INCA Case Study: Mile End Row, Neath, Wales

This project was completed for Tai Tarian, who are a large housing association within Wales and specifically within the Neath Port Talbot County Borough. Tai Tarian have over 9000 housing stock and Sika are their specified system. This particular project is a two-storey building, which is comprised of traditional cavity wall construction. The purpose of the building is to provide sheltered accommodation. This meant that activities on site had to be carefully managed to ensure as little disruption as possible for the vulnerable residents.

The starting u-value for the building was 1.24W/m²K and the Sika Parextherm system, which was installed achieved the client’s target u-value of 0.30W/m²K The specification of graphite enhanced EPS with a dry dash / brick slip finish meant that the impact resistance of the building was enhanced. Furthermore, the coastal location of the project meant that the specification which was written by Sika had to be suitable for high exposure and coastal locations.

This was quite an unusual project, which had a mixture of different finishes applied to the Sika Parextherm External Wall Insulation system. The majority of the project was finished with a dry dash finish and the reveals were finished with a mineral render, as this is preferred to use within the narrower space.

In addition to these finishes, there was also an extensive brick slip requirement for the project, in keeping with the client’s requirements. The bricks slips were used to create architectural features upon the façade. The bricks slips created quoins, a number of soldier courses were also created below some of the windows and also, extensive bricks slip panelling was created below some of the other windows. This resulted in an overall finish which was refreshingly different to some of the more traditional, homogenous finishes. This was precisely the effect that Tai Tarian had wanted to achieve. The overall aesthetic was very well received by the client and also by the residents themselves.

As would be expected, the detailing requirements of this project were more extensive than usual, this is due to the variety and number of different finishes being installed. It was of critical importance for the technical detailing to be robust, as this would of course, provide a weatherproof façade. However, beyond this and due to the variety and extensive differences between finishes, it was of significant importance to ensure that the detailing between each of the finishes was correct. This ensured that the differentiation between the various finishes was flawless, clean and very eye catching – for all of the right reasons. The end result was a warmer home, free of interstitial condensation with a refreshed façade, which is more resistant to impact.