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Home-Grown Homes Project Updates – January 2020

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The Home-Grown Homes Project is gathering speed as it enters its final year. Our Interim Report highlights progress and summarises what we’ve learned so far.

From Little Acorns – Flexi Home for sustainable living

The latest scheme to engage in the project is being developed and built in Wrexham by our members First Choice Housing Association (FCHA) and Williams Homes. The Acorns Flexi Home is part of Welsh Government’s Innovative Housing Programme and will provide lifetime accommodation for one resident. The accessible home is factory manufactured and erected on site linking to an existing FCHA 3-bed bungalow.
The roof and wall panels of the Acorn Flexi Home will be timber framed with wood fibre insulation and timber cladding. Super insulated with high levels of air tightness, mechanical ventilation and heat recovery system, and triple glazed windows, the project also features smart technology to enable the resident to use a number of home appliances and features by voice control.
The project is being designed by Ainsley Gommon Architects and the Innovate Trust is working with FCHA to bring the smart technology to the project. We will assess building performance through a thermal bridge analysis. Working with Cardiff Metropolitan University, Peter Warm of Low Energy Building Practice will conduct a series of calculations to design out potential thermal bridges at building junctions, before Williams Homes start manufacturing. We’ll report on the outcome in the next update.

Testing, Testing, Testing!

Diana Waldron, Cardiff Metropolitan University, our lead on Building Performance Assessment  is planning a pilot day in February with our member Wales & West HA at their Chiltern Close project in Llanishen, Cardiff being built by Hale Homes. Thermography and air tightness tests will be carried out by specialists Build Test Solutions and iRed on completed properties before letting – using two innovative techniques, the Heat Transfer Coefficient test and Pulse test.
In November Diana showed the Powys County Council Clyro project design team the Good Homes Alliance overheating tool and an initial analysis of the overheating risks associated with the project.

Embodied Carbon Results

Team member Eilidh Forster has carried out a second embodied carbon analysis which shows that Clwyd Alyn Housing Association’s Llanbedr project near Ruthin achieves a score that outperforms the target set for 2030 by RIBA, the architects’ professional body. We mentioned the analysis in our last newsletter in November and are very pleased with these impressive results. Details here.

Technical Guidance for Social Housing Developers

We have commissioned the Good Homes Alliance to deliver industry guidance on Building Performance Methodologies which will incorporate case studies developed in these tasks. The Good Homes Alliance is a membership body which promotes and encourages the building of quality sustainable homes and communities and aims to transform the whole of mainstream UK house building into a sustainable endeavour.
We have also commissioned Construction LCA (the consultancy of Jane Anderson – an expert in embodied carbon and author of the BRE Green Guide to Specification) to develop and deliver industry guidance on Embodied Carbon Assessment which will incorporate case studies developed in the Project.

An increasing appetite for Timber Frame

Our latest round of interviews with housing associations and contractors shows some interesting results. Together with project partners BM TRADA we gathered views on timber frame as a choice of construction method and the potential for standardising an approach in Wales. Four contractors and nine housing associations took part in this research. The final report will be available soon. We’re discussing the best way of taking forward the positive results with clients, contractors and timber frame manufacturers – the emerging recommendations identify:

  • Work on performance specifications favouring timber frame
  • Education and training about the benefits of timber and its specification
  • Engagement to improve efficiency in timber frame manufacture
  • Encouragement to partner to achieve a common goal and seek efficiencies
  • Exploration of more factory production and standardisation to solve site labour, cost and quality issues
  • Raising the overall performance of timber frame buildings through improved standard detailing

Models for high-performance buildings

In collaboration with architect Rob Thomas and a design team we are developing a fabric first building solution. A range of fabric designs and models have been prepared to identify potential design requirements for the build solution and suggest a standard low carbon two bed four person house type for feedback and initial performance analysis. This adopts the Welsh Government’s Design Quality Requirements as its basic specification. The design study has considered the Welsh vernacular – potential form, massing and materiality.
Some Passivhaus analysis has been conducted and more is planned. Proposals have been assessed for structural requirements and an initial structural fabric proposal has been developed for discussion. The role of ‘home grown timber’ in the build solution is being considered alongside ‘off the shelf’ standard products and the potential to develop alternative Welsh timber-based products for structural purposes. Concepts have been explored using three-dimensional modelling allowing potential for the project development to follow the BIM protocol.

Encouraging Future Timber Talent

To complement the development of our low carbon build solution we are developing an education project. We are currently exploring ways to embed learning within different sectors of the supply chain and to create learning materials that can be used within universities, colleges and schools. First talks for architecture students have been agreed with Cardiff university.

