Cedar House
Project Details
- Client: Christian Care Homes
- Market Sector: Residential
- Location: Essex
- Year: 2014
Nudura ICF slashes energy costs by over 50% at Care Home
A new residential care home is saving more than 50 per cent on comparable energy costs using the unique NUDURA Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) system.In a £1.1m project, the 1,400m Cedar House has been completely rebuilt and actual energy bills for 2013 cost just £13,000. The Christian Care 2Homes Charity has a similar 700m property which consumed some £14,000 p.a. in gas and electricity combined during the same period.
The home is also provides a very comfortable living and working environment.
With quality of accommodation as top of mind, the Christian Care Homes Charity wanted to build a 32-bedroomed residential home on an existing site in Stanford-Le-Hope Essex.
Additional land with bungalow was purchased adjacent to the home and both buildings were demolished to make way for the new-build, Cedar House.
To maximise land use, the charity also applied for planning consent for a further six-bedroomed extension.
Director of Christian Care Homes Mico Bienvenu said: 'Our aims are to provide a comfortable, caring, therapeutic home in a friendly environment in which residents can enjoy spending the rest of their lives with dignity and love. Quality of architecture and accommodation provide much more than just a place to live for elderly people.
The building offers a really lovely environment for residents to call home.'
With the client group and service users at the very heart of the planning process, the building's concept was developed collaboratively between architectural designer Alan King of Planning Services Limited and Mico Bienvenu. Nudura ICF was to form the basement to house key service areas such as the home's own laundry. A hemp-lime timber frame system was planned for the above-ground build but was then rejected before starting on site. Nudura offered much improved speed of build and there were also concerns over lime dust potentially contaminating the atmosphere in this already built-up area.
The NUDURA system was subsequently used by main contractor AC Eales Builders Ltd. to construct the full two-storey, external envelope. The basement was built using the 250mm form and the two storey front elevation and the single storey building to the rear were both constructed with the 200mm option. Mico Bienvenu praised the builders' meticulous attention to detail and their commitment to maximise accessibility in all areas of the home.
Tony Eales of AC Eales Builders said: 'Nudura is so much cleaner and less labour intensive than timber frame or other traditional methods of envelope construction. The completed project took 16 months to construct, including the additional six bedroom extension and NUDURA saved us about three months on site. We liked how the forms arrive flat-packed on site as they took up minimal space and there was no heavy handling needed which was a real plus for health and safety procedures.
'Cedar House was our first project in ICF and given that we've got a more than a few years of construction experience under our belts, the initial training course was very straightforward. Since then we've built a bungalow in Nudura and are just starting a school extension.'
Nudura's flexibility of build programme also allowed for the six-bed extension to be added while main construction was in progress. Flexibility on time was crucial in order for Thurrock Planning Department to complete their desk stop study and grant consent for the additional bedrooms.
Cedar House achieved a category B energy rating and has LABC approval. Heating costs in healthcare establishments can be prohibitively expensive and the outlay was monitored over a 12 month period. Typically, structures built with NUDURA will save up to 70% in heat energy costs.
Nudura's Jean Marc Bouvier said: 'Nudura Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) provide design professionals, architects, home owners and contractors with a more efficient way to build concrete homes and commercial structures.
Nudura's ICFs exceed global building codes. Nudura leads on sustainability, energy efficiency and speed of build. Recent accolades are winner in the global ICF awards for 'Curly House'; an exceptional UK example of low energy architecture not limiting design; and in CIBSE's nomination as Energy Saving Product of the Year 2014.
A video which demonstrates just how easy and versatile Nudura is to install can viewed here.
