| Sept 2008 |
Work underway at Corfe Castle Pre-School |
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Corfe Castle preschool represents ecofab's third project on-site. Although taking longer to assemble on-site than Bosvigo children's Centre, Truro, Cornwall, the Corfe Castle preschool is far larger (155 square metres internally) Corfe Castle preschool represents an amazing achievement in speed, efficiency and design. |
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The go-ahead was given to ecofab to commence fabrication and to a local contractor to commence site preparations in the second week of July 2008 with a view to completing the assembly of the building on site by the 2nd of September 2008 at the very latest as the school returned on the 3rd September.
Alan Hughes of ecofab prepared the advanced 2 and 3 dimensional construction drawings and the fabrication team set about manufacturing panels. These were completed a week early and construction on-site commenced on the 18th of August with the assembly of the Glulam frame. Panels were hoisted in by crane during the week of the 25th of August and took four and a half days. |
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| Sept 2008 |
New school building commission in Swanage, Dorset |
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Ecofab has been pleased to receive attention not only from the press but from Dorset County Council who have kindly commissioned a further children's Centre in Swanage, Dorset to be completed by June 2009. This building will be in the region of 140 square metres internally and is once again located on a very tight site in the middle of Swanage adjacent to an existing youth Centre. Ecofab are please to work in collaboration with Dorset County Council on this exciting project.
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| Sept 2008 |
Martin Penk contributes to seminar on Community Land Trusts |
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Martin contributed to a seminar on Community Land Trusts based in Chester at the end of September where he described the ecofab system & its relevance to rural affordable housing & especially the Community Land Trust as a way of achieving low-cost rural housing without reliance on government grants.
The Community Land Trust housing schemes in Buckland Newton and Worth Matravers continue to make progress and it is hoped that all outstanding planning, legal and financial issues will be resolved by the end of October '08. |
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| Aug 2008 |
Ecofab completes its second prefab straw bale building in Truro |
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The single storey children's Centre at Bosvigo School, Truro has achieved tremendous attention from the building press since the assembly of the package in just under four days in April 2008. The building eventually utilised a 5 kw output air source heat pump by Trianco coupled to a simple underfloor system by Wunda Floor. As with the house in Stithians, electricity was used as primary heating source despite its poor efficiency rating partly due to low capital cost and also because of a 4kw photovoltaic array which accompanied the building. However, with an air permeability of less than 2.5 and insulation standards in excess of three times the building regulations in some cases, there is anticipation that the heating system will rarely be used. Additionally, in the absence of heavyweight material within the floor, there appears to be a relatively fast response time between the demand and supply of heating. Again, the building will be monitored over the next 12 months. |
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| July 2008 |
Ecofab completes it's first prefabricated building in West Cornwall |
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The three-bedroom house near Helston, Cornwall was completed in May. The building boasts passive solar collection and ventilation through a south facing sunspace which can be isolated from the buildings internal habitable space is when it is either too hot or too cold. All living spaces have laminated oak floors over underfloor heating driven by a Baxi air source heat pump. Domestic hot water is supplemented by a Baxi flat plate solar collector driving a 300lt unvented cylinder. The decision was made to focus on electrical heating despite its poor efficiency since the client intends to utilise renewable energy through a wind turbine in the future.
The site is located on one of the windiest areas of the UK. The operation of the heating system will be monitored remotely by satellite link by Baxi over the next 12 months which should provide interesting data regarding the efficiency of the construction and the system itself.
Though not a statutory requirement, ecofab put the building through and a leakage test and the results of 4.7 were promising given that only moderate attention had been paid to airtightness in this first construction. (See results of a second ecofab at Bosvigo school, Truro) The beauty of the system is that, in the future, airtightness tests can be carried out at an early stage on completion of the weathertight package and prior to fixing of the secondary internal skins. Any unwanted permeability can be remedied at this stage allowing us to achieve levels below 1 in the future.
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| July 2008 |
WWF features Ecofab house in online video series |
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The World Wildlife Fund for Nature produced 'Eco Debt', a 3-part online video series looking at eco-builds & sustainable living.
Part 2 of the video features a segment on our recently completed House at West Cornwall. Skip about 4 minutes into the video on the left if you wish to see the segment.
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| June 2008 |
Ecofab saddened to part company with Rob Buckley |
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Ecofab were saddened to part company with Rob Buckley earlier in the year. Rob and his wife Susie who are also directors of DCRS construction and DCRS in Farringdon, Dorset had been instrumental in developing the interest in straw bale building within Dorset. Rob Buckley continues to offer assistance to ecofab on a consultative basis and has resumed focus on his main passion in the education of sustainable building techniques whilst keeping his practical hand in on construction projects through DCRS construction. www.dorsetruralskills.co.uk/ |
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| June 2008 |
Building magazine features ECOFAB |
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The June 08 issue of Building magazine features two articles with Martin Penk explaining why the straw bale modular system was the right solution for Bosvigo school’s early years facility. The other article looks at how ECOFAB's system works. |
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| May 2008 |
New factory space acquired |
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Offsite fabrication now takes place in a part of the Fitzgerald's Lighting Factory on the Walkerlines industrial estate, Bodmin although more permanent premises are currently being explored.
The panel production team have settled into the new premises and are steadily increasing build rates to yield an even quicker turn around for the time it takes to produce a building.
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| April 2008 |
Affordable housing update, Dorset |
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The two housing schemes which formed the catalyst for the prefabricated straw bale system are still progressing towards work on site.
The scheme at Buckland Newton, West Dorset, is currently receiving further cost analysis in preparation for a contract to start on-site within the next two months. The affordable housing scheme at Worth Matravers is also progressing steadily. |
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