2022. In the project’s final year, several outputs and learnings for the sector will be completed and shared on the AIMCH website as well as at industry events, with final findings published in April 2022.

For AIMCH updates  https://www.aimch.co.uk  

Case Study

Birds Marsh View, Chippenham

July 30, 2021
 

Birds Marsh View is an exciting new community in a much-sought after area of North Chippenham, comprising a selection of 2,3 & 4 bedroom homes and 1 &2 bedroom apartments  surrounded by 11 acres of open space.

Close by is Birds Marsh Woods nature trails, with 6.5km of footpaths and cycleways to explore. There are also plans to plant more than 300 news trees in the area.

Stewart Milne Timber Systems is on the third phase of the project, with one more phase to be done before final completion. In the first phase which began in May 2018, SMTS built 60 timber frame homes in the new development. Phase 2, which began in February 2020, saw the construction of 11 homes and three apartment blocks with a total of 40 apartments. Phase 3, beginning August 2021, will see the construction of another 51 timber-frame homes. The fourth phase of the project will be completed next year.

  • This was one of our early projects for Barratt Homes Bristol and each phase has been completed on schedule.
  • PVCu fascia and soffits were fitted by our erect team for a smooth transition between erect and the roofer. This helped to get the houses and apartments watertight immediately.
  • Factory-fabricated floor cassettes were delivered with the frames and craned into position providing a higher degree of quality and a safer method of working.
  • The roofs were fabricated on the ground and craned up into position as the safest method of working, minimising working from height in most cases.
  • All four phases were secured within budgets and timeframes.
  • The wall types are our open panel Alpha system with a U-value of 0.24.

Stewart Milne Timber Systems is now engaged on seven live schemes in this region with Barratt Homes.

Case Study

Birnam Mews, Tiddington

September 18, 2020
 

Situated in the Warwickshire countryside, Birnam Mews is a mix of one, two, three and four bedroom houses set amongst beautifully landscaped surroundings. The development is a natural extension of what is already a warm and welcoming community in Tiddington, Stratford-upon-Avon.

Part of the framework deal that L&Q have signed with Stewart Milne Timber Systems, the properties represent L&Q’s mission to create larger living spaces than an average new build home.

  • 60 Affordable Housing units
  • Sigma® II 140mm closed panel with factory-fitted windows.
  • Party wall cavity fully filled with edge sealing to achieve a 0.0 uValue W/(m2K)
  • 235 JJI floor cassette complete with perimeter insulation and a floor cassette membrane
  • Standard trusses, top hat trusses

 

Case Study

A2 Dominion Bicester Eco Village

September 18, 2020
 

A2Dominion’s development in North West Bicester is a 393-home project, aiming to deliver the most sustainable living in the UK for its residents. With the homes designed to achieve true zero carbon rating, delivering energy efficient, good quality affordable housing is crucial to the success of the project. Timber systems were therefore an ideal fit for the priorities of the ambitious task at hand.

The project at Bicester was the UK’s first eco town, designed to achieve high standards of environmental sustainability. Stewart Milne Timber Systems worked with A2Dominion and Willmott Dixon, the main contractor, to provide its Sigma® II Build System for 94 of the first 393 homes as part of the “Examplar” phase of the project.

  • Homes attained Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH) Level 5.
  • Fabric first approach, complemented by renewable technologies to create a sustainable community.
  • Air testing conducted prior to first fixing, building in assured performance of the fabric.
  • Pre-assembled flat roof modules and insulated floor cassettes meant pair of semi-detached homes fully insulated and weathertight in 72 hours.
  • Safe and efficient way to complete homes on site.
  • Off-site construction benefits – quality of the timber systems assisted by precision engineering compared to erecting on site.
  • Reduced costs on preliminary site preparation.
  • Reduced health and safety risks.
  • Featured the UK’s largest domestic solar panel array at 17,500 sqm mounted on all rooftops.

Case Study

The Meadows, Thurrock

September 15, 2020
 

Located on a former school site, calfordseaden provided architectural and principal designer services to transform this location into nine modern new dwellings for the executive and/or large family housing market. With the site boasting four different house types, it was key to balance a contemporary style and generous room sizes with a unique feel throughout each.
Features include offsite manufactured timber frame construction, bespoke house design and high specification components, including individual external cladding materials. Sustainable, low carbon materials were utilised alongside these features, together with Knauf Supafil Frame® insulation for a true fabric first approach.

This was the regeneration of an unsecured derelict site of brownfield land. Building on this site led to a reduction of anti-social behaviour, created a sustainable development and gained support from the local residents who were consulted throughout the planning and construction phases. The developers also engaged with the local community by making a charitable contribution towards the North Stifford Village group for their armistice preparations and building concrete bases for new seating around the village war memorial.

The teams worked in partnership, holding regular design team meetings and ultimately successfully delivering their common goal.

  • Completed ahead of schedule with early timber frame completion.
  • Completed below the approved cost plan.
  • Built to quality exceeding expectation.
  • Delivered highest health and safety standards.
  • Higher than average scores on the Considerate Contractors Scheme site reports.
  • Development used as pilot project to inform energy efficiency of future schemes.
  • Key driver was to unlock funding for local infrastructure improvements including local road network.