refurbishment

In June 2017, a fire claimed 72 lives at Grenfell Tower in Kensington. Eleven months later, Dame Judith Hackitt, who was commissioned to determine the cause of the disaster, released a report featuring eight key recommendations to limit the chances of similar catastrophes occurring in the future.

Those recommendations require building managers to keep digital building records, from the design and conceptualisation phase through its life cycle. With the boom years of High Rise Residential Buildings (HRRB) development between 1953 and 1972, and with 6544 buildings erected in the half-century following the end of World War 2, nearly all of the remaining 270 HRRBs were built in a pre-digital age.

Easy to fit decorative boxings from UK Boxings have been used for more than 20 years by UK housing associations, local authorities and social housing contractors to hide pipework for fire sprinklers, heating systems and below boilers to save time and money on-site.

When it comes to bathroom installations, sourcing quality products that are also cost-effective and contemporary is the key to long-lasting success. Here Stuart Reynolds, Head of Product and Marketing at AKW, discusses why AKW is launching the Beautiful Bathrooms Collection this month and the benefits it offers Housing Associations and tenants alike.

Awareness of the potential health problems caused by lead in the water supply, particularly in infants and children is growing.  Houses built before 1970 would have been constructed with lead water supply pipes and if still in place can be causing developmental harm to young occupants.
Although the use of lead in plumbing has been banned in the UK for more than 50 years, there are still many properties where a risk of lead contamination of water is a risk.  In some areas of the UK up to a third of these older properties are still receiving their water through these original lead pipes.[1]

With HA and local authority landlords implementing major fire protection upgrade programmes, including the ongoing retro-fitting of fire sprinkler systems, for many contractors Encasement’s Versa pipe boxing is proving to be the ideal solution for concealing sprinkler pipework.

The world's annual consumption of plastic materials has increased from around 5 million tonnes in the 1950s to nearly 100 million tonnes today. European production accounts for about 57 million tonnes of this total amount.
The amount of plastic waste generated annually in the UK is estimated to be nearly 5 million tonnes, half of which comes from packaging (Source: House of Commons Briefing Paper on Plastic Waste, 2020).
Most families throw away about 40kg of plastic per year, which could otherwise be recycled. Much of this ends up in the waste stream affecting our rivers, oceans and wildlife.

With our factories having available stock and excellent lead times, merchants and distributors are turning to Crest to help them through the current roofing materials crisis.

It’s been well documented over the past few months that the UK is facing a roofing materials shortage. Many contractors are calling it a major crisis as they face long delays in obtaining roofing materials, the situation is desperate and with Winter fast approaching the pressure is mounting.

Concrete roofing tiles seem to be one of the most affected with lead times from order to delivery being at least 12 weeks and, in many cases, up to 22. It’s the last thing roofers need at this moment, as they are still making up for lost time due to a busy Summer and lockdown restrictions.