CASE STUDY: Bristol City Council
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Project Details
Project Title: Airey PRC (OBCM) Open Book Partnership Housing Refurbishment
Client: Bristol City Council
Main Contractor: Alfred Bagnall & Sons (West) Ltd
Contract Period: January 2005 - June 2006
Design Brief: To replace existing concrete cladding wall panels with ‘Steni Nature’ stone faced panels and replace the old timber weatherboards on the gables with ‘Alcoa Grand Sierra’ vinyl weatherboarding. Replace the windows with PVCu double glazed windows, re-roof and up-grade the insulation value of the properties to 0.22 u-value. Bristol City Council in an innovative major refurbishment scheme under the ‘Decent Homes Initiative’ has committed itself to upgrading its PRC housing stock. These properties built in the 1950's to alleviate a chronic housing shortage were in desperate need of repair. Although the scheme was originally to upgrade ‘Airey’ homes, this has been extended to all the PRC's to include ‘Wates’, ‘Cornish’, ‘Reema’ and ‘Unity’ homes. This encompasses around 1,200 homes located around the whole of Bristol. The partnership was made up of Bristol City Council (client), Alfred Bagnall (main contractor), MBE (building engineering consultants), Yewtree (cladding specialist installer) and Almura as the supplier of all the cladding materials.
Cladding Solutions: In 2004 Bristol City Council approached various cladding suppliers to offer up a solution to re-clad its Airey homes at the same time as improving the properties thermal insulation. Having considered all types of cladding it decided on the Steni Nature cladding system as it was the only material that met all of their specification requirements. Principal amongst these was the ability to withstand not only the elements and vandalism but also its ability to add ‘racking’ strength to the overall system.
Steni Nature’s racking strength was important because the original concrete panels were tied into the main concrete support posts of the property. These concrete panels gave the whole structure its rigidity and structural strength. In order that the structure remained stable MBE drew up a specification which included timber frames and Steni Nature which in effect made the existing concrete posts redundant.
A decision was also made to use Alcoa’s ‘Grand Sierra’ timber effect weatherboarding to replace the old painted timber boarding on the gable ends. As both the Almura products used are ‘dry cladding’, which enables them to be fitted in all weathers, the installer was able to finish the refurbishment ahead of the scheduled programme of works. Bristol City Council partnered the project with Bristol based Alfred Bagnall - a very experienced contractor that has been involved in non-traditional housing refurbishments before and has previous experience of installing Steni Nature. Being involved at a very early stage Almura was able to produce design solutions and give technical assistance to Bristol City Council and MBE to ensure the success of the scheme.
The partnering scheme ran between December 2005 to June 2006 and saw Almura Building Products actively involved in the project throughout, ensuring that the cladding replacement part of the programme stayed on track. Almura Building Products, providing a one stop supply and technical design service, used their experience and knowledge of Steni Nature and Alcoa to ensure that Bristol City Council, Alfred Bagnall and the residents themselves all share in the benefits offered by the unique products on offer from Almura. Steni Nature is easy to install, has real long-term resistance to the elements (as proven by installations dating back over 40 years), is highly resistant to vandalism, has a wide choice of colours, and design flexibility.