Heath
Background
This project was truly unique; it involved a fantastic new build detached house located in North-West London, featuring a full footprint basement with an underground swimming pool. To ensure the project reached its full potential, the homeowners sought assistance from Re-Structured to review the structure and identify areas where simplifications could be made to improve efficiency and reduce construction costs.
Assessment
Re-Structured conducted a meticulous assessment of the structural design, focusing on key elements that could benefit from re-specification. The assessment revealed several opportunities for streamlining and enhancing the project:
- Reduced Ground Floor Thickness
- Simplified Construction Types
- Lighter Steel Beam
- Reduced Concrete Thickness in Basement
Re-Structured utilised the latest finite element software, leveraging expertise to conduct a comprehensive and accurate design assessment. In this review, site conditions were also reinterpreted to modern design standards, resulting in a reduced water table, which contributed to further cost savings and enhanced structural stability.
Outcome
The redesign process took approximately three weeks and required only nominal coordination with the Architect. The collaboration successfully re-designed the areas of concern as noted through our assessment.
Additionally, the reassessment of the construction sequence enabled reduced loads on the ground floor slab, optimising materials usage. Through conducting a more rigorous assessment of each part of the design, we acheived:
- Reduced Ground Floor Thickness: By reducing the ground floor thickness by 75mm, we were able to provide increased head heights, creating a more spacious and comfortable living environment.
- Simplified Construction Types: By reducing the number of construction types used, we streamlined the build, making it more efficient and cost-effective.
- Lighter Steel Beam: We identified a key steel beam spanning 10m that could be replaced with a lighter beam, resulting in over 1,000kg of steelwork saved while maintaining structural integrity.
- Reduced Concrete Thickness in Basement: In parts of the basement, we optimised the concrete wall thicknesses, achieving structural efficiency without compromising safety.
- Reduced Pad Foundations: Reduction in the size and number of pad foundations, saving both materials and costs.
Optimising the structure resulted in impressive overall savings:
- 8.2 tonnes of steel.
- 60 tonnes of concrete.
- 32 tonnes of CO2e - Equivalent to 55 trees living for 25 years.
- Simplified program and sequencing of the build.
- £55,000+ saved in construction costs.
The project achieved significant cost savings, reduced its environmental impact, and simplified the construction process, resulting in improved efficiency and timeline gains. The client and the architect were both highly satisfied with the outcome and eagerly anticipated the completion of this extraordinary new home.
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These reductions and savings are made possible to Re-Structured clients as we use carefully selected computer software to analyse structured. Below is an example of the ground basement slab, this heatmap shows how stressed the concrete was in the original design compared to the design created by us.
As you can see the light blue colour shows low stress or over specified concrete design, whereas the Re-Structured design highlights in dark blue where reductions in thickness can be made all whilst ensuring the slab is still safe. This reduction led to over 30 tonnes saved in concrete.
