Warmer Streets Case Study

The Warmer Streets Dartford project was set up after Dartford Borough Council secured £3m worth of Green Deal Communities funding from DECC in order to offer subsidised energy efficiency improvements to private residences. Lawtech were appointed as Principal Contractor to deliver the year- long programme and SPSenvirowall were appointed as EWI system supplier.

The scheme was advertised by Dartford Borough Council and uptake was very high, in total over 300 private properties received energy efficiency upgrades. The Solid wall properties of these were installed with SPSenvirowall’s Wall System 2 utilising 90mm GEPS with acrylic topcoat and options of Renderbrick and dash finishes.

Challenges

While the domestic market has its own set of challenges, system installer Lawtech found it a challenge to work with private homeowners on this scale, therefore a high level management and co-ordination team was set up, all versed in providing the best quality customer service. With this in mind, Lawtech managed each homeowner as an individual to better understand their needs as opposed to a robotic construction approach which really helped during this project SPSenvirowall ensured over the duration of the project that the customer received a continuity of materials and was provided with full technical monitoring, colour support and delivery supply times to satisfy the requirements of the scheme and meet the needs of quality assured national warranties.

There was limited on site storage available so logistics itself was a major task ensuring that new deliveries were tied in with the recycling of waste materials a service offered by SPSenvirowall.

As every house was a new contract the home owners requirements were different, some chose to have a standard acrylic finish whilst others chose Renderbrick or dash and some had a combination of all 3. Communication was the key to the success of this project between the Client, Principal Contractor, Local Authority and SPSenvirowall to ensure home owner’s expectations were met.

Benefits

By installing EWI to the properties the residents have received a much improved appearance to their property and now have homes that are warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, whilst reducing their energy costs with a new u value calculation of 0.30W/m2,k.

The community centre in the heart of the Tree Estate where most of the work was undertaken was also insulated with SPSenvirowall’s system and installed by the Principal Contractor Lawtech.