Addison
Background
A £5 million property refurbishment project, requiring extensive renovation; replacing floors and roof, constructing a rear extension, and excavating the garden. Due to delays from the original engineering firm, the architects, Haydon Finch, sought assistance from Re-Structured.
Assessment
Re-Structured conducted their assessment and identified the following:
- Steelwork: Most steelwork positioned as expected, but the third-floor steelwork is excessive and can be significantly reduced.
- Timberwork: Smaller timber beams can be specified throughout the project. Improvements can be made to the trench heaters near windows.
- Upper Floors: Enhancements to the timber joisted floor design and additional steel beam positions will greatly enhance the efficiency of the design.
- Foundations: Structural calculations indicate that underpinning can be reduced. Sections of the plans are drawn incorrectly, potentially invalidating the Party Wall Agreement. Improved placement of manholes can minimize underpinning requirements.
- Drainage: The drainage system appears convoluted and should be streamlined with fewer runs. Combining certain pumps will reduce costs.
- Temporary Works: Extensive temporary works are needed. The Design Team should consider fully demolishing the rear façade to classify the building as new, triggering 0% VAT for the construction.
Outcome
Following assessment, Re-Structured redesigned the steelwork whilst incorporating additional design changes requested by the architect.
We successfully re-specified the steelwork and timberwork, resulting in over 40% reduction in materials. For example, the steelwork supporting the rear façade saw a reduction of 2.5 tonnes alone.
Furthermore, on the advice of the Re-Structured, improved exploratory works revealed that the drainage system could redesigned, eliminating the need for two large underground pump chambers, and reducing the large sections of concrete to be installed under existing foundations.
While the VAT classification outcome is pending, the project has already achieved substantial cost savings and efficiency improvements. Both the architect and client are happy. The revised temporary works scheme is estimated to have saved two months from the total construction timeline.
Testimonial from Architect
"We reached out to Re-Structured to get this project assessed as the appointed structural engineer had become unresponsive, though we’d never would have imagined the structure could be simplified by as much as it was.
In addition to reducing the amount of steel and timber specified, the report also noted the drainage could be changed to gravity, which saved so much in the excavation, underpinning and construction programme.
The new structural scheme enabled us to iterate the design, allowing us to hide more steelwork into the architecture. The whole process was simple and left both us and the client very satisfied."