Building Supply Chain for Mass Refurbishment of Houses: Policy & Regulation: Technology opportunity report (WP6 D3)

Abstract:

This project looked at designing a supply chain solution to improve the energy efficiency of the vast majority of the 26 million UK homes which will still be in use by 2050.It looked to identify ways in which the refurbishment and retrofitting of existing residential properties can be accelerated by industrialising the processes of design, supply and implementation, while stimulating demand from householders by exploiting additional opportunities that come with extensive building refurbishment.The project developed a top-to-bottom process, using a method of analysing the most cost-effective package of measures suitable for a particular property, through to how these will be installed with the minimum disruption to the householder. This includes identifying the skills required of the people on the ground as well as the optimum material distribution networks to supply them with exactly what is required and when.<br /><br />The purpose of this work package task has been to investigate three particular concepts;<ol><li>&ldquo;To define within the context of the OTEoEH project what an acceptable level of intervention will be for the five main housing types selected for scenario testing.&rdquo;</li><li>&ldquo;To undertake a Technology development activity to identify technical opportunities that are capable of reducing identified risks of refurbishment to acceptable levels as defined above.&rdquo;</li><li>&ldquo;To include in the series of workshops, special attention to skills, culture and systems and processes issues within the construction industry.&rdquo;</li></ol>This paper is deliverable 7.3, covering the workshops. As well as developing technical solutions the workshops also looked at complementing the work on skills and cultural issues addressed in workpackages 7.1and 7.2. This helped to highlight some of reasons behind the statistics on fatalities in decoration, reflections on the industries culture and the use of safety equipment and looked at the barriers to innovation, especially the cost of testing and certification.&nbsp; The workshop conclusions were:-<ol><li>New concepts and ideas<ul><li>Adaptations to ladders, scaffolding and towers to produce tailored safe efficient working platform solutions, for example for the fixing of insulation, cladding or drylining.</li><li>The use of attachments for cherry pickers etc. to aid handling of windows (especially triple glazed), cladding, drylining and insulation.</li><li>The use of laser scanning and CNC cutting to prepare materials offsite, particularly internal wall insulation</li><li>The prefabrication of roof units for loft conversions to minimise time on site</li><li>The use of drones to photograph/video as part of the survey of the property &ndash; particularly for difficult to see areas that would require a surveyor to work at height eg roofs</li></ul></li><li>Skills and Culture<ul><li>The poly-competent team will need to be competent contractor. They will have to have embedded a safety culture and have received training in generic good safety practices and risk identification. This will be the primary means by which risk will be managed and will include reducing risks from slips, trips, falls and handling.</li></ul></li></ol>Please note this report was produced in 2011/2012 and its contents may be out of date.

Publication Year:

2013

Publisher:

ETI

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5286/ukerc.edc.000165

Author(s):

Bottone, D. and Pope, W.