Anglian has completed an external envelope refurbishment scheme for Registered Social Landlord North Lincolnshire Homes. The refurbished houses are British Iron and Steel Federation (BISF) non-traditional construction, of which approximately 35,000 were built in the UK between 1944 and 1950. The scope of refurbishment included external wall insulation, new fascia, soffit and rainwater goods, PVC-u windows and composite doors. The BISF Type A1 properties have a simple steel frame clad with concrete panels on the ground floor with profiled metal sheeting above; the properties had little thermal or acoustic insulation, and were very expensive to heat. The entire outer skin of the buildings was stripped facilitating a structural assessment of the steel frame. The building was over clad with plywood on timber studding, before 90mm thick expanded polystyrene (EPS) insulation was applied. The surface finish was Harvest aggregate dash incorporating a full brick effect soldier band. The External Wall Insulation system used was Structherm’s British Board of Agrement approved Insulated Render System which provides a thirty year guarantee. As part of the refurbishment Anglian’s Secured By Design windows and composite doors were fitted together with GRP door canopies.
The works were designed to deliver an improvement in building ‘U’ values from 0.88 W/m2/K to 0.29 W/m2/K for the ground floor and from 0.96 W/m2/K to 0.29 W/m2/K for the first floor. The houses were occupied throughout the project, the Anglian Resident Liaison Officer ensured that disruption was minimised and the residents’ daily routines were respected.