refurbishment

In 2018, the Hackitt review required building managers to keep digital building records, from the design and conceptualisation phase through its life cycle. With the boom years of High Rise Residential Buildings (HRRB) development between 1953 and 1972, and with 6544 buildings erected in the half-century following the end of World War 2, nearly all of the remaining 270 HRRBs were built in a pre-digital age.

Thus, in 2021, complying with new design regulations while creating new digital records for those HRRBs presents a major challenge.

In any property, whether it’s a new build or a refurbishment project, there will inevitably be exposed pipework that needs covering for reasons of safety and aesthetics, or as a deterrent from tampering, accidental damage and vandalism, particularly for exterior pipework.

For housing associations and local authorities dealing with older housing stock that requires heating system upgrades, fire sprinkler system retro-fits and regular maintenance, as part of the property management regime, large quantities of exposed pipework can present a number of challenges.

As part of a wide scale refurbishment project from Enfield Council, Langley Structures Ltd delivered a series of Flat to Pitched (FTP) roof conversions across multiple residential premises in New Southgate. This project recently won RCI’s Pitched Roofing Awards for ‘best use of a flat to pitch system’.

The project saw the conversion applied to seven buildings located on Bowes Road, Cross Road and Massey Close in Enfield, as part of the larger ‘New Southgate’ refurbishment being carried out in the area. Approved in 2010, the New Southgate regeneration project provides quality homes, local shops and community services across the neighbourhood.

Langley Structures worked alongside Playle & Partners LLP’s, who provided lead architectural services as well as project management, contract administration, quantity surveying and principle designer roles. ENGIE, Langley Structures’ Approved Contractor, delivered the regeneration solution.

With an ageing population and only 7% of housing stock in England offering even the most basic accessibility features , there is a growing need for housing associations to offer flexible accommodation. An area that is the most challenging for those with mobility issues is the bathroom. Here Stuart Reynolds, Head of Product and Marketing at AKW, shows how housing associations can have the best of both worlds – contemporary, long-lasting bathrooms for day-to-day use and then, when needed cost-effective transitioning to accessible wet rooms.

When evaluating opportunities to cut costs in social housing refurbishment or retro-fit fire sprinkler installation in high rise blocks as part of a fire safety framework agreement, pipe boxing probably wouldn’t feature highly, yet Pendock products are helping HAs and LAs save money and time on site.

The Pendock Profiles range of specialist casings and pipe & fire sprinkler boxing has been a common feature in social housing for well over 30 years and have been used on heating system refurbishments, boiler upgrades and fire-sprinkler installations by most UK social landlords on countless projects.

In June 2017, a fire claimed 72 lives at Grenfell Tower in Kensington. Eleven months later, Dame Judith Hackitt, who was commissioned to determine the cause of the disaster, released a report featuring eight key recommendations to limit the chances of similar catastrophes occurring in the future.

Those recommendations require building managers to keep digital building records, from the design and conceptualisation phase through its life cycle. With the boom years of High Rise Residential Buildings (HRRB) development between 1953 and 1972, and with 6544 buildings erected in the half-century following the end of World War 2, nearly all of the remaining 270 HRRBs were built in a pre-digital age.

Easy to fit decorative boxings from UK Boxings have been used for more than 20 years by UK housing associations, local authorities and social housing contractors to hide pipework for fire sprinklers, heating systems and below boilers to save time and money on-site.