Carbon Training

An all-day workshop on ‘Operational and Embodied Carbon and How to Reduce It’ with 30 senior executives at Wales & West Housing took place in December delivered in collaboration with the Good Homes Alliance and the Passivhaus Trust.This has already sparked interest with further housing associations. If you are interested in hosting a carbon training day, please get in touch.

Standard window design for social housing a step closer

A group of 16 joinery manufacturers, housing associations and suppliers attended the timber windows workshop on 10 December in Welshpool. Focussing on potential impact and pathways to develop supply chain solutions for Welsh timber windows participants worked on a selection of ideas, based on results from previous workshops. Strong support was given to options around standardised window designs for new buildings and retrofit. Results from the workshop are still being analysed to inform further steps to advance the most promising solutions in 2020.

Increasing Impact in Forestry

As of 2020 board representation of the forestry sector has been strengthened by the appointment of Dominic Driver, Head of Land Stewardship at Natural Resources Wales and Jon Travis, Head of Forestry Reform in Welsh Government. Their input informs our research output and will help to increase potential impact of the project.

Making better homes from Welsh Timber

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Follow-up from the BIG Debate

The Home-Grown Homes Project focuses on supply chain development in the production of timber homes in Wales from forest to housing construction, its aim being better homes – better designed, specified, manufactured and built. As part of The BIG Debate at WoodBUILD 2019, difficulties around producing timber homes using wood sourced from Welsh forests were widely discussed.

Investing in Welsh timber resource

Jasper Mead. PYC Group

According to manufacturers we can maintain that timber frame systems are enabling us to create highly energy efficient housing. However, for many, 90% of the timber used in the manufacture of wooden homes needs to be imported. For Jasper Meade of PYC Group  the case for investing in Welsh forestry and timber resource is clear: ‘We currently do buy from Ireland and other European countries, but transport is going to get more costly and availability less certain. So if we could produce our own and use the forest for amenity reasons, to supply fuel and construction and many other purposes… Progress on the agenda seems very slow but it is happening,‘ says Jasper.
Jasper sees an opportunity for joinery products, too. ‘It would be fantastic to have heat treated timber in Wales. I can order a pack of standard timber and get in to my yard within 2 days. If I want Welsh timber it is much harder.’

The grading question

Owain Williams. Williams Homes Ltd

Owain Williams from Williams Homes adds to this pointing out responsibilities across the supply chain: ‘We see the biggest issues being the availability of the specific grade of timber needed. In my opinion if there was a great need for a specific grade and quality then the mills would invest in segregating this higher graded timber in order to sell it to a different sector, whether it be for joinery or structural.’ One of the more innovative sawmills, Pontrilas have recently implemented chain of custody for Welsh sawlog throughput, their completed packs of C16 spruce are clearly marked as Welsh spruce.
An advocate for investment into the local supply chain, Owain is clear on the importance of planting and forest management: ‘We are also very aware that planting needs to be at the forefront of any woodland policy and we believe that as awareness and demand increases in home-grown timber then we are careering towards a catastrophic problem regarding the issue of lack of suitable timber for our industry so we must address the problem of planting TODAY.’

Business terms and choice of goods

Part of the problem is not just the availability of the right material at the right time, business conditions play their part. ‘The credit terms are far worse for homegrown than when I purchase from the big importers. If it was simpler to get hold of under our usual credit terms then we would always choose the Welsh option.’ confirms Jasper. But it is not about adopting practices of the main exporting countries. PYC are currently purchasing highly engineered products from Sweden and boards from Ireland. According to Jasper, ‘it would be foolish to try and copy technology from those countries, we should be looking at different parts of our market needs and what we know we can specialise in.’

Focus on performance

Jasper’s main focus is on quality and performance: ‘What I’d like to see is high performance standards in housing’. As part of the BIG Debate PYC have pledged to continue to develop systems that deliver performance and are based on the use of Welsh timber. In January, Jasper visited a site PYC and Carbon Dynamic built in Scotland, The Social Bite Project community hub centre in Edinburgh. ‘This was successfully built using Welsh and Scottish timber, a rewarding project, an exemplar in what can be done with timber frame using our indigenous timber.’ he says adding: ‘This form of construction using home grown timber is set to continue in Wales with housing schemes which have had invaluable help from IHP funding from Welsh Government. I look forward to when we can replicate social enterprise schemes such as the Social Bite in Wales.’

Does size matter?

