Grand designs boost for Scottish housebuilder

Popular TV show Grand Designs recently featured a ‘compact’ property in London built on a site of approximately 9.5m by 4m, which potentially makes it the smallest twobedroom house in London.

The unusual home was built by Perthshire-based construction business JML Contracts, which believes the project clearly demonstrated why demand is growing for its highly energy efficient and speedy house building method using Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs).

The SIPs method was selected for the build to allow for specific design

considerations, to deliver a speedy and precise build time and to ensure optimum thermal efficiency of the completed home to Passive House standard.

John Langley, director at JML Contracts, said: “SIPs is one technology which could help to reshape the future of housebuilding in the UK but the country still lags behind in its uptake. The previously slow adoption of SIPs is largely down to the higher upfront costs, however the long-term benefits for residents, landlords and the environment significantly outweigh these initial outlays.

“These benefits include low energy usage due to the excellent insulation, limited thermal bridging, and inherently air-tight characteristics.”

The SIPs method requires very specific engineering processes which means that each piece is designed and cut in advance and then slotted together in a short time using a ‘jigsawstyle’ approach when on site – or in a factory.

The firm, which employs 21 people in Perthshire, has seen a 30% growth in the past two years, while it’s thought awareness of the benefits of SIPs will see demand grow across Scotland and beyond.

John said: “As well as the self-build market we are seeing increased interest from housing associations, social housing and also the emerging private rented sector.”

During filming for the London project, show presenter Kevin McCloud visited the JML factory in Auchterarder with the architect client to see the team construct the house in advance. This was the first time the team had visited a SIPs factory before, and also the first time they had ever completed a preconstruction.

John said: “This was a really great experience for the whole JML team The Grand Designs team visits JML Group in Perthshire and we were delighted to meet Kevin and his Grand Designs colleagues. This project was a really interesting and challenging one from the outset and the end result is fantastic.”

Joe Stuart, owner and architect of the unique house in London said: “Working with JML Contracts was great. After a thorough build up tweaking the design with the engineering team to get it completely right, the factory team was able to turn around the manufacturing incredibly quickly. The design of the kit was suited to the tight site, and the team was on call for any support required while I built the kit over 400 miles away! The structure was erected by hand within a week.”

The project, which in total took 23 months and cost approximately £250,000 to complete, was heralded for its approach based on the complexity and size of the plot in a dense urban area.