Member Article

High quality new homes for historic Tees Valley village

This highly insulated new Karbon Homes development in the picturesque village of Greatham near Hartlepool is nearing completion after rapid progress in recent months.

The £6m Station Manor development of 36 affordable family homes and bungalows provides high performance properties which fit seamlessly into the character of the local area.

Karbon has worked with local development partner Gus Robinson Developments in Hartlepool and specialist contractor Applebridge, based in Middlesbrough, to develop the homes using the insulated concrete formwork (ICF) method of construction.

Homes England has provided grant funding to Karbon to contribute to the cost of construction.

Using ICF is now well established in the UK construction industry as it can help speed up the construction process and delivers highly insulated, energy efficient homes.

Karbon expects residents living at Station Manor will see a reduced spend on heating, even in the cold winter months, due to the high standard of insulation and airtightness in the new homes.

ICF was recently showcased on the Channel Four series Sarah Beeny’s New Life in the Country, as the TV property expert used it to build a new family home in Somerset.

It involves large, hollow foam blocks being erected to form the basic structure of the homes, then concrete is poured into the cavity in the blocks to form completely solid, rigid walls – all a lot quicker than using conventional bricks and mortar.

Once the ICF structures were complete at Greatham, the 36 homes were given a traditional looking exterior, with a façade looking like a conventional brick finish and render to match the local area.

Karbon and Gus Robinson worked closely together to ensure construction work could continue in a covid-secure fashion during 2020 and into the new year.

Zoey Hawthorne, assistant director of development delivery at Karbon Homes, said: “We are excited to deliver this new affordable housing development in Greatham.

“Using ICF construction has enabled us to make good progress on site, minimise the amount of construction traffic coming in and out, and deliver the development as we set out to do – even allowing for the changes to working methods required by the coronavirus pandemic.”

Stephen Bell from Gus Robinson Developments said: “There is a clear drive to build homes with greater levels of energy efficiency, and which can be bult in new and innovative ways.

“This scheme achieves both and also brings a high level of design quality to the picturesque village of Greatham.

“Despite needing to change our site processes through the development because of Covid, the Gus Robinson team supported in no small way by our partners at Karbon Homes have delivered an exemplar MMC project.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Graeme King .