The Project Vincent Street is part of Taylor Woodrow’s £1.6m social housing project at Higher Broughton in Salford, Manchester.
The 19-plot, two-and three-bedroom development along Vincent Street is the second phase of the housebuilder’s redevelopment of the area as part of a Pathfinder scheme. Its aim is to rehouse the former inhabitants of the street’s dilapidated back-to-back terraced housing, a large proportion of which was already boarded up by the time the decision had been taken to demolish it.
The Build
Construction time needed to be as short as possible to minimise disruption to the residents and Taylor Woodrow engaged volumetric building specialists, Panaloc Ltd. The company is pioneering the use of off-site or modern methods of construction (MMC), using computer numerical control (CNC) to turn architects’ drawings into virtual 3-D models and interrogate them to find the most efficient way of building.
The Vincent Street properties were made up from volumetric units, designed to fit seamlessly together on site. Each unit created a floor of the property, and were simply stacked on top of each other to create a 2 or 3 storey building. The units were delivered ‘complete’ – they were pre wired, fully decorated and fitted with kitchen units etc, requiring no further work on site. On site, the houses took on average three and a half days to erect.
MK Electric’s innovative and unique, ‘pluggable’ Flexible Wiring System enabled the installation to take place fully in the factory with ease and at significant speed, using trained operatives; first fix was completed within two days; the second fix completed within half a day, utilising the patented pluggable MK Wiring Devices and Consumer Unit.
Phil Blackburn of electrical contractors Connect 2 cited the speed of the second fix as one of the major advantages of the Flexible Wiring System: “The second fix was very quick at about half a day per unit.”
The Developer
Taywood Construction’s senior project manager, John Millington, is enthusiastic about the company’s ongoing use of offsite methods. “We have set a target for 25% offsite across the business and are looking at a range of systems. Valuable lessons have been learnt from Vincent Street. The build process has been quick, but we now know it could have been even quicker”
MK Flexible Wiring System
The MK Flexible Wiring System was developed specifically to address the needs of the rapidly growing MMC building sector. The MK Flexible Wiring System provides a cost effective and comprehensive solution to the provision of electrical services for all types of off-site manufactured homes, be it a panelised, volumetric or hybrid construction technique.
The highly popular MK Logic Plus range of Wiring Devices are equipped with a new patented miniature power connector allowing the wiring system leads to be plugged directly into the rear of the product. No tools are required and the connector guarantees polarity and continuity of every connection. This, along with the traditional MK safety standards, ensures all projects are completed to the highest standards with the least risk.
The MK Flexible Wiring System is recognised and fully supported by the NICEIC who have developed a dedicated sign-off certificate for this system. Training programmes are available for electricians covering a system overview, installation and the sign-off process.
MK offers a full design and technical support service, and will convert architects’ drawings into detailed wiring diagrams assuring efficient overall system design. A dedicated technical support team, with detailed knowledge of the off-site manufacturing process, is also on hand to offer technical advice and training.
The Client
Eric Dean, director of Panaloc, commented: “This was our first time using MK’s Flexible Wiring System and we were very pleased with the results, solving as it did problems on the production floor. We can see great potential in the system, which we hope to realise in future developments, as we understand just how versatile it can be in applications like ours. Innovation is a driver for us – and this is a very simple idea that is really effective.”