23-Spaceover Module house off-site construction News 040607

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Spaceover - SPACEOVER LAUNCHES FIRST HOUSE AT OFF-SITE 2007

Two Bed House On Display Is Ready To Live In And Part Of Live Project
Spaceover, the rapidly expanding off-site apartment builder, will be showcasing its first house at the BRE Off-Site 2007 exhibition.The two-bed house that will be on show at Off-Site 2007 meets all Government standards set for 2016 and will become part of a live housing project being completed by Spaceover in Harlow, where it will be erected after the show.
Said Spaceover director Steve Barrett: “Unlike the other building projects demonstrated at the show our house is not a concept, it is a building that has been produced within a normal budget, is ready to live in, can be bought today and will be ready for occupation immediately after the show”.
A Spaceover house takes just one hour for each module to be lifted from the delivery lorry onto its foundations. All internal fittings, including the heating, ventilation and bathroom are pre-fitted, and the house modules are simply connected together and ‘plugged and plumbed’ into the utilities. They are finished with a choice of cladding materials.
Like all Spaceover’s apartments, the houses already adhere to all Government regulations as far forward as 2016, are covered by the new LPS 2020:2005 Standard for Innovative Methods of Dwelling Construction and are very environmentally friendly with high levels of heat and acoustic insulation. Spaceover believe they will be able to comply with the Government’s new scheme for Carbon Zero homes, which will be zero rated for stamp duty.
They are also considerably cheaper to run not only because of the excellent insulation but also because of the use of ground source heat pump technology which offers a 60% saving on the cost of heating and hot water.
The flexible house designs, created by London-based architects Proctor and Matthews, can grow from two to four bedrooms, and modules can even be removed at a later date. They are the first non-apartment homes that Spaceover has produced.
Spaceover’s move into producing complete houses follows its successful development of over 100 apartment projects including the Harlow site where it is putting up 78 apartments and two, three and four bed houses – making it the country’s largest modular housing development. The first 35 homes have already been sold to the Moat Housing Group.
The company formed just over four years ago in 2003 by the joint managing directors: Steve Barrett and Tony Fox, schoolboy friends who both had engineering backgrounds and, having lost touch, met up once again via Friends United. It is based in Faygate, West Sussex.
Added Steve Barrett: “All the Government research shows there is a pressing need for affordable homes particularly near the city centres where key workers and those starting out on the housing ladder are employed.
“Our innovative off-site construction system SBS © not only guarantees the high quality of every unit but makes building possible in small site that could not otherwise have been developed, a factor which is now being appreciated by more and more housing associations, trusts and developers who are working with us to give their customers quality homes in city locations”.
A key element of all Spaceover homes is that with LPS 2020 certification they are all fully mortgageable and insurable. Spaceover were the first company to be awarded LPS 2020, at Interbuild in April 2007. This standard has been developed with support from the Association of British Insurers (ABI), the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), to allow the assessment of innovative building systems that have yet to gain a performance track record in the UK.
Another important factor, given the requirement for new homes in the future is that the sort of modern methods of construction (MMC) used by Spacover address the current lack of skilled labour, as well as making considerably better use of materials, thus reducing the carbon footprint of any development, as well as disruption for neighbours.
Developments are finished up to 60% quicker than with standard building methods, costs are reduced by 5-15%, there is around 10% less wastage, the site is around 100 time safer than traditional construction, and fixed price contracts are agreed up-front against definitive specifications with the end user or development team.

Email: john@presslinkgroup.co.uk