Technical Information
Empower homebuilders and industry professionals to create design-led, eco-buildings using sustainably-sourced materials and low-impact methods.
Design
Over the past two decades our passion for design-led eco-buildings has grown. From our roots crafting beautiful bespoke beach lodges with eco-conscious materials to today specialising in building sustainable, high-end homes in Structural Insulated Panels, we thrive on pushing the boundaries of innovation in this sector.
With exceptional expertise and in-depth knowledge, our team designs resilient, low-impact structures from scratch or to your own specification. If a project has been designed with traditional construction methods in mind (eg. cavity walls), we can easily re-engineer the drawings to create a more sustainable SIPs structure often winning increased internal floorspace in the process.
We produce our SIPs in-house rather than buying them in from bigger companies – to find out more please visit our manufacturing page.
With a full understanding of SIPs design, we know how to specify the structural elements for any project, so we only ever need to make minor amends when reviewing the plans with our qualified structural engineers and supply partners. This helps keep your project on track too.
SIP Optimisation
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We love nothing more than helping our clients design with SIPs in mind. This allows your project to achieve several efficiencies across design, production, installation and ultimately your overall budget. Our deep understanding of the SIP build system means we can support you and your architect specifying the structural elements for any project, meaning we only ever need to make minor amends when reviewing the plans with our qualified structural engineers.
One major design aspect is to consider the 2.44m x 1.22m and/or 2.99m x 1.22m size of the panels – for example typically it makes sense to design walls to 2.44m up from DPC height on ground floor to the underside of the first floor cassette, and first/second floors to repeat the same with a 2.44m floor to ceiling height.
For more information on how our SIPs fit together please download our guide here.
To see an example project drawing pack take a look at our download here: Construction drawing pack
SIP build foundations
SIPs create a lightweight shell structure (approximately 25Kg/m2), meaning you may achieve a cost saving and also be able to select a low-carbon option for your foundation design. The design and detailing of your foundations will need to be completed by a qualified architect. Our installation teams are able to build up from most base/foundation types from the DPC level.
Our installation teams are able to build up from most base/foundation types from the DPC level. However, we have assumed that the ground floor structure will be either a concrete slab or block and beam foundation (supplied by others), and we would require the foundations to be no more than + or – 5mm out of tolerance vertically or + or – 10mm out of tolerance horizontally. As well as the perimeter block work up-stand, we also assume a Thermalite (or similar) block (140mm – 180mm) up-stand beneath all internal ground floor walls.
Your foundation design and construction should not begin until you have received the sole plate layout with the line and point loads from us to allow your engineer/builder to ensure that the foundation is of the correct design and size to allow our package to fit correctly.
