refurbishment

For many social tenants, the idea of a wet room is far from a luxury, but a necessity, however some landlords express concern at the idea of installing wet rooms on upper floors. Here, Stuart Reynolds, UK Marketing & Product Management Director at AKW, a leading provider of inclusive solutions, discusses how wet rooms are not just for downstairs installs and how they can be specified – with confidence - upstairs too.

Today’s homes are built to a set of standards, but that wasn’t aways the case with older homes. And as the UK has one of the oldest housing stocks in Europe it means that many houses don’t perform at their best. This could be due to poor insulation leading to drafts. Or it could be that solid walls are cold, leading to damp and black spot mould. Another reason could be a build-up of moisture caused by poor ventilation. Moisture is always present in the air – typically from everyday activities such as cooking and breathing – and without suitable ventilation it is attracted to the colder walls, providing a perfect environment for mould spores to grow.

To many working in social housing - and those living in these properties - it will be evident that there is a problem with a lot of the current housing stock, which is one of the oldest in Europe. Many of these problems relate to damp, condensation and mould, with The English Housing Survey for Housing Quality and Condition¹ claiming that 3.5 million occupied homes were not suitable and did not meet the Decent Homes Standard in 2020, with 4% having serious damp issues.

When concealing external pipework, building services and other utilities associated with low carbon district heating schemes and air-source or ground-source heat pump systems, Pendock Profiles metal pipe boxing also provides protection against accidental damage while improving a project’s finish.

Tough metal pipe boxing and services casings from UK Boxings are being widely used to conceal and protect external pipework from the risk of damage on social housing projects, while also improving the aesthetics and consistency of finish on completed installations.

Our metal pipe boxing is typically used to cover external pipework, such as gas supply pipes and low carbon distributed heating system pipework, as well as associated systems for ground source or air source heat pump installations.

Stone wool insulation manufacturer, ROCKWOOL®, has added to its suite of industry support resources with the launch of the Recladding with ROCKWOOL guide for specifiers.

Following the ban on combustible materials in relevant new buildings over 18 metres (ADB updated for England June 2022), many building owners are recladding existing buildings with non-combustible materials that comply with the updated regulations.

Where external pipework needs to be concealed and protected against the risk of accidental damage or vandalism, Arma metal pipe boxing provides a tough and versatile solution that also improves aesthetics and adds a uniform finish to the project.