Optimising build methods in nursing & retirement homes

There’s more to Offsite than meets the eye!

 

The aging demographic faced by all western economies is placing an increasing strain on the public purse, not just in terms of hospital-based medical care, but in the need for appropriate, affordable residential places.  With the demand for Local Authority provision rising, Martin Goss, MD of Offsite specialists Mtech Consult, looks at how Offsite construction techniques can help.

 

The majority of the UK’s housing stock is inadequate or inappropriate for an aging and infirm generation, but with a credible estimated need for 92,000 additional retirement bedsits by 2020*, we must find low environmental impact, rapid construction techniques to deliver high quality accommodation at an affordable cost, ideally at nil government grant. 

 

From Simple Panellised Systems

 

In the rush to deliver, many different Offsite build techniques have been adopted to replace the traditional masonry approach, from pre-cast concrete through to timber frame, structural insulated panels and light steel frame.  All these panelised techniques are perfectly capable of delivering a rapid build solution for the superstructure, but whilst they can improve the speed of build on site, once that superstructure is complete the build process reverts to traditional craft based methods.  All the time consuming, weather dependent and quality imperfect operations that we associate with traditional construction remain and with them the site supervision and logistics management they demand.

 

So is there a better alternative that can meet the stringent cost criteria of the client developer and Local Authority?  Well, there is no one optimal method of build, not least because retirement homes are usually designed individually as a one off; giving relatively little opportunity to benefit from standardised build methods.

 

To More Complex Volumetric Solutions

 

However, the industry is starting to adopt volumetric modular solutions as an alternative at least for the more uniform living areas, reducing reliance on site-based processes. 

 

For example, each bedroom living space can be delivered to site as a single module, complete with all internal fixtures, fittings and finishes including all the associated building services.  Fully commissioned and tested in the factory and despatched to site fully weather-proofed, the potential benefits of this approach are enormous.  It is even possible to finish the external wall cladding and roof finishes in the factory, though this does depend on the type and style of finishes required. 

 

The challenge for volumetric manufacturing is cost: the majority of exemplars return outturn costs greater than traditional methods.  This cost increase, which can be upwards of 10%, is in part due to insufficient standardisation and low throughput volumes not yielding the efficiency gains that factory manufacture achieves in other industries. 

 

And Clever Combinations 

 

Some Offsite system manufacturers, such as Elements Europe Ltd in Oswestry, have developed a hybrid approach, combining the benefits of modules and panels to create a rapid, high quality build at a very competitive cost. 

 

Recently Elements’ sister company, JR Pickstock Ltd, successfully employed this technique to build two large nursing homes - Broomfield Grange and Chelmsford - for European Care Group, the UKs 6^th largest provider of health and social care.

 

Using volumetric modules for the highly serviced and complex areas such as bathrooms, sluice rooms and services rooms reduced the build programme by over 30%; “We saved over three months on site”, says Wayne Morgan, MD of Elements Europe, “and we’ve identified where even further reductions can be achieved”. 

 

At both nursing homes, fully structural bathroom modules incorporated the external and internal load bearing walls where appropriate, and were used in combination with light steel frame wall panels and floor cassettes to create the bedroom living spaces and communal areas.  The benefits of reduced defects and call backs in the bathrooms and other highly serviced areas are obvious and have made a major difference here, where disruption to patients can be disproportionately distressing. 

 

On future builds of this type JR Pickstock is planning to use the volumetric approach for more of the construction, with panel systems for larger span open plan areas not practical in volumetric for both transport and cost reasons.

 

This hybrid method of build is not constrained to light steel frame technology.  We are aware of similar approaches being adopted in pre-cast concrete cross wall construction, where bathrooms have been produced as fully structural pre-cast concrete pods which are then integrated into the cross wall construction.  The technique has also been used within timber frame to deliver the same outturn; a highly efficient method of erection on site.

 

Intelligent Integration is Key

 

This clearly demonstrates that in optimising the build method we need, as always, to consider all the different construction options that are now available.  Offsite manufacturing has delivered a range of new construction solutions that can be combined and applied with confidence provided the integration is carried out intelligently.  A case of more tools in your ‘kitbag’ than perhaps you were aware of.

 

*Source: The House Builders Federation – Retirement Group