Darren Jarman. Lowfield Timber Frame

Darren Jarman from Lowfield Timber Frame has a similar perspective. ‘As timber frame manufacturers we are keen to use as much timber as we can. We want high-value but also we want to use what’s available. We bring in eight loads of CLS from abroad every week.‘ Sawmills often don’t hold the sizes required by the manufacturers. ‘Yet there are other sizes the sawmills are producing.’ says Darren. For him, the key to success lies in creativity and willingness to adapt: ‘With some changes to our design we could start using this Welsh grown and processed timber.’

Changing designs to change the tide

While Darren is amazed by the potential for home-grown homes it still is a very niche, low volume market and needs to grow substantially to feed into the existing timber construction supply chain. According to Darren ‘We are right on the cusp of being there’. For Lowfields Timber much depends on people from different parts of the supply chain talking to each other. ‘We have had discussions with the Welsh timber supply-chain and we are ready to get this market going, but it is going to require a change in what we do.’ he says.
Since then the team have worked on design adaptations and most recently, the first load of Welsh timber beams arrived in the yard. Initial trials making panels with the home-grown material have demonstrated the high quality of Welsh timber and its suitability for modern construction. This is also what Williams Homes reports. The firms’ carpenters have noticed no differences between home-grown and imported spruce and neither have their clients.
Darren’s clients are responding positively to the new option. Some are already looking to commissioning Lowfield Timber Frame buildings made from Welsh wood with the first projects scheduled for delivery later in the year. We’re looking forward to reporting on the results!

Pioneering the potential

Williams Homes has been an enthusiastic user of Welsh-grown softwoods for at least a decade. The Bala firm gained extensive experience utilising home-grown softwoods when they constructed the glulam and brettstapel extension to the Coed y Brenin visitor centre near Dolgellau. Pontrilas Timber kilned the mixed load of Sitka spruce and Douglas fir to the low moisture content required for this project. This was a pioneering approach by both, sawmiller and contractor-manufacturer.
Williams Homes’ latest social homes project at Llanbedr has delivered high efficiency timber framed constructions which surpass RIBA embodied carbon benchmarks using Welsh-grown spruce C16. Douglas fir sawlogs for the external cladding were sourced from Mid Wales and processed by a small local Bala sawmill.
‘We currently have an order book of approx 125 houses and have aspirations to use predominantly home-grown timber in the manufacturing of the timber frames and internal joinery for all these units.’ confirms Owain.

The question of price and loyalty

As a relatively niche market, Welsh-grown C16 comes at a cost. Those committed to using home-grown timber tend to pay a premium of around 10-12% over imported C16 spruce from central Europe which is currently in over-supply. For Owain Williams this kind of B2B loyalty is essential to kickstart a circular economy during this transition period as Welsh firms invest in building resilient local supply chains. Willingness to collaborate and change ‘the old ways’ seems essential for every part of the supply chain, from growers to social housing developers. We can see signs of this across the sectors. Change is coming for sure, the question is just how fast.
Find out more about the developments in planting, management and grading in our next newsletter.
Read about government commitments to drive change in procurement rules here. 
Discuss the future of Welsh housing made from home-grown timber at WoodBUILD 2020. 

Standard window design for social housing a step closer?

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Woodknowledge Wales are working on a dedicated timber windows supply chain programme to be delivered together with the industry in 2020-21. Let us know if you would like to be involved! See below for the summary of our December workshop.
On a cold winter’s day, a group of 16 joinery manufacturers, housing associations and suppliers came together in mid Wales to discuss how best to harness the potential for timber windows in Social Housing in Wales. Focussing on viable supply chain solutions for Welsh timber windows participants worked on a selection of ideas, based on results from previous workshops. Strong support was given to options around standardised window designs for new buildings and retrofit. Results from the workshop are still being analysed to inform further steps to advance the most promising solutions with the industry in 2020.

Delegates at wood windows workshop discussing a standard specification for social housing

Housing associations are indicating that they would like to switch from UPVC to wooden windows. Over the next few years, 20,000 new homes will need to be built in Wales. This is a vast potential for the timber windows market. Now it’s time for Welsh windows manufacturers to develop solutions that can respond to this anticipated demand.

Making the case for sustainable timber

The case for wooden windows in social housing is compelling. Improved performance, reduced whole life cost, improved sustainability and higher quality are arguments for increased demand for timber windows by social housing providers. Two main barriers hinder the wider specification of wood windows and hence the development of a Welsh supply chain. Clients fear increased maintenance and hence cost while windows suppliers need to demonstrate compliance with performance standards like Secured by Design. On a practical level, the aim of the workshop was to explore how the industry could jointly overcome these barriers and to develop a pathway for Welsh window manufacturers to supply the social housing sector in the future. On a political level, the workshop was organised to inform recommendations to Welsh Government where interventions are required.

Feedback generated during workshop on manufacturing wood windows for the social housing sector.

