Off-site is Right

Below is a transcript from an article written in Public Sector Building magazine. You can download the full article here.

Off-site building. Zero Carbon. Green Building. Passive Building. Do we really know what these terms mean? There appears to be much confusion within the construction industry. This may be due to ignorance, whilst the more cynical would say that this is deliberate.

The building industry is notoriously conservative. "If Grandfather didn’t do it, I won’t either". However, change is coming! It will soon be a statutory requirement to justify how much the building industry contributes to the country’s carbon footprint. Concrete, the most widely used building material, producing 5% of humanity’s carbon footprint may no longer be considered acceptable as a green product.

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Subsidence and Loss Adjusters - who knows best?

Below is a transcript from an article written in RFW Roofs, Floors & Walls - a DCE Publication. You can download the full article here.

With any subsidence claim, it is notoriously difficult for homeowners to make their Insurer pay for a proper repair. They are likely to have unsuitable, cost-cutting solutions specified by a Loss Adjuster with little or no experience in specifying specialist repairs.

Some of the Insurance Industry's delaying tactics are:

1. Arguing that the subsidence is ‘settlement’ – One needs to ask what has caused the "settlement". Settlement is usually not covered by insurance and would only occur on relatively new properties.
2. Crack-stitching - While this is often good practise in addition to structural repairs, crack-stitching is not a structural solution.
3. Vegetation - Some trees, like large willow trees, will absorb a large volume of water from a clay soil, causing it to shrink. Many other trees, like holly, require very little water, even if they are quite large.
4. Monitoring - "Let’s see why your cracked house is moving!" - What difference does it make? 99% of the time Target can just get it repaired, rather than waste a year with academic study.

After partial underpinning in 1989 to her 1930’s house, Mrs. Norman became concerned about her home. In 2005, cracks were appearing in numerous areas, so she contacted her Insurer. Her Insurer appointed a Loss Adjuster to handle the claim.

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Bottom Up Bathroom Replacement

Below is a transcript from an article written in ha magazine. You can download the full article here.

Sutton Housing Partnership’s St. Helier Estate presents more logistical obstacles to refurbishment than most low-rise developments of its era, with restricted access being high on the list: where narrow roads lead to the mainly terraced properties, while previous well-intentioned improvements now add the nightmare of asbestos removal to the mix.

It was, in fact, the compact nature of Target’s Heli Pile® system - driven using an adapted jack-hammer - that earned the company the contract nine years ago to replace generally superficial foundations that had allowed the existing bathroom additions to crack apart from the rear walls; another company having the task of erecting new and bigger, panelised bathrooms.

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See Also...

• Heli Pile®