INCA Case Study: Citizen HA Coventry SHDF Scheme

The Background to the Project

This is Citizen Housing Association’s SHDF large volume scheme to upgrade up to 2,000 properties around Coventry and bring them up to an EPC “C” rating. This is one of the largest SHDF projects to date. The collaboration between Citizen, Coventry College and Westdale Midlands has also led to a dedicated Training Academy being established by Westdale Midlands, which has led, up to date, to more than 15 local unemployed people undertaking an in-depth training course and gaining full time employment in the External Wall Insulation (EWI) sector.

Solution & Specification

The Structherm EWI system selected consisted of 120mm EPS with a variety of finishes, including Dash, Silicone and ArtBrickTM. There was an obligation for the properties to be finished ‘like for like’ with the existing architectural design features, including the provision of brick arches.

Structherm worked closely with the Retrofit Designer, Property Tectonics, to develop a wide range of project specific details to meet the demanding requirements.

The Installation & ChallengesOm Site / Problems Overcome

There were a number of instances where Citizen-owned properties were situated next door to a private owner. As a result, various details were required to enable a suitable termination detail to be produced.
As a number of energy efficiency measures were being installed across the scheme, the programming and phasing of EWI works had to be adapted to allow all the necessary actions to be detailed and installed correctly.

The End Result

Citizen continue to progress with their housing retrofit programme with additional waves of SHDF, and will be utilising the Structherm EWI systems and unique ArtBrickTM finish on these future projects. The size of the scheme has enabled Westdale Midlands to establish the training academy to which Structherm are delighted to be able to support.

The Coventry project has been visited on multiple occasions by representatives and Heads of numerous organisations, many of whom are responsible for and involved with the scaling up and rollout of retrofit projects, e.g. The then Mayor of West Midlands, Andy Street, DESNZ, BEIS, Trustmark, the Retrofit Academy and The National Housing Federation.

Quotes

Adrian Bishop, Managing Director, Westdale Midlands Ltd

‘Westdale Midlands Ltd have been extremely well supported by Structherm in all areas of design, supply and delivery on what has been a very fast paced project. The project has been noted as accounting for nearly 40% of all completed EWI work undertaken on a national basis under Wave 2 SHDF funded works so far. Structherm have also supported us by supplying materials for our training academy which has been developed alongside this project and has led to 15+ unemployed now finding fulltime employment with us to date’