MODULAR HOUSE FACTORY BOOST
Orders for more than 40 homes already for new industrial estate facility:
WORK has started at a revolutionary new ‘modular house’ factory that can see a timber frame home built in less than two weeks.
The facility, on Holyhead’s Penrhos Industrial Estate already has orders for more than 40 houses.
It’s been launched by Creating Enterprise, the property and training organisation founded as a subsidiary by leading housing association Cartrefi Conwy. The venture is believed to be the first of its kind by a social enterprise in Wales and has created four new jobs, with more in the pipeline as the operation grows.
One of the benefits is that the timber frames for the houses can be built at the factory in two days and erected within 10 days once on site.
They already have contracts to provide homes for Anglesey County Council, Cartrefi Conwy and Conwy County Borough Council and there is “considerable interest” from other local authorities and housing associations across North Wales and the North West.
Creating Enterprise, based at the Cartrefi Conwy Business Park, in Mochdre, near Colwyn Bay, was established in 2015.
They have now partnered with Norfolk-based Beattie Passive, the UK’s leading manufacturer of advanced passivhaus homes, lowenergy buildings, which can save residents up to 90% in energy costs.
Adrian Johnson, managing director of Commercial Services at Cartrefi Conwy, said: “Our aim, as a social enterprise, is not just to build the homes but also to use the profits generated to give unemployed people from across North Wales the opportunity to gain workplace experience, training and qualifications. We estimate that we can build conventional three-bedroom homes within 10 days, ready for roofing and finishing.”
The Creating Enterprise passivhaus buildings will use high performance insulation to make the homes completely draught free, cutting heat loss to create a home with minimal environmental impact.
A small combi boiler will power just one or two radiators, enough to heat the property to 22C and provide hot water with estimated annual energy costs of £200, compared to an average for a three-bedroom house of £1,200 to £1,400.
The Penrhos factory has a staff of four qualified joiners, including Carl Griffiths, from Llandudno Junction, who said: “We went on a course with Beattie Passive last year and we have started training unemployed volunteers from the Holyhead area already. In the first year we expect to give work opportunities to 50 individuals. It’s a very quick and efficient system. We can put the frame of a house up in two days – it’s the future of building. The timber frame can be clad in any material you like and then internally there is plasterboard and an airtight membrane which seals the house so there is little or no heat loss.”
Cartrefi Conwy Chief Executive Andrew Bowden said: “The factory in Holyhead I see as our manufacturing mothership and if we were to win a big contract elsewhere in North Wales then we could very quickly put up a ‘satellite factory’ on site to manufacture the frames.”
Creating Enterprise has also been supported by the Coastal Communities Fund, which has provided £175,000 of funding towards equipping the Penrhos factory.