Innovation through collaboration

There is an appetite in the industry to develop and advance joint action that will pave the way for timber windows becoming a mainstream solution in the social housing sector in Wales.
Collaboration was clearly identified as the key to success, both across the supply chain as well as between direct competitors. Specification and certification, including clarity on design quality requirements are among the most listed take-away topics from the workshop.
The zero carbon homes agenda and its support by Welsh Government is seen as an opportunity, along with a new client focus on whole-life costing.

Agreed specification and supply chain solutions

From four potential paths to eliminate barriers to market two stand out as the most promising in the views of workshop participants:

  • Developing and manufacturing to an agreed specification which satisfies the needs of a number of different clients, complies with existing standards and meets further requirements, e.g. Secured by Design, to reduce the cost of testing and compliance audits.
  • Developing a supply to market solution from Welsh timber grading to window installation.

The great engagement of industry experts from across joinery manufacturing and social housing is also reflected in the pledges by participants to take action beyond the workshop. There was general support for more lobbying for Welsh graded timber, a Welsh Secured by Design and for making Welsh timber in new housing a first choice. All delegates submitted pledges for personal action; within their network; as a direct result from new contacts at the workshop or with their clients and suppliers.

Taking the agenda forward

Woodknowledge Wales are working on a dedicated timber windows supply chain programme to be delivered together with the industry in 2020-21. Let us know if you would like to be involved!

Clwyd Alyn housing project surpasses RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge target

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A timber based Clwyd Alyn social housing project in Llanbedr near Ruthin constructed by Williams Homes surpasses the embodied carbon target set down by RIBA in their 2030 Climate Challenge campaign.
An embodied carbon analysis undertaken by Eilidh Forster of Woodknowledge Wales to a measurement methodology agreed by RIBA and RICS returned a value of 253 kgCO2/m2 which is a 16% improvement on the RIBA 2030 target. See below (graph)

This project really does represent an effective response to the climate emergency and demonstrates that Welsh Government should implement an embodied carbon policy so that all homes in Wales are required to be low carbon. This is one of the policy recommendations in our Zero Carbon Homes report launched at WoodBUIILD 2019.

Clwyd Alyn social housing project in Llanbedr near Ruthin constructed by Williams Homes

The 36-unit housing Innovative Housing Programme supported scheme in Llanbedr near Ruthin is one of the exemplars for the Home-Grown Homes Project and provides compelling evidence for timber construction using Welsh trees. Welsh grown spruce supplied by Pontrilas Sawmills was used for the structural frame and larch grown and processed near the site was used for the external cladding. All joinery elements were wood based, and wood fibre insulation was used as an alternative to petrochemical foams.
Now that the Llanbedr project has beaten the RIBA 2030 target for embodied carbon, the Home-Grown Homes team are turning their attention to measuring the operational carbon emissions – the emissions associated with the buildings use. The design energy performance suggests a level that approximates to the RIBA target for 2025 – 70kWh/m2/y. See below (chart).

RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge target metrics for domestic buildings


However, RIBA demands that the operational energy performance is determined through post occupancy evaluation rather than using design energy performance. Over the next 6 months, Cardiff Metropolitan University with the support of Build Test UK aim to conduct an energy performance evaluation using established and novel techniques. This evaluation will determine if the building can be expected to perform at or near its design energy performance to provide a truly low carbon and sustainable home both in construction and use.

Reducing supply chain cost in the timber trade

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Reducing supply costs in any industry is important and the forestry sector is no exception. Forestry and timber production in the UK has suffered from a lack of policy support, investment and innovation for many years. Hopefully that is starting to change as governments realise that trees and timber products are part of the solution to our climate change emergency. That is why it was so refreshing to see the recent announcement of an Innovate UK project focused around the timber trade.
Tilhill Forestry will be working with the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) and Innovate UK on a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP). The KTP programme helps businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity through better use of knowledge, technology and skills.
The purpose of this partnership, known as “Trees to Timber Mill” is to develop and deliver a digital end-to-end solution that will deliver process efficiencies, improve reporting and reduced supply chain costs. This will be done by a unique decision support system enabling the company to both optimise the standing timber crop’s conversion into logs during tree harvesting operations and maximise the high value sawn timber product cut from these logs at the sawmill.
More funding for research and innovation in the timber supply chain is very welcome and hopefully we will see more project like this in the near future. Woodknowlede Wales is in touch will Universities in Wales working across the timber supply chain so if you do have an idea you would like to discuss let us know and we will try to put you in touch with the right person to talk to.
We look forward to hearing updates from this project over the next few years.
Read the original article posted on the Timber Construction / Timber Trader UK website here.