Great Yarmouth Retrofit – Entry 20

All finished at Great Yarmouth! The secure entry system has been completed, final checks have been carried out and the site has now been cleared away. The retrofit has proved to be very successful, evident in the fact that the tenants haven’t needed to use their heating even on the coldest days.

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This is a great step towards eliminating fuel poverty for the residents – we anticipate an 80% reduction in heating demand. Deep retrofits like this are essential if we want to ensure that the UK meets its ongoing commitments to reducing Carbon emissions, and we’re seeing a real drive in the industry to achieve this, as seen in this article: https://www.constructionleadershipcouncil.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/CLC-National-Retrofit-Strategy-final-for-consultation.pdf

We would be very happy to welcome you to visit the finished retrofit once we are out of lockdown. Please get in touch with us via email (enquiries@beattiepassive.com) or by telephone (01953 687332) if you would like to book a visit.

Many thanks to our partners Enhabit and Oxford Brookes University for their help on this retrofit, and we look forward to seeing how the flats perform over the next year, with continual monitoring carried out by Oxford Brookes University.

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Great Yarmouth Retrofit – Entry 19

Almost finished at Great Yarmouth! The new balconies have now been installed to replace the old balconies that we removed right at the start of the retrofit.

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The Passivhaus door at the back of the building has been fitted, with the front door going in by Friday 4^th December. The fibre glass roof has also been fixed on the front and back of the porch. The Automatic Opening Vent (AOV) has been installed within the second floor hallway, and inside each flat, the remedial works around the windows are now complete. Final decorations are now underway, and we are looking to complete handover before Christmas!

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We would be happy to welcome people to site to see the finished result – please get in touch if you would like to visit: enquiries@beattiepassive.com.

Great Yarmouth Retrofit – Entry 18

Following our remobilisation to site, we have made sure to make changes to the way we work and take precautions to ensure safe working in the era of COVID-19. We’ve implemented social distancing measures, ensured that masks are now worn all the time while on site, and are taking temperatures of work staff daily to help stop the spread of Coronavirus.

With our safe working environment in place, we have progressed well with work on site. The scaffolding has now been fully striked, and all the Passivhaus certified windows have been installed.

Work is almost complete, but there are still a few bits of beautification to do on the exterior and making good on all flat interiors. COVID will throw up some difficulties in this regard, but as on site we will be implementing measures that will put the safety of tenants first and allow us to carry out the required works in a safe way.

We are on the home stretch now and are very excited for final completion. We also look forward to hosting an open day once work is complete, where guests can visit the finished product.

Great Yarmouth Retrofit – Entry 17

After a long enforced break due to COVID-19, we have recently been very happy to be able to return to site and get to work on finishing the retrofit.

So far progress has been good, we have continued with the window fitting in the individual flats. We’ve also been able to start taking down some of the scaffolding.

Great Yarmouth Retrofit – Entry 16

The first Passivhaus certified windows have arrived on site and the team are now installing these into the individual flats. We look forward to completing all window installation over the next couple of weeks.

We’re also making sure to join the airtightness layer around each window reveal.

After carrying out our thorough checking process, we required the insulation providers to come back onto site to pump the small amount of insulation missed in the roof. After that, we continued installation of the Catnic steel roof, and the team have finished off the eaves detail.

Great Yarmouth Retrofit – Entry 15

We begin this entry by welcoming our Great Yarmouth retrofit partners Oxford Brookes University and Enhabit Limited. It was good to show our partners the nearly finished product and look forward to welcoming them back after the retrofit is complete.

Half of the roof installation is now complete – the whole of the back half is now done and we’re looking to have this completed within the next couple of weeks.

In addition, the Steni-board cladding is now about 60% done around the back, and the Teckwood cladding on the back is roughly 30% complete, and we will be finishing this off next week. We are also looking forward to installing the first Passivhaus windows in the coming weeks.

Finally, it was our pleasure to welcome ITV Anglia to our King Street site recently, to talk about our TCosy retrofit and the greater need for energy efficient retrofits across the country, in the face of a worsening climate emergency. You can find the full story at https://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2020-03-02/the-energy-efficient-homes-helping-to-tackle-climate-change-in-the-region/

Great Yarmouth Retrofit – Entry 14

Installation of the Teckwood and Steni-board cladding has continued apace (with some minor interruptions from Ciara and Dennis!), and now we are about 90% complete with the finish on the front and the gable ends of the building.

The gas flues have been extended to all six flats. The Catnic steel roof has just been delivered to site, which we will be looking to install in the next few days. We’re also getting ready for the Passivhaus windows and doors to arrive on site, which we are planning to install within the next couple of weeks.

Great Yarmouth Retrofit – Entry 13

Over the past couple of weeks, we have been able to start making the King Street building in Yarmouth look less like a building project, and more like a home. The team have begun installation of the Steni board which will serve as the external façade.

A firebreak has been installed in between each floor level around the whole building, in the cavity between the Magply and the Steni board. This is designed to expand in the event of a fire, to prevent it spreading further up or down the building via the cladding.

Lead flashings have been installed on the roof, to make the building watertight in the places where our structural thermal envelope meets the neighbouring building.

Finally for this entry, the team have installed a PVC skirt around the perimeter of the bottom of the building to protect the Damp-Proof Membrane – the Steni board will sit on top of this.

It feels very much like we’re on the home stretch now!

Great Yarmouth TCosy Retrofit – Entry 12

Back from the Christmas break, our team at the Great Yarmouth retrofit have gotten stuck in once again. Over the past couple of weeks, they have managed to finish installing all the Magply board, to create the void around the property

This week, the insulation material arrived, and the team on site have began the process of pumping the insulation into the void. With the insulation going in and most of the other structural work almost complete, the residents should begin to feel the benefits of Passivhaus living!

Around the back of the property, we have begun removing part of the brickwork around the window in the upstairs stairwell in order to install Automatic Opening Ventilation (AOV) – this will help to ventilate smoke and other toxic gases in the unlikely event of a fire, helping to meet fire safety standards in the Building Regulations.

Finally, the team have also been working to finish off the eaves at the back of the building and will be done very soon.

Great Yarmouth TCosy Retrofit – Entry 11

Our team have been working hard on installing the Magply A1 fire-rated board around the property. Still some more to go, so work continues on that into this week.

We have also carried on installing firebreaks on each level of the property, to ensure that Beattie Passive’s higher standard of fire safety is reached.

Finally, as work to install the Magply fireboard was underway, it was discovered that an adjacent property has a fishpond not very far from the wall we were working on. Initial thoughts were to just remove this, however we expect challenges like this to present themselves regularly as we take the TCosy forward, and so are trying to find ways to work our thermal envelope around it.