Kildare

Background

The homeowner had engaged a design & build contractor for their 5-storey building project, which was in a state of disrepair. Engaging a design & build contractor means one consultancy takes everything in-house (or subcontracts) to manage the design as well as the full build process. Once construction works started, the party walls were found to be heavily lined with chimney flues, meaning the engineer for the subcontractor drastically increased the cost of steelwork by £70,000 in order alter the design to meet the existing buildings requirements. 

Due to this, the homeowner engaged Re-Structured to assess the plans to highlight any over specified works.

Assessment

Re-Structured analysed the existing structural plans and found flaws in the designs where steel and mass concrete had been over specified. It was also found the design hadn’t considered the lateral stability of the existing structure.

Further exploratory works were also suggested to assess the property foundations, including a flue survey. A flue survey helps inform the engineering team as it shows where they can bear steelwork into the party walls. 

Subsequent to the assessment, the homeowner appointed MacLean Architecture + Design as the project architect, moving away from the Design & Build contractor.

The Re-Structured assessment led to an estimated saving of £20,000+ in material reductions for the client and a much better architectural layout. 

Outcome

Terrace houses are often quite narrow, and over specification or overdesign of steelwork and concrete means losing living space. Therefore, the assessment was very helpful and well-received by the client as they were able to have the project rescoped to maximise space.  

As works had already begun when the referral came through, part of the steel order from the original design had already been purchased and delivered to the site. Understanding this, We designed a scheme that reduced the steelwork while also calculating the best way to use the existing steel to reduce unnecessary costs for the homeowner.  

The steel and concrete design were re-specified and reduced, which led to good savings for the homeowner and allowed for further spending on architectural design elements instead of overdesigned steel and concrete.

The Re-Structured assessment led to an estimated saving of £20,000+ in materials for the client by reducing 4,200kg of steel (from the superstructure) and approximately 10,000kg of concrete, amounting to a reduction of 8,700kg CO2e emissions, that's the equivalent to the average homes energy use for over 1 year.