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The challenge
The seven-storey, 215-bedroom, 29-apartment Wave Hotel at Butlins, Bognor Regis, cost £22.5 million to build and used a unique lightweight modular system to save on costs and materials. It opened in July 2012 and is a crucial part of the ongoing redevelopment of the West Sussex…
The challenge
The £22 million scheme was to develop a new A&E department, linked to the existing hospital buildings and with a helipad on the roof for the local air ambulance. The new three-storey building is located at the front of the existing hospital which remained operational…
The challenge
The Co-op wanted to build a landmark building for its new headquarters. The 16-storey, 330,000sq ft building contains general offices, a call centre, meeting rooms, a restaurant, a café, and test kitchens. There is also car and bike parking, loading bays, and ancillary…
Masonry buildings are by their nature and materials resistant to fire; but all buildings have cavities and some concealed spaces where fire can spread undetected.
To minimise the dangers of undetected fires you must provide barriers to reduce the area of the void space and to contain any spread…
It’s a mistake to assume that all pressure treated wood is the same. Whilst one piece of treated wood may look very much like any other the level of preservative protection could be very different.
That’s because the British Standard for wood preservation, BS8417, says that the level of…
The independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety is being led by Dame Judith Hackitt and the interim report was published in December 2017.
Its purpose is to make recommendations that will ensure we have a sufficiently robust regulatory system for the future and to provide…
Fires on building sites cost the construction industry over one million pounds per day, with over two thirds of them started deliberately. All buildings under construction are vulnerable and no construction method or material is immune: brick and stone can crack, flake and disintegrate; concrete…
Severe driving rain is a common occurrence in the UK and these days even sheltered locations may be subject to high levels of deluge. Flashings and cavity trays offer a way around this problem, but should they be provided to canopy roofs?
Site-formed canopies
Where a site-formed canopy is…
Did you know that removing plaster, plasterboard, cladding and render from uninsulated external walls is notifiable work if you’re affecting more than 50% of the wall? This means you must involve building control - making a Building Notice application to your local authority is an easy way to get…
The above photograph was taken by one of our building control surveyors carrying out a site inspection, and shows how attention to detail (or a lack of!) can lead to future problems. This extension will suffer from moisture problems, but there is not one reason why – there are three.
